1841.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



03 



The second-class bodies, wliich ai-e 14 feet 7 inches long, and 6 feet 2 

 inches wide, have also three compartments eacli, calculated to hold ten pas- 

 sengers. A footboard of wood, lined vnth plate-iron, runs along the wliole 

 length of the carriage on each side, and is of great convenience to the guards, 

 who may thus safely walk along the side of the whole train when in motion. 



There are nine goods-trucks, mounted each on Hawke's wheels. 



There are upwards of -100 wagons at woik on this line, built chiefly by Mr. 

 Bm-nnp, of Newcastle ; but we were informed that the required number would 

 be about 1500. The net weight of each wagon is about -11 cwt., and of size 

 sufficient for .')3 cwt. of coal. The wheels are of cast iron, 3 feet in diameter, 

 and were generally furnished by Messrs. Hawkes and Co., of Gateshead. The 

 cost of keeping a wagon in repair is estimated in this county at about il. per 

 annum. The wagons are coated with tar — a practice which it would be very 

 advisable for other railway companies to adopt. 



With these few notes vce must for the present leave Mr. Whishaw's 

 work, observing that it contains a store of matter, from which we hope 

 in our subsequent notices to extract, again impressing upon our readers 

 the value of the present as a work of reference. 



Gandy and Baud's Windsor Caslle. Part II. London: Williams 

 1841. 



When Messrs. Gandy and Baud devoted themselves to the illustra- 

 tion of this national monument, they seem to have done so with a full 

 determination to produce a work worthy the subject — a task which in 

 this and the preceding number they have successfully carried out. 

 The first of these fine plates presents us with a North West View of 

 the Norman Gateway Towers and Queen Elizabeth's Building, a por- 

 tion of the edifice in which two very dissimilar styles are placed in 

 juxtaposition. This plate wiU we have no doubt be as great a favourite 

 with the public as with the profession, for it unites great picturesque- 

 ness of effect with accuracy of delineation. Another work of the same 

 class is the plate representing George the Fourth's Gateway and the 

 York and Lancaster Towers, showing in the distance the Devil's Tower 

 .ind the Great Round Tower. The elevation of Henry VII. 's and Queen 

 Elizabeth's Gallery shows a range of building constructed under the 

 several reigns of Henry 7th, Queen Elizabeth, Charles 2nd, Queen Anne, 

 George 3rd and 4th, and William 4th, and made into one harmonious 

 pile under the direction of .Sir JeflVy Wyatville. Other plates in the 

 work present a number of the details of the building, of great value 

 to the student. 



The promise held out by the publisher and conductors has been 

 satisfactorily realized, so that we can have no hesitation in performing 

 our duty of recommending most strongly this work to the patronage of 

 the connoisseur, of the architect, of the student, and the public. 



Excursions Dagmrriennes. Part V. Paris. 



We recommend this work to our readers. It comes out in numbers 

 containing well executed engravings of scenes and buildings sketched 

 by the Daguerreotype. In this publication the admirable capabilities 

 of photography for architectural delineation is fully shown, and we 

 have no doubt will prove extremely interesting. In this number are 

 the Maison Carrie at Nismes, the Trajan column at Rome, the Church 

 of Basil the Great at Moscow, and a view of the Mola at Naples. 



A New Siipplemenl to Euclid's Ekmaits of Geometry. By the Author 

 of a New Introduction to the Mathematics. London : Whittaker, 

 1840. 



This is an ingenious work, by a well known author, propoimding 

 some new views, which will doubtless prove interesting to our mathe- 

 matical readers. 



Quarterly Railroad Journal, for January. Simpkin, Marshall & Co. 



If no more railway bills pass, railway publications seem by no means 

 afflicted with a similar sterility, for here we have before us a new 

 contemporary. The Quarterly Journal contains several interesting 

 papers on railway economy, emanating from one long experienced on 

 the subject. Being devoted to the advocacy of the engineers against 

 directors, it will doubtless be acceptable to many of our readers. We 

 shall perhaps have occasion next month to advert to some of the views 

 put forward, which will afford the best proof of the interest we take 

 in this publication. 



The han and Practice of Letten Patent for Inventions : Statutes, Prac- 

 tical Forms, and Digest of Reported Cases. By Thomas Webster, 

 Esq., of Lincoln's Inn, Special Pleader. London : Crofts and Blen- 

 kam, 1841. 



