1841.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



405 



LONDON AND BIRMINGHAM RAILWAY. 



Self-acting Chocks. 

 With an Engraving, Plate IX. 



The object of these chocks is to prevent carriages or other vehicles 

 from being blown out of the sidings on to the main lines of railway, 

 or from their being pushed out by inattention or carelessness, the con- 

 sequences of which, especially during the night, have frequently been 

 collisions of a more or less serious nature. 



The chock (a) (forged out of a piece of railway bar) is placed upon 

 one of the rails of the riding; the end next the switches, is turned 

 back to the centre (6) from which it moves, the other end is formed 

 to receive the periphery of the wheel, a balance weight contained in 

 the box (c) is attached to the chock, and so hung as to retain it upon 

 the rail; by means of the lever (d) the chock can be withdrawn from 

 the rail, the chair (e) carries the centre pin (6), and the chair (/) 

 supports the chock when withdrawn from the rail. It is obvious that 

 the wheels of a carriage, when pushed into a siding, will open the 

 chock by pressing against its inner surface, and that when the wheels 

 have passed, that the balance weight will return the chock upon the 

 rail, and that no carriage can pass from the siding tc the main lines 

 until the chock is withdrawn by the handle (d). 



These chocks have been in use upon the London and Birmingham 

 Railway upwards of 10 months, and are found to answer the purpose 

 intended. 



R. B. D. 



KARL FRIEDRICH SCHINKEL. 



In this eminent individual, who died at Berlin on the 10th of October 

 last, in his Gist year, architecture has lost one of its ablest professors 

 and greatest ornaments — an artist of whom Germany may justly be 

 proud, and who was well entitled to the splendid funereal honours paid 

 to him in the capital he had adorned with so many noble monuments 

 of his taste and genius. 



It was, we believe, the Foreign Quarterly Review, which first of all 

 made the name of Schinkcl known in this country, by calling attention 

 to some of the principal works he had then executed, and speaking of 

 them in terms of commendation, which, strange to say, so excited the 

 wrath of Mr. Joseph Gwilt, that he thought proper — not at that time but 

 a year or two afterwards, to attack the article in that periodical, and 

 attempt to write down Schinkel. With that extraordinarv exception, 

 all that we have ever read or heard concerning Schinkel and his 

 works, has been uniformly expressive of admiration. In fact, many of 

 our readers, at least so we are willing to believe, must be well ac- 

 quainted with his "Entwiirfe" or published designs, for they ought to 

 be in the library of every architect who can atFord to purchase them.* 

 He has been characterized as being the poet of architecture, who, in- 

 stead of merely transcribing and copying the Greeks, has shown him- 

 self imbued with a kindred feeling, and has expressed himself as they 

 would have done under similar circumstances. 



Without pledging ourselves to admiration of all he has done — cer- 

 tainly not as regards his designs in the Gothic style — we scruple not 

 to afhrm that many valuable novel ideas and motives are to be met 

 with in his works, although not to the extent that might have been, for 

 he has repeated himself too frequently in many features, especially his 

 doors, which are nearly on every occasion alike. However, reserving 

 criticism of this kind for some other opportunity, when we may pro- 

 bably enter into description of some of the structures erected by him, 

 we shall at present confine ourselves to such a biographical notice of 

 Schinkel himself as we have the means of collecting from the sources 

 just now at hand. 



Karl Friedrich Schinkel was born at Neuruppin, where his father 

 was "Superintendent," March 13th, 17S1. By the death of that 

 parent in 1787, he was left totally dependent upon his mother, who 

 placed him in the Gymnasium or public school of his native town until 



' Such, however, is certahily not the case, for we know of one who bor- 

 rowed them of a bookseller, under the pretence of keeping them if appruveJ 

 of, and then ordered him to send for them again, when it »as discovered by 

 marks left on it, that he had copied one of the plates for some particular 

 purpose, on ■v\hich accovmt he had just then occasion for the \\ork. Hon ever 

 as the poor devil alluded to makes only a few thousands a year by his prac- 

 tice, it is not much to be wondered at that he should be obliged to borrow 

 books of the kind_. instead of purohtsing th?m. Another reason for the 

 miserable creature's not keeping .SchinkeTs works might be that they re- 

 ruach h's own for the want ut every merit the German architect displays. 



