192 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[June, 



" The general plan of the manufactory consists of three buildings 

 a large one in the centre containing three floors, and two lateral of 

 two floors each ; one of the small buildings serves to deposit and to 

 prepare the raw materials, the centre one for the spinning, and the 

 third for power-loom weaving. This separation into three buildings 

 is requisite, by the diversity of the processes to be worked, which 

 could not be mixed together in a single building. The ground floor 

 of the whole building contains an area of nearly 40,000 square feet, 

 and are constructed fire-proof; of this, the main building is formed of 

 two rooms, with a central staircase, the interior dimensions of each 

 being 90 feet in length and 45 feet in breadth, with 16 columns in 

 two rows, 14 feet in height, of granite shafts and cast-iron Doric 

 capitals, supporting cast-iron beams, and brick vaults. The first floor 

 is formed of two rooms with cast-iron columns 12 feet 6 inches in 

 height, with tasteful Egyptian capitals, and a floor above it, 12 

 feet high, in the roof of which advantage has been taken to 

 make reel rooms, which are very convenient in a large manu- 

 factory. In consequence of the superior arrangements of the building, 

 it is capable of containing S000 spindles. The motive power of the 

 whole manufactory is an hydraulic breast wheel, worked by water 

 taken from the river Adda, which runs through the building, and has 

 a fall of 9 feet; this wheel is a stupendous piece of mechanism, tit 

 for a model to any manufacturing establishment of the kind. It is 

 16 feet diameter and 21 ft. wide, the whole of cast and wrought-iron 

 of about 36 tons weight ; she takes and discharges the water with the 

 most perfect regularity : on each side there is a large tooth segment, 

 each working a pinion, which transmits the motion to the three dif- 

 ferent buildings. The regular speed of the wheel and transmission 

 of motion are regulated with true perfection, and the mode in which 

 the fixings and supports are fastened to the buildings is such as to 

 guarantee their position unalterably. 



" The cast-iron sluice, which admits water to the channel, prevents 

 anything floating into the wheel ; the cast-iron cistern and shuttles, 

 (which supply the water to the wheel, according to the greater or less 

 number of machines at work,) together with the speed of the wheel, 

 are regulated by a centrifugal governor; the elevating machines 

 which carry the whole work from one floor to the next above it, the 

 means to supply the boiler with water, and the fire-pump in case of 

 fire, &c, are all improvements which manifest the superiority of 

 such an establishment. 



" The spinning machines were chosen after mature consideration, 

 among those possessed by the most celebrated spiuning establishments 

 in Europe, that can give in the greatest quantity and finest work, and 

 among these, the preparing ones are admired for containing the most 

 recent improvements." 



We regret that a misunderstanding arose as to the original designs 

 of the machinery, in consequence of a letter signed S. N. S. in our 

 last number, wilfully misrepresenting the facts. On the present oc- 

 casion we beg leave to call attention to the following correspondence, 

 fully asserting and confirming Mr. Albano's claims, which ought never 

 to have been disputed. 



Sir — My attention has been drawn to a communication signed S.N.S. in 

 the last number of your interesting Journal, page 181, relating to the Flax 

 Mill at Cassano in Lonibardy, in which the anonymous writer commences 

 by attributing to you a slight mistake, by stating in a preceding number, 

 at page 143, that Mr. B. Albano, C. E. of London, was the erector of the 

 works, in order to subjoin the gratuitous assertion, that Mr. Albano was the 

 superintendent of the building of that mill, whilst the mechanical work, mill- 

 gearing, ivc, were solely constructed by Mr. W. Fairhairn of Manchester. 



In the name of justice, Sir, which has been scandalously invoked by S. N. S. 

 in utter disregard of truth, (and as Mr. Fairhairn promptly wrote" to Mr. 

 Albano, saying " / beg to state, that I am m ho way connected with siich a 

 communication, nor do I know anything of the writer") 1 beg to submit to 

 you a short account of the real facts of this case, in which I have been acting 

 as agent in this country for the proprietors of the said mill, and consequently 

 I am fully qualified to place all parties in their right position. 



As far back as 1830, I have been commissioned by the director of the said 

 proprietors, to procure of several professional gentlemen in Belgium, Leeds, 

 and London, information and estimates for the construction of a flax-mill, 

 and to that effect I appbed also to Mr. B. Albano, who furnished full par- 

 ticulars. His plan and report having met with the sanction of the directors, 

 I was further requested to send Mr. Albano to Milan, in order to 



survey aud fix on the proper site for the establishment, which he did, on the 

 express condition, that the direction and execution of the whole work should 

 be entrusted to him without any interference, and accordingly he completed 

 in Milan the required plans, and obtained full sanction thereto, with ample 

 power to execute the work according to his own design. 



