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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL 



[Junk, 



THE PRESIDENT'S CONVERSAZIONE. 



The general conversazione of Mr. Walker, the President of the Institution 

 of Civil Engineers, took place on M'edncsday evening, 12tli ult., and was 

 distinguished by the same features of interest which always render this one 

 of the most remarkable reunions of the season. The suite of rooms was em- 

 bellished by works of art of almost eveiy class, extending from the produc- 

 tion of the golden age of art, down to those of the aspirants of the present 

 day. Amongst other objects of this description, which were scattered in pro- 

 fusion through the spacious though crowded area, we particularly noticed 

 several admirable busts by Park, Belines, and Smith, together with one of 

 the host himself, modelled in clay by Mr. J. li. Jones, an amateur whose 

 talents, if be had not already chosen a profession in life, would certainly en- 

 title him to shine in this department of art. The portfolios of drawings by 

 Varley, Hering, Tomkins, Fripp, and Kendrick, and the paintings by Scanlan 

 and John AVood, excited great attention, and elicited corresponding praise. 

 A new etching by Thomas Landseer, the first proof of his brother Edwin's 

 picture of Count d'Orsay's dog " laying down the law," was displayed amongst 

 these objects of art. Nor ought the unrivalled vases and bronze figures, the 

 work of the eccentric Florentine artist of the 15th century, of Clodion and 

 others of later date, to be passed over in silence. There were also some of 

 Goddard's fine Daguerreotypes, some electrotypes, as also some specimens of 

 Cheverton's beautiful mechanical sculpture. The most striking of the useful 

 novelties were samples of coloured glass from Mr. Apsley Pellatt's manu- 

 factory, some ornamented slabs, &c., of slate from Magnus's Pimlico works. 

 Atkinson's patent ornamental wood mouldings, which are equal to carved 

 work ; Pole's new hygrometer. The principal feature, however, of Mr. 

 Walker's soiree was the exhibition of models of machines, &c., which were, 

 throughout the evening, the chief focus of attraction. It is impossible, within 

 the limits of an ordinary notice, to aftbrd any thing like an adequate epitome 

 of the various ingenious and highly useful, as well as valuable, novelties which 

 attracted the attention of the guests on all sides. The model of the light- 

 house erected on the Maplin sands at the mouth of the Thames, by Mr. 

 Walker himself, obtained very great attention, a description of which ap- 

 peared in the last number of the Journal. Mr. Kicks' radial drilling ma- 

 chine, his compound hydraulic press, aud new governor, &c. Messrs. Sea- 

 wards' beautiful models of marine steam-engines, the slide-Talves, the dis- 

 connecting apparatus for paddle-wheels, and the brine detector, Barnes' pad- 

 dle-wheel, and the model of the Castor steamer. Mr. Dent's electric and 

 central percussive clocks, Mr. Gossagc's disc steam engine, Messrs. MTiit- 

 worth's (of Manchester) street cleansing machine, cutting tools, &c., Messrs. 

 Ransome & May's railway chairs. Dr. Schaffhaeutl's new universal photometer, 

 a sectional drawing of the Thames Tunnel by Sir Isambart Bnmel, and a 

 vast assemblage of other beautiful adaptations of the chemical, electrical, and 

 mechanical branches of science to the purposes of utility and ornament, 

 excited the admiration and occupied the untired attention of the stream of 

 visitors for several successive hours. The conversazione was attended by 

 most of the distinguished amateurs and professors of science and art, and 

 notwithstanding the eventful debate in the House of Commons, which was 

 proceeding at the same time, and which occupied all the peers and members 

 of Parliament, and the Literary Fund dinner, which detained many of the 

 usual visitors, the numbers who availed themselves of this opportunity of 

 testifying their love of science and esteem for the distinguished President, 

 was very great. 



Araoug the company we noticed, besides the council and a large number 

 of the members of the Institution, the chief members of almost all the scien- 

 tific societies of the metropolis ; — The Marquis of Chandos, Lord Henneker, 

 Admiral Adam, Barons Schleinitz and Bulow, Colonels Pasley, Maclean, Lieut. 

 Colonels Blanshard, R.E., Hutchinson, Major Anderson, Sirs J. J. Guest, 

 M.P., Frederick Pollock, M.P., Wm. Synions, John M'Neil, Isambart Brunei, 

 George Murray, Walter Riddell, Henry Parnell, M.P. Edward KnatchbuU, 

 M.P., Chas. I'rice, Harry Verney, M.P., John Scott Lillie, Chevaber Benk- 

 hausen. Captains Laird, Ivanetskey, Locke, Willis, Scanlan, Pringle, R. Well- 

 bank, L. Price, Kincaid, Smith, G. Smith, R.N., Evans, R.N., R. Drew, Drs. 

 Paris, Scbaffhaeutl, Elliot, Field, PoUock, Arnott, AValker, Billing, Roget, 

 Bowring, Rigbey, Reid, Professor Willis, Messrs. E. R. Rice, M.P., Pryme, M.P. 

 F. Hodgson, M.'P., Ormsby Gore, M.P., G. F. Young, M.P., Emerson Ten- 

 nent, M.P., Mr. Justice Haggerman, of Canada, Messrs. T. Landseer, F. P. 

