26 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[January 



NOTES OF THE MONTH. 



' The new Law Courts in Guildhall-yard are to be immediately 

 erected from llie designs of Mr. Tite, F. R. S. The elevation next 

 to Guildhall-yard is to be in the Gothic style, and the buildings on the 

 opposite side, now occupied as the Guildhall Police Office, &c, 

 are it is said, to be re-fronted, to correspond in appearance. Guild- 

 hall Chapel formerly occupied the site of the Law Courts, and the 

 style of that edifice might well be used in the present design ; at the 

 same time we sincerely hope that the style of Guildhall front will not 

 be adopted, but that the present opportunity will be taken advantage 

 of to »et rid of the cocked-hats and other barbarisms which Master 

 Dance was pleased to call Gothic, and which we should call Gothic par 

 excellence .' Several of the Common Council have advocated such a 

 course, and we hope will persevere. 



The ground for the new Conservative Club, in St. James -street is 

 cleared of the buildings upon it, and shows afrontage of 150 feet. The 

 building, it is expected, will be commenced in the ensuing spring, from 

 the joint design of Mr. Sydney Smirke and Mr. Basevi. 



The restoration of Wells Cathedral has been entrusted by the Dean 

 and Chapter to Mr. Cockerell, R. A., and it is at present to be con- 

 fined to the choir and organ. 



The Temple Church is fast approaching completion. The floor is 

 being covered with inlaid tiles, manufactured by Messrs. Minton, of 

 Staffordshire. Next month we hope to be able to give some account 

 of the restorations. 



The Lycian marbles discovered at Xanthus by Mr. Fellowes have 

 arrived at the British Museum, and their public exhibition is awaited 

 with much anxiety on account of the merit they possess. We have 

 before expressed our opinion that much of value connected with 

 Persian art remains to be discovered, and recent discoveries in the 

 East tend to confirm this. The remains of Persian art which have as 

 yet reached Europe, show a promise of something better than we have 

 yet had, and illustrate the influence of Persia on Greek art, of which 

 abundant evidence is shown in the Lycian marbles. 



On the Travellers' Club a new attic is being raised, so as to relieve 

 the garden-front now swamped by the Reform Club and Athenaeum. 

 The addition is in the same chaste style as the rest of the building. 

 The only part which is looked upon with doubt is the inhersion of 

 telescopic circular windows in the roof. The interior is to be deco- 

 rated by Sang, a German artist, with arabesques, and used as a 

 smoking-room. In reference to Barry's application of colour we have 

 heard some remarks upon the decoration of the groined arcade at the 

 Travellers' Club. This he has had painted in imitation of granite, 

 thus appearing to violate probability, as it would be difficult to work 

 granite in such a way. 



The Noah's Ark on the top of the Mansion House has at last been 

 removed, to the great satisfaction of the public. 



Cateaton-street is rapidly advancing, and will make a fine street. 

 Guildhall is, as we have announced, to be improved. St. Lawrence 

 Jewry and Gresham Hall abut upon the street. The latter building is 

 to have a highly decorated front, in the florid Italian style, of four 

 Corinthian pilasters. It is by far too small for the purposes to which 

 it is to be devoted. 



The widening of Fetter-lane, at the Fleet-street end, is determined 

 upon, and the houses have been removed. 



Mr. Barry's works in Trafalgar-square now begin to show them- 

 selves. The shaft of Mr. Railton's Nelson column is nearly com- 

 pleted, and the bronze capital which is being cast at Woolwich is in 

 an advanced state. 



A new Hall and Library are to be built in Lincoln's-inn, from the 

 designs of Mr. Hardvvicke, and are, we understand, to be in the style 

 of the old parts of Hampton Conrt. 



We have seen a line engraving of Barry, by Hurland, which is in 

 private circulation; it is 8 inches by G4 inches, and beautifully 

 executed, but we do not consider it a striking likeness. 



METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS. 



Whitehall, Mocernber 30th. — The Queen has been pleased to appoint the 

 Earl of Lincoln, Lord Lyttleton, Lord Colborne, the Right Hon. James 

 Charles Hemes, the Right Hon. the' Lord Mayor of the city of London, Sir 

 Robert Harry Inglis, Baft., Sir Charles Lemon, Bart., Henry Thomas Hope, 

 Esq., Henry Gaily Knight, Esq., Alexander Milne, Esq., the Hon. Charles 

 Gore, Sir Robert Smirke, Knt., and Charles Barry, Esq., to he Her Majesty's 

 Commissioners for inquiring into and considering the most effectual means 

 of improving the metropolis, and of providing increased facilities of com- 

 munication within the same. The Queen has also been pleased to appoint 

 Trenham Walshman Philipps, Esq., to he Secretary to the said Commission. 



