352 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[October 



PROFESSIONAL CHARGES. 



ViGXOLLE! V. LeFROY. 



At the last Summer Assizes held at Liverpool, August 30, the following 

 important action was tried against the Hon. Thomas Lefroy, M.P., as one of 

 the directors of the Central Irish Railway Company, to recover compensation 

 for work and labour performed by the plaintiff as an engineer. 



Mr. Dundas, Mr. Martin, and Mr. Watson were for the plaintiff; Mr. 

 Cresswcll, Mr. Wortley, and Mr. Cleersby for the defendant. 



The details of the case were long and tedious, but the following were the 

 principal facts : — 



It ai)peared in the case for the plaintiff, that, in the year 1836 a number 

 of gentlemen, connected with Ireland, were of opinion that a railway from 

 Dublin to Shgo, running through the centre of the island, would be a de- 

 sirable undertaking. Of these, the defendant was one of the most active. 

 Preliminar)' meetings were held, prospectuses issued, the usual staff appointed, 

 and otlier measures taken for carrying the project into exeention. A provi- 

 sional commiltec was formed, at whose meetings the defendant usually as- 

 tended, and very frequently took the chair. The meetings took place, whether 

 in London or Dublin, usually at tlie offices of Messrs. Young, Murdoch, and 

 Leahy, solicitors to the company. The services of an engineer being required, 

 inrne discussion took place on the appointment. A person of the name of 

 Walker was mentioned, but it was afterwards decided, very much at the in- 

 stance of the defendant, that the plaintiff, who had been the engineer of the 

 North Union, the Midland Counties, and the DubUn and Kingstown Railways, 

 should be requested to undertake the office. The solicitors for the company 

 communicated with him, and he accepted the situation on the -Jth of June. 

 Immediate steps were taken for completing a survey, and a number of Mr. 

 VignoUes's pupils and assistants were set to work upon tlie line. He himself 

 paid frequent visits to Ireland in superintendence of the work up to the 2Ut 

 of Septemljer, during which time frequent meetings of the committee had 

 taken place in London and Dublin, at which the defendant presided, and on 

 which occasions resohitions were come to as to the course which should be 

 adopted, and the measures which should be taken in advancement of the pro- 

 ject. One subject of discussion was, the site for the Dubliu terminus, and on 

 this point some coiTCspondence took place between tlie plaintiff and the de- 

 fendant with reference to a meeting to discuss the matter in Dublin, and the 

 course which should be adopted respecting it. In one of these letters the 

 defendant says, that tlie terminus at Kdmainham would not go down with 

 the DubUn people, and that he must rely upon the skill and industry of Mr. 

 VignoUes to select a better one. On the 21st of September a meeting of the 

 committee took place, at which the possible appointment of Mr. Vipnolles to 

 the office of engineer to the Irish Kadway Commission was brought under 

 their notice, and it was agreed that his name should cease to appear as the 

 engineer to the company, being replaced by a Mr. Nimmo, one of bis assistants, 

 who had previously been carrjing on the survey under his superintendence. 

 It was, however, for the plaintiff, alleged that be continued really to superin- 

 tend the work as before, and that Mr. Nimmo was acting under him, and not 

 as an independent engineer. The plaintiff went to Ireland repeatedly, and 

 carried on a correspondence with Jlr. Nimmo when in England. The work 

 was then completed, the surveys made, and the necessary maps and books of 

 reference deposited in the Parliamentar)' Dflices. Mr. Nimmo died in 1839. 

 The present action v\as brought by Mr. Vignolles for the balaure due to him 

 for these engineering services. He had received 500/. His charge was 40/. 

 per mile on a hue of 126 miles. Much more, it was said, had been surveyed, 

 including the lines which had been abandoned as not eligible. 



For the defendant it was coutended that there was no contract between 

 him and the plaintiff, and that though, as a public man and a member of 

 Parliament, he had encouraged a project which it was supposed would be of 

 public benefit, he was not himself one of those embarked in the speculation, 

 had never taken or been allotted any shares, and had merely given the provi- 

 sional committee his assistance and advice. It was alleged that at all events 

 the plaintiff had resigned his office of engineer in September, when appointed 

 to the Royal commission ; and that, even supposiug he had e.\ecuted all the 

 work, the charge of 40/. per mile was excessive. Considerable payments had 

 been made to Mr. Nimmo. 



The case occupied the whole day, and at nearly 8 o'clock the Court ad- 

 journed, postponing his Lordship's summing up untU the following day, when 

 his Lordshi]) having gone through the facts of the case. 



The Jury retired for a considerable time, and brought in a verdict for the 

 plaintiff— Damages 1,980/., being the balance due up to September 21, when 

 they were of opinion he ceased to be engineer to the company. 



Exportation of Machinerij. — The select commiltEC of the House of Commons, 

 lately appointed to iiiquife into the operation of the existing laws aflecting 

 the exportation of machinery, liave just published their second report to the 

 House. This report is much too long to allow of any ditailcd reference fo 

 it, but we subjoin the final recommendation of the committee on the subject, 

 which is to the following effect, viz. : — " That, considering that machinery 

 is the only product of British industry upon the export of which restraints 

 are i.laeed, the committee recommend that the law urohibiting the export of 

 machinery should lie repealed, and the trade of m.-ichine making be placed 

 upon the same footing as other departments of British industry." 



STIRLING'S AIR ENGINE. 



