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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[June, 



of it in the same temple. The material of which the Temple of Hp.t- 

 cules is built, is of an exceedingly coarse porous nuture, and would 

 leave, perhaps, but a few marks, which the weather might have obli- 

 terated. On the other hand, the Parthenon columns, respecting which 

 I saw no traces of the grinding, are composed of a material supposed 

 to be too_;?He to leave any such marks. Certainly none remain. With 

 regard to the flutes, they were, as at the present day, considered with 

 the finishing of the building and worked up wholly after it w;is 

 erected, with the exception, in some cases where they are began, at 

 top and bottom, as a guide. The method employed was this. After 

 the vertical lines were drawn down from the points given by the ra- 

 diating lines marked on the bed of each course, as previously described, 

 the first stage was to work the column from top to bottom into a 

 polygon — leaving a broad band where each arris of the flute is to 

 come. The flutes themselves were next worked out to a curve, not 

 their final ones, but very nearly to the required depth — still preserving 

 untouched the band where arris is to come. 



The final stage was to work away the band to a sharp arris, and 

 bring the flutes to the desired depth and curve. 



This description of the flutes is taken from the columns of the 

 largest temple at Selinus, and of the Temple of Apollo Didymsus, 

 near Miletus, which temples were never finished, and reveal several 

 distinct stages of their execution. 



I will not detain you any longer upon the shafts of the columns ; 

 but before proceeding upwards to the entablature, I will merely state 

 the impression I, with many others, have had of the extreme likeli- 

 hood of the capitals being worked in a lathe ; for, as Mr. Cockerell 

 observed in one of his lectures, Pliny tells us, that in the Labyrinth of 

 Lemnos were 150 columns turned in a lathe ; thus testifying to the 

 Greeks' knowledge of such a machine as early as the Sth century 

 before onr Saviour. 



Now as regards the architrave, my observations of its structure, in 

 the several edifices I have had an opportunity of examining with the 

 eye of a builder, in these parts, are recorded in my note books under 

 the following memoranda. Generally speaking the architrave is 

 composed in its thickness of three stones, though, sometimes, of lico 

 separate stones only. It is, however, always of one stone in height. 

 The proportions of these stones, ovfing to the extent of bearing and 

 height, are much thinner than in the ordinary square shaped stones. 

 They are placed so that the laminae, or lines of cleavage of the mate- 

 rial, are in a vertical position, like a book standing on its front edge — 

 the strongest position for a stone supported only at its extremities. 



They do not touch one another, — having a space of about I of an 

 incli left between them, so that each performs its work independently 

 of the other. Hence, should one of them fail in any part, it would 

 not necessarily bring ruin on the others. On the outside and inside 

 vertical joints, over the centre of the columns, there is, generally, a 

 raised band left, which was not worked off till the finishing of the 

 temple. The same occurs (in many cases 1 have observed) to the 

 vertical joints of the mouldings. It is an excellent precaution,, where 

 the stone is very porous or fragile, as it preserves the edge from in- 

 jury ; and not being worked off until the last, a fair face at the joint 

 is ensured. 



The singular method employed in nearly all the temples at Agri- 

 gentum, for joining the stones together, in the entablature, has been 

 well illustrated by Mr. Cockerell, and is too generally known to need 

 any comments of mine. The same has been the case with the series 

 of cramps and contrivances employed on the top of the Parthenon. 

 To the person who beholds them for the first time, amidst the vast 

 quarries of stone there, their sight independently of the effect which 

 the scenery around him may produce, is truly bewildering, In fact, 

 the mechanical construction of the Parthenon presents a series of 

 studies and reflections to the architect which would fill volumes, and 

 for which we look in vain elsewhere. 



******* 



I pass now to another subject, connected more with the ornament- 

 ng than with the construction of temples. 



It is well known that the Greeks, in a great many instances, con- 

 structed their temples of a very rough and intractable stone ; espe- 

 cially is this the case in buildings of an early period, as at Corinth, 

 jEgina, the old Hecatompedon at Athens, Psestum, &c. This was 

 owing to the natural character of the stone in the locality where they 

 built — preferring the material at hand to a better kind the procuring 

 of which would occasion difficulty. It is equally well ascertained that 

 they covered the stone with a thin coating of stucco ; whether for the 

 express purpose of hiding the faultiness of the material, or for receiv- 

 ing the polychromic painting, which could hardly be executed on a 

 rough surface, or for both those purposes, has not as yet been decided. 

