1845.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNA 



80 



down to the dose of the 17ih century, in some of the proyinces of France. 

 When tlie Great Condc attended the'mi'eliug of the Stales of Burgundy, he 

 was received at the houses of tlie magistrates of Dijon in rooms which served 

 for parlour, liall, dining-room, kitclien, and even bed-room. In such a room, 

 called tlic cfiambre menaghc, it was then the custom for the whole family, 

 servants included, to live in common. In other respects there was no want 

 of luxury. When Condc returned to court, he said to the king, " your pro- 

 vince of Burgundy is rich — the kitchens are tapestried." 



Feb. 10.— J. B. Pavwoutii, !!sq., V. P., in the Chair. 



Mr. G. Hawkins read a paper, illustrated liy diagrams, descriptive of the 

 ' King's Scholars' Pond Sewer." The main drain of one of the principil 

 divisions of the Westminster Commission of Sewers, occupying the whole 

 channel of a rivulet, formerly known as Dye Brook, having its source at 

 Hampsteail, and draining an area of two thousand acres, tifteen hundred of 

 which are covered with houses. The whole of the lower part (jf the district 

 drained by this sewer is below the ordinary high-tide level of the Thames. 

 It is, therefore, essential that means should he adojited to secure a free emis- 

 sion of the sewage into the river without admitting the ingress of the tiile. 

 This object has been attained by the construction of double tlood-gates at the 

 month of the sewer, and by gradually enlarging its capacity at the lower end, 

 90 as to enable it to receive and retain, during several hours in every tide, 

 during which the gates are shut, the whole accumulated sewage of the dis- 

 trict — calculated, under ordinary circumstance, at 120,000 cubic feet, and 

 considerably more during storms. This sewer in its course passes imme- 

 diately under Buckingham Palace. Within a few years, a large portion of it 

 has been reconstructed, under circumstances of extraordinary difficulty, arches 

 of considerable span having been worked to a gri at extent under densely- 

 populated neighbourhoods, without any suspicion on the part of the inhabi- 

 tants of wkat was going on a few feet below the foundation of their houses. 

 In its present complete state, it is perhaps the most remarkable and extensive 

 piece of sewerage ever executed in this or any other country. 



Mr. R. Hawkins, architect, read a paper " On Ihe Sculpture and Architec. 

 tiiral Fragments dronr/ht from Xan//iiis," and placed in the British Museum 

 during the last two years : and exhibited a restoration of one of the principal 

 among the numerous tombs discovered by .Mr. Fellows during his expeditions 

 into Lycia, the last of which Mr. Hawkins accompanied. We fhall defer our 

 notice of this paper until next month. 



Fell. 24.— G. Smith, Esu., V. P., in the Cliair. 



A report from the Council was read " On the Essays submit led in the Com- 

 petition for the Medal of the Institute," recommeiiding that it should be 

 awariled to one of the three papers sent in " On the Qualities and I'scs aj 

 Slate as a Building Material." The essay having been read, and the recom- 

 mendation of the Council approved by the meeting, the successful candidate 

 was announced to be .Mr. T. Nicholls, a student of the Institute. 



Mr. Ilabershon, architect, sent for the inspection of the meeting two capi- 

 tals and a base, found in digging the founilations of the new church at Jeru- 

 salem, and requested the opinion of the members as to their age. These 

 objects excited much interest, being probably the first fragments sent to 

 England from the antiquities of that city. Mr. Scoles observed that one of 

 the capitals, of the Doric order, closely resembled those of a tomb in the 

 Valley of Jehosaphat, to which, on a former occasion, he had assigned a date 

 somewhere al)out the Christian era. The other capital exhibited foliage of a 

 very low period, verging on the Byzantine. 



METROPOLIT.VN IMPROVEMENT SOCIETY. 



At the last meeting of this society, communications were read from Sir 

 Robert Peel and the Earl of Lincoln, in answer to applications from the 

 secretary relative to the long promised Ordnance Survey and Map of London, 

 and the projected encroachment upon t!ie carriage-way of Lincoln's Inn-fields. 

 On the first subject, it appeared that, the estimated expense of a Metropolitan 

 Survey having exceeded his anticipation, Sir Robert Peel had been deterred 

 from introducing a Bill for the object. The amount of the Ordnance esti- 

 mate was not stated ; and, from the discussion which ensued, several mem- 

 bers of the society seemed of opinion that the expense of a comprehensive 

 survey for public use could not well exceed that which had actually been in- 

 curred within the last six months, in the numerous local surveys in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the metropolis by railroad companies. The whole of these 

 surveys would have been unnecessary if an Ordnance Map cf London, viith 

 contour lines, had existed on a scale of 5 feet to the mile, and the Board of 

 Trade would have had a simple means of testing both the correetmss and 

 expediency of the various plans submitted to them for railroad lines with 

 new termini in the metropolis. 



On the subject of the projected encroachment on the carriage-way in Lin- 

 coln's Inn-fields, for the purpose of insulating the new law courts, the Earl 

 of Lincoln hail satisfactory reasons for believing that the project had been 

 definitely abandoned. 



Various drawings were laid on the table, embodying the suggestions of 

 Mr. Laxton, i\Ir. .\ustin, and other gentlemen, for lemoving the defects of 

 the Government plan for an embankment of tlie Thames between Westmin- 

 ster and Blackfriars bridges. Thi! (iuvernnieiit plan had been postponed, and 

 might ultimately be given up ; but it appeared possible to obviate the ob- 

 jections made to it, and it w»s determined to seek an interview with the 

 Earl of LincolD, to (ubioit for bis consideration the improvements required. 



