30 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[Jan. 



tnte thatitisnoi a vibration of air, but a substance— a material body, 

 likeVlectricity, magnetic..., heat, &c. It is obvious that wal U, and oiher 

 solid work, caonol and will not propagate the raijs of sound djnamically, 

 as well and accurat.lv as air dees, vvliith is its appropriate menstruum 

 and vehicle Of "hat shape these spaces are to be, and where they are 

 to be placed— both accord iuR to the shape and size of the building— is a 

 subject open to the investipHlion of architects. It is curious, indeed, to 

 know that Aristotle savs (.Problem II. sec. 11) that the ancients placed 

 empty vases or pots iu 'the walls of theatres, forums, &c., for increasing 

 the vibration and power of sound. 



Fall of a BuihUny on the French Northern Line.— On Friday, the 20th 

 Nov the large wooden building at Lille, in which the company pave the 

 erand banquet to the French princes and the company invited to the 

 hiaueuratinn of the line, and which was recently being prepared for a 

 waiting-room for passengers, fell «ilh a frightful crash. Not one of the 

 supporting timbers resisted. The excavation of the earth around the sup- 

 ports was the cause of the accident. 



Belgium.— Ihe Luxembourg company contemplate building eight streets 

 in the London style next spiing around the station to be erected m the 

 Quartier Leopold, Brussels, for the occupation of opulent English families 

 It is well known that the English establishing their residences at Brussels 

 -tave always chosen the upper part of the city for the benefit of the air o 

 the park and neighbourhoood. f 



Tunnelling the Alps — ti\e Monitiur Bilge announces that experiment^ 

 have been made in order to test the elliiacy of a machine jnst invented fo- 

 the purpose of effecting a new and siieedy method of boring tunnels. I* 

 is proposed to applv this machine to the construction of the great tunnel 

 about to be commenced in connection with one of the Italian lines. The 

 machine was placed in front of the web, and rffected a bore to the depth of 

 • 181 centimetcres (7 inches) in thirty-live minutes. At this rate, the new 

 in 'ention will complete upwards of .■; metres (16ft. O.n.) of bore per day, 

 and the proposed tunnel through Mount Cenis will be finibhed in the space 

 of three years. The expi-riments have been repeated twice before several 

 of the first engineers of France, aud with the most complete success. 



NOTES OF THE MONTH. 



Electrical Telegraph— M the Paris Academy of Sciences, M. Brogue 

 exhibited a new electro-magnetic battery, intended for the line of electrica 

 telegraph of the Paris and St. Germain railroad. A prepared magnet of 

 steel is fixed perpendicularly upon a strong board. Above and very near 

 the poles a rectangular plate of soft iron is fixed upon an axis, which bears 

 a pinion commanded by a large copper wheel. Upon the plane are en- 

 graved the letters of the alphabet, and opposite each letter there is a hole. 

 The axis of the wheel has a handle, to which is fixed a steel point, capa- 

 ble of entering the holes of the wheel. The handle has a hinge, in order 

 that it may he raised or lowered, and is free at the centre of the wheel, so 

 that when the point is out of a hole the handle may turn in eiiher sense to 

 find the letter and transmit it. Very near the edge of the wheel is a liver, 

 the small arm of which is above its centre of motion, with a larger one 

 under, which serves to work a second lever; they are comhimd in such a 

 way that a slight motion of the small arm of the first may describe an arch 

 to the extremity of the large arm of the second. The upper arm of the 

 first lever serves as the point of arrest of the handle, at the same time that 

 the large arm of the other slops the movement of rotation. The apparatus 

 is so contrived as to engage and disengage itself in the finding and trans- 

 mission of the letters, without any effort on the part of the person working 

 the battery. 



Strainers for the Ganges. — On the 21st Nov. a number of scientific gen- 

 tlemen connected with India and steam navigation, met at the iron steam 

 ship works of Messrs. H., O., and A. Robinson, Mill Wall, Poplar, to in- 

 spect a large iron steamer, intended for the navigation of the river Ganges, 

 between Mirzapore and Calcutta, and named (by the spirited Company 

 who ordered her) the" Mirzapore." She is the third of a line of steamers 

 for the Ganges designed and coustructed by the same firm, and is the 

 largest river steamer ever built, with one or two exceptions in America, 

 her length being 2.'iO feet and her breadth inside the paddles 38 feet. The 

 Tessel is an admirable combination of strength and lightness, and embraces 

 gome novelties in iron ship-building to attain this desideratum iu the 

 navigation of shallow rapid rivers. The engines are of the collective 

 power of 250 horses ; are horizontal and perfectly unconnected ; their 

 valves are on the equilibrium principle ; are acted upon by cambs, aud are 

 well geared for the easy manipulation of the engines. The first of these 

 steamers, named the " Patna," has proved to be admirably adapted to the 

 navigation and traflic of the Ganges, and the company have in consequence 

 given orders for the immediate preparation of additional steamers. 



Restoration of Llandnff Cathedral.— The Ve&a has just issued a state- 

 ment of the progress of this work. The eastern chapel has been completely 

 restored ; the windows and open parapet work at the east end of the soutli 

 aisle are in progress. Active operations have been commenced in the 

 choir, aud a noble arch of Bishop Urbuu's work, with elaborate mouldings, 



has been opened. Beneath this a beautiful screen of Bishop Marshall's, 

 A.D. 1018, has been exposed ; as also a beautiful recessed monument in 

 he south-east wall of the choir. 



