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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[January, 



Besides the deficiency of lime to mix with the soil, there is another 

 circumstance which seriously deteriorates the prosperity of this dis- 

 trict. The various streams and rivers flowing through it, as the Stour, 

 the Beult, and the Teise, with the various branches of the Medway, 

 afford a drainage so little below the general surface of the country, 

 that collateral drainage cuts would produce little or no advantage, as 

 the water stands in all the water courses at a level so high as very 

 injuriously to saturate the adjacent lands. Under these circumstances, 

 embanked watercourses on a high level would be required to carry 

 off the drainage water, which would consequently have to be pumped 

 up by steam or other mechanical power. It will probably be long 

 before the circumstances of the country will permit of such extensive 

 measures in agricultural engineering being carried into effect, but the 

 means pointed out of procuring lime for dressing the land are ob- 

 viously within the reach of all, and it can be esteemed nothing less 

 than criminal to neglect them. 



The railway company is carrying on extensive works in connexion 

 with the harbour of Folkstone. A splendid hotel has been erected 

 close to the harbour for the accommodation of passengers to and from 

 the Continent. An elegant and substantial brick viaduct is being 

 built from the railway station outside the town down to the harbour, 

 and this when completed will afford great accommodation for em- 

 barking and landing both passengers and goods. The harbour was 

 formed many years since by the inhabitants of the town, who, in order 

 to complete the works, were obliged to borrow money from the Ex- 

 chequer Loan Commissioners; as the interest of this loan was not 

 regularly paid, the harbour, like many other public works in similar 

 circumstances, was seized by the Commissioners, it was lately sold 

 to the South-Eastern Railway Company at a very low price. This 

 bargain was no sooner closed than the company undertook exten- 

 sive measures for the deepening and general improvement of the 

 harbour. When it came into their possession vessels could only 

 lie at one particular place inside the harbour, namely, alongside the 

 western pier, there being no sufficient depth in other places, even it 

 high water. From the numerous lines of temporary railway laid 

 down from the harbour to the beach on the east side, the earth-wagons, 

 and the horse runs erected at various places, it appears to be the inten- 

 tion of the company to deepen the whole area of the harbour, so as to 

 give the same depth of water inside as there is upon the bar at the 

 entrance. The area of the harbour is about 12 or 15 acres, and it is 

 enclosed by sea walls of a peculiar construction, the stones being laid 

 not in horizontal courses but at an angle of about 43°. All the courses 

 regularly rake up at this angle from the base of the wall to the top, 

 and the stones are pitched in dry without mortar, so that the sea is 

 allowed free access through the numerous cavities in the wall. The 

 stone of which the sea wall is built belongs to the green sand forma- 

 tion. It corresponds with the Kentish rag so extensively quarried in 

 the neighbourhood of Boughton Malherbe, Sutton Valence, and other 

 places in the northern part of the county. The stone is a very hard 

 calcareous grit interspersed with numerous small specks of the pecu- 

 liar mineral called silicate of iron, from the colour of which the for- 

 mation takes its name. The stone is procured abundantly in the im- 

 mediate neighbourhood of the harbour; indeed the beach hereabouts 

 exposes the hare rock which pitches down at a considerable angle to 

 the north. The action of the sea upon the rock is to tilt large masses 

 of it up from its natural bed, and many huge blocks may be seen 

 resting in this altered position which the violence of the waves has 

 caused them to assume. It was probably from observing this natural 

 fact, and finding that the rock on which the sea walls were to be 

 founded, was already formed by nature into steps, which the new con- 

 struction would most readily unite with if the stones were laid at an 

 angle, that the peculiar method of building, I have referred to, was 

 adopted in these works. The walls appear to stand remarkably well, 

 and though during the recent gales immense mountains of shingle 

 have been raised against the. groin at the western entrance of the 

 harbour, no damage appears to have been sustained by any of the 

 walls. The blocks of stone are of very great area, some of them 

 more than 100 square feet; but their thickness is not great, few of the 

 bi'ds being more than S or 9 inches in depth. The bar at the entrance 

 of this harbour is quite dry at low water, and renders the entrance 

 impracticable except for a few hours before and after high water. 



I had intended to extend my observations to the yet unfinished 

 works of the railway between Folkstone and Dover, but the whole of 

 the day which I had at my command was so fully taken up at the 

 former place, that 1 must defer an examination of the remaining part 

 of the line until it is open to Dover, which I am informed will be in 

 the course of a few weeks. H. 



THE RAILWAYS' TERMINUS, LONDON BRIDGE. 



