1843.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



43 



a hammer will have upon the quality of iron, as in the case of boiler 

 plates anJ such like, the quality of which, as regards soundness, en- 

 tirely depends on the efficient manner in which they have been ham- 

 mered and consolidated in the primary process of faggoting or shing- 

 ling, namely, the forming into one perfectly solid mass, the block of 

 iron from which such boiler plates, &c. are rolled. Nine tenths of the 

 defects which are met with in boiler plates, and which have caused 

 such disastrous results, namely, defects from blisters, have arisen or 

 may be traced to imperfect consolidation resulting from inadequate 

 means of hammering the original mass into a truly solid block, by our 

 having the power to force out all the scoria, which, otherwise lodging 

 between the pile of pieces of which the faggot is composed, gives rise 

 to the most serious defects, which every practical man has had to de- 

 plore. It will, in like manner, be scarcely requisite that I state any 

 of the advantages that will arise in our having, by means of the ener- 

 getic action of the steam hammer, a perfect security against unsound 

 anchors, the importance of which requires no words to set forth. In 

 short, we have now at command an almost new power, inasmuch as, 

 by means of this steam hammer, we have an accession to our means 

 of dealing with power in the form and state of percussion, such as has 

 never been attained before, and that in the most simple, straightfor- 

 ward, and effective manner. 



Fig. 3 shows the application of the hammer A for forging an iron 

 shaft laid over the anvil or block B, and is made self-acting, as will be 

 seen by a reference to the cut, that when the tappets D D come in 

 contact with the pin or spring on the block E, the steam valve C is 

 opened or closed. 



Fig. 4 shows the application of the steam hammer for coppers, 

 pans, &c. The hammer M works in the guides P P, suspended by the 

 rods R to the beam above, like an inverted truss: the action of the 

 man pnlling down the lever N opens the valve, so as to admit the 

 steam for raising the piston and with it the hammer. 



I may remark, that one boiler can be made to work any number of 

 steam hammers, as the steam has only to be conducted to each by 

 pipes, and the power let on and shut off in the same manner as gas ; 

 and in most iron forges, the waste heat of the furnace will more than 

 furnish the requisite steam. There are many other applications and 

 details connected with this important invention, but reluctance to 

 further trespass on your readers' attention, and the space of your 

 columns, causes me to defer to a future opportunity. 



But I trust the high importance of the subject will plead my excuse 

 for the length I have allowed my remarks to extend to. 



With most sincere respect, 



Bridgeicater Foundry, I am, very truly yours, 



Palercroft. — Jan. 17. James Nasmyth. 



OBSTRUCTION TO WINDOWS. 



Sir — Your Old Subscriber at West Derby does not, I think, quite 

 understand the nature, of a right gained by prescription to a window 

 overlooking a neighbours' land. In the case put by him, the right is 

 not, as I conceive, so much to the window as to an easement of light and 

 air through the window, and consequently "much (query, all) must de- 

 pend upon the hard swearing of witnesses on both sides, as to whether 

 a building erected near a window does or does not obstruct the light 

 and free circulation of air." Indeed I doubt very much whether proof 

 that a building had been erected within two feet of the window would 

 be proper evidence to rely upon, unless it were also proved that the 

 said building had prevented a certain quantity of light and air from 

 finding its way to the window. With regard to question 3, it is ob- 

 vious that the right being to light and air, and not to space, a building 

 may be erected as high as the upper side (beyond the limits of the 

 building act) of the window sill, it being impossible that such an erec- 

 tion should obstruct the free passage of either to the window. 



6th January, 1843. I am, Sir, 



Yours very obediently, 

 R. R. A. 



ON THE SEWERS OF THE METROPOLIS. 



1. Rtporl to the Secretary of State from the Poor Lam Commissioners 

 on an Inquiry into the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Popula- 

 tion of Great Britain. 



2. jlddress on the above Report in reference to those parts which incul- 

 pate the Metropolitan Commissioners of Sewers, delivered at a Meet- 

 ing of the Court of Sewers for Westminster, <yc. By the Chairman, 

 Thomas Leverton Donaldson, Esq. 



We are heartily glad that the subject of the sewers of the metro- 

 polis is likely to become an object of inquiry by the administrative 

 authorities, a course for which we have long been anxious. In con- 

 sequence of a voluminous report by Mr. Chadwick, the secretary of 

 the Poor Law Commissioners, containing many very stringent remarks 

 on the drainage of the metropolis, the ire of many of the function- 

 aries has been excited. It is very evident that there must be some- 

 thing radically wrong in the management, when we find such vast 

 sums of money yearly raised in the metropolis under the name of 

 sewer rates, while the extension of sewage is so very slow. It will be 

 our endeavour to show, without entering upon all the points in dispute, 

 that the present laws and system of building sewers are most oppres- 

 sive and expensive to builders, and consequently the important system 

 of draining house by sewers is avoided, and instead thereof, cesspools 

 are resorted to, and every scheme which can be thought of to save the 

 expense of building a sewer. Under such circumstances, we are 

 sorry that Mr. Donaldson, for whom we have great respect, should 

 have betrayed himself so far as to become the champion of the pre- 

 sent system. The report of Mr. Chadwick, indeed, like the apple 

 of discord, seems to have been productive of much asperity and bit- 

 terness of feeling. 



Our present object will be to prove that some broad and general 

 measure must be at once adopted for the regulation of the sewage of 

 the metropolis, and that all petty legislation on the subject of drainage 

 should be suspended. We must not have the metropolis split into 

 half a dozen commissions. Now that the subject is fairly opened, we 

 do sincerely hope that the Secretary of State will not listen to the re- 

 solution passed at the court of commissioners for Westminster sewers 

 on the 13th ultimo. 



" That the Court requests an investigation under the authority of 

 Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Home Department into the 

 charges brought against the Westminster Commissions of Sewers in 

 the report of the Poor Law Commissioners on the sanitary condition 

 of the poorer classes, and to ascertain the best means of cleansing the 

 streets and roads by aid of sewers, and also the most advantageous 

 form of sewers for the public interests." 



This is giving the real matter at issue the go by, we want not the 

 isolated works of the Westminster Commissioners, but what we do 

 want is an examination into all the metropolitan commissioners, to see 

 whether they cannot be advantageously consolidated into one body. 

 We have now on the northern side of the river Thames, the City, the 

 Westminster, the Holborn and Finsbury, the Regent Street, the Tower 

 Hamlets, and the Stebon Heath Commissions; here we have six dif- 

 ferent commissions, and it [is consequently impossible to lay down 

 any one system of drainage for the whole metropolis; fur to do so it 

 is requisite to have the cousent of all the different commissions, 

 which would require months to obtain, even supposing it possible that 

 they should all agree. We have running right through the very 

 centre of the Westminster sewage, a sewer of a large class, and at 

 considerable depth, constructed about 25 to 30 years since, belonging 

 to the crown, and capable of draining an immense district; yet this 

 sewer cannot be touched by the Westminster Commissioners; then 

 again we have, as Mr. Donaldson tells us, in his report, the West- 

 minster sewers running from the Thames up Tottenham Court lio.ul, 

 to the New Road, then the Holborn and Finsbury Sewage commences, 

 and after the sewer passes through the latter district, it comes to the 

 county drainage, so that any improvement in the drain g .: of the up- 



' C* 



