1843.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



381 



WINDOW FOR A LUNATIC ASYLUM. 



Sir — The humane treatment recently observed towards unfortunate indi- 

 viduals labouring under (he affliction of 'lunacy, rendered it necessary that 

 extensive alterations should be made in the establishments provided for their 

 reception, and in consequence, architects were invited to send suggestions for 

 the improvements of St. Patrick's Hospital, (Swift's.) in this city, and then 

 submitted by me, were approved. The most important arrangement was the 

 window, in which it was indispensable to obtain strength and proper ventilation, 

 without having any appearance of confinement, and if possible produce an 

 elegant and cheerful effect, proper provision being made for the easy repair 

 of them when requisite. In all these I succeeded, and as many of your 

 readers may be called upon to make similar alterations, my suggestions may 

 he of service; if you think so, I have sent you herewith a plan, elevation and 

 section of the window, to which you can give publicity. I may observe, 

 that I should have preferred having the window a little wider, but did no} 

 think it prudent to disturb the old arches, the windows being numerous, 

 thirty-one in each corridor, in a length of 300 feet. 

 I have the honour to be, 

 Sir, 

 Your obedient servant, 



Henry Hart, Architect. 



86, Talbot Street, Dublin. 



Plan. 



DeS< I'.IITION. 



The sashes are made of cast iron \\ inches thick, fixed in Memcl frames 

 in three parts, the centre one being immoveable ; the top and bottom sashes 



are hung separately, are each 12 inches deep, and allowed to open to the 

 extent of G inches only, stops being fixed upon the frames to prevent their 

 opening wider. The pullies are placed above and below the opening points, 

 A A, Fig. 2, of the sashes, so that no ropes are perceptible; small rollers 

 are placed on the sashes to assist the action and to obviate the cross binding, 

 which frequently takes place in small sashes. A bracket is cast to the top 

 sash, through which a rod is placed, by which means the sash is opened. 

 B, in Fig. 1 ; and to ensure a perpendicular pull, eyes are cast on the centre 

 sash through which the rod passes, C C, Fig. 1. The rod is cranked at the 

 bottom to give freedom to the hand. The frames are made of 1} Memel. 

 and screwed together. Fixings, D D, Fig. 2, being left at the bottom to get 

 at the weights, and on the outside at the top, D D, Fig. 1, to remove the 

 upper sash, thus facility is given for immediate repair should it be required. 

 The old windows were casements with large square mullions; the sashes con- 

 tained each six squares, G inches wide and 10 deep. Perpendicular iron bars 

 were placed one to each light, and the windows being placed very high in 

 walls two feet six inches thick, very little light was admitted, and the cor- 

 ridors had a very gloomy appearance, they now present a cheerful aspect, 

 and form an elegant promenade. The cost of each window, including the 

 cutting of the openings, was about 4/. 



ON THE ADVANTAGES OF EXTENDING INLAND STEAM 

 NAVIGATION IN INDIA. 



India presents to the civil engineer and architect of this country an almost 

 illimitable fieid of action, and an interminable source of honourable and pro- 

 fitable employment. Its rivers, among the largest and noblest of the world, 

 and coursing plains redolent with all that life can require, are rendered inutile 

 and sometimes altogether valueless from the want of steam vessels and boats 

 suitable to their traffic. Its plains are impassable from the want of roads ; 

 its roads and nullahs are useless from the want of bridges; its mines are 

 useless from the want of talent to conduct them ; its best manufactured pro- 

 ducts are lost to the home market from the want of skill and machinery ; 

 and. in fact, in every department of agriculture, manufacture, and commerce, 

 the want of European talent and of the appliances of steam and steam 

 engines, railroads, foundries, and clever men to conduct them, is most dis- 

 tressingly felt throughout India. 



We have acquired by our arms another portion of this vast country, to 

 which (heat Britain, in fertility and extent, cannot be compared ; and with 

 this acquisition additional inducements are held out to talent— additional 

 incitements to industry, on the expansive waters of the Indus, and the vast 

 plains which derive their extraordinary fertility from the presence of that 

 river: talent to direct the construction of suitable vessels, to open internal com- 

 munication, and to introduce the European arts and machinery, in order to 

 enhance the value of the rich and varied products of the earth. The country 

 traversed by the Ganges and its chief tributary, the Jumna, contains up- 

 wards of G0,000,000 inhabitants: it is intersected with navigable streams, 

 and the traffic, which is already very great, is annually increasing, as the arts 

 and manufactures of Europe become justly appreciated by the natives. We 

 are informed by Mr. Bell that the produce of the interior, in 1S3G-7, amounted 

 to 179,458 tons, valued at £6,327,995 ; and it is presumed that returns to at 

 least an equal amount were made in goods or specie : the annual traffic 

 on the Ganges may therefore be rated at more than 12,500,000 ster- 

 ling. A great portion of the trade is carried on by native boats dragged up 

 the river by human beings, a tedious, expensive, and unsafe mode of convey- 

 ance, rendered still more so from the vilely-constructed boats and dogged 

 indifference of their crews. Of steam boats, so essential to the free inter- 

 course of Europeans in this country, and so much desired by the natives, 

 there arc six only, which start at intervals of three weeks from Calcutta and 

 Allahabad. These steam boats belong to the Bengal government, and are 

 employed principally for the transport of troops and stores, their extra ton- 

 nage being disposed of by public auction in Calcutta ; and on the Gth April, 

 1841. the exorbitant price of £24 was paid by those who chose this most ex- 

 pensive mode of transit of their goods. This fact alone speaks volumes in 

 favour of an extension of inland steam navigation by members of the commu- 

 nity of this country ; for the great competition of European and native mer- 

 chants which leads them to pay this extraordinary price, is a convincing proo f 

 how much the extension of this mode of transit is required, and how exceed- 

 ingly profitable it would prove at half the above rates, to those who chose to 

 introduce them in numbers suitable to the demands of the market. 



The transit of passengers by the steam boats on the Ganges has lately be- 

 come of great magnitude; and by this mode the interchange with Calcutta 

 and the great cities on the Ganges, Moorshedabad, Patna. Guazepoor, Be- 

 nares, and Allahabad on the Jumna, is found to be, even at the present high 

 rates, the most economical, as it is the most speedy. The natives of India, as 

 well as the European merchants and residents in Calcutta and in the interior, 



