332 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[August, 



A Momtment to the Memory of the late Dr. Southey is about to be ereclefl in 

 the Cathedral of Bristol, from the design of Mr. Baily, the sculptor. We perceive, by ilie 

 "Western Advertiser," that at a public meeting held for the purpose of riiisine subscrip- 

 tions, soint* objections vverp made to the design, as it was considered to lie inapplicalde for 

 a Gothic structuro.it was ultimately agreed to leave the nature of the monument to future 

 consideration. A suggestion has been made, which we consider a very excellent one, that 

 every thinp ot an architectural character should be suppiessed, and that the whole be 

 merely sculptural, a simple statue on a i)lain pedestal, to be placed near the entrance of 

 the old Lady Chapel, or against one of the piers of the Navi- of the Cathedral. 



Railways and Canals. — In the appendix tn a s-ralcment issuod on !if-hulf 

 of the Grand Canal Company of Ireland, in the matter of the proposed railway to Cashel, 

 there are given some curious details as to the effect of railways on canal jn'operty. Thus 

 the Gianil Junction Canal, which forms the tirst ilO miles of water cotnmunictttion lietwctn 

 London and Birmingham, had, in the three years imm»di:'tely preceding the opening of 

 the railway, an annual revenue from tolls, ranging from .i 174,71'- to .^198.000, regularly 

 increasing. Since the railway was fully in operation, tins revenue has variud from 

 ^121,l;i9 to ^li;^,012. The Rochdale Canal is 'Si miles lung-, and throughout the entire 

 distance the Manchester and Leeds Railway runs parallel lo it. In the three ^ oars pre. 

 vious to the opening of the railway, the tolls ranged fr«m ^t 6li,0o9 to ^%^9,2<'>8 ; in the last 

 three years they have varied from i'31,.W3 to £27,\i>f*. Tl eKennetand Avon Canal, and 

 the Wilts and Berks Canal, are both ailected by the Great At'estern Railway, and the tolls 

 of the former have fallen since the railway was opened, from 4(^7037. to :\2fiAhl., and of 

 the latter, from 19,32rf/. toH,477/. The Forth and Clyde Nnvigation has gone down from 

 62,.51f;;. to 42,218;., and the Union Canal, which connects Edinburgh with the Forth and 

 Clyde Canal, has had its net profits reduced by railways from 13,100/ to 4.284/. '1 he 

 market price of canal stock has, of course, suffered in proportion. Thus, shares in the 

 Grand Junction Canal have fallen from 330/. to 148/. per share; Warwick anl Birming- 

 ham, from 330/. to 180/.; Worcester and Birmingham, from 84/. to 5fj/.; Kennet and 

 Avon, from 25/. to 9/. ; and Rochdale, from 150/. to i;i^/. ; while Coventry Canal shares, 

 which at one time were as high as 1,200/. per share, have fallen as low as 3l.'>/. 



A Bridge of a novel and magnificent description, or ratlier a doubl>' brid;ie. 

 one over the other, it is said, is about to be thrown over the Rhine, at Cologne. It will 

 have twenty-five arches ; and its extreme height will be 141 feet above the shores. The 

 lower bridge will carry a railroad, to connect the Berlin and Cologne line with the tei minus 

 of the Rhenish railway. The ujiper bridge will be for other carriages, horsemen, and foot- 

 passengers. In that part of the piers which extends between the two bridges, cannon will 

 be placed, for the double purpose of breaking up the ice on the river, and defending the 

 city. 



Extraction of Palladium in Brazil. — Tlie exlrnction nf palladium, from 

 the auriferous sand of Brazil, consists in fusing it with silver, and consequently, forming 

 a quaternary alloy of gold, palladium, silver, and copper, which is granulated by project- 

 ing it into water. By treating this alloy with ni!ric acid, the gold is separated iVora the 

 Other metals which are soluble in the acid; the silver is precipitated by a solution of com- 

 mon salt in the state of insoluble chloride, which beinp separated, the copper and palla- 

 dium are precipitated by plates of zinc. The pulverulent dejiosit of these metals is redis- 

 solved in nitric acid, and the solution precipitated byexce.-sof amn:onia, which re-dis- 

 solves the oxide of copper and of palladium. When the animoniacai solution of these 

 metals is saturated with hydrochloric acid, a double chloride of palladium and ammonia 

 is deposited in the state of a crystalline yellow powder, and this, when calcined in a cruci- 

 ble, is readily decomposed, and leaves spongy palladium. — mining Journal. 



Market M'eston Chlrch. — We have much pleasure in brinf^inir to the no- 

 tice of our readers a successful application of science in restoring to a perpendicular posi- 

 tion the north wall of Market Weston Church. The church is supposed to have been 

 erected in the fourteenth century. From age and casualties the n(trth wall had declined 

 outwardly 19 inches from the perpendicular, and threatened the utter destruction of thf 

 buildiniT. Under the superinteTidence of Mr. Cottingham this wall (the weight of wliich 

 had been calculated at 240 tons) has been brought up to the perpendicular, by the process 

 of expanding by heat three bars of iron, 2^ inches in diameter, which traversed and con- 

 nected both walls of the church. These bars (which had screws worked on one end of 

 them and projected beyond the south wall) were inclosed in cast iron boxes filled with 

 lighted charcoal. When the bars were fully expanded by the heat, the screws were wound 

 up firmly to the undamaged south wall. The charcoal boxes were then removed, and the 

 process of cooling commenced. Gradually the bars contracting equally with their pre- 

 vious expansion, compelled the whole mass of the wall to tbllow the irresistible power 

 now exerting itself, and in four successive operations the whole wall rose to its original 

 perpendicular.— Bury Post. 



Daguerrf.otype Pl.\te EsGRAViNfi — At the Varis Academy of Sciences, a 

 paper from M. Fizean was read on some experiments made with a view to obtain photo- 

 graphic designs on pajicr from a daguerreotype |)late engravfd by chemical means, hhe 

 problem consists in .icting upon the duguej ii^itype imprt-ssiond I'y un agent which eats 

 into the dark parts, without affecting the light parts of the plate; or, in other words, 

 which attacks the silver in presence of the mercury, without iffecting the latter. A mixed 

 acid, composed ot nitric, nitrous, and chloridic acids, has thii property. The operation 

 should be performed with the aid of heat. The formation of ^he chlorure of silver, which 

 is an insoliible salt, would soon check the action of the acid, if it were not removed by an 

 ammoniacal solution. After this first process, the plate wo.dd be engraved loo slightly 

 for gooi' impressions to come otf ; the plate is therefore rubbid over with llnseed-oil, and 

 then wiped, so as to leave the oil only in the hollow parts. The prominent parts are then 

 gilt by the galvanic process, and the reliels being protected Ly gold, the hollow parts can 

 be deepened at the will of the operator. 



ExPi-osioNS IN Powder Mills.— ^I. Vergnaml is if opinion that these ex- 

 plosions are not ]>roduced by sparks from the crushing ol the silex, but by electrical 

 sparks resulting from peculiar circumstances, which he prjpuses to investigate. 



Ice. — As we arc henceforlh to have this cooliny,' Uixury regularly supplied 

 to us, and its great superiority, both in clearness and thitkness, over the home article 

 (owing to the precarious nature of our winteis and other causes) is acknowledged by all 

 who have tried it, a short notice of its uses, the manner of keeping it, and of cutting and 

 securing it in America, may prove interesting. Ice has becone a threat article of export 

 in America. Sixtv thousand tons are annua ly sent from Boston to southern parts, the 

 East and West Indies, &c.; and as saw-dust is solely used in packing, a large trade is 

 also carried on in that article. The ice-houses, near the lakes and ponds, are immense 

 wooden buildings, capable of holding 10,000 to 20,000 tons each ; some ot them, indeed 

 cover half an acre of ground. They are built with double walls,— that is, with an inner 

 wall all round, two feet from the outer one ; and the space between is filled with saw-dust, 

 —a non-conductor— making a solid wall, impervious to heat and air, and of 10 feet in 

 thickness. The machines employed for cutting the ice are very beautiful, and the work 

 is done by men and horses, in the following manner: — The ice th»t is intended to be cut 

 is kept clear of snow, as soon as it is sufficiently ihick to bt ir the weight of the men and 

 horses to be employed, which it will do at six inches ; and the snow is kept scraped from 

 it until it is thick enough to cut. A piece of ice is cleared of t<vo acres in extent, which 

 at a foot thick, will give about 2,000 tons. By keeping the snow otf it freezes thicker, as 

 the frost is freely allowed to penetrate. \^'hen the time of cutting arrives, the men com- 

 mence upon one of these pieces, by getting a straight line through the centre each way. 

