1845.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



189 



is called ihe ArlopUorium, and a lamp perpetually burns before it, as in llic 

 Western Churcli. 



A plurality of altars is unknown among llie Greeks ; except indeed thai in 

 Kussia, whoTt the intercourse with Home has been considerable, it has in a 

 lew cases been inlroilucod. In sonic instances however a chapel with its se- 

 parate altar fPflrerr/ejia) lias been erected contiguous (o the church itself; 

 and in these the ferial offices are said. On Monday, that of the " Bodiless," 

 '. «., the Angels : on Tuesday, of the Mother of God : on Wednesday, of the 

 forerunner : on Tiiursday, of the Apostles : on Friday, of the Cross : on Sa- 

 turday, of the Departed Faithful. 



Ihe piscina is situated immediately under the altar : it is called choneion, or 

 more frequently Mn?aijirfion. 'the place of the sea.' lis position and name 

 are not improbably derived from the account (3 Kings, xviii. 32) of the altar 

 and trench made by Elijah; where the .Septuaginl e.vplains "trench" by 

 9a\ttiraa. In the same way, the great laver which stood in the court of the 

 Temple, npon oxen of brass, is in our own translation called the ".Sea" (3 

 [1] Kings, Tii, 23). In Ihe great church at Constantinople, it was richly or- 

 namented with precious stones. This pr,ictice never seems to have obtained 

 in the Western Church. 



The primitive position of the Bishop at the eastern end of the apse, sur- 

 rounded by his presbyters, is retained by the Cireeks during the time of 

 " Liturgy." 



The north apse is appropriated to the Prothesis, in the shape of a separate 

 altar. A part of the Liturgy is here performed ; and the ceremony of the 

 " Great Entrance," — the offertory of the elements, — is one of considerable 

 pomp. 



In the southern apse is the s<acri3ly. This was sometimes called (he .Sceno- 

 phylacium : at others the Mctatorium ; at others, and it is the commonest 

 title, the Diaconicum. W'e find that the Emperor Leo, son of Basil the Ma- 

 cedonian, when under sentence of excommunication, was allowed to attend 

 the Divine Office in the Diaconicum, and it would appear that there was a 

 kind of Priests' (or rather Deacons') door just without it, and of course on 

 the south of the church. 



The aywv Rriiia was separated from the chancel by the screen. It is called 

 by Simeon of Thessalonica Ciiicluulf. or Diastolae : but it is also termed, and 

 more especially in the Grjeco-Russian Church, the Icn/iostasis, because the 

 P'ctures of Saints are hung or fixed upon it. In early times it was apparently 

 of much the same nature as our own rood-screens ; hutafterwards it assumed 

 its present shape of a solid erection. 



The rood-doors were called the IIoli/ Galrs. On the right ride, on entering, 

 was invariably figured our Loko ; on the left, the Mother of Gon: otiier 

 •Saints were replenished in any position that the piety or taste of the archi- 

 tect might .suggest. But some principal Saint was so placed as to be very 

 conspicuous from the seat occupied (if a monastick church) by the Hegumen : 

 (if a cathedral) by the Bishop ; the easternmost, namely, on Ihe south siilc of 

 the choir. Before the holy door hung a curtain, embroidered with the image 

 of S. Michafl, brandishing his sword, as if to '' keep the way of" this second 

 " Tree of Life" from irreverent acces.^;. 



A little to the west of the Iconoslasis is (or rather was, for the arrangement 

 has fallen into disuse) the Solcis, or chancel steps. As the Bema images the 

 Tribunal of Cueist, so the Snleas (a word corrupted from solium) represents 

 His Throne, The jxirtion between the Soleas and the Iconosfasis was in ear- 

 lier times appropriated to monks ; as partaking in part of the character both 

 of laics and clergy. So we learn from Dionysius. But Simeon of Thessalo- 

 nica tells us that afterwards it was appropriated to the inferior orders of the 

 clergy, and was even called the Bema of the Readers. The whole charge of 

 the Soleas, ;, r., the space eastward of these steps, including Ihe Bema, was 

 entrusted to the Caiiilelaples : he was of the order of the Headers, but on ac- 

 count of this ofhee privileged to enter into the Holy of Holies. 



Opposite the holy doors stood the Amlon or pulpit, answering in its uses 

 to the rood-loft of the Western Church. That in tha church of the Eterna] 

 Wisdom is described by C'odinus as adorned with jewels and lights. For 

 lights were fastened to crosses even as early as the time of .S. Cbrysostoin, if 

 we may trust Nicephorus. To the ambo were two entrances, one east and 

 the other west : for C'odinus, speaking of the Emperor's going up into it, 

 says that he ascended, not on the side which fronted the Beautiful Gates, but 

 on that which was opposite to the Soleas. Symbolically, according to the 

 Mystagoguc and Simeon, the ambo, and its situation near the holy gates^ 

 signified the stone that was rolled away from the Sepulchre ; and the deacon 

 mounted on the ambo, tha angel seated on the stone. Such as ambo is, or 

 was, pos-essed at Rome, by the churches of S. Mary ad Maityre-s, S. Lau- 

 rence, S. Pancras, and S. Clement. 