No. 51.— Vol. IV.— December, 1841. 



the age of 11, wlien the family removed to Berlin. Having manifested 

 a decided taste for drawing and designing, lie there became a pupil 

 of the elder (Villy, the architect, and afterwards of the son. Professor 

 Gilly, to whose instructions he was in no small degree indebted for 

 the liberal views he afterwards entertained of his art, as one attbrding 

 scope for the exercise of invention, fancy and taste. The younger 

 Gilly, however, died within about two years, and the completion of 

 several buildings was in consequence entrusted to Schinkel. Not 

 long after this period, he began to apjdy himself more to designing 

 and to the study of architectural composition ; also to making de- 

 signs for vases, bronze work, ornamental furniture, and ether things of 

 the kind, wherein he could display taste, and which, although they 

 do not exactly belong to the province of the architect, as it is usually 

 defined, are not at all more alien from it than some others presumed 

 to belong to his professional pursuits, notwithstanding that they have 

 no connexion with art, and but very remotely with practical building. 



At length he determined upon visiting Italy, and set out for that 

 country in the spring of 1808, taking his route through Dresden, 

 Prague, Vienna, and Trieste. After exainining the antiquities of 

 Istria, he passed over to Venice, thence proceeded to Florence and 

 Rome, and in the following year to Naples and Sicily, returning through 

 France, and reaching Berlin after an absence of two years. At that 

 period the state of public affairs in Prussia was exceedingly unpro- 

 pitious to his prospects in his profession, more especially in that 

 higher department of it to which he aspired ; and he therefore devoted 

 himself for a while to landscape painting — partly views of some of 

 the places he had visited, and partly original compositions, which he 

 generally made the vehicle of his architectural ideas, introducing into 

 them studies and designs of his own. These productions earned for 

 Inm no small reputation, and by so doing they probably opened for 

 him the career in which he subsequently obtained such universal 

 celebrity. On the return of the royal family, he was commissioned to 

 make designs for some alterations in the palace, and in IS 10 was ap- 

 painted «ss<;osor of the Baadcputalion or Board of Works and Build- 

 ings, his duty being to give his advice upon matters of taste. 



At the time of the Allied Sovereigns being in this country, he re- 

 ceived an order from the King of Prussia to prepare designs for a 

 Cathedral to be erected in the capital as a testimonial in honour of 

 the military acliievements so felicitously terminated. But although 

 all the plans and drawings for this Prachl-baa were finished, it was 

 considered more advisable to postpone the work itself indefinitely to 

 some future opportunity. 



Nevertheless, though he was doomed to disappointment in regard 

 to the execution of that magnificent project, the restoration of peace 

 was the epoch from which Schinkel's career as an architect may be 

 dated. It was at that period his talents were first called into play, 

 and important opportunities afforded them, almost uninterruptedly, 

 for a series of years, during which he not only erected most of tlie 

 finest of the public structures wdiich now grace the capital of Prussia, 

 but also many at Potsdam and various other places, besides numerous 

 others for private individuals. To Schinkel, it has been observed, 

 Berlin is indebted for a new physiognomy, one that imparts to it an 

 original and peculiar character; and certainly his works, even the 

 least successful of them give evidence of genialitv, and of an inventive 

 mind, less scrupulous as to following established precedents, than am- 

 bitious of forming precedents for others, and of extending the limits 

 of the art. Among the earliest and certainly not the least successful 

 of his works in the capital are the large Theatre, the Wachtgebaude, 

 and the Museum. To these succeeded the Werder Church, Bauschule, 

 Observatory, &c. &c. Of the buildings here mentioned, together with 

 a great many others, the designs are given in his "Eutwiirfe;" and 

 many of them are illustrated more copiously than is usual in works of 

 the kind, not only by sections and plates of detail, but bv perspective 

 views both exterior and interior. The plates themselves are all iu 

 outline, nothing being shaded except the grcuud plans and solid parts 

 of the sections, therefore those in perspective do not fully express the 

 effect of the buildings themselves. All of them are beautifully drawn, 

 — perhaps too delicately, for they certainly do not possess that vigour 

 and spirit which are so captivating in someof tlie French architectural 

 works all trait. The publication itself, however, has extended Schinkel's 

 influence as well as hi.s reputation, and has almost given rise to a new 

 school of the art in Germany. Among his immedi.de pupils may be 

 named, Sttiler, Knoblauch, Biirde, Menzel, Geisler, Strack, besides 

 many others of rising talent in their profession. Among .Schinkel's 

 other publications is one consisting of a series of designs for furniture 

 (Miibel-entwiirfe), and "Entwiirfe der Holicren B.mkuust," containing 

 designs for the new royal palace, on the Acropolis, at Athens, for 

 which, however, another site was chosen, and G.irlner of Munich ap- 

 pointed the architect. 



3 H 



