1843.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



<;7 



If no better attempt to solve this problem be offered, you will oblige uie 

 "by inserting this letter. 



I remain Sir. 



Your obedient servant, 

 London, Jan. 10th, 1843. T. F. 



PROCEEDINGS OP SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 



ROYAL INSTITUTE OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS. 

 Dec. 19. — J. Shaw, Esq., in the Chair. 

 Mr. Fowler, Hon. See., on presenting a plan for rebuilding that portion of 

 Hamburgh, lately destroyed by fire, from M. Chateauneuf, mentioned as a 

 gratifying circumstance, that our countryman, Mr. Lindley, the engineer, had 

 been appointed by the senate to superintend, in part, the rebuilding of the 

 city. 



Mr. Godwin read a paper on Tournay Cathedral, which was partly given 

 in last month's Journal, and the continuation in the present number. 



Jan. 9. — Charles Barry, Esq., V. P., in the Chair. 



A. paper was read " On a new mode of constructing tfie Fines of Chimneys,'' 

 by Mr. Moon, surveyor, explaining an improvement in the construction of 

 flues, of a circular form, of different sizes, from 8 to 14 inches in diameter; 

 the bricks are arranged in courses, carried up and bonded in the thickness 

 of the wall. 



" Description of the Testimonial to the late Sir Harry Bunard Xeale," 

 erected at Lymington, communicated by Mr. Draper, of Chichester, the 

 architect. It consists of an obelisk, 76 feet high, constructed of Dartmoor 

 granite, standing on a pedestal 18 feet high, the total cost is about £ 1,400. 



Mr. Sylvester's process was described "for rendering stone, brick, and 

 other absorbent materials impervious to water." It consists of two solutions, 

 the first a solution of soap, the second of alum ; the brick or stone is first 

 dipped in the solution of soap, and afterwards in the alum, or the solution 

 may be applied with a brush. By the combination of the two solutions, a 

 chemical action takes place, which fills the pores and resists the action of 

 water and moisture. Colouring matter may be introduced into the sulutions, 

 and give them any tint that may be desired. * 



Mr. Billings introduced his " Illustrations of a mode of striking Gothic 

 tracery ;" they were principally selected from the old choir of Carlisle Ca- 

 thedral, which was repaired in 1764. The principle upon which most of the 

 varieties of the tracery in this cathedral were formed, was by the combina- 

 tion of curves all having their centres in the same series of lines, formed by 

 dividing a square into four parts each way. The interstices were afterwards 

 tilled up by quatrefoil and trefoil ornament, but the main curves are all 

 formed on the above principle. Mr. Billings introduced a fine specimen of 

 tracery, described by circles struck from every intersection of the lines 

 within the square as centres. 



Jan. 23. — T. L. Donaldson, Esq., in the Chair. 



A letter was read from Herr F. Eisenlohr, Professor, acknowledging the 

 honour of being elected an honorary and corresponding member of the Insti- 

 tute ; this letter contains some excellent remarks which we have been per- 

 mitted to extract. 



