1841.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



225 



where hundreds of members with hundreds of candles burning at night 

 tended so much to vitiate the atmosphere, important improvements 

 in lighting as well as ventilation have been recently made, but in our 

 domestic establishments little or no attention has been paid to this 

 important subject, and the foundation of a variety of diseases must be 

 the result, particularly from the foul air breathed at balls or other 

 crowded assemblies. 



The confinement of air in our churches and places of public wor- 

 ship, must also be highly prejudicial, as we are frequently exposed on 

 entering one of these edifices in the summer months to an atmosphere 

 10° or lo"^ below that of the external air, independent of the stagnant 

 state in which it has been allowed to remain during a whole week — 

 often vitiated in a greater degree by the gaseous matter evolved from 

 human remains, and even in private houses much inconvenience is 

 experienced from the stagnant state of the atmosphere in close and 

 gloomy weather, an evil which has been considerably augmented by 

 close stoves, when made of iron and heated to a certain temperature. 

 But if stoves were constructed of masonry throughout, as in many 

 other countries, or of fire tiles, or porcelain plates, embedded in mor- 

 tar with well-regulated flues, they would be far preferable to open fire 

 places, this substitution of imperfect conductors of heat being not only 

 consistent with the soundest principles of economy in the preservation 

 of heat, and its more uniform distribution through apartments, but 

 more salubrious than the methods usually resorted to in this country 

 of warming air by contact with iron stoves or pipes. 



The healthy appearance of those who pass the greater part of their 

 time in the open air sutBciently indicates its advantages; armies are 

 also well known to have far greater numbers on the sick list when well 

 housed, than when exposed in a campaign to the vicissitudes of the 

 season, for weeks and months without any other covering than the 

 canopy of heaven, cr occasionally of a tent or hut, or the shade of a 

 tree. These facts ought to satisfy us that we should admit the air as 

 freely as possible into our apartments at all seasons of the year, as the 

 temporary and often imaginary inconvenience of a little cold, when 

 compared with the decided disadvantages of breathing impure air, is 

 by far the lesser evil. 



When ventilation in large establishments or public buildings can 

 only be obtained by artificial means, it is produced by pumping air in, 

 or drawing it out by a fan worked by steam or other adequate power, 

 and atibrding it the means of free circulation either cooled, heated, or 

 in its natural state, through well-regulated apertures in the floors, 

 walls, or ceilings, and in coal mines by flues or shafts in which constant 

 currents of air are maintained by the combustion of fuel or coal gas ; 

 this system might also be easily introduced into houses already biiilt, 

 by means of the existing chimneys ; but with still greater facility if 

 our architects and builders were to direct their attention to those 

 points when erecting new ones. 



The importance of this subject has been frequently pointed out by 

 scientific men of considerable eminence, without attracting that atten- 

 tion which would have been the means of rescuing uiany persons from 

 being imperceptibly hurried to an untimely end. It is, therefore, to 

 be hoped that the powerful engine of the press will continue to lend 

 its aid in exposing these evils, until it impresses upon the public 

 mind, and more particularly upon our architects and builders, the 

 urgent necessity of providing against them. Is it not possible, by 

 some simple contrivance, to make the beat produced in the lighting 

 of apartments available for their perfect ventilation ? if any of these 

 gentlemen succeed in so doing, they will be entitled to greater grati- 

 tude for this achievement in the purification of an element so essential 

 to the preservation of our lives, than any claimed by those heroes 

 whose victories have contributed so much to the miseries of the human 

 race, and the destruction of the human species. 



But we ought not, perhaps, to be so much surprised at the slow 

 march of intellect in this respect, when we find so many centuries to 

 have elapsed before it was so generally admitted, as at present, that 

 pure water, another element bountifully supplied by nature, is prefer- 

 able to any other beverage for insuring the health and happiness of 

 mankind, and when we have so many temperance societies and other 

 advocates for impressing upon the minds of our fellow subjects the 

 necessity of becoming converts to the imbibing of this element in its 

 pure state, ought we not, with still greater reason, to endeavour to 

 make a similar impression as to the advantages of inhaling, with equal 

 purity, the lighter fluid, of which we stand so much more in need, and 

 which we so much more frequently require ? 



A gasometer of sheet iron formed of 269 pieces, and of an immense capacity, 

 arrived at Antiverp on the 5th instant, by the Soho steamer from England, 

 intended for the gas works in that town. 



REPORT FROM THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON RAILWAYS. 



