1844.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



regard to upwards of a hundred considerable towns, and the engineer 

 will have to ascertain the means of supply, whether from surface 

 springs in the neighbourhood, or from the subterranean strata. To 

 determine these points satisfactorily mere local knowledge will not 

 avail, but the engineer must have a due regard to geological laws. 

 The dip of the strata, the probability of obtaining a continuous ade- 

 quate supply from any source, and of securing it practically and eco- 

 nomically require careful consideration. To obtain access to a polluted 

 or inconsiderable supply, to the produce of limited superiicial drain- 

 age, or the contents of some chance chasm is only of temporary benefit, 

 and it will be the duty of those conducting the operations to take 

 care that they are so conducted as to be of permanent advantage and 

 capable of extension with the progressive wants of an increasing po- 

 pulation. The phenomena of wells belong to geology, and there we 

 must seek the explanation of the mode of supply and the means of 

 reaching it, and also the most profitable plan of carrying out the ope- 

 rations. The urgent demand for public baths and washing places, 

 which has extended from the provinces to the metropolis, and the 

 means of providing them with water, now call for the consideration of 

 the eugiui'er. The practicability in a given locality of obtaining a 

 large supply of water of a high temperature is an important feature in 

 the establishment of large baths. To make them most useful, the 

 water must be warmed, so that the machine and factory worker can 

 resort to them on leaving his day's labour in winter and sununer, and 

 the cost of heating water artificially causes such an increase of price, 

 particularly in soutfiern towns, where coal is dear, as considerably to 

 diminish the sphere of utility and the extent of the establishments. If 

 we have the prospect as from the celebrated well of Grenelle, of ob- 

 taining half a million gallons of limpid water in 24 hours, at a tem- 

 perature of 82° Fahrenheit, it is eviilent that we shall be iustified iu 

 a considerable outlay. Many applications of vvellwater will however 

 suggest themselves to the intelligent engineer, and prompt his enter- 

 prise. Before leaving the subject however, we must call his notice 

 to the use of absorbent artesian wells, advantageously used in Paris, 

 but neglected here. Where we have noxious fluid discharges from 

 chemical works and factories, the proprietors are often put to great 

 inconvenience, and the neighbourhood also, to get rid of them, while a 

 well carried down to some absorbing stratum would be in many cases 

 a cheap and certain mode to get rid of the evil. In the drainage of 

 towns too, while it will be desirable that refuse should if possible be 

 applied to useful purposes as manure, yet it often happens that it cannot 

 be done, and the absorbent well will then frequently come in as an 

 available instrument. 



The engineer who proposes to devote his energies to our colonial 

 empire, has it in his power, by competent geological knowledge, 

 greatly to promote his own interests, and those of the country in which 

 he resides. The discovery of fuel, minerals and building stones, the 

 choice of sites for towns, the supply of water to them, the construction 

 of harbours, lie with him, and by his own activity he nmst make work 

 for himself. The discovery of coal will require roads, trams, and rail- 

 ways, the opening out of mining operations will suggest a considerable 

 application of water and steam power, the peopling of a district will 

 demand roads, bridges, canals and other vv'orks of art. If he finds 

 ironstone, coal and lime must be found to work it, and the establish- 

 ment of every mining company will ensure to him a greater extent of 

 professional practice. As he surveys the surface in his ordinary 

 routine of duty, he must keep his eye constantly on the watch to de- 

 tect any advantageous feature, his survey must be geological as well 

 as superficial. The coal mines of Newcastle in New South Wales 

 have led to a considerable extent of tramways, to gasworks, steam- 

 boats and steam factories, and railways must follow next. From this 

 discovery alone a great extent of engineering employment has neces- 

 sarily accrued, and so it must be wherever the resources of a country 

 are developed by a scientific hand. 



The geological map is an indispensable document to the engineer. 

 Constantly called upon to examine the surface of the country, he re- 

 quires the most accurate knowledge of its details, an acquaintance 

 with its external features, its levels, and its artificial appendages is 

 not enough, he must be further intimately versed in the position of its 

 strata, its faults, dikes, and indications of disturbances. At the same 

 time the engineer will do well carefully to note every geological fact, 

 which comes under his observation, and if of the least interest to 

 communicate it to the nearest geological institution, so that our know- 

 ledge of the country may become more extended, and the accessible 

 sources of information improved until such time as the general 

 ordnance geological survey is completed. We are happy to say that 

 many engineers have distinguished themselves in this respect, and 

 their labours give them particular opportunities for so doing. The 

 series of geological railway sections now in progress of formation, and 

 of which the portions executed are deposited in the Museum ol Eco- 



nomic Geology, will be found of very great value for all subsequent 

 works in the districts to which they relate, and we hope every facility 

 will be given by engineers to the prosecution of this valuable under- 

 taking. 