A statement having apeared in the Journal of the last month, re- 

 lative to the building of the London Bridge Station of the Brighton, 

 Croydon, Dover, and Greenwich Railways, which is calculated to mis- 

 lead, in consequence of it not being exactly expressed in accordance 

 with the facts ; we therefore deem it right to state that the whole of 

 the works of the three first-named companies have been under the 

 joint direction of Messrs. Rastrick and Cubitt as Engineers, and of 

 Mr. H. Roberts as architect and that Mr. Turner to whom especial 

 reference has been made was employed at the recommendation of the 

 "Joint Engineers and Architect," as " resident superintendent," and 

 to prepare the drawings according to the directions received from 

 them, which drawings were of course subject to their constant super- 

 vision and alteration. The facade building combining the offices of 

 the Greenwich Railway Company was designed in conjunction with 

 Mr. G. Smith the architect to that Company although the details were 

 left more immediatelv under the direction of Mr. Roberts. 



THK STEAM PLOUGH. 



On Saturday, Dec. 9, we had the pleasure, says the Dumfries Courier, of 

 seeing this truly remarkable machine in operation ; and a more striking proof 

 of what can be accomplished by human skill and perseverance can hardly be 

 imagined. In the month of August last, a description of the machine ivas 

 given in our columns, with a sketch of the improvements projected by Mr. 

 W\ J. Curtis, civil engineer (an old correspondent of this Journal) ; and these 

 have been brought in tin' interim to such a state, that the plough is now in 

 full trorking order. Those who have paid any attention to the subject are 

 aware that the steam engine which drives the plough is contained in a 

 wooden house, borne on the moss by two flexible endless hands or wels, 

 formed of timber and fastened by bands of hoop iron. By this arrangement ' 

 the great weight of the boiler, engine, and other apparatus, is distributed 

 over a considerable surface, and the m >ss enabled to hear a pressure which, 

 in ordinary circumstances, would force it to sink. By the application of 

 wheels and moveable railway bars, on a principle formerly explained, the 

 Imuse can be conveyed along at a slow rate, moving in curves ; and 

 indeed since the date alluded to, it has been removed to a part of the moss 

 nearly a quarter of a mile distance from its original situation. 



The prevalent belief on the subject is that the plough travels on the moss 

 propelled by the engine in the same manner as a locomotive on a railway. 

 This is not the case, however; the engine remains stationary (or at least 

 comparatively so), while the plough is propelled on the principle of the end- 

 less rope, somewhat akin to what may be seen at the stations of the Liver- 

 pool and Manchester, or Edinburgh and Dalkeith railways, where trains 

 ascend and descend the adjoining tunnels by means of a stationary engine. 

 In a right line opposite the engine-house, and at the distance of the furrows' 

 length, there is a wooden framework on wheels, also moving on a moveable 

 railway. It is betwixt these apparatus that the plough, detached alike from 

 both, or at least only connected by the rope, moves along. The rope of 

 great strength, being composed of wire twisted together, passes round two 

 drums in front of the engine, and round a pulley in the centre of the wooden 

 frame work. The p'ough is also connected with this rope, so that when the 

 engine is put in operation, by which the drums revolve, the rope being'coiled 

 round one of them and off the other, impels the plough from the engine 

 house towards the wooden frame work, which acts as a point d'appui. The 

 plough is double in every respect, so that when the wooden frame work has 

 been reached, or in other words the length of furrow completed, another 

 furrow is formed by the plough returning to the engine house. The plough, 

 be it distinctly understood, alone moves in forming the furrow, the engine 

 and frame work merely requiring to be shifted the breadth of the furrow for 

 each one which the plough forms in length ; or to make a comparison with 

 the common process, the engine moves along the head rig, while the plough 

 goes up and down the field. In the plough itself the improvements made by 

 Mr. Curtis are particularly conspicuous. The instrument consists simply of 

 a share at either end moving on two small wheels, with a wooden framework 

 below and an iron one above, which distribute the weight over a considerable 

 surface. The steersman sits within, and by means of a novel invention, 

 directs the course of the plough at pleasure ; for, by turning a wheel, he 

 coils or uncoils part of the rope upon a small drum attached to the machine, 

 which brings the force of the engine to bear obliquely on either side desired, 

 and guides the apparatus in the same manner as a ship is steered. A code 

 of signals has also been established, by means of which the steersman can 

 communicate with the individuals in charge of the engine and those stationed 

 at the pulley framework, according as circumstances may require. One great 

 step in this interesting experiment has now been made. The plough ploughs 

 well and steadily, at the rate of between two and three miles an hour, turning 

 over its huge furrow in a perfectly straight line, in a piece of moss where 

 ho could not even stand, far less draw. 