In monastic churches, almost the whole of the building is choir, though 

 the stalls do not extend over more than a third of its length, and arerctiirmd 

 as in our cathedrals ; and here are situated apaiai ttdAoi, the Beautiful Gales. 

 But in " Catholick," i. c. urular churches, there is no divisiim at the western 

 end of the stalls: and the Beautiful Gales separate the narthex, or porch 

 from the cburcli. This triple division into holy of holies, choir, and nave, is ^ 



cslremely perplexing, because in small churches that wliich seem.? the nave i.s 

 sometimes merely the (iynaeceum, or place appropriated to women : and the 

 (lifferent position of the Beautiful Gates in monastick and Catholic buildings 

 seems (though in effect it does not) to destroy any analogy between them. 

 The external western doors are known by the name of the Great or Silver 

 Gates : .and in the porch, ou the southern side of the door, is the usual posi- 

 tion of the font. In such a cathedral as we have been endeavoring to de- 

 scribe, the women would probably occupy the north aisle. The bells, whether 

 of metal or wood, hang on e.ach side of the porch. 



It will be seen then that Ihe spirit of this arrangement is precisely the same 

 as that of the Western Cluirch ; all that wc have ever called essentials —the 

 distinct and spacious chancel, the rood-screen, and the porch,— are retained 

 by the Oriental, as well as by the Latin communion, thus vindicating for 

 them the application of the rule of S. Vincent of Lerins, 



ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF THE RAIL'WAY SYSTEM, 

 The details of tb(> invention of steam vessels arc pretty well known, 

 but the communication by railroad bus never yet in this country been 

 traced to its origin. Now, it happened tli.it a few weeks since, a 

 very satisfactory account of this new medium of communication has 

 been given in two German periodicals— the Gazette of Colugne and 

 the Sonntagsblatl or Sunday's Joitnial. The latter is a weekly paper 

 for general information and entertainment, forming a supplement to 

 the Wescr Zeilung or Weser Gazette, which is published daily at 

 Bremen, the Hansc town on the Weser river. The reporter of' the. 

 facts relating to the invention of railroads is a barrister living at 

 O.'terode, a Hanoverian town on the Hercyniaii mountain ; bis onlj^ 

 object was to establish a fact, but he is otherwise in no way interested 

 in the matter, and he claims no reward, for the original inventor who, 

 indeed, died several years ago. The subject being one of consider- 

 able interest to this country, I drew up the present paper embodying 

 the substance of the barrister's German report ; the letter is dated 

 Osterode, the 20th March, IS15, and is inserted in No. GO of the 

 Sonntagsblatl, of April Gth, 1845. 



It appears that the original inventor of the railroad system was the 

 late principal engineer Mr. Friederichs (Frederics), son of a miner in 

 that part of the Hercynian district which belongs to Hanover. His 

 talent for mechanics was soon perceived by an influential gentleman, 

 the director of mines, who solicited the Hanoverian Government to 

 furnish him with the means for increasing liis practical knowledge in 

 mechanics and generally cultivating his mind by a tour through Europe. 

 The I equest was granted, and young Frederics set out on a tour of 

 several years. Two of them he spent in the salt mines of Galicia, 

 and it was there that the thought occurred to bitn of constructing a 

 new machine for the easier conveyance of heavy loads; no experi- 

 ments, however, were then made, and it was not until after his return 

 home, that he matured his plan, when necessity compelled him further 

 to consider it. At that time, before the French invasion of Hanover, 

 tlie leading silver mine of the Hercynian mountain was the "Dorothy;" 

 but the road from it to the " Pucherich," where the o re is refined, and 

 from that place to the silver melting house (Sillierfiiiclle), was very 

 inconvenient and caused considerable expenses. The "Dorothy" 

 being situated on a moderate declivity, and the "Pucherich" at a dis- 

 tance of three quarters of an hour, being placed in a valley, the road 

 from the first place to the latter goes downwards ; as to the minerals, 

 they were carried in carts drawn by horses, but on account of their 

 heaviness and the nearly impassable road, only small quantities could 

 be at a time transported. These circumstances compelled Frederics 

 further to consider and to perfect his plan of a new conveyance, and 

 he finally invented iron rails, exactly as they still are in use, a locomo- 

 tive engine, and a cart to run from the pit to the "Puch(nicli," and 

 thence to the silver melting house. The cart is a four wheeled one, 

 and on its frame is placed a wooden chest, which may be filled up 

 vyith minerals to the weight of from sixty to eighty cwt. Tha guide 

 sits before the chest, just as the coachman sits on the driving box; by 

 pressure he is enabled to direct the cart, and also to arrest it at any- 

 time, however fast it may run. The arrangement is so certain and 

 safe, that to the present day no accident has happened. The loco- 

 motive engine is all of iron, but instead of a detailed description of if, 

 which would not suit the taste of promiscuous readers of a German 

 journal for general information and entertainment, the reporting bar- 

 rister cites a fact from which its efficiency appears ; and refers, in 

 support of his statement, to witnesses still living. Wht-n, in the 

 summer of ISII, the King and the Queen of Westphalia visited the 

 Hercynian district, tlie director of the mines, M. von Meding, caused 

 a carrhige of the invention of M. Frederics to be fitted up for an ex- 

 cursion from the pit to the "PucUericb." The barrister alluded to 