Our readers are aware that the 11th clause of the Railways Bill, 

 which was for the purpose of giving discretionary powers to the 

 Board of Trade as to the regulation of railwavs, excited the greatest 

 alarm on the part of the railway boards. Sir Robert Peel was conse- 

 quently induced to move for a special committee to receive evidence 

 as to the tendency of the proposed clause. This committee has now 

 concluded its labours, and after a lengthened investigation has made 

 its report. The committee after stating the arguments used on both 

 sides, sum up by recommending that the Board of Trade should not at 

 present have the discretionary power contemplated in the 11th clause 

 of the Bill above quoted, and prefer that the supervision of that de- 

 partment should be exercised in the way of suggestion rather than in 

 that of positive regulation. Tliis, as it will be seen wards off the blow 

 for another year, and we hope that the railway interest will be so far 

 instructed by this attempt, as to take better measures to oppose any 

 future aggression of the Board of Trade. 



'Ihe evidence attached to the report contains much matter of inte- 

 rest to which we shall be obliged to refer in a discursive manner, but 

 before we refer to this we feel it our duty to express the obligations 

 which the profession owes to Brunei for the able and candid way in 

 which he gave his evidence, throwing aside all personal considerations 

 and feelings of partiality, uninfluenced by the blandishments of the 

 Board of Trade, and not to be deceived by its sophistries, he boldly 

 and unscrupulously stripped the railway department of its pretensions, 

 and exposed the incompetency and ambition of its officers. We wish 

 that it were in our power to give equal praise to the elder Stephenson, 

 but with the exception of the noble tribute he gave to the merits of 

 the Great Western railway, he presented a lamentable contrast to 

 Brunei. — Mr. Labouchere exhibited an ability in the management of 

 his cause, which we cannot but recognize, but we must at the same 

 time regret that it was not exerted in a better cause. 



From Mr. Laing's evidence and from the documents annexed we 

 learn some particulars as to the constitution of the Railway Depart- 

 ment of the Board of Trade, which as it is of some importance we 

 have thought it desirable to notice. The Department is placed like 

 the Statistical Department in charge of Mr. Porter, and for which he 

 receives 2110/. per annum extra, but it does not appear that he takes 

 any very active part. — Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Frederic Smith is In- 

 spector General of Railways, with a salary of 900/. per annum and 

 travelling expenses while engaged out of London, but without retiring 

 allowance. The Board of Trade observes that, "the provision of the 

 act which excludes the appointment of any one connected with rail- 

 ways, and the high rate of remuneration, which would be requisite to 

 secure the undivided services of any eminent civil engineer, are of 

 themselves sufficient to direct and almost to restrict their Lordship's 

 choice to some officer of the Royal Engineer corps, who has a compe- 

 tent practical knowledge of railways." Mr. Laing transacts the official 

 business of the Department, and is the Law and Corresponding Clerk 

 with a salary of 500/. per annum. — Mr. Porter and Mr. Laing are 

 authorized to sign all notices, documents, &c., in the name of the 

 Board of Trade. — Mr. Oswald acts as a junior clerk. The total ex- 

 pense of the establishment is estimated at 1400/, per annum. The 

 engineer officers employed in the first ijistance to assist Sir Frederic 

 Smith, were paid two guineas a-day and expenses. The Department 

 is put under the superintendence of the [^resident of the Board of 

 Trade, as consulting member of the Board. It is in contemplation 

 that the establishment must be slightly increased. 



In the evidence of the several parties who were present at the 

 celebrated Birmingham Conference for devising the means of prevent- 

 ing accidents, we learn for the first time the reason that the results 

 were so very trifling. It seems that on discussion, the difficulties that 

 stared them in the face as to forming any general system were so great 

 that the attempt was given up in despair, and the parties present 

 silently acquiesced in the resolutions, which had been prepaied, at the 

 same time recommending the regulations of the Liverpool and Man- 

 chester Railway for consideration and not for adoption. Frightened 

 as they had been by newspaper clamour — into the endeavour to 

 adopt some measure, they were confimed in their original views, that 

 as the accidents had not arisen from neglect on the part of the com- 

 panies, neither yet had they sufficient experience to devise any effec- 

 tive remedies. 



We find also some clue to the mode of proceedingof the well known 

 committee of three, whose activity and inactivity were the cause 

 of so much alarm in the early part of the agitation. It appears 

 that when the railway body, dissatisfied with tbeir conduct, found it 

 necessary to take the matter into their own hands, the committee 

 thought proper to disclaim having in any degree wished to bind the 



