230 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[July, 



The SILVER ISIS MEDAL and HONOHAUV TESTIMONIAL, to Mr. W. Wood, 

 for his Tuphlos'raph for Ihe use of ihe Blind. The sarac Medal and 1/. I3., to Mr. G. 

 West, for his Microscopic l>rau-ini< of the Spine of the Echinus. The same Medal, to 

 Mr. J. UulCon, for an Inatrument for facilitating the Cutting of Screws — Miss Susan 

 Dur;tnl, for an Original Bust in Piaster, heing a Portrait— Jlr. C. Worrall, for a Model in 

 Plaster of a Candelabrum— Mr. C Fox, for an Original Composition in Plaster- Mr. C. 

 Hodyctts, for an Oriyinai Chalk Drawing of the Gladiator— Mr. J. G. George, for a Chalk 

 Drawing "f the Gladiator— Mr. Arthur O'Connor, for a Chalk Drawii-g of the Head of 

 ot" Jupiter — Miss Rlury Elizabeth Dear, for a Portrait in Chalk and other Drawings — 3Ir. 

 f[. Souns, for a Design executed in Metal of the Head of a Greek Warrior — Miss .Jane 

 Campbell Bell, for a Chalk Drawing of a Head — Mr. F. Sands, for an Oil Painting of 

 Birds tYom Nature — Mr. E. Hughes, tor a Chalk Drawing of the Statue of Mars — ami 

 air. F. Wright, for a Clock Case carved in wood. The .Silver Palette, to Master Jatnes 

 Webb, for a .Sepia Drawing of a Tree from Nature. Honorary Testimonial and lil. to .Mr. 

 Willtttt, for an Apparatus fur facilitating the Collection of Liquid Manure. Honorary 

 Tehtimonial, to Mr. ThouKis Lambert, fur a Flexible J:)iaphragni Water Valve — Mr. G. P. 

 Jlayluy, for his lirush for 'I'ubular Boilers — Mr. W. Milton, lor an improved Angular 

 Drill Stock — and Mr. T. Itestell, for his Compensation Pendulum. 



In addition to the foregoing prcmiunis, various sums of money, amounting together to 

 4^ guineas, have been awarded to the authors of works of merit in Art as connected with 

 manufactures. 



THE DECORATIONS OF COVENT GARDEN THEATRE. 



Mr. Laugher read a paper at the Decorative Art Society on the Decorations 

 of Covent Garden Theatre, 1817, considered in their relation to art. Allniliug 

 to the practical difficulties to be overcome in so brief a period, he snid, that 

 he was disposed to attribute some of the defects in the design to the necessity 

 uf using such available embellishments as the experience of the architect 

 enabled him to collect iivstanler ; and while ailmitting that much energy and 

 some discrimination might be detected in some of the operations, he con- 

 tended that the selection of an ornamental material in which the architect is 

 avowedly interested, and its unskilful application, were equally remarkable. 

 The material thus alluded to is called cannabic ; and was described as being 

 composed of the refuse part of fla.\, held together by a bituminous matter, 

 and pressed in thin sheets into intaglio moulds, producing thereby a bassu- 

 relitvo surface at rather less expense, and of greater lightness, than papier 

 mache and similar substances. The author considered this material a useful 

 auxiliary in decoration ; hut in the present ease, the distance at which it is 

 placed from the point of view, together with injudicious colouring and an 

 excess of burnished gilding, cancel the interest which under favourable cir- 

 cumstances accompanies its adoption. Mr. Laugher complained of the gloomy 

 and heavy tone of red and shadow pervading the boxes :— the divisions being 

 covered with crimson and tnarone figured paper, with a crimson carpet on the 

 floor, crimson curtains and valances; while the light irapingeing over a 

 smoothly stuffed cushion in front covered with crimson silk, diffuses a red 

 glare by no means favourable to the appreciation of colour elsewhere. The 

 arrangement of the curtains and valances was said to be meagre ; and it was 

 assumed that the whole had been intended to offer a quiet effect, with a re- 

 liance on the value of the silk for imparting respectability. The grounds oa 

 which CI imson had probably been selected for these purposes were discussed. 

