1841.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



367 



Sl. Pilersbiirg, Jiigiisl 26.-300 workmen are now daily employed in re- 

 building the Imperial pnlace in the Kremlin at Moscow, which was pulled 

 down four years ago. The new building is made fire-proof, iho very rafters 

 being of iron, and no wood being employed except for the llonrs. This pa- 

 lace is to be heated by means of 250 metal pipes communicating with every 

 fart of the building, and proceeding from a furnace contained in the vaults 

 elow. The ornamental gilding alone costs 300.000 rubles. 

 The great hall of St. George of the winter palace, which had just been re- 

 built, Ind given way, and all the splendid Italian paintings and vases which 

 it contained been destroyed.— The loss is estimated at several millions of 

 francs. No life was lost ; and the remainder of the palace was intact. On 

 the day before the accident a chapter of the Order of St. George was held in 

 the hall which has fallen. 



fenire. — A bridge is about to be constructed at Venice, intended to unite 

 that city to the Continent, and to connect it with the railroad of Milan. The 

 management of this gigantic undertaking has been conceded to the engineer, 

 Antoine Bu,setto Pitich ; the average expense is estimated at 4,830,000 livres 

 Austrian. The bridge will also contain an aqueduct intended to supply the 

 town with fresh water, which has hitherto been supplied in boats from the 

 Continent ; Venice being unprovided with wells and fountains, and having 

 bu*t very few cisterns. 



T/ie Improvement of the Seine. — A commission has been appointed by the 

 Prefect ot the .Seine", to take into consideration a project for improving the 

 navigation of the river w ithin and below Paris. Part of the project consists 

 in establishing this navigation on the left branch, running along one side of 

 the Cite. Another p'an attached to it is the construction on the centre of 

 the Pont Neuf of a vast building, from which eight turbines, of the force of 

 4000 horse power.f?) would throw immense quantities of water into every 

 quarter of Paris. 



Russia. — A joint-stock company in England has obtained the Emperor's 

 permission to make an iron railway frt.m Moscow to St. Pctersburgh, and 

 will begin its operations perhaps this autumn, but certainly in the spring. 

 Five years are allowed to complete the whole line, which will be 33 miles 

 longer than the common road between Moscow and St. Petersburgh, because 

 it is to pass throi'gh to Bybinsk, in the government of Yaroslaw, on the right 

 bank of the Volga, because that town carries on the most e.vtensive corn 

 trade with St. Petersburgh. All the vessels laden with the produce of the 

 south, which comes up the Volga to the north, must stop here. — Hamburgh 

 papers, Sept, 10. 



The Rhein and Mosel Zeitung of Sept. 4 St ,tes, that in the course of the 

 operations in the Cathedral of Cologne for the restoration of the pictures of 

 the Saviour and the Apostles Peter and John, the workmen have brought to 

 light several colossal figures which have been obliterated witli whitewash 

 during the last century. It is to be hoped that these figures will be restored 

 along with the others to their original state. The same journal mentions 

 that the two pictures which had been wantonly injured at the e,>ihibition in 

 Cologne have been again hung up in their places, after having been removed 

 for the purpose of repairing them. In spite of every inquiry, the person w lio 

 committed the malicious act has not yet been discovered, nur is it possible to 

 assign any imaginable ground for so wanton an outrage. 



laZSCELLANEA. 



The Sun Fire-office Building.— The dispute between the city authorities and 

 the Sun Fire-office, is at last terminated by the consent of the latter body to 

 set back their building to the act of Parliament line, and to round the corner 

 at the south-east of Bartholomew-lane. The Commissioners of Sewers will 

 pay, as the value of the land thus appropriated to the public, such a sum as 

 may be determined upon by Mr. Cockerel!, the surveyor of the Sun Fire- 

 office, and some surveyor to be appointed by themselves. The directors of 

 the Sun Fire-office have, in the opinion of the citizens, acted most unwil- 

 lingly and ungraciously, and it would have been rfiuch more creditable to 

 these directors to have conceded to general convenience, what was never 

 equitably theirs, than, by persisting in forming this projection, to have com- 

 pelled the Commissioners of Sewers to appropriate public monies to an im- 

 provement in which the Sun Fire-office was really as much interested as the 

 public themselves. — Tijues. 



