240 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[June, 



pressure of the fluid contained in the space according to the temperature de- 

 sired lo be maintained and transmitted to the brine, which is efTectcd through 

 the medium of tlie water contained in the aforesaid space, the fire for heating 

 the same beinj; immediately below and in contact with the external vessel, 

 the heat being transmitted to the brine through the medium of the interme- 

 diate fluid contained within the jacket. 



Joseph Robtnson, of Old Jewry, London, Solicitor, for certain "/(nprowe- 

 mevts in the construction and mode of worldng engines hy the agency of air or 

 gases for obtaining or producing inotii'e power.''' Communication. — Granted 

 December 5, 1S43 ; Enrolled June, 5, 1844. 



This invention consists in an improved inflammable gas, or vapour engine, 

 by means of which power is obtained by expansion consequent upon the com- 

 bustion of vapour of spirits of turpentine, or other evaporable and inflamma- 

 ble liquids, which are to be mi.\ed with atmospheric air, and admitted into a 

 cylinder similar to that used in the steam engine. 



The cylinder of this engine Is supported in a horizontal position, and is 

 similar to that of a double acting steam engine. At one end of the cylinder 

 and just below it there is a reserv> ir which contains the naphtha, spirits of 

 turpentine or other evaporable liquid ; but when resin or other matter is 

 employed, from which the inflammable gas is to be obtained, the inventor 

 employs a retort or evaporating vessel, which is placed below the cylinder 

 and heated by a spirit lamp or other means, or the same may be placed in 

 contact with the cylinder. This healing apparatus although necessary in the 

 commencement of the action of the engine, may be dispensed with, after the 

 engine has been set to work, by allowing the liot air from the cylinder (afier 

 having made its stroke) to pass into the returt, which is surrounded by 

 chambers lor that purpose. To the side of the cylinder there is a valve-box 

 so constructed as to give a supply of the combustible gas or vapour, and at- 

 mospheric air to each end of ihe cylinder alternately, and in the same manner 

 as in which steam is admitted or supplied to the cylinder of a steam engine. 



The inventor here describes a cylindrical valve of peculiar construction, but 

 sliding valves of the ordinary construction may be used, for governing the 

 supply of inflammable gases. This engine is also provided with a double 

 acting air pump, the air from which is made to pass through a tube into the 

 retort, where it is made to commingle with the inflammable matter, which 

 may be eflected by means of an agitator, or the air may be admitted to the 

 retort through a perlorated plate, and in order to regulate the supply of air it 

 is made to pass through a trunk, on the top of which there is an air regu- 

 lator, its sides being made of leather or some other elastic material, and hav- 

 ing at the top a valve through which the air escapes, when the pressure be- 

 comes too great ; the whole apparatus being so constructed as to regulate 

 with great precision the quantity of atmospheric air, and also combustible 

 or inflammable gases. 



At each end of the cylinder there is a valve contained in a circular valve 

 bos, which valve, as Ihe piston moves backward and forward, is acted upon 

 by means of the piston touching a small spring or projection, thereby allow- 

 ing the ignition to take place, which is eflected by means of a burning lamp, 

 the flame of which comes in contact with the holes at each end of the cylin- 

 der, thereby efiecting alternate action of the piston, the motion of which can 

 be transmitted to the crank in any convenient manner. The inventor claims 

 the mode of arranging the air pump, retort, and air regulator, which governs 

 the admission of atmospheric air into the valve box and by which the .supply 

 of inflammable gas may be regulated so as to produce, within the cylinder, a 

 pressure little exceeding that of the atmosphere, at the time of opening the 

 valve for the admission of inflammable gas. Also the mode of heating the 

 retort by placing it in contact with the cylinder; together with the mode of 

 employing the heated air which passes from the cylinder through the eduction 

 tube, thereby rendering such air eft'ectivein heating the retort for converting 

 the combustible fluids into vapours, previously to admitting the same into the 

 cylinder in Ihe manner described. 



Communication with France.— The Princess Mary steamer, which has been 

 built for the South-Eaitern Rallivay Company by Messrs. DUchburn and Mare, and fitted 

 witli Messrs. Maudslay and Field's annular cylinder engines, made her trial trip on Wed- 

 nesday. June 18. She left Blacliwall at .13 minutes past 10 o'clock, and arrived off the 

 east end or the Isle of Sheppy (a distance of 6U miles) at 7 minutes past 2, being at the 

 rate of IC miles an hour, against the tide the whole way. Everything that could be de. 

 sired concurred to give her an opportunity of testing her power: the. till now, fastest 

 steamer, the Prince of Wales, leaving Blackvvall some minutes before her; the Isle of 

 Thanet also preceded lier by 20 minutes; they were, however, both passed in gallant 

 style at tiie point above stated, the Princess Mary crossing their bows, making a circuit 

 around thera, and returning on her homeward voage. The Princess Mary, on the Bou- 

 logne station, must have immense inHuence in determining the continental traffic to the 

 South. Kastern Ime. There can be no doubt, from the known energy and skill of the 

 Oireclors of the railway company, that this important branch of the service will be tho- 

 oS fV" .K°'^'-- ''''"' '""lei'ce of the railway is already telling well in this particular. 

 i.r 1 n , ' ' Prmcess Aliee. Dover the Magician, Folkestone the Princess Mary ; and 

 tL P ■ ^^ ""n? '"n'rised if the latter do not bear away the palm from its competitors, 

 eonal .l„a ^ ' ""J'^eriron steamer, built for and by the same parties; and of 



T^mes «»P«ted to be completed for the Folkestone station in a few weeks.- 



GREEK MASONRY. 