This preliminary will, I trust, be sufficient to contradict the first part of 

 S. N. S.'s assertion, and I can easily prove the second part equally wrong, 

 when I inform you that upon Mr. Albano's return from Milan, specifications 

 of the required millwright work were sent out to several manufactories in 

 London, Manchester, and Dundee, for their estimates, and on Mr. W„ Fair- 

 hairn calling at Mr. Albano's office, the plans were shown to him, in my 

 presence, to which he suggested some organic alterations, but on Mr. 

 Albano's observing that they would increase the expense, and be otherwise 

 objectionable, were soon set aside, and Mr. Albano, then proceeding with 

 his own plan, in all its details, chose, with due regard to perfection and eco- 

 nomy, to give the order to Mr. W. Fairbairn. 



To that effect a contract was entered into, the first clause of which stands 

 thus : " With the sanction of B. Albano, Esq., C. E. Directing Engineer of 

 the said Company, &c, the machinery contracted for in the present agree- 

 ment will comprise the following articles of millwright work, &c, for the 

 organization of the flax and hemp mill of the said company, now in progress 

 of construction at Cassano in Lombardy, under the immediate direction of the 

 said engineer, B. Albano. The whole of the following millwright work appa- 

 ratus. KC, are to be executed strictly according to the disposition shown, and 

 dimensions marked, in Mr. Albano's drawings, Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, 

 aud the following specification respectively signed by Mr. W. Fairbairn, 

 contracting party, and the above engineer." 



The mere quotation of the clause demonstrates, that the merit of the 

 designs for the whole machinery alluded to belongs solely to Mr. Albano, and 

 I may further add, that the whole design is different from the mode gene- 

 rally adopted by Mr. \V. Fairbairn in constructing mills, as the architectural 

 style, proportions, &c. of the buildings, and arrangement of the water wheel 

 and machinery, are essentially original and distinct, erected under Mr. 

 Albano's immediate direction, and pronounced by the body of Government 

 engineers (whose report of their official inspection of the mill I beg to 

 enclose) to be replete with great ingenuity, and conferring the greatest credit 

 to the directing engineer. 



The directors likewise, highly satisfied with his ability, energy, and per- 

 sonal assistance, from the commencement to the last, testified their gratifica- 

 tion on the starting of the mill by presenting Mr. Albano with an elegant 

 and valuable gold snuff box, bearing an inscription to that effect, and in- 

 trusted to his care fresh extensive orders. 



Having so much trespassed upon your indulgence, I shall trust to your 

 kind desire to do justice to all parties, the insertion in your publication of 

 this statement of uncontrovertible fact. 



J, White Hart Court. (Sty, Your obedient servant, 



May 22, 1843. ' Henry Pagans 



Sir. — My attention has been directed to a letter signed S. N. S. in your 

 last Journal, wherein it is stated that Mr. Albano, C. E. had appropriated to 

 himself nearly the whole, if not the whole of the merit belonging to the 

 erection of the Flax Mill at Cassano. 



Now, in justice to that gentleman, I beg to state, that I know nothing of 

 the writer of the letter above alluded to, and although I may have assisted 

 Mr. Albano in the mechanical arrangements of the mill, I must nevertheless 

 disclaim any connexion with the original project or designs which were ex- 

 clusively his. 



I am, Sir, 

 Your very obedient servant 



Manchester, May 17, 1843. W. Fairbairn. 



SUBSTITUTE FOR GLAZED FRAMES IN HOTBEDS. 

 In the Rheinlandische Gartenzeitung is described a substitute for the 

 glazed frames of hot-beds and green-houses, which deserves the attention of 

 florists. Instead of glass the frames are covered with a fine white cloth of 

 cotton. In order to render this more transparent, and enable it to resist 

 moisture, it is covered with a preparation, the ingredients of which are four 

 ounces of pulverised dry white cheese, two ounces of white slack lime, and 

 four ounces of boiled linseed oil. These three ingredients having been mixed 

 with each other, four ounces of the white of eggs, and as much of the yolk, 

 are added, and the mixture is then made liquid by beating. The oil com- 

 bines easily with the other ingredients, and the varnish remains pliable and 

 quite transparent. The expense of a forcing bed arranged in this manner is 

 inconsiderable, and it yields at the same time many other advantages. Such 

 a hot-bed needs not the anxious attention required by the ordinary one 

 covered with glazed frames. During the strongest rays of the mid-day sun. 

 they do not require any particular covering or shade; the atmosphere therein 

 preserves a nearly equable temperature almost the whole day, and requires 

 only to be changed from time to time, according to circumstances. If such 

 a bed is provided with a soil of horse-dung, and a proper thickness of some 

 fertile, finely sifted heath mould is spread thereon, layers of all sorts of 

 flowers, early vegetables, and other plants, may be reared from seeds in it. 