Professor Ansted very strenuously urges the necessity for preserv- 

 ing records of all mining operations on the ground of humanity, as 

 well as of profit, and we see that he has brought the subject before the 

 British Association. The late Mr. Buddie, one of the greatest im- 

 provers of coal mining by the liberal application of science, skill and 

 research, also strongly advocated the same measure, and as a public 

 depositary has now been obtained in the Museum of Economic Geo- 

 logy, in Craig's Court, Charing Cross, we sincerely trust those engi- 

 neers who have the means will take the trouble on all occasions of 

 transmitting such information as is in their power. Neither is it re- 

 quisite that such records should be limited to minirjg, but difficulties 

 met with in tunnelling, in sinking a well, or ordinary operations of 

 the kind, or anything illustrative of our strata will be thankfully re- 

 ceived by the Curators, and will be open to the inspection of the pub- 

 lic. Specimens of building stones and minerals should also be sent, 

 and those engineers who have not visited the establishment should do 

 su, to see what benefit they can derive from it, and how they can 

 themselves add to its collections. 



We have now brought our examination of Professor Ansted's works 

 to a close, and we are not aware that it wants anv recommendation 

 after what we have already said. It is comprehensive, yet concise ; 

 clear, without being diffuse ; accurate, without being tedious ; abound- 

 ing in illustration, yet without descending too far into minutise; it 

 developes principles, anil steers clear of speculation ; it is indeed a 

 work suited for the practical man, who desires to acquire a sound 

 knowledge of geology in a compendious form, who has time only for 

 what is useful and essential, and fears to lose his time on what is 

 dubious and unprofitable. Confining itself to what is certain and 

 established, it must long remain the most important text-book, while 

 it will always preserve its value as an original and useful work. To 

 compliment Mr. Ansted would be futile, to urge the purchase of his 

 work hardly necessary, it must soon be in the hands of all students as 

 It is already in those of his own class. 



For those who are desirous of studying the fossil animal kingdom 

 with more minuteness and to a greater extent, Mr. Van Voorst, the 

 publisher of the work now before us, is also preparing from the hands 

 of Professor Owen, one of the first men of the present day, a History 

 of English Fossil Mammalia, a work, which as far as we have yet seen 

 it, has greatly excited our interest and approval. 



Eccksiaslical Architecture : Illustrations of Baptismal Fonts. Lon- 

 don : Van Voorst, 1844. 



We had promised ourselves that we would say something on the 

 cunchision of Mr. Van Voorst's work, but yet what we can say we 

 hardly see, except to repeat the encomiums with which we reee'ived 

 the successive parts in the course of publication. The general remarks 

 we might have made are so completely comprised in Mr. Paley's in- 

 troductory essay, that we must repeat what he says or leave the mat- 

 ter alone, and that is what we think we must do, having already so 

 often expressed our highly favourable opinion of the work. In re- 

 commending the work to our readers, we would make this remark 



the subject of church fonts is not merely interesting to the antiquarian 

 or to him who may have to supply such a piece of church decoration, 

 but It is important to the architect generally, on account of fonts pre- 

 senting authentic illustrations of [style, details and decorations of the 

 highest value. The number of Norman fonts in particular throws light 

 upon a style of which we have the fewest relics, and the fonts of a 

 later period, the decorated for instance, give us many ideas for orna- 

 ments of a domestic character no less than for various articles of 

 church furniture. Indeed, without an acquaintance with such records, 

 the architect can be but illqualified for designing in the pointed 

 styles. 



The volume contains a copious series of engravings, carefully and 

 ably executed, while the work as a whole is a cheap and handsome 

 one. The architect and the designer of ornament cannot do without 

 such a manual in his library, and we hope the sale of the work will 

 be such as to urge the publisher to bring forth a second and third 

 series, for we have many highly interesting specimens yet remain- 

 ing. We may observe, however, that the present work may be con- 

 sideiod much more copious in reality than it is numerically, for many 

 of the fonts described are types, frequently repeated in the same dis- 

 trict and in various parts of the country with trifling variation, if with 

 any at all. 



Under the name of Instrumenta Eccltsiastica, another Vfork en 