 A small hand-plough is pushed along the line, until the gtoeve is about a quarter of an 

 inch in width, and three inches deep, when they commenc s wit^i the 'marker' — an im- 

 plement dr;iwn by two horses,— which makes two new groo^'es parallel with the first, 21 

 inches, the guage remaining in the first groove. It is then shifted to the outside groove, 

 and makes two more. The same operation goes on, in parallel rectangular lines, until the 

 ice is all marked out, into squares of 21 inches. In the meanwhile, the plough is followed 



in these grooves, drawn by a single horse, a man leading It ; and he cuts up the ice to a 

 depth of six inches. The outer blocks are then sawn out, and iron bars are used in split, 

 ting them. These bars are like a spade of a wedge form. In dropping them into the 

 grooves the ice splits off, and a very slight blow is sufticient to separate them ; and ihey 

 split easy or hard, acuording to the weather in a very cold day. Ice is very brittle in keen 

 frodt ; in comparatively sotter weather, it is more duciile and resistible. Platforms, or 

 low tables, are placed near the opening made in the ice, with an iron slide reaching from 

 them into the water ; and a man stands on each side with an ice. hook, very much like u 

 boat-hook, but made of steel, with fine sharp points. With these the ice is hooked with 

 a jerk that throws it on the platform on the sides, which are ot tiie same height. On a cold 

 day everything becomes covevetl with ice, and ths blocks are each sent spinning alon^, 

 although they weigh two cwt., iis if they wciglied only a pound. The slides are large lal- 

 tice-work platforms to allow the ice to drain, and three tons can thus be easily run in one 

 of Ihem by one horse. It is then curried to the ice-houses, discharged upon a platform in 

 front of the ooors, and hoisted into the building by a horse. Korty men and twelve horses 

 will cut and stow away 400 tons a day. If the weather be favourable, 100 men are some- 

 times employed at once; and in three weeks the it.e-cr(ip, about 200,000 tons, is Sr-cured. 

 S ime winters it is very diliicult to secure it, as a rain or thaw may come that will destroy 

 the labour of weeks, and render the ice unfit lor market ; and then it may snow and rain 

 wpou tliat, before those employed have time to clear it off; and if the laiter fieezes, the 

 result is ' snow-ic?,* which is of no value, and has to be planed off. The operation of 

 planing proceeds in nearly the same manner as that of cutting, A plant- guaged to run in 

 llie grooves made by the *' marker," which wilU shave the ice to a depth of three inches 

 at oue cut, is drawn by a horse, until the whole piece is regularly planed over. The chips 

 are then scraped off. If the ice is not then clear, the work is continued until the puro ice 

 is redclied, and a lew nights of hard frost will make it as thick below— inch for inch— for 

 what has been taken off above. The ice is transported ou railways. Kach ice-house has 

 a branch railway from the main line ; and is conveyed in properly constructed box-wag- 

 gons to Boston— a distance of (as the locality may be) 10 to IS miles. The tools, ma- 

 chinery, i^c, employed, and the building the houses, and couitructingand keeping up the 

 railioads, &c , are very expensive -, yet the facilities are such, through good management, 

 that ice can be furnished at a very trifling cost per pound ; and a failure of the ice-crop iu 

 America would be a great calamity. — 'Liverpool Standard.' 



LiiRD Rosse's Telescope at Birr Castle, Ireland.— The colossal Uibe, in 

 length about 60 feet, and in diameter nearly b feet, is now suspended in its permanent 

 position, between two xvalls of solid masonry, built to correspond with the aichiteciure oi' 

 the castle. It is attached at its lower extremity — where the speculum, weighing four tons, 

 is to le placed — by a massive imiveisal joint of beavitiful workmanship, and weighing 

 neaily three tons ; and its counterpoise, about seven tons weight, is so skilfully coniriveil 

 and adjusted that it easily adapts itself to every alteration in any required elevation or de- 

 pression of the instrument, 'i he speculum is in process of heing ground, which, together 

 with the subsequent polishing, would occupy perhaps a fortnight ; so that in about a 

 month or six weeks from the present time the whole is expected to be completed. 



