il841.3 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



107 



totally unfitted for defending; the interests of the engineers, which, by 

 the Government attempts, are the most threatened. The delegates 

 are all from railways which have their bills, and most of them from 

 finished lines. Chairmen of companies of course care nothing about 

 how the engineers are likely to be interfered with, neither do the di- 

 rectors of finished railways care one straw about what measure is meted 

 out to the projected lines; ou the contrary, they would willingly give 

 every aid, as they have shown, towards casting obstacles in their way. 

 Narrow or broad gauge, six or four wheeled engines are nothing ito 

 directors, but they are great things to engineers, who are not likely to 

 be best pleased with the exercise of their profession, when it is to be 

 ruined by being placed under |the tampering knick-knackery of a rail- 

 way inspector, who entered on his duties ignorant of the works he 

 was called on to inspect, and who has distinguished himself ever since 

 by his disposition to foist his own crotchets, in opposition to the expe- 

 rience of other men. Although Sir Frederick Smith does not claim 

 the power of meddling with engineering details at present, he evi- 

 dently reserves it, and we have, in the report of the horse marine 

 steam'boat inspectors, a pretty good inkling of the kind of inter- 

 ference which they ultimately look forward to. We have seen one 

 difference of opinion already, and we ask what farther we have to 

 expect from the forbearance of the government jobbers. A pretty 

 pass affairs have come to in the profession, when the Stephensons, 

 Brunei or Locke, are to knuckle down in their own department to a 

 military engineer, to come like petty schoolboys and recite their tasks 

 to a dabbler in the art, themselves have created. The statues of 

 Smeatou,Watt and Telford, may tremble on their pedestals at this in- 

 sult to their successors. What tribunal would be called upon to decide 

 if men at the head of the law or medical |)rofession entertained a 

 doubt? Is there any tribunal? We think there is none. The go- 

 vernment would think otherwise ; the course they would adopt would 

 be to send the Lord Chancellor or Lord Denman, Sir James Clarke or Sir 

 Henry Halford, to some one in the lowest ranks of their professions. 

 We consider the interference of the government with engineering, as 

 a gross insult to the profession. They would not refer the fortification 

 of Chatham to us, why then should military engineers be sent to inter- 

 fere with railways ? 



It is the eleventh hour, but we call again on the engineers to come 

 forward, and to resist these encroachments ere it be too late. Go- 

 vernment cares nothing for their interests, neither do railway directors, 

 so that the only way engineers have of protecting them, is by protect- 

 ing them themselves. The injury threatened by the government is 

 very great, no one can tell the greatness of its extent, for one success- 

 ful attack upon the liberties of the profession cannot fail to lead to 

 farther inroads. Let the engineers do as the marine engineers did 

 last year, and as they mean to do this, unite, and we have no doubt 

 that the jobbers will be defeated. If, however, they like to be under 

 the dominion of the one-tailed bashaw in Whitehall, they will remain 

 supine and allow themselves to be sacrificed. We call upon them 

 therefore to lose no time in organizing an opposition. The Institution 

 of Civil Engineers we feel are particularly called upon, and we con- 

 sider that they will grossly neglect the interests of the profession if 

 they do not immediately send a petition to both Houses of Parliament, 

 praying that no government interference with the profession may take 

 place. The engineers generally should also meet, and send similar 

 petitions, and a committee should be formed to oppose the bill at its 

 future stages. 



ENGINEERING WORKS OF THE ANCIENTS, No. 3. 



MINBS OF THE THASI.VNS. — SIPHNIANS. — ATHENIANS. 