Kew Mode of Ruling the Gas and Water Companies — Some of the parishes 

 in the eastern districts of the metropolis have lately been making a valuation 

 survey of the length and bores of the various mains and branch services be- 

 longing to the Water Companies in their respective parishes, as also the 

 length of the gas-pipes laid down, and all property belonging to them, for 

 thepurpose of rating them on a fair and equitable per centage, in the place 

 of allowing the companies to compound for them, by the payment of a stipu- 

 lated annual sum as heretofore, and which composition has been found in 

 reality to be much beneath their actual value. The companies' profits, it is 

 well known, being very considerable, their property has not been rated in a 

 fair proportion to the general property of the parish. By the adoption of 

 rating the companies after the survey, the parishes will derive a great annual 

 increase of revenue, whicli will contribute much to relieve the parishioners 

 in general, by adding to the parochial resources. The example is about to 

 be followed by other parishes in the southern districts, who are making sur- 

 veys for the same purpose, where the source of revenue, increased by rating, 

 will be much more considerable, in consequence of the immense quantity of 

 water and gas-pipes laid down in the southern districts by several companies 

 n rivalry of each other. — Times. 



Improved Locomotive. — Messrs. C'oulthard, of Gateshead, engineers, have 

 just completed a powerful locomotive engine, including all the modern im- 

 provements, with also, ia one respect, a novelty in construction of great 



practical advantage. This consists in the rejection of what we may call the 

 '• cinder-chamber.' so that the bars are exposeil to the external atmosphere, 

 and the ashes fall directly upon the ground. Thus, the bars being presented' 

 to the cold air on the outside, they do not waste away witli that rapidity 

 which is consequent upon the ordinary construction, and considerable econo- 

 my is the result. The engine being bviilt more for power than for speed, tlie 

 works are placed chiefly on the outside, and are of peculiarly easy access for 

 purposes of repair. Trial was made of her powers on Thursday week, in the 

 presence of Mr M'ood, under whose superintendence she was built, and other 

 gentlemen, who were much gratified by her perlormances ; and after remain- 

 ing for experiment on the Brandling Junction Railway a few days from this 

 time, she will be removed to the Clarence line, to commence her labours in 

 good earnest. — Tyne Mercury. 



The .^tril-e at the New Houses of Parliament.— 'the strike of the two hundred 

 masons is likely to be productive of much injury to the working men. as they 

 could not have chosen a worse plea on which to strike, while they have put 

 themselves in direct contact with government. All combinations are bad, 

 and particularly where they are employed to repress industry for the benefit 

 of idleness. Nothing can be more infamous than a system which fines men 

 for working faster than their fellows. The masters will gain by this impru- 

 dence. 



Sir William Burnett's patent process for the preservation of timber, canvass 

 &c. is gaining ground with the public; it has already been adopted by the 

 government authorities at the dock yards. For the service of the Portsmouth 

 Dock Yard, there is now being made at Messrs. Fairbairn's, Mill Wall, a large 

 iron tank. .51 feet long and 6 feet diameter, with air and force pumps for the 

 purpose of impregnaiing timber and canvass with Sir Wilham's solution — it 

 is also to be applied for the preservation of upwards of 6000 yards of felt, and 

 the deal casing to be used for clothing the steam boilers of H. M. War 

 steamer the Growler, niw having her engines put on board at Messrs. .Sea- 

 wards manufactory at Limehouse. 



