1843.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



197 



by a mouth-piece with a metal tube which serves as a ventilating flue, 

 and which after passing horizontally to the centre of the chandelier, 

 there ascends to produce draughts and carry off the burnt air. 



The burnt air and results of combustion, take the course indicated 

 by the arrows, and are entirely carried away by the chimney. Now 

 with a lamp burning in the ordinary way, the products of combustion 

 issue out as a torrent of aerial impurity from above, but if the above 

 arrangement be applied, on closing the top of the outer glass cylinder 

 by a plate of mica, all the soot, water, carbonic acid, sulphurous and 

 sulphuric acid, and a portion of the heat, are entirely carried away by 

 the aerial sewerage, and discharged into a chimney or the open air, 

 and the air in rooms may thus be kept in the same sweet and 

 wholesome condition, and fit for the purposes of respiration, as if 

 artificial light were not being used. 



A curious but important result of the enclosed lamp, is the increase 

 of light produced, amounting to from 10 to 20 per cent, according to 

 circumstances, the same quantity of gas being consumed as before. 

 If the current of air through a lamp glass, when the gas is burning in 

 the usual manner, be diminished, the flame rises in height, and the 

 light is increased in amount, but is of a redder colour; the combustion 

 in fact is not so intense, because the access of air is retarded ; the 

 particles of carbon which give the light, are not so highly ignited, but 

 are more abundant, and are ignited for a longer time, thereby causing 

 an increase of light. 



The advantages of the above plan are many; it is not in the least 

 objectionable in architectural appearance, the ventilation is perfect, 

 the heat given to a room is modified and pleasant, and may be either 

 sustained or diminished at pleasure ; the light, for good philosophical 

 reasons, is increased considerably for a given portion of gas, and in- 

 creased safety from accidents is obtained ; as in the event of any 

 leakage from the pipes, or from a gas cock being inadvertently left open, 

 the gas, instead of mixing with the air of the room, and becoming 

 explosive, would be almost inevitably carried off by the metal tubes. 



We understand that Professor Faraday has transferred his right to 

 this invention, to bis brother, a gas-fitter, who has secured it by a 

 patent. 



REVIEWS. 



MODEL DRAWING. 



Ji Manual for Teaching Model Drawing from Solid Forms. By 

 Butler Williams, C.E., Director of the Drawing Classes at Exeter 

 Hall, Professor, &c. Under the sanction of the Committee of 

 Council on Education. London i Parker, 1843. 

 We have before had frequently to advert to the subject of instruc- 

 tion in design, feeling that we had a double responsibility imposed 

 upon us by our two classes of professional readers; in the first place 

 to advocate the necessity of the proper instruction of workmen, in the 

 next place to watch the interests of art. The want of instructed 

 workmen is a great inconvenience to the professional man — a great 

 obstacle often to the proper execution of his plans, and a knowledge 

 of drawing is essentially requisite in order to enable the mechanic or 

 artizan adequately to execute the designs of his employer. The 

 general progress of art and the creation of a true and sound taste for 

 art, are indissolubly connected with the advancement of architecture 

 and its due appreciation. What is the good of the architect throwing 

 pearls to swine, what stimulus can he have to his exertions from the 

 applause or censure of an ignorant or tasteless mob? The painter, 

 the sculptor, execute their small works for the pleasure of a single 

 individual, or the inspection of a restricted number of visitors; but 

 the architect is called upon to erect monuments which are the delight 

 or disgust of millions. For one man who sees the Loggie or the Sis- 

 tine chapel, ten see St. Peter's ; for one who has the happiness to see 

 Barry's Adelphi pictures, thousands and tens of thousands daily con- 

 template St. Paul's. The architect, then, has perhaps more at his 

 disposal the means of elevating public taste, than the painter, the 

 sculptor, or even the engraver ; it is his to convey those general im- 

 pressions of art, and that catholic love for it, which the painter and 

 the sculptor are to profit from in their more detailed works. Can we 

 imagine a people living amid the glories of the Parthenon and the 

 other wondrous works of Athenian architecture, without acquiring a 

 deeply rooted sympathy for art — can we suppose men living in sight 

 of the luxuriant monuments of the middle ages, without manifesting a 

 love for beauty of form in every object? We know they did not ; we 

 know that the Athenian city, which Pericles built, cultivated every 

 branch of art — we recognize, in the commonest relics of the middle 



ages, the labours of the artist. When one department of literature is 

 at its height, you have a general proficiency, when one department of 

 art, a stimulus is given to other pursuits. When we had a Shaks- 

 peare, then had we Spenser, Jonson, Sidney and Drayton — when Mil- 

 ton, Dryden, Butler, and Denham — when Pope, De Foe, Addison, 

 Swift, and Steele. There is an excitement in a multitude, there is a 

 stimulus in a crowded amphitheatre, which brings out the greatest 

 efforts of the mind; and if you wish literature, if you wish art, if you. 