 Stepbanoff, Behnes, Tomkins, J. Varley, E. II. Bailey, F. Stone, G. Rennie, 

 Fripp, Rivers, Jun., Hakewell, R. Scanlan, Sargey, A. Cunningham, Oliver, 

 Page, S. Howell, W, Boxall, C. Landseer, Macready, Barry, Sydney Smirke, 

 Tite, Donaldson, Hopper, and Poynter. 



ROYAL INSTITUTE OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS. 

 Monday, May 3. 



The annual general meeting of the Institute was held for the purpose of 

 electing the council and officers for the ensuing year. Earl de Grey in the 

 chair. 



The report of the council and the annual balance were presented, and ex- 

 hibited a highly favourable view of the progress of the Society. 



Monday, May 17. 



A paper was read by Mr. G. F. Richardson, of the British Museum, on the 

 subject of geology as connected with architecture, .\fter a prefatory sketch 

 of the general stratification of rocks, Mr. Richardson adverted more especially 

 to the stratum and quality of those in most general use as building materials. 

 The lecture was illustrated by the exhibition of various objects connected 

 with the subject in the oxy-hydrogen microscope. 



Messrs. Pontifex and Co. exhibited a new construction of a self-acting 

 water closet. 



ROME AT THE SURREY ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 



The mimic volcanic flames of Ilecla, Etna, and Vesuvius, are now ex- 

 tinct at the Surrey Zoological Gardens, and we have another giant wonder 

 from the burning climes of the South. When we heard that Rome was to 

 be portrayed to the gaze of the successor of its greatness, we were naturally 

 anxious to ascertain whether it had a fitting representative ; Mr. Cross has 

 succeeded very well in housing lions and tigers and elephants, but where he 

 was to pitch down the Eternal City we could not readily conceive. He has, 

 however, by placing it near the lake found means to appropriate to it a space 

 of five acres, a space large enough to hold a modern town, and to do justice 

 to the object of this representation. We have here a pictorial model, cover- 

 ing a surface of more than a quarter of a million of square feet, and present- 

 ing, as has been well stated, " a stupendous panoramic view, and the largest 

 picture or model ever produced." The lake now stands for the Tiber, and 

 across it we have the bridge of St. Angelo, with its statues of angels on the 

 walls. Beyond are seen on the left the Tordinona Theatre, the Palazzo Tor- 

 tonia, and other well known edifices. On the right the Mole of Hadrian, 

 now the Castle of St. Angelo, raising its giant bulk. Farther behind, rising 

 over every thing, is St. Peter's, upwards of a hundred feet in height, and 

 appearing as magnificently as its great original. ; The facades of the Vatican, the 

 Papal Palace, the Ospitale di Spirito Santo, and many other stmctures well 

 known to fame are strikingly represented. To be properly appreciated this 

 exhibition must be seen ; the apparent solidity and verisimility of the struc- 

 tures, the extreme range of distant view, are features which tend to impress 

 us with a sense of the reality of the objects before us. The painting is good, 

 free from glare and exaggeration, and subdued so as to give that sobriety and 

 real life, wliich augments the impression on the spectator ; we think however 

 that the cflfeet might have been increased by a few figures of men and animals 

 being appropriately introduced. Tlie artist is Mr. Danson, and in naming 

 him we do quite enough to show that full justice has been done to the sub- 

 ject, for his reputation in this department of art is a guarantee of the extent 

 of his exertions. We may indeed assure our friends that those among them 

 well acquainted with the Eternal City will be gratified in renewing their re- 

 collections of it, and those who haTC the pilgrimage yet to make, cannot have 

 a better introduction than by a visit to this, its prototype. 



NEW INVENTIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS. 



IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM ENGINES. 



George Henry Fourdrinier and Edward Newman Fourdrinier, of Hanley, 

 Staft'ord, paper makers, for certain improvements in steam engines for actuat- 

 ing macbinen.', and in apparatus for propelling ships and other vessels on 

 water. — Rolls Chapel Office, March 1", 1841. — These improvements are, as 

 the title explains, divided into two parts ; the improvements in steam engines 

 consist in applying and working two pistons in one cylinder, which are simiU- 

 taneously actuated by the expansive force of the same volume of steam. A 

 long cylinder is supported vertically on pivots, in the middle of which it 

 vibrates ; two pistons are attached to piston rods wliich pass out through 

 stuffing boxes at either end of the cylinder. On steam being admitted through 

 suitable slide valves to the middle of the cylinder, the two pistons are forced 

 apart towards the opposite ends of the cylinder, the valves are then shifted, 

 and the steam admitted at the two ends of the cylinder, which drives the 

 piston back again to the centre, the spent steam passing oft' to a condenser or 

 into the atmosphere, and so on continually. The lower piston rod is attached 

 to a crank in the middle of the shaft, while the upper piston rod carries a 

 cross head from which connecting rods pass down to two cranks placed on 

 the same shaft, but opposite to the former, so that as the one is descending 

 the other is ascending, in conformity with the opposite motion of the pistons. 

 In another arrangement, the. cylinder is divided into two parts by a partition 

 in the middle, and the pistons do not expand simultaneously as in the former 

 case, but the one piston begins to move when the other is at the quarter 

 stroke, the valves being so adjusted as to effect this movement ; for the pur- 

 pose of overcoming the dead points, when one piston is at the dead point the 

 other is exerting its full force. The apparatus for propelling ships and other 

 vessels consists of certain arrangements of mechanism by which a volume of 

 air may be forced against the water at the bottom of the vessel, in the direc- 