Hoai hy a Bank Chrk. — Last month we transferred into our columns an 

 extract from the Literarj/ Gazette, giving a short account of a neuly-dis- 

 coveied method of propulsion, by which a common garden or invalid chair 

 could be propelled along a common road by a galvanic power at the rate of 

 40 miles an hour ; and it was further stated that the young m.an who had 

 discovered this new power daily travelled in his chair from St. Alban's to the 

 Bank of England in half an hour— a distance of 22 miles! Great curiosity 

 was naturally excited by the supposed discovery, and the young man, who is 

 a Bank clerk, was questioned concerning it, both by the governor of the 

 Bank, and also by Mr. Smee, the cashier, &c. He was invited by the latter, 

 and by several other persons, to display the powers of his new machine, but 

 made repeated excuses for delay ; he first excused himself on the score of 

 illness, and on being again pressed to exhibit the machine, he stated that he 

 had driven it accidentally against a post, and shattered it to pieces. Upon 

 being, however, more closely questioned, he at last confessed that the whole 

 story w'as a hoax, and that no such machine h,ad ever existed, save in the 

 fertile imagination of the supposed inventor. This denouement was only made 

 known on Thursday, and it has created a great sensation in the Bank of 

 England. The motive of the youth for the above hoax cannut be accounted 

 fori We are informed, however, that some such galvanic power does exist,(?) 

 but that tlie expense is too great to allow of its being made use oi.— Times, 

 Aug. 28. 



Projected Light on the Goodwin Sands. — The Lords of the Admiralty and 

 the Board of the Trinity-house have finally arranged with Mr. W. Bush, the 

 engineer, thftt the cast-iron caisson, which he has now nearly completed at 

 Deal, shall on M'ednesday, the 15th inst., be floated to its place on the north- 

 east end of the Goodwin Sands. It will be remembered some weeks ago we 

 noticed the progress of this undertaking, wliich is now about to be sunk and 

 firmly fixed to the chalk rock which Mr. Bush calculates on fimling about 

 30 feet below the surface of the sand. The caisson will then form a base 

 upon which a lofty column of stone will be raised, surmounted with a light, 

 and that from its position and general usefulness to eU maritime counties, it 

 will be called "The Light of all Nations," which will be inscribed on the 

 column. This new Goodwin light is not only designed as a beacon to warn 

 the mariner off these sands, which have been so fatal, bit is also intended as 

 a guide from the North Sea, through a swashway, hitherto, from its danger, 

 impracticable This channel is about half a mile wide, and leads into a ca- 

 pacious ba>' within the Goodwin, having from 30 to 40 feet water, and being 

 sheltered from every quarter, ships will there ride in safety. A very large 

 party are going out on the 15tli to view tlie floating of the caisson, and the 

 Government steamers are ordered to be in readiness. It is expected that his 

 Grace the Duke of Wellington, who takes a lively interest in the undertak- 

 ing, « ill be present on the occasion. — Times. Sep. 6. 



Newly Recovered iniirf.— Since the opening of the new cut from Eau Brink 

 to Lynn, which took place about 20 years ago, the old channel, which was 

 very wide and spacious, by which tlie water of the Ouse and its tributary 

 streams were formerly conveyed to Lynn, has been gradually silting up, and 

 much of it has now become firm land, producing rich and flourishing herb- 

 age. A few days since a portion of this newly recovered land (containing 

 about 900 acresj, which is now embanked and fenced with live quickset 

 fences, and divided into convenient pieces for occupation, was let by auction, 

 at the Globe Inn, Lynn, and the annual rental obtained for it averages nearly 

 3'. per acre. Calculating upon this ratio, were an embankment of the Wash 

 to take place, the annual value of the land which would be obtained by that 

 undertaking we might reasonably estimate at not less than £500,000. At 

 the last quarterly meeting of the Lynn town-council, Mr. F. Lane laid upon 

 the table a copy of a memorial presented to the Commissioners of Woods and 

 Forests, which memorial referred to the inclosure of the Great Level of the 

 Wash, and was accompanied with a letter, stating that the application to 

 Parliament upon that subject was intended to be renewed in the next session. 

 —Norfolk Times. 



