PREFACE. 



One of the roost striking features of this year has been the number and importance of the scientific questions which have been 

 agitated. They relate mostly to the phenomena of steam and the construction of engines, impelled by if. They include the discussion 

 on the electricity of steam, on the percussive action attributed to it, on the comparative merits of Cornish and other engines, and of four 

 and six wheel locomotives, and on the combustion of coal. The plans for the improvement of the river Irwell were also made the subject 

 of a public disputation, in which several engineers of eminence took part. 



The deaths among eminent men connected with the profession have not been numerous; they are those of Francis Bramah, the engi- 

 neer, John Rickraan, the author of the Life of Telford, and Sir Francis Chantrey, the eminent sculptor. 



This year has witnessed the completion of nearly all the railways, for wrhich acts have passed, and we may date from this period 

 the establishment of a connected railway system. The number of miles executed this year is under two hundred and fifty, but the Great 

 Western, South Western and Gosport, Manchester and Leeds, Brighton, Stockton and Hartlepool, and Blackwall Railways have been 

 openetl throughout. Additional and partial openings have taken place of the Bristol and Exeter, Manchester and Sheffield, Cheltenham 

 and Great Western, North Eastern, Maryport and Carlisle, Glasgow and Greenock, and Ulster Railways. The Greenwich line is being 

 ■widened, and the locomotive system has been extended to the Cromford and High Peak Railway. The sudden and unaccountable occur- 

 rence of serious accidents on the lines in the autumn of the last year and of the present, gave rise to violent attacks on the railways from 

 the press, and to the suggestion of stringent measures on the part of the Board of Trade, which was however defeated in the attempt. 

 The inefficiency of the Act of last year has been signally shown by the closing of the Brighton Railway shortly after the government 

 inspector had pronounced it to be not only in an efficient state, but to be the best executed work of any that he had seen. A bill for rail- 

 ways in Ireland was introduced by the government, who were compelled to modify it, and it has since been postponed. Not only our 

 engineers, but our workmen, have been called abroad for the execution of the Paris and Rouen Railway, and the Suspension Bridge over 

 the Danube at Pesth. 



Wood pavement has been adopted in the neighbourhood of chuches and courts of law, for the purpose of deadening the sound, and 

 it has been laid down on an extensive scale in several of the principal thoroughfares of the metropolis. 



The repairs of the bridges over the Thames have been proceeded with, and an extensive embankment of the river is contemplated; 

 the Hungerford Suspension Bridge is in progress, the Thames Tunnel has been opened throughout, and the lighthouse with Mitchell's 

 screw moorings on the Maplin Sands has been finished. A lighthouse on the same construction has been erected at Fleetwood, and many 

 improvements made in the harbour there. A lighthouse entirely of iron has also been constructed in this country and sent out to Jamaica. 

 The Docks at Southampton notwithstanding many difficulties are nearly ready for opening. 



The extended use of iron steamers, with that of auxiliary steam power, and the attention devoted to the forms of propellers are the 

 principal things which strike us with regard to marine engineering, together with the progress of sounder views as to the proportions of 

 power to tonnage, and the bulk of the engine. The loss of the President excited much notice in the early part of the year, but no injurious 

 influence to ocean steam navigation has resulted from that casualty. The West India Mail Steamers have been completed, and steam 

 navigation has been extended to theHavannah, to the Upper Elbe, and in Australia. Ocean steam towing has been tried in the Straits 

 of Gibraltar. The war with China has afforded full opportunity for testing the iron war steamers, and proving their value, and the steam 

 navy has been greatly increased. 



Gas has been introduced in Sydney, a prelude to its extension in the Australian Continent. 



Mechanical engineering has found much employment ; although the depression of trade has prevented the erection of new factories, 

 the demand for the export trade has continued to increase. Turkey and many other countries have availed themselves of the skill of our 

 mechanics. 