 If as a background to a picturesque development of the audience, it was said 

 that it totally failed — and if with reference to the effect of the general in- 

 terior, the result was to be condemned for the objectionable and inartistic 

 effect of the horizontal strips in white and heavy-toned red in harsh and 

 forcible contrast, placed moreover without apparent vertical support. The 

 carved fronts to the boxes were not considered equal in respect of form to 

 those at the St. James's Theatre; and the general effect of colour upon them 

 was described as pallid and faint — which an excess oilmrnished gilding does 

 nothing to relieve. It was argued that gilding ought to be burnished only 

 in a very slight proportion when placed on a white or a light coloured ground ; 

 and that the burnishing had in this case completely confused the delicate 

 basso-relievo forms of ornament. The ceiling, it was observed, offers an 

 agreeable repose to the eye in the circidar range of graduated green with the 

 full-toned browns prevailing in the marginal decorations. The general effect 

 of tlie colouring throughout the embellishments is influenced in a remarkable 

 manner by the crimson boxes in which the spectator is ]ilaced ; and this, it 

 was argued, constitutes the key-note to which other parts offer but little 

 accordance. It was suggested that a charming effect might be obtained by 

 the application of different colours for the curtains of the respective tiers — 

 also that the divisions in the boxes ought to be of a neutral colour. The 

 character, treatment, and propriety of selection in various details of the em- 

 bellishments upon the box fronts were described and commented upon. It 

 was said that forms of ornament prevailing at almost every period had been 

 applied : — ancient Greek, Roman, Renaissance, Louis XIV., Louis XVI., and 

 modern French combination, bad each assisted to confuse and debase, in the 

 motley arrangement, the attributes whose aspects they wore ; w^hile the ceil- 

 ing itself, which it was stated is almost the only portion jiartaking of artistic 

 manipulations, owes its merits to examples of Le limn. The introduction 

 thereon of ropes and masks in basso-relievo, and meretricious glitter of gild- 

 ing, whereby the allegoric subjects appear in abeyance, were considered to 

 mark the loss of skill between the artists of that and those of the present 

 period. 



[We do not by any means concur with Mr. Laugher in his sweeping con- 

 clusions. We cannot see how the lining of the box can serve as the key- 

 note to the other decorations, and it has never produced that efl^ect on us. 

 We likewise differ from him in toto as to the want of effect of the crimson as 

 a background to the audience, for we agree with those who hold that it ad- 



mirably sets off the dresses and appearance of the company, as indeed on 

 theoretical grounds it might naturally be expected to do. We suspect Mr. 

 Laugher has seen the house when there was no audience in it. We are glad, 

 however, to acknowledge in Mr. Laugher's essay a praiseworthy endeavour 

 to raise a higher standard of criticism. — Editor.] 



THE STEAM JET FOR VENTIL.iTING. 



Professor Faraday, in a former lecture delivered at the Royal Institu- 

 tion *' On Mr. Barri/'s met/tod of warming and ventilating the new House of 

 Lords", mentioned that a part of the means employed for securing 

 a current of air sufficiently abundant to insure the required object was the 

 use of a jet of high-pressure steam in the ventilating shaft of that building. 

 At a recent meeting Mr. Faraday explained the physical conditions of such a 

 steam-jet, and the relations of the vapour discharged from it to the surround- 

 ing air. 