Continuing our extracts from Herodotus, we find that the Thasians 

 derived considerable wealth from their mines. From those of gold at 

 Scaptesyla they obtained upon an average eighty talents; Thasos 

 itself did not produce so much ; but they were on the whole so affluent, 

 that being generally exempt from taxes, the whole of their annual re- 

 venue was two hundred, and in the times of the greatest abundance 

 three hundred talents. It may be observed that many of the Greek 

 states derived considerable revenues from mines, which admitted of 

 the application of slave labour on a large scale. So with some of our 

 modern states mining and mining monopolies are important sources of 

 income. Of the Thasian mines, Herodotus remarks, that he liad seen 

 them, the most valuable were those discovered by the Phenicians, who 

 also were engaged in the Cornish tin trade, and in working the mines 

 of Spain. The PheDi<?ians are stated by our author to have first made 

 a settlement on the island under the conduct of one Thasus, and to 

 have Damed the isUiid ^ter him. The miaea »o discovered were be- 



tween a place cidled jEnyra and Coenyra. Opposite to Samothracia 

 was a large mountain which by the search after mines was eff"ectually 

 levelled, from which it is evident that the working was surface work- 

 ing. The Thasians also, according to the testimony of Thucydides, 

 had some valuable mines on the coast of Thrace. If the mining of the 

 Thasians was confined to surface-working, it could scarcely be from 

 want of a knowledge of other modes, as we shall see by the example 

 of the Samians that tunnelling was carried on upon a large scale. The 

 Siphnians were also a mining people, their soil producing both gold 

 and silver in such abundance, that from a tenth part of their revenues, 

 they had a treasury or cash-box, as we should call it, in the general 

 bank of Greece at Delphi, equal in value to the richest which that 

 temple possessed. Their power was consequently considerable, and 

 they were at one time the richest of all the inhabitants of the islands, 

 although their territory was but small, being one of the seventeen 

 small islands opposite Attica, called the Cyclades. This isle is now 

 called Siplianto, and although it no longer has mines of gold and silver 

 it still has plenty of lead, which the rains discover. The Siphnians 

 every year made an equal distribution among themselves of the pro- 

 duce of their mines, as did the Athenians of that of the silver mines of 

 Attica. In allusion to stream-works, Herodotus says that the Inflians 

 obtained great abundance of gold, partly by digging, and partly from 

 the rivers. Of the Ethiopian gold our author speaks, but does not 

 say how it was obtained. Tin is mentioned as being obtained from 

 the Cassiterides, supposed to be the Scilly Isles, of which Herodotus 

 says that he has little information. — The north-west of Asia is repre- 

 sented as abounding with gold, but how it was obtained was not known. 

 This passage might refer to the mines of the Ural. 



WORKS OF THE SAMIANS. — ^TUNNEL.— AQUEDUCT. — MOLE.— ENGINEERS. 



The Samians were distinguished among the Greeks for their engi- 

 neering monuments, for which very reason Herodotus says that he was 

 particular in his account of those islanders. Of these works, remains 

 to this day exist. Through a high mountain they are said to have cut 

 a passage, seven stadia (about a mile) long, eight feet high, and as 

 many wide. By the side of this was a canal or aqueduct three feet in 

 breadth, and twenty cubits, according to our author, in depth, but in 

 this there must be some mistake.^ — In this canal pipes were laid con- 

 veying to the town the water of a copious spring, supposed to be that 

 of Metelinous. Another work is the Mole now forming the left horn 

 of Port Tigrani. According to Herodotus, it was two stadia or more 

 in length, and twenty orgyiae or cubits in height. The engineer of the 

 tunnel was Eupalinus, the son of Naustrophus, and an inhabitant of 

 Megara. 



TRENCH OF THE SCYTHIANS. — WALLS — BRIDGES. 



The descendants of the slave population having revolted against the 

 Scythians, intersected the country with a deep trench, supposed to 

 have separated the Crimea from the mainland. In the time of the 

 Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus this was filled up, it must how- 

 ever have existed for a long period. In Scythia are also mentioned 

 bridges and walls constructed by the Cimmerians. 



POLVBIUS. 



CARTHAGINIAN ENGINEERING. — BRIDGE OVER THE MACAR. — NEW 

 CARTHAGE CANAL. — GOD OF MINING. 



From Herodotus we come to Polybius, but it is to be regretted that 

 the latter has rather applied himself to accounts of political intrigues 

 than the descriptions of the physical features of the countries on which 

 he writes. From him therefore we are enabled to glean but little in- 

 formation, and that of a most discursive character. He gives several 

 hints showing us the capacity of the Carthaginians for engineering, 

 but he has not entered into those explanations which would have come 

 with weight from him as an eye witness. The passage of the Alps, 

 by Hannibal, is sufficient to prove the skill of the Carthaginians, but 

 we have too vague a description of the mode of proceeding to allow 

 us to profit by it. 



In the 1st book chapter 6, a singular account is given of a bridge 

 near Carthage, which was laid over the Macar, a deep and rapid river, 

 scarcely fordable in any part. This was the only bridge on the river 

 and formed one of the passes to Carthage. On it Polybius states that 

 a town was built by the soldiers and used as a garrison. The roads in 

 the neighbourhood of Carthage were mostly made by great labour. 



In their military operations the Carthaginians were well accustomed 

 to pass rivers, instances of which we have in the course of Hannibal's 

 expedition. — His passage of the Rhone belongs rather to military tac- 

 tics, but there is one point to which we think it necessary to allude, 

 as it may be of inteiest to our bridge eogieeers. Having formed a 



Q2 