" I shall esteem it," says Ilerr Eisenlohr, " a great honour to be united in 

 closer intimacy with your Institute, by the communication of anything relat- 

 ing to the profession. Such an intercourse and reciprocity among the archi- 

 tects of different countries is much to be wished for at the present time, 

 which is principally distinguished from all previous epochs in the history of 

 architecture by its want of unity. Attempts have been made for some time 

 past to remedy this by imitations of the ancient Greek and Roman styles of 

 architecture ; and up to the present day many architects are repeating with 

 various talent and success, the attempt to introduce those styles into the 

 present edifices — some, even the imperfect conception of them, called by the 

 French la Renaissance. On the other hand, in many places in Germany, a 

 different course has been adopted, which, being partly suggested by the re- 

 vival of a more christian spirit, partly by the patriotic feeling excited by the 

 French revolution, leaned more to the christian architecture of the middle 

 ages at home. This two principal divisions, each with their varities, stand 

 opposed to one another here in Germany, and carry on, as it were, a contest 

 in secret. The present age is engaged in seeking a something which at pre- 

 sent does not exist, viz., unity in a sort of universal architecture. It seems 

 to me, that no immediate and direct imitation in any style of architecture 

 already existing, complete in itself, will lead to the desired result as long as 

 the present age demands its rights, and the existing state of society requires 

 something arising more from its own nature. When I consider also that 

 hitherto in our art we have acted in a manner too little abstractive and scien- 

 tific, and have imitated too much, still, on the other hand, it is not to be 

 denied that we cannot and ought not to disregard history and its effects, that 

 we must have some point in history at which to begin a root, from which a 

 new'stem may shoot up into blossom as from the soil of the present. It is 

 quite clear that here also theory and history must go hand in baud, whereby 

 we must with consciousness attain to that new and unprejudiced position 

 which, in childlike innocence, unconsciously existed at the commencement of 



all previous epochs in art. The difference between our age and its problem, 

 as regards architecture, and indeed every branch of the arts, consists in tins 

 that we ought to strive, so to say, with manly innocence, with manly know- 

 ledge and power, (o attain to that point at which former periods in art have 

 in their infancy begun of their own accord. Where there is nothing but an 

 empty and groundless adherence to forms, where architectural fallacy and 

 pretension, or a certain coquetterie is manifested, there an art of a peculiarly 

 creative nature can never be looked for. It is true that many grand build- 

 ings have recently been erected in the Roman, Grecian, and so' called By E an- 

 tme and Gothic styles, as, for instance, particularly at Munich. But' they 

 all want the enlivening principle of belonging to tlie present, and are only 

 silent records of bygone styles of architecture. In the van,,- «ray that we 

 collect pictures of different schools in galleries, so King Louis has collected 

 buildings of all possible periods ; and as he had not got them at Munich, 

 neither could he transport them thence from other parts; he bad them 

 built, and thus made a grand collection of buildings at Munich, but which is 

 still deficient in historical authority. If, therefore, we would draw a com- 

 parison, we must say that the modern collection of buildings at Munich is, .is 

 far as regards the arts, worth about as much as a picture gallerv containing a 

 number of more or less successful copies from different masters and schools. 

 If it be true that the spirit of the times is truly expressed in its buildings, 

 that the architecture of every period is, as it were, a fossilized history-, future 

 generations will say that the present period was utterly devoid of character. 

 By means of a more intimate acquaintance with the history of architecture, 

 we have been provided with a vast quantity of subject matter, which lias 

 hitherto quite overwhelmed us, from its variety and quantity, so that we 

 were quite robbed of our senses. Of this we must first get the mastery, and 

 impelled by a careful observance, as well as by an artistical and inventive 

 spirit, regain our consciousness, without at the same time suffering the expe- 

 rience of history to remain useless. We must, on the one hand, iinestigate 

 from a theoretical and scientific position, how far our architecture and its 

 elements answer to the conditions of its purpose, of the building materials, 

 climates, and so forth ; and must, on the other hand, in looking back upon 

 history, endeavour to find some point which presents constructions and forms 

 similar to those which result from our abstract investigations, and thus a 

 fruitful germ may he found for a modern and, in itself, harmonious style of 

 architecture — a style which would gradually come into general use, and 

 supersede all the lifeless imitations and mere whimsical charges of fashion. 

 In this, it appears to me, consists the great architectural problem of the 

 present age, which can only be solved by united efforts." 



Report on the Marbles from Lycia. 



A report was read from the committee appointed by the Institute to ex- 

 amine the articles that were recently discovered by Mr. Charles Fellowes 

 amongst the ruins of Xanthus, an ancient city in Lycia, in Asia Minor, and 

 lately deposited in the British Museum. Mr. Fellowes explained to the com- 

 mittee " that the tomb is situated on the side, on the slope of a hill, in the 

 old town of Xanthus, consisted of a square shaft in one block, weighing about 

 80 tons, and 17 feet high. This shaft, which rested on a base or plinth 

 rising six feet from the ground on one side, and the other rising but little 

 above the present level of the earth, was surmounted by the bas-relief in 

 question, the opposite sides of the relief being respectively 8 feet 4i inches, 

 and 7 feet 6 inches long making a total length of 31 feet 9 inches. It con- 

 sisted of four angular and four central blocks of marble, each 9 inches thick 

 and 3 feet 5 inches high. A kind of chamber was soon formed in the top of 

 the monument about 7 feet 6 inches high, and 7 feet by 6. Tbis was 

 covered by a single block of marble forming the cornice, and hollowed out in 

 the inside soffit so as to present the appearance of a beam and caissons. 

 Mr. Fellowes considers the subject of the sculptures to represent the legend 

 of the daughters of King Pandarus carried away by the harpies. There are 

 also five figures, male and female, seated on chairs, which are evidently in- 

 tended to be represented as made of bronze ; on these chairs are very per- 

 ceptible traces of a brownish tint approaching to red, showing that the orna- 

 ment was indicated by colour, even without the outline being carved. 



The figures are about an inch and a half in relief, and in many parts 

 there are patches of blue colour on the ground, particularly on the under- 

 cutting of the hair, and especially where the recesses are protected by the 

 overhanging tenia of the frieze, forming the top of the blocks, A portion of 

 this blue colour had been taken off by Mr. Hawkins, and submitted to a 

 chemical analvsis bv Dr. Faraday, who reported that " The substance is a 

 mixture of wax with a pulverized blue smalt, coloured by cobalt, the smalt 

 being in rather coarse patches; when the wax is charred away, each piece is 

 seen by a moderate magnifier as a small fragment of glass." 



On referring to the analvsis of Egyptian bloe colour by Dr. Ure, given in 

 the 3rd vol., pp. 301—3 of'Sir T. Gardiner Wilkinson's work on the manners 

 and customs of the ancient Egyptians, there appears to he a great analogy in 

 the composition of this blue 'and that described by Sir. I. Wilkinson; as in 

 the Egyptian specimen the blue pigment scraped from the stone is a pulveru- 

 lent blue glass. 



On the edge of the crest of a helmet were also collected some remains of 

 a bright crimson red which have not yet been analyzed. 



On the whole, the committee are of opinion that the appearances which 

 they witnessed are sufficient to warrant their conclusion, that the ground 

 throughout "as painted blue, s,> as t.> give relief to the figures. Some other 

 parts also had colour, but to what extent the rough state of the surface of 

 the marbles did nut enable the committee to ascertain. 



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