 For my own part, I am inclined to imagine, that it was for the express 

 purjose of receiving the painting, since I have found instances where 



the buildings have been covered with a fine stucco, or other coating, 

 even though the stone was of a smooth and excellent quality, and the 

 workmanship of the most perfect kind. This is the case in the tem- 

 ples of Jupiter Panhi-llenius injEgina,and Juno LucinaatAgrigentum. 

 in works of a later period, the stucco itself, instead of being allowed 

 to remain of its natural tint, was dyed before it was put on as an easier 

 expedient than painting it afterwards. I have collected together 

 several specimens which prove this to have been the case. Judging, . 

 then, from the universality of the employment of colour on temples, ] 

 may we not suppose that it was a custom derived from practices 

 which co-existed with the mode of worship at the time ; it was first 

 introduced into Attica by Cecrops' colony, from Egypt, and cherished 

 from generation to generation, as if it had been a part of the pre- 

 scribed ritual. It is, however, from Egypt that we must look in future 

 for a better elucidation of this question. 



In the middle of the 15th century before our era, Moses was com- 

 manded to build the Tabernacle, the materials for which, it was espe- 

 cially directed, were to be procured through the free-offering of a 

 portion of those possessions and articles in general use, which the 

 Israelites had brought with them from Egypt. By referring to chap- 

 ters 25, 26, 2S, and from 35 to 39, inclusive, of Exodus, we shall there 

 find that an abundanceof blue, purple, and scarlet linen, and rams' skins 

 dyed red, were employed in its constr\iction. So much of them, in 

 fact, was then used for that purpose, that that structure must have 

 presented almost altogether, at a little distance, an aspect of blue, 

 purple, and scarlet. I do not wish to lay any particular stress upon 

 this fact, but cite it only to evidence the very general use of those 

 three colours among the Egyptians. The monuments of ancient Egypt 

 tliemselves in the present day are witnesses to the truth of the text. 

 Now, it was in 155G B.C., or about the same epoch of the building of 

 the Tabernacle, that Cecrops left Sais for Greece, upon settling in 

 which country, it is not at all improbable that he and his colony would 

 adhere to the practices of tlie coimtry they had left, in which case 

 they would, as naturally, have followed the custom of decorating the 

 temples with co/oh/' and other ornaments. If the origin of colour in 

 Crreece is to be referred to the East, we have next to inquire into the 

 reasons of the Egyptians painting their own temples, and when once 

 those are demonstrated the question will be set at rest. 



Now people have never thought that colour spoiled the Egyptian 

 temples, but the contrary ; and they attribute the practice to a fancy 

 only for decoration. But the moment that the discoverv of polv- 

 chruniic painting on the Grecian buildings comes to show, that certain 

 cherished notions, previously conceived respecting these buildings, 

 were wrongly formed — and that in reality the Greeks, as well as the 

 Egyptians, coloured their temples — these same individuals, rather 

 than agree with such a notion, adopt another, which separates alto- 

 gether the painting from the building of the temples, referring the 

 practice of the former to a ditferent period of that of the latter. Is it 

 not much more natural to think that the motive which inspired the j 

 Greek was none other than the same which influenced the Egyptians? ' 

 and that the custom was, as usual, moulded by the former into such 

 definite principles, as not to be departed from even when a Parthenon 

 was constructed. Mr. Hittorf s hypotheses on polychromic painting 

 are exceedingly interesting, and I believe that very shortly the public 

 will be made acquainted with them in a very elaborate work which 

 that gentleman has been for many years preparing. 



Your alfectionate Son, 

 Rome, April 26, 1844. Walter L. Granville. 



STEAM NAVIGATION IN THE EAST INDIES. 



The introduction of steam boats into India was, in the first instance, 

 attended with ditliculties almost insurmountable, and scarcely to be 

 accounted for by the common mode of reasoning upon political expe- 

 diency, or upon the speculative habits of our then princely merchants 

 of the East : its extension since its first introduction has been so 

 trifling, so wholly inadequate to the rapidly increasing requirements 

 of the local government in the time of war, and to the immense and 

 widely disseminated commerce of that country, that it is a matter of 

 still greater wonder, and naturally leads to a train of reflections, not in 

 the highest degree favourable to the political sagacity of the one 

 party, or to the enterprising spirit of the other. 



The first introduction of steam into India, to be locally applied, was 

 in 181S, when Captain Davidson, of the Bengal Engineers, brought to 

 Calcutta an eight-horse power engine, purchased by Messrs. I. and W. 

 Gladstone, of Liverpool, and designed for a river boat. From some 

 unexplained cause or other it remained neglected in a Godown, until 

 Major Schalch purchased it for a dredging boat, which Messrs. Kyd 