ON THE LAW OF TIDES. 

 At a recent meeting of the Royal Society a paper ' On tlie laws of the Tides 

 on the Coast of Ireland, as inferred from an extensive series of observations 

 made in common with the Ordnance Survey of Ireland," was read by G. B. 

 Airy. Esq., Astronomer Royal. The elaborate investigations, of which the 

 results are communieatcd in the present paper, were suggested by the neces- 

 sity of adopting some standard mean height of the sea, as a line of reference 

 for the elevations ascertained in the operations of the Ordnance Survey of 

 Ireland. Colonel Colby, R.E., who conducted that survey, had with this 

 view determined to institute a series of observations on the height of the 

 water in different states of the tide ; and, conceiving that these observations 

 niiglit lie made subservient to improvement in the theory of the tides, re- 

 quested the assistance of the author in laying down the plan of observation 

 best calculated to effect that object. The suggestions which were in conse- 

 quence made by the author, were adopted in their utmost extent by Colonel 

 Colby ; and the collection of observations was placed in the author's hands 

 in the winter ot 1812. The whole number of observ.itions exceeds two hun- 

 dred thousand ; and they derive extraordinary value from the circumstance 

 of the localities of their simultaneity, their extensive range, and the uni- 

 formity of plan on which they were coinlueted. Their reduction was made 

 hy the computers at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, under the superin- 

 tendence of the author. 



REGISTER OF NEW PATENTS. 



(I'ndirr lliis hend W5 propose Riving alistrac's of the specifications of all the most im- 

 portant patents as they are enrolled. If any adllllioniil information be reciuircd as to my 

 pa> lit, tlie same may be obtained by applying to Mr. LAXTON at tlie Office of till* 

 JOUItNALJ J If) B 



DRAINING TILES. 



John Bailey Dento.v, of Gray's Inn Square, Middlesex, land agent, for 

 " I.iiprovemenls in machinery for moulding or shaping clay and other plastic 

 substances for draining and other purposes." — Granted April 18; Enrolled 

 October 18, 1841. 



The object of the invention is for combining two screws, whereby they 

 simultaneously act to pre~s clay or other plastic matter through moulding 

 surlacfs : which is eft'ected in the following manner — a cast iron cylinder or 

 box is divided into two compartments longitudinally, each has a piston accu- 

 rately filled and attached to two rods, worl^ng alternately by the action of two 

 cranks and connecting rods on a shaft turned by a winch with a fly wheel ; at 

 the end of each compartment of the cylinder are fixed die plates with aper- 

 tures of the shape of the proposed moulded substance ; on the top of the 

 cylinder there is a square box in which are two vertical screws moving iu 

 opposite directions; on one side of tliisbox there is an opening hopper-sbaped 

 lor putting in the clay, and in the bottom there is an opening communicating 

 with the cylinders, through which is forced, by the action of the screws, any 

 clay that is placed in the box. The screws are turned by means of a hevil 

 wheel on the end of the two crank shafts, working into another bevil wheel 

 on the end of a vertical rod ; on the top of this rod is a cog wheel that turns 

 two wheels keyed on to the lop of the screws, so that when the crank shaft 

 is turned the motion is transmitted through the bevil gear to the screws. The 

 whole of the apparatus is secured on the top of a frame with four wheels, so 

 as to be easily moved from place to place. 



The operation of making the moulded surface is thus performed — the clay 

 is put through the hopper into the top box between the screws, and by the 

 continued action of the two screws the clay is constantly being mixed and 

 forced down into the cylinder, and then by the action of the pistons alter- 

 nately pressing on the clay in each compartment of the cylinder it is forced 

 through the orifice of the die plates, and then cut off to the proper lengths' 



STEA^t ENGINE LMPROVEMENTS. 



James Pet'iie, of Rochdale, Lancashire, engineer, for " certain Improve- 

 ment, in steam engines." — Granted May 22 ; Enrolled Nov. 22, 1814. 



The first improvement is for the application of an apparatus to steam en- 

 gines for cutting off the steam, when working expansively, by means of a 

 moveable cam, in addition to the ordinary eccentric used fur working the D 

 v.ilves, which moves a rod sliding in guides on the eccentric rod, and is con- 

 nected to a bell crank lever mounted loosely on the cross shaft which moves 

 the D valves; this bell cank lever is connected by a vertical rod to a hori- 

 zontal shaft at the hack of the cylinder intermediate the top and lower staani 

 boxes ; on the middle of this shaft are keyed two sliort levers, which are con- 

 nected by links to rods moving vertically through stuffing boxes in the bottom 

 part of the upper and the top part of the lower steam hox, and connected to 

 sliding or cutting off plates on the back of the slides of the D valves ; by the 

 movement of these cut-off plates the steam is cut off close to the nozzles, and 

 may he regulated to any degree by altering the throw of the eccentric, which 

 causes the slide to close the steam aperture at any part of the stroke. This 

 apiiaratus appears to be very similar, if not identical, to the one adapted by 

 Messrs. Kaston and Amos to the engine of the Reform Club, and described 

 in the Journal, vol. VIL, l!:'44, p. 102, where it is stated that it was twice 

 patented long after its adoption by Messrs. Easton and Amos. 



The second improvement is a method of connecting the aforesaid cutting- 



12 