Ihe Trident. — Messrs. Boulttui, W att & Co., !iave iTceived orders from 

 Government to make a pair of oscillating engines of the collective power of 350 huiaes for 

 the above frigate, she is of iron, and was built by Messrs. Ditchhurn and Ware. 



I.ZST OF NB^V PATENTS. 



fFrom Messrs. Robertson's List. J 



GRANTED IN ENC.LAND FROM JULY 26, TO AUGUST 22, 1844. 



Six Months allowed for Enrolment^ unless otherwise expressed, 



Joseph i\Iartin Kronheim, of Castle-street, Holhorn, engraver, for "certain Improve- 

 ments in stereotyping." Being a communication. — July 2LL 



William Ford, of Lawn-end, South Lambeth, drain tile maker, for "Improvements in 

 the manufacture of tubes for clraining land and for other purposes, and in drain tiles." — 

 July 80. 



Kdward John Dent, of the Strand, in the county of Middlesex, chronometer maker, 

 fur " Impnivemcnts in ships' compasses."— July ;-50. 



Arthur Powell and Nathaniel Powell, of Whitefriars Glass Works, glass manufacturers, 

 for " Improvements in the manufacture of quarries and other panes of glass for windows." 

 —July 30. 



Thomas Warne, of Blackfriars-road, pewterer, and betr-engitnj manufacturer, for "cer- 

 tain Iinprovcmeuts in eiiLines. machinery, or apparatus for raising, drawing, or forcing 

 beer, ale, or other liquids, or fluids." — July JO. 



Joseph Bentley, of Liverpool, gun-maker, for ** certain Improvements in fire-arms."— 

 July 30. 



Elizabeth Cottani, of Winsley-street, Oxford street, Middlesex, for " Improvements 

 iu he.iting what are called Italian irons."— July 30. 



Pierre Armand, le Comte de Fontainemoreau, of Skinner*s-phice, Sise-lane, in the City 

 of London, for "certain Iniprovemtnts fur coating or covering metals and alloys of 

 metals." — July 31. 



Benjamin Tuiker Slratton, of Bristol, agricultural mechanist, for " Improvements in 

 welding sheet iron fur ship building and other uses.— August i. 



John Beed Hill, of Chjncery-lane, engineer, for " Improvements in u press or presses, 

 machine or machines, for letter-press printing. — August 2. 



William Edwards Staite, of High-stieet, Marylebone, for " certain Improvements in the 

 processes and apparatus for preparing extracts and essences of vegetable and animal sub- 

 stances."— August 3. 



Tliomas Middleton, of Lomanstreet, Souihwark, engineer, for "certain Improvements 

 iu machinery for tlie manulacture of artificial fuel." — August 5. 

 Julius Jeffreys, of Clapham, gentleman, for '* Improvements in respirators."— August 6. 

 Thomas Greenshields, of Oxford, architect, for '* Improvements in the manufacture of 

 salt." — August G. 



William Cormack, of Dalgleish-street, Commercial- road, chemist, for " a new method 

 or plan for purifying coal-dust."— August l.'"». 



John Whitehead, Junior, of Elton, Lancaster, dyer and finisher, for " certain Improve- 

 ments in the process of finishing fustians or beaverteens, satin tops, and other similar 

 cotton fabrics." — .August IS. 



Thomas Ht-atou. of Chorley, Lancaster, colliery agent, for "certain Improvements in 

 hydraulic machinery, which is also applicable to raising other liquids." — August 15. 



Alexander Ewing, of Dumbarton, .Scotland, glass splitter, for "certain Improvements 

 in the manufacture of crown glass." — August \b. 



Wilton Ge jrge Turner, of Gateshead, Durham, doctor in philosophy, for " an improved 

 mode of directing the passage of, and otherwise dealing with, the noxious vapours and 

 other matters arising from chemical works tn certain cases."- August 22. 