More than forty years ago. Dr. Young (Nat. Phil., vol. ii., p. 534) had 

 shown that wherever any elastic fluid was forced from a jet with but small 

 velocity, the steam proceeded for some inches without observable dilatation, 

 and then diverged into a cone ; but that when the pressure on this vapour 

 was increased, the apex of the cone approached the orifice of the jet ; but 

 whatever might be the amount of this pressure, the form of the cone con- 

 tinued the same. Mr. Faraday proceeded to notice the lines of motion of the 

 particles constituting this cone of vapour. The rings of smoke produced by 

 the combustion of bubbles of phosphuretted hydrogen on the surface of 

 water were exhibited. The revolution of each of these hollow rings on the 

 axis of the cylinder which forms it was pointed out, as was their gradual ex- 

 pansion when rising into the air: and it was shown that each of these en- 

 larging rings miglit be viewed as a magnified element of the cone of steam 

 issuing from the jet. In the same class of effects Mr. Faraday placed the 

 rotating clouds of smoke which are seen issuing from the chimneys of steam- 

 boats, &c. The force with which the particles of the air surrounding the 

 cone of steam produced by a powerful jet were drawn towards it, were shown 

 by various striking experiments. Hollow balls of 1 and 2 inches diameter 

 were seen drawn into the cone, and sustained floating in the line of its axis, 

 even when, by an arrangement of the apparatus, this axis was brought 35° 

 out of the perpendicular. An upright glass tube, 18 inches long and 1 inch 

 diameter, having one extremity plunged into water and the other end drawn 

 into a capillary jet was visibly exhausted of its contained air (the water being 

 drawn up from the lower end of the tube) when the capillary jet was placed 

 within the in-draugbt of air occasioned by the cone of steam. Inclosing 

 this part of bis subject, Mr. Faraday explained the use which has been made 

 of a cylindrical or conical jacket to include this steam-cone, and thus to in- 

 crease the draught-power of the jet. In the arrangement adopted by Mr. 

 Barry for ventilating the House of Lords, this jacket is the ventilating-shaft 

 itself; so that there can be no room for the entrance of air to form a down- 

 ward current in the shaft. This mode of moving air has been adopted in 

 lead-works and other manufactories, for the purpose of washing and con- 

 densing the smoke where noxious fumes are generated in the processes. 

 Noticing the coolness of the high-pressure steam, even near the orifice of the 

 jet, as being due to the quantity of cold air rushing towards it and diminish- 

 ing its temperature, Mr. Faraday connected with this and the other pheno- 

 mena the experiment of M. Clement Desormes — who showed that when 

 steam, under high pressure, is allowed to escape from an orifice pierced in a 

 plate, and a flat disc is brought close to this plate, the plate and disc are 

 made to adhere together. In this case, the elastic force of the steam issuing 

 from the jet, and which tends to separate the plate and disc, diminishes 

 rapidly in its course from the centre to the edges of the disc ; at the same 

 time, the radial curients by their in-draught, as before illustrated, bring the 

 two plates together with a power which is so much greater than the former 

 that the surfaces adhere. Mr. Faraday finished by noticing the danger of 

 conical safety-valves in high-pressure boilers, when the lateral expansion of 

 the conical surface is large in proportion to the sectional area of the steam 

 passage. 



TIRES OF RAILWAY WHEELS. 



The following remarks have been communicated by a correspomlent 

 (" X. Y. Z."), to the liitilwdg Reciiril : — " It was S'^'cn in evidence, at an 

 inquest recently held to decide upon Ihe fatal results of an accident wbicii 

 occurred on the Great Western Raihvay, that the fracture of the steel tire 

 of the driving-wheels of some of their locomotives was by no means an un- 

 usual occurrence, and that even those tires sometimes snapped when the 

 engines were not running. The dreadful eli'ectsof the accident in question 

 make it evident that uothiug should be omitted by which risk may possibly 

 be mitigated ; and to this end, among, probably, many better suggestions, I 

 beg to offer the following, both as respects the cause and its removal. 



" These steel tires are dovetailed into the iron wheel ; and being let in 

 hot, it appears to be assumed that the sledge hammers of the forgers will 

 cause the two metals— steel and iron— to become properly welded together. 

 Now this I venture to dispute ; on the contrary, I am convinced nothing 

 like a real cementation of the two metals will be eflecled. If this assumption 