Messrs. Stirling have constructed an air-engine, now working at the Dun- 

 dee Foundry, Vifhich fully realizes the expectations of the inventors : its supe- 

 riority over the steam engine consists in an immense saving of fuel, and in 

 its capabihty of being contained ia a very small space. For tlie purposes of 

 navigation these properties are invaluable. We subjoin a description of the 

 air-engine, furiushed us by a friend well acquainted with mechanics. 



The air-engine now working at the Dundee Foundiy, for which a patent 

 was lately taken out, is the joint invcntiou of the Reverend Dr. Stirling, of 

 Galston, and of his brother, Mr. Stirling, engineer, Dundee. 



The principle of the invention consists in alternately heating and cooling 

 two bodies of air confined in two separate vessels, which are arranged so, that, 

 by the stroke of two plungers worked by the engine, while the whole of the 

 air contained in one of the vessels is at the lower end immediately over the 

 furnace, and is consequently quite hot j the whole of the air contained in the 

 other vessel is at that time disposed at the upper end, which is cut off" from 

 auy commuiucation witli the furnace, and is therefore comparatively cold. 



The expansion caused by the heat renders the air in the one vessel much 

 more elastic than that in the other ; and the two ends of the working cylinder, 

 which is fitted with a piston similar to that of a steam-engine, being respec- 

 tively connected with the two air-vessels ; a preponderating presstire is pro- 

 duced on one side of the piston, and it is thereby pushed to the opposite end 

 of the cylinder. By the alternate action of the plmigers in the two air-ves- 

 sels, this end of the cylinder then comes in its turn to be subjected to the 

 pressure, and the piston is thereby pushed back again to its former position, 

 and so it continues a reciprocating motion, and is applied to turn a crank iu 

 the same way that a steam engine does. 



It has been satisfactorily shown that this engine may be worked with very 

 great economy of fuel as compared with a steam engine ; and the principal 

 means of producing the saving is this ; that, of the heat w hich is communi- 

 cated to the air from the furnaces, only a very small portion is entirely thrown 

 away when the air comes again to be cooled ; for, by making the air, in its 

 way from the hot to the cold end of the air-vessel, to pass through a chamber 

 divided into a number of small apertures or passages, the great extent of sur- 

 face with which it is thereby brought in contact, extracts iu the first place, 

 but only temporarily, the greater part of the heat from the air ; and after- 

 wards restores it to the air on its passage back again from the cold to the hot 

 end of the vessel. The process of cooUng is finally completed by making the 

 air to pass thrctigh between a number of tubes in which there is a current of 

 cold water, and thus far the heat caimot he made available again, but the 

 portion which is abstracted iu this way is very small. 



As a sufficient expansive power cotdd not be attained from using air of the 

 common density of the atmosphere ; without either making the diameter of 

 the cylinder, and all the other parts of the engine inordinately large, or sub- 

 jecting the air to greater alternations of heat and cold than would be con- 

 venient; the air is used pretty highly compressed, and a much greater power 

 is thereby obtained upon a given area of the piston. 



It is necessary therefore to employ a small air-pump to keep up the air to 

 the requisite density : but very little power is expended on this ; for, as the 

 same body of air is used over and over again, all that is required of the air- 

 pump, after the engine has been once charged, is to supply any loss that may 

 arise from leakage ; and this is found to be very trifling. 



The machine has been working occasionally for about six months, and it 

 has been proved, to the satisfaction of the inventors, to be capable of per- 

 forming advantageously the amount of work which they bad reckoned on, 

 from their calculations, and from former experiments made on a working 

 model of about two horses' power. It has uow, for upwards of a month, 

 been doing work in driving all the machinery employed at the extensive en- 

 gineering works of the Dundee Foundry, which a steam engine of approved 

 construction bad hitherto been employed to do; and it has been ascertained 

 that the expenditure of fuel is, cetei-is paribus, only about one-fifth part of 

 what was required for the steam engine ; but, as considerable improvements 

 are contemjilated in some of the details, it is confidently expected that a much 

 greater saving of fuel eventually will be effected. 



The whole machine, including its furnaces and heating apparatus, stands 

 in about the same space that a steam engine of equal power would occupy 

 without its furnaces and boiler ; and, taking into account this saving of space, 

 along with the vast saving of fuel, the invention must necessarily be of im- 

 mense importance for all ordin<iry purposes requiring motive power ; and, as 

 an instance, it wotdd reduce the expense of the power employed in driving 

 machinery in Dundee alone by at least 25,000/. or 30,000/. a year; but, 

 viewed in reference to the purposes of navigation, the application of this in- 

 vention must lead to results still more extraordinary, and will render a voyage 

 to India roimd the Cape, by machinery, a matter of perfectly easy accom- 

 plishment. — Dundee Advertiser. 



IIercu!anetm—ll is stated that the Neapolitan government have resolved 

 upon undertakin;; some new excavations at Herculancum and its neighbour- 

 hood, and it is added that they will be on an extensive scale. Negotiations 

 have commenced already with this view for the purchase of various estates 

 on tlie spot; and so soon as these purchases have been completed the works 

 will be commenced. A commission of antiquaries and architects is to he ap- 

 pointed by the Minister of the Interior and the Royal Academy of Sciences 

 to preside over the operations of the workmen ; and no doubt discoveries 

 will be made to add largely to the present knowledge of this interesting 

 ruined city, and the manners and customs of its former inhabitants. 



