416 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[Dkcembkr, 



exterior view of the same building, is by no means so interesting as 

 the other, — In fact it might very well have been dispensed with, it 

 being no more than a Corinthian peripteral temple, and having also 

 been shown some time ago, in one or two of our weekly publications. 

 We rather wonder that we do not here meet with the Colurine de 

 JuitUt, — not that it is a particularlv good subject in itself, but because 

 it is the newest thing of its kind in the French capital. However, 

 although their subjects might have been more judiciously chosen, the 

 plaits are by far the best part of the feast — vastly better than the 

 insipid hotchpotch which Mrs. Gore has diahtd-iip on her part. 



Sporting Architecture. By George Tattersall. London: Ackermann,1841. 

 The Edinburgh Review has lately devoted a long article to sporting 

 literature, and the Athenaeum has made itself merry with a sporting 

 novel. After such an advent, we were prepared for any miracle, par- 

 ticularly when we remembered what important influence sporting le- 

 gislation has for centuries had upon the social system fabric; but in 

 what unlooked-for form the genius of sporting was next to be found 

 we could not say, whether lecturing upon sporting ffisthetics in our 

 older universities, places long haunted by the Newmarket Minerva, or 

 whether in the Useful Knowledge Halls of the Gower Street College, 

 it was not for us to divine. Imagine, then, our surprise, when we find 

 the new offspring of this union of Diana and Apollo laid at the doors 

 of our own Foundling Hospital, to wit, in the shape of young Tatter- 

 sall on Sporting Architecture. Sporting Architecture ! and why not? 

 when horses are better cared for than men, when the hygeiene of 

 puppies is far more studied than that of the starving thousands, why 

 should not sporting have its architecture as well as its painting and 

 its prose ? The numerous occasions on which it is necessary for the 

 builder to make provision for animal economy would alone induce us 

 to give our attention to the subject ; but when we have, in the heredi- 

 tary tastes of Mr. Tattersall, and in his professional skill as an archi- 

 tect, such weighty motives for listening to his themes, we should be, 

 indeed, inexcusable had we the adder's deafness. We can, however