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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[JULT, 



cipal building nearlv resemble those of fbe centre, with which they 

 are connected bv a continu.Uion of tlie front; ■md the two towers ?.t 

 the other exlr.'iiVuies are smaller, and connected with an insignificant 

 range of buildings for stables, offices, &c., and which, though built by 

 Mansard, in the time of Gaston d'Or^eans, are a complete eye-sore 

 contrasted wilh the more ancient building. 



I believe it is unknown who was the architect of Chambord. Prima- 

 liccio has been mentioned, and it seems to me likely to have been de- 

 signed by an artist accustoiueil to flights of the im^igination, rather 

 than by an architect who would have studied greater appropriateness 

 in the forms. 



Thougli it is not so stated in any account that I am aware of, I can- 

 not help" fancying that the round towers must be the r-mains of some 

 older building, so comph'tely does the plan resemble the inclosed 

 strong-hold, the old manon-forle of tlie earlier middle ages. 



Tliree ranges of pilasters at almost regular intervals, girt the ex- 

 terior of the principal building, which is partly relieved witli open 

 galleries; above these is an entiblature, showing the same kind ot 

 machicolation and shell-work as in the building of Francis, at Blois ; 

 and above the cornice is a balustrade, which girts the platform on the 

 roof. Towards the interior of the court, the architecture possesses 

 more variety, and at tlie two angles is an open staircase of beautiful 

 design, resembling the one at Bids. 



But the roof is the glory of Chambord. The whole top of the build- 

 ing is one grand terrace, paved like a marble court. 



'immense pointed roofs, more than 50 feet high, rise above the 

 towers like ornamented pyramids studded with magnificent dormers 

 and gabels, intermingled with elegant chimney shafts and towers, de- 

 corated with niclies and flanked with columns in most beautiful pro- 

 portion. 



Elevated above all the rest is the grand centre staircase of the 

 building (of the interior of which 1 will speak presently). This, as it 

 rises above the platform, is surroumled by columns supporting a gal- 

 lery, fro[n which spring eight grind flying buttresses, ornamented with 

 gigantic salamanders and sufiporting the cupola, which terminates in 

 "the remnins of the famous _;?£Kr-rfe-/is, which gave the name to this 

 crowning glory the " Tour de la Fieur-dt-Lis." 



There are published views to expl.iin, in some degree, the appear- 

 ance of this wonderful work ; but no drawing can convev the full effect 

 of this labyrinth of palaces, seen at different points of view, as you 

 wander about this magnificent platform. 



The various towers and chimney-shafts are of most elegant propor- 

 tion; but the details, though of beautiful design, are rarely executed 

 with the finish of the work at Blois, which they much resemble. 



The caps of the pilasters, and the corbels at their base, are of in- 

 finite variety. 



On the gable and the buttress of centre tower may be remarked 

 dark lozenges and circles, and also a sort of fluting. To these 1 beg 

 to call your attention; for though looking from below like inlaid mar- 

 ble, they are in fact nothing hut pieces of slate nailed on the surface. 



The interior arrangement of the cliateau is extremely peculiar. On 

 eacii floor one vast apartment stretches in the form of a cross, from 

 back to front, and from side to side, of the building ; and in the centre 

 of the cross is the c-'lebr.ited double staircase, rising through every 

 floor, and forming thi; higliest object in the roof above. 



In each of the four angles left by the cross is a separate suite of 

 apartments, including also others within the angle towers, and from 

 two of these, again, there is a communication by another suite of rooms 

 with the two outer towers on the same front. The large cross-shaped 

 chambers are called Sulks dts Gardts ; but I cannot think that rooms 

 of such magnitude, communicating with every quarter of the chateau, 

 could ever all of them have been intended as guard chambers. I rather 

 imagine, considering that Chambord was erected by Francis I. as a 

 hunting palace, tliat it was arranged on this singidar plan as a place 

 where state was to be laid aside, and that these halls were places of 

 general rendezvous. Their ceilings are vaulted and divided into 

 panellings, filled with the initial F and the royal salamander in flami^s 

 alternately. In one of these curious chambers, where scenes of state 

 and ceremony liave often occurred, Moliere's play of the "Bourgeois 

 Gentilhomme" was represented for the first time, before Louis XIV. 



The grand staircase is wonderful — wonderful fur the tffect it pro- 

 duces and the beauty of its proportion and its ornaments, rather than 

 for any peculiar ditficulty of construction. Its construction may be 

 thus described: — the outer diameter of the staircase is, I s\ippose, 

 about 30 feet; in the centre of this is an inner wall, in diameter about 

 10 feet; between these two circles the st.drs wind up in a double 

 spiral, commencing at opposite points, so that parties entering at each, 

 ill ascending, see each other repeatedly through openings, Init do not 

 meet till thi^y arrive at tlie various floors. The exterior of the stair- 

 case IS decorated, and the interior wall is also highly ornamented wilh 



a variety of be.iutiful nicbes. The salamander in flames and the initial 

 F are also introduced, the latter surrouided witli a frame of cords — 

 emblem of the Cordilieres to which the king's mother belonged. Of 

 the termination of this staircase above the rocjf I have already spoken. 



Of the four hundred and forty chambers which tliis mighty chateau 

 is said to contain, there is not one that has escaped the distressing 

 evil of whit''Wash, and few of them retain any ornament indicating 

 their former use or recalling their former grandeur. I sketched a ceil- 

 ing of a small vaulted room, said to be a private chapel, where tlie 

 panels resembled those in the SaUei dts Gardes; and I remarked i\ 

 cli .mher where there were indications that a painted frieze, three feet 

 deep, had been; but everywhere the walls ,ire bire — not a vestige re- 

 in lins uf any kind of banging or decoration. Destruction, the most 

 ruthless that can be conceived, has swept over the whole interior: all 

 the furniture, the paintings, the wainsciiting of the w ills, the very 

 doors, the windows, were burnt, broken, or stolen at the time of the 

 Revolution. 



Yet, what must the chambers have been at the time of the royal 

 Francis, who so loved to surround himself with objects of art I — what 

 thousands of works produced under his I'usterint; care still remain to 

 us! Who can doubt that the rooms, so wretclied now, were one blaze 

 of splendour then? that, besides the paintings of Prim.iticoio, and the 

 frescoes of Jean Coiissin, who were engaged there for years, there 

 were assembled there the choicest works of the greatest masters- 

 groups in marble by the rarest Italian hands; hronz'S by Cellini, and, 

 equally precious, his tasteful ornaments and vases in gold and silver; 

 delicate carvings in ivory; enamels, by Leonard de Limoges; glasses 

 from Venice. Fancy that the wails were hung Willi the richest tapes- 

 try, or leather, or brocade — that the ceilings were blazoned with 

 colour and glittered with gold — that tasteful furniture, which 11 Rosso 

 and Priinaticcio disdained not to design, filled the various apartments; 

 picture the king, in the midst of bis brilliant court, dazzling the eye 

 with the riehncss of the costume and the be.iuty of the ladies — and 

 the mind will indeed conceive a scene at Chambord, iu vivid contrast 

 to now what meets the view. 



ON THE INDUCTION OF ATMOSPHERIC ELECTRICITY ON 



THE WIRES OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 



By Professor Joseph Henry. 



("Continued /rom page 177. J 



4. Powerful electrical currents are produced in the wires of the 

 telegrapli by every flash of lightning which takes place within many 

 miles of the line, by the action of dynamic induction; which ditTers 

 from the action last described, in being the resu t of the influence of 

 electricity in molioii on the natural electricity of the conductor. The 

 eft'ect of this induction, which is the most fruitful source of disturbance, 

 will be best illustrated by an account of some experiments of my own, 

 presented to the Society in 1S43. A copper wire was suspended by 

 silk strings around the ceiling of an upper room, so as to form a paral- 

 lelogram of about sixty feet by tliirtv on the sides; and in the cellar 

 of tlie same building, immediately below, another parallelogram of the 

 same dimensions was placed. When a spark from an electrical ma- 

 chine was transmitted through the upper parallelogram, an induced 

 current was developed in the lower one, sufficiently powerful to mag- 

 netize needles, although two floors intervened, and the conductors 

 were separated to the distance of thirty feet. In this experiment, no 

 electricity passed through the floors f^om one conductor to the other; 

 the effect was entirely due to the repulsive action of the electricity in 

 motion in the upper wire on the natural electricity of the lower. In 

 another experiment, two wires, about 400 feet long, were stretched 

 parallel to each other between two buildings; a spark of electricity 

 sent through one produced a current in the other, though the two were 

 separated to tlv distance of 300 feet; and from all the experiments, 

 it was concluded that the distance might be indefinitely increased, 

 provided the wires were lengthened in a corresponding ratio. 



That the same effect is produced by the repulsive action of the 

 electrical discharge in the heavens, is shown by the following modifi- 

 cation of the foregoing arrangement. One of the wires was removed, 

 and the other so leiii;thened at one end to pass into my study, and 

 thence through a cellar window into an adjacent well. With every 

 flash of lightning which took place in the heavens, within at least a 

 circle of twenty miles arouud Princeton, needles were magnetized in 

 the study hy tlie induced current developed in the wire. The same 

 efl'i'ct was proiluced by soldering a wire to the metallic roof of the 

 house, and pissing it down into the well; at every fl isli of lightning a 

 series of currents in alternate directions was pro.luoed in the wire. 