Extract of a Letter from Walter Long Granville, Esq., Asso- 

 ciate R. I. B. A., to Dr. Granville, read at the Ordinary General 

 Meeting of tie Royal Inst, of B. A., June 17, 1844. 



"On a former occasion, I wrote you the impressions produced on 

 me by the monuments of Athens, and you will remember that in one 

 part of my letter I told you, how forcibly I was struck with the high 

 and elaborate finish given to all the sculpture and architecture v;hicU 

 surrounded me ; a pleasure which was in such perfect unison with the 

 other feelings their contemplation aroused, as to assure me that per- 

 fection is intimately connected with the qualities of beauty ; although, 

 assuredly, the latter may sometimes exist separately. 



" ' Smoothness,' says Burke, (Essay on Sublime and Beautiful, part 

 3, sect. 14,) 'is so essential to beauty, that I do not recollect anything 

 beautiful that is not smooth.' Now the ;tncient Greeks were appa- 

 rently impressed strongly with the same natural idea, as the extraor- 

 dinary amount of attention and labour bestowed on their works of art 

 testify. 



When we consider the perfection to which Greek art attained — 

 that it was arrived at, only after the experience of more than eleven 

 centuries — and th;tt its glorious improvement was chiefly owing to the 

 united eflbrts of generations concentrated upon one particular object, 

 namely the erection of temples to their protecting divinities ; it be- 

 comes an interesting subject of enquiry to ascertain (from an exami- 

 nation of the structures themselves,) those principles and contrivances 

 which, even in the most trifling or minutest matters, were the result 

 of that improvement. 



There are few books, that I am aware of, which treat fnlly of the 

 methods employed by the ancient Greek masons in cutting and work- 

 ing marble or stone. Vitruvius, to whom we first look, is almost 

 silent upon the point. We then turn, to supply the deficiency, to the 

 living books themselves; and, fortunately, there are many points that 

 can be gleaned from them, which would serve to compose a complete 

 treatise. 



I shall first observe that the ancient Greeks were as empirical in 

 their rules upon the proportions of each stone they employed, as upon 

 the proportions of the whole design. Thus it may be observed, for 

 example, that the size of the stones in the Erechtheum and in the Par- 

 thenon differ in ;tbout the same ratio as the one building differs from 

 the other. For the actual proportion of the stone itself no direct 

 rule can be given, nevertheless I have found that the geometrical 

 r;itio of 1. 2. 4. is by no means unfrequently employed. Symmetry, 

 also, was considered as necessary in the position of their joints, as in 

 the composition of the plan, or the position of their triglyphs and 

 mutules; and these may be observed as occupying the same place in 

 nearly every similar construction. 



The Greek joint, whether it be executed in marble or in stone is a 

 thing really to marvel at. It is indeed scarcely visible. Great ;cs 

 is its perfection, which arises from the amount of skill and labour 

 bestowed upon it, and from the peculiar method of working the two 

 surfaces, whicli I shall presently describe to you, — I do not see why 

 the same degree of perfection should not be attainable at the present 

 day hy following the same means. My attention was first drawn to 

 the subject upon remarking the beds of the stones in the Temple of 

 Minerva at Athens; and since my examination of other Hellenic 

 works in Greece, Sicily, and elsewhere, I have grounds for believing 

 that there was an universal system ;idopted in all ages by that nation ; 

 nor was it confined to the Greeks alone, it having been handed down 

 to, and practised by the Romans also, as I observed but yesterday in 

 the Coliseum and Arch of Sep. Severus. It, however, at length became 

 either lost or disused in the series of revolutions and changes, which, 

 with their other modes, the masonry of the middle ages experienced. 



You well know of the predilection of the Greeks for constructing 

 with large sized blocks of marble or stone. They were extnicted 

 from the A.aTo/.tin, or quarries, in the following manner. In order to 

 procure the square stones — after the top and front faces of a given 

 m;iss of the rock in the qu;»rry bad been brought to a plain surface — 

 incisions, usually from four to five inches wide, were made on the top 

 surface, marking out the boundaries of the intended size of the block. 

 These incisions being continued down to the required depth of the 

 block, there remained nothing more to be done than to separate it 

 from its lower bed, which operation was performed, as there is every 

 re;tson to think, by the expansion of \WOoden wedges saturated with 

 water. 



The cylindrical courses for the shafts of the columns were extracted 

 (as may be observed at the quarries of Selinus, in Sicily, a plan of 

 which, as well as of its elevation, I herewith send you in confirmation 

 of my statement) by means of a circular passage-way 2 ft. S in. in 

 width, being hewn out of the rock, and t;iking the entasis of the in- 