It is probably unfortunate for the author of this work that the nature 



of the subject upon which he treats is such as to prevent us from 

 making extracts from it, such as would enable our readers to form an 

 independent judgment upon it. They will perhaps however feel 

 equal confidence when, without such testimonials, we refer them to 

 Mr. Webster's book, as one which for clearness and completeness is 

 much to be admired, whether as regards its application to this parti- 

 cular subject, or considered merely by a legal standard. The arrange- 

 ment of the work is excellent, and the manner in which the information 

 is epitomized not less so. Any one by a careful perusal of it, will be 

 easily enabled to understand the rationale of a subject so important. 



The Doctrine of Proportion clearly Developed, i;e., or the Fifth Book of 

 Euclid Simplified. By Oliver Byrne, &c. London: WiUiams, 1841. 



" Censure on the works of others," says the author before us, " should be 

 avoided as much as possible, because it shows the want of knowledge ; those 

 who know least, censure most : to correct a copy is easier than to produce 

 an original ; for men acquire criticism before abiUty, and it is mostly from 

 those who possess no judgment that the most sweeping judgment comes." 

 This is immediately followed by a general attack on Newton, Legendre, 

 Simpson, Brewster, Professors Young and Leslie, Keith, Bonnycastle, Austin, 

 Da Cunha, &c. 



This is a very pretty brick from the work of Mr. Byrne, his book abound- 

 ing with similar looseness and inconsistency. We will not quarrel with Mr. 

 Byrne's definition of criticism, for he evidently does not know what it is, but 

 at once dismiss him by observing that his book leaves the subject just where 

 he found it, and that had he simply announced it as an edition of the Fifth 

 Book with symbolical, arithmetical and aljebraical expositions, we should 

 have had less occasion for complaint at the nonfulfilment of his lugh sound- 

 ing promises. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



The foiurth volume of the Papers of the Corps of Roi/al Em/ineers has been 

 sent to us, but we have only time now to say that it appears to excel the 

 character of its predecessors. 



Another work published by Mr. Weale, The Reports, Specifications ani 

 Estimates of Public Works in the United States of America, must also be 

 passed over for the present. It is a work of that magnitude and value that 

 we should be doing injustice to it to attempt any ciursory delineation of its 

 contents. 



ON THE COMBUSTION OF COAL. 



Sir — With your permission I beg to offer some remarks on the re- 

 view of my treatise "on the Combustion of Coal," inserted in the last 

 number of your useful Miscellany. Commenting on a passage in my 

 work, the reviewer observes, " is this a proof of the great value of 

 coal as a heat -giving body? certainly not: it is the contrary; rather 

 an evidence of the great quantity of heat expended in evolving the 

 gas, which is no advantage, but very much the reverse." In my trea- 

 tise I have strongly insisted on this point, as put by the reviewer, 

 namely, the heat expended in evolving the gas, coujpariug it with the 

 heat expended in converting ice into water, and water into steam. I 

 fear however, the reviewer has overlooked the object I had in view, 

 which was, not to shew, " the great value of coal gas as a heat-giving 

 body," but as proof of the enormous quantity of it which coal contains, 

 and the importance of turning it to account in the furnace. 



The reviewer charges me with having made use of an improper 

 term, and observes, that the expressions "bitumen, and bituminous 

 portion" ought to be rejected, and, " gases and gaseous or volatile 

 portion" substituted in their place. That the terms "bitumen," and 

 "bituminous portion" are strictly speaking, not correct, is true, be- 

 cause, as Dr. Ure observes, " Coal contains no ready-formed bitumen, 

 but merely its elements, carbon, hydrogen and oxygen." I beg how- 

 ever to observe, that the terms, " gases," and " gaseous portion" would 

 not explain my meaning, for this reason, that the portion of the coal, 

 which in common parlance is called "bituminous," is in a solid or fixed 

 state while in the coal, and to which state I was then referring; 

 though, subsequentlv, it is volatilizable and assumes the form of gas. 

 I know, indeed, no other term by which these bituminous constituents, 

 while in thefxed state in coal, and before they are volatilized, can be 

 designated. 



The reviewer observes, " these quotations [taken from page 26,] 

 suffice to shew that the gases which result from the application of 

 heat to coal, are considered by the author to be produced by simple 

 distillation of the bitumen contained in the coal, which sutlers thereby 

 no alteration in its chemical composition ; whereas, the truth is, that 

 they result from the chemical decomposition of the bitumen, &c." 



I beg to explain my meaning, by saying that I intended to convey 



K 1 