All Saints, St. John's-Wood. — Two stained glass windows have beea 

 presented by Mr. lairs. 



Ilolijhead Harbour. — The Admiralty have given notice of their intention 

 to deepen and dredge this harbour, and tu construct retaining walls and 

 wooden jetties, 



.S'u«(/i Staffordshire .Vines,— A weekly paper says— " We have been 

 informed, on the best authority, that the Government have appointed an 

 experienced engineer, thoroughly versed in the system of mining, who will 

 immediately proceed to visit the iron and coal mines in South Stafford- 

 shire." 



Cleopatra's Needle has, it is stated, been offered by the Bey of Tunis to 

 Louis Philippe and accepted, and is to be placed in the Carousel at Paris. 

 New Act on Steam Narigation. — On the 1st January an important Act 

 " For the regulation of Steam Navigation, and for requiring seagoing 

 vessels to carry boats," comes into operation. Every vessel of upwards of 

 100 tons is to be provided with hose for extinguishing fire. ICvery steam- 

 vessel passing another steam vessel is to pass as far as may be safe on the 

 port side. No compensation is to be recovered for injury by vessels not 

 exidbiting lights at night. In rivers steam vessels are to pass as near as 

 practicable to that side of the mid channel which lies on the vessel's star- 

 board. Owners are to transmit to the Board of Trade twice a year certi- 

 ficates of the efficiency of the engines, and are to report the supposed loss 

 of any vessel, &iC, 



At Latheney Abbey, Gloucestershire, five ancient Norman pillars have 

 been dug up. 



Long Acre Jmproremen Is — All the houses belonging to the;Mercer's Com- 

 pany, in Long Acre, opposite the end of Bowslrcet, have been demolished, 

 and a direct lominunication is thus esiablished with Waterloo bridge. 

 Tiie new street at the end of St. Martin's-lane is rapidly progressing; it 

 is one of the widest thoroughfares in London, its breadth being 110 feel. 



The Fortificnlinns at Slieerness.—Dec. 2!. — These works continue to 

 progress rapnilv. 1 be large and formidable battery opposite the dockyard 

 gate, facing seaward, is now complete, with the exception of the curtain or 

 parapet wall, winch "ill shortly be proceeded with, after which the beds 

 for the traversing platforms of from 40 to 50 guns will be laid down. The 

 musketry walls connecting Ibis battery, on the one hand to the fortifications 

 at Garrison Point, and on the other to the land defences, are also complete, 

 and present a fine appearance, being excellent specimens of substantial 

 workmanship. These land defences, which extend continuously from the 

 Thames to the Medway, interrupted only by the drawbridge to Mile Town, 

 are now in course of being repaired and heightened, by the mud procured 

 in the deepening of the moat which protects them. The excavations for 

 the moat which sui rounds the new battery, and which have been continued 

 northward, as far as the second angle of the old works at Garrison Point, 

 and soulhnard into the moat surrounding the land defences, are nearly 

 compleied, and workmen are now engaged in several parts banking it up 

 with rubble sioue. The greatest number of men are, however, engaged in 

 the con»truclion of a ravelin, capable of containing 3,00U men, on the Mile 

 Town side of the drawbridge. The moat is to be conducted round the 

 ravelin, aud a second drawbridge thrown over it. The repairs and altera- 

 tions of the old works at Garrison Point are completed. The magazines 

 are in course of being filled. New barracks, capable of containing 1,000 

 niir, are to be immediately erected, and three Martello towers on the Isle 

 of Grain shore, should the fuundaliou prove satisfactory. A party of Sap- 

 pers and Miners are at present engaged there making the necessary 

 borings and examinations. 



Anahisis of a Peiurian Alloy, by Mr. Henry How.— This was a small 

 plate of a yellow metal, which was taken from a band of similar plates 

 surrounding a human sbuU: it consisted of — 



Gold ■f.ll 



Copper .. .. .. ■. •• •• •• ''"' 



'J9bi 

 It is a question whether the metal is an artificial alloy or the crude product 

 of a mctallurgic process. The author was inclined to the latter opinion.— 

 Chemical Society. 



King's Well, Bath. Analysis of the Water, by Messrs. Merck and 



Gallowav. — The whole method ot analysis pursued in this luvestigatioQ 



is given in detail in a paper to the Chemical Society, and the authors sum 



up H ilh the following results in the imperial gallon : 



Carbonate of lime 



Carbonate of magaeaa 



Carbonate of iron .. .. •. 



Sulphate of lime 



Sulphate of uotasll .. .. .. 



Sulphate of soila 



Chlor.de of sodium 



Chloride < f magnesiom .. 



Silica .. 



With traces of iodine mod oxide of maDfaoeM 



3-820 



3i9 



1 1-64 

 80 052 



4641 

 l»2.'» 

 12 642 

 I4i»l 



2»»2 



14t':>4« 



Its specific gravity is 1-0025 d its temperi,tjre 115°, the atmospheri* 

 being 6t>° at the time. 