IRON STEAM VESSELS. 



Sir. — The writer of a paper on steam navigation in the November 

 number of the Journal says, " The iron of which vessels are composed 

 has been found to become brittle in the course of years, so that, al- 

 though tough at first, it will, in the course of time, star like glass, 

 when struck by a hard and sharp body." May I be allowed to remark 

 that some of the friends of iron ship-building are startled by the 

 assertion contained in this sentence, and would be glad to know 

 whether the author of it can point to any instance of such " starring" 

 which has actually taken place. Until this can be done, the examples 

 of the Jlaron Manly, which is stated in the same number of the 

 Journal to have been at work from 1822 to 1830, without requiring 

 any repairs, although she had been repeatedly aground in the Seine, 

 with her cargo on board, and which vessel is also stated to be now at 

 work, — of the steamer built by the Horseley Company for the Shan- 

 non, in 1825, and now " in good order," and of other iron vessels, do 

 not appear to favour very strongly the serious objection raised against 

 iron vessels in the paper quoted above. 



I am, respectfully, 



Neath, 12M mo. 10M, 1842. 'A. M. 



[The objection alluded to by our correspondent is very well known 

 to exist, by those whose acquaintance with the working of iron steam 

 vessels is the most extended. In the Lady Lansdown iron steamer 

 on the Shannon, the effect of a collision when the vessel was new was 

 merely to indent the plate ; after the vessel had been at work for 

 some time, a tendency was observed in the plate to crack, as well as 

 to become indented, and the brittleness of the plate was found to 

 increase as the vessel became older, until, when struck by a hard and 

 sharp body, it starred in the manner we formerly stated. Whether 

 this effect is due to the action of the water or to the tremor occasioned 

 by the engine, we do not pretend to determine ; if the latter, steam 

 vessels of moderate power may undergo a less rapid deterioration, 

 and something of the superior durability of the „4aron Alanby may 

 possibly be owing to the smallness of that vessel's power. — Ed.] 



MEDHURST'S WATER VALVE. 



Sir — Excuse my troubling you with the following remarks : — 

 I have been much surprised by repeatedly seeing reference made to 

 a water valve invented by Mr. Medhurst, and particularly a description 

 of it by Mr. Vignoles in iris lecture in Cornwall, reported lately in the 

 Railway Times, where he remarks that it is a very ingenious contri- 

 vance, the only objection being that the country the railway passes 

 through must be perfectly level — a serious objection certainly, but not 

 the only one ; for the learned Professor surely cannot be so unac- 

 quainted with the principle of the common pump as not to know that 

 when the tube is exhausted of air, the water will rush in to supply its 

 place, and so render the tube ineffectual. Another objection is that 

 the communication between the piston and carriage being on one side 

 only, the pipe must necessarily be on one side also — a very unme- 

 chanical contrivance, to say the best of it. The chances of tlie water 

 freezing, or rusting of the piston, are left quite out of the question. 



A Young Mechanic. 



CONTRIVANCE FOR DESTROYING SMOKE. 



Sir — At a meeting held at the Leeds Music Hall about ten months 

 ago, I had the pleasure of examining a variety of models and draw- 

 ings of patented smoke-consuming apparatus; also of hearing the 

 same explained by the inventors thereof, or by their representatives. 

 Previous to this meeting, I had paid little or no attention to "smoke 

 burning," as it is commonly termed, but since, I have done quite to 

 the contrary; I have been continually on the listen, and in full expec- 

 tation to see from an individual, whose signature has occasionally 

 appeared in your pages, a contrivance to effect the object in question 

 more agreeable to my fancy than any I had seen. My expectation in 

 this respect not being realised, and perceiving from a printed notice 

 received from the Leeds Board of Works, about three weeks ago, 

 that the period is fast approaching when all the "wholesale smoke 

 manufacturers " within the borough of Leeds will, by Act of Parlia- 

 ment, be compelled to check, to a great extent, that nuisance which 

 has been so long complained of, I began to think it high time to do 

 something by way of experiment to diminish the periodical dense 

 volume which rolled from my own chimney-top. 