 wish science to flourish, you must not seek to nourish one branch, but 

 to give the greatest scope to all. We therefore cannot pass over in 

 silence anything which so nearly concerns the general interests of art, 

 as the education of the people in design, and the more so at the pre- 

 sent period, when an endeavour is at last being made to establish 

 drawing as an indispensable branch of primary instruction. 



The work before us is under the authority of the Committee of 

 Council on Education, and published as a text book, which all the 

 schools under their control are to adopt as a normal rule for their 

 guidance. It is drawn up by Professor Butler Williams, C.E., the 

 Director of the Normal Drawing Classes, and describes the course fol- 

 lowed in them. It would consequently be well worthy of our exami- 

 nation, if it were only to assure ourselves that the artistic instruction 

 of the country would be properly conducted, but it becomes impera- 

 tively necessary to do so, when principles are introduced which 

 appear pregnant with danger to the prosperity and progress of art. 

 With Professor Williams individually, we have on this occasion 

 nothing to do; he seems to have executed the task assigned to him, 

 ably, honestly, and zealously ; we shall therefore direct our attention 

 to the system of which he is the expositor. 



Among the ancients, drawing was carefully cultivated among work- 

 men, and if we wish to see how extensively and how successfully, we 

 find abundant examples in the unfinished and the complete specimens 

 of the clay vase. Certain it is that the potter of the modern day, is 

 as inferior to his Greek predecessor in artistic proficiency, as perhaps 

 he may be superior in mechanical skill. The use of drawing too was 

 widely spread among the people at large, because among a people 

 uninstructed in writing, delineation becomes both an amusement and a 

 necessity. The Polynesian thus records memorable events, decorates 

 his war-boat, his weapons and his hut, and amuses himself and his 

 comrades with caricatures on the topics of the day. Thus it must be, 

 even among people more advanced in civilization, while unlettered ; 

 and if it were on account of the caricature only, design would be 

 resorted to. The numerous examples of this to be found in ancient 

 history, and on the monuments of the people, show how general was 

 the practice of drawing, and what a strong hold it had among the 

 people. We trace this also in the middle ages; we see grotesque 

 sculptures even in sacred edifices ; we find satire lurking often in the 

 missal, and we know that commotions were often as much excited by 

 the rude delineations of a Cola di Rieuzi, as by the eloquence of a 

 popular orator. Perhaps the general spread of letters no less shook 

 the lower and more popular use of art, than did the Reformation 

 strike mortally at its higher efforts. The player, the ballad- singer, 

 and the news-monger, strove successfully for the annihilation of rustic 

 art, and the grim visages on the corbels, and the rude chalkings on 

 the wall, lost their wonted charm, and with them much of the love of 

 art and of its practice. Certain it is that in the middle ages, art 

 entered more into the pursuits of life than it did subsequently, and 

 into the labours of every artisan. Clothes, weapons, furniture, were 

 more elaborately decorated than they have since been, or than the 

 simpler habits of modern times will ever allow them again to become. 

 It was to this proficiency on the part of the workman, that the mediae- 

 val architect was indebted, for the luxuriant finish given to his design, 

 and the rich profusion of ornament which sustained the character of 

 the general conception. How rare, how difficult, has it been in those 

 days, to be able to follow in his step ; the machine is the only means 

 of enabling us to imitate at humble distance this luxury of the past. 

 The revival of architecture in England by Wren made this want to be 

 strongly felt, and the establishment of a school of design by Mr. Bap- 

 tist Lens, as detailed in our Journal, (Vol. V, p. ."3,1 was the conse- 

 quence. From that time little progress was made until our inferiority 

 to foreign nations and our economical loss, became so painfully mani- 

 fest as to induce the establishment of schools of design throughout the 

 country. With regard to the Royal School of Design at Somerset 

 House, it was our duty early to point out the gross and lamentable 

 errors in the system of instruction. We then pointed out the danger 

 of copying from drawings, and the necessity of a greater attention to 

 figure and ornament, if we wished to make the establishment useful 

 to the country or the people capable of competing with their foreign 

 rivals. These views of ours and of those who coincided in them, met 

 with the strongest opposition from the Directors of the School, and 

 from artists, and but little attention from the public' They have, 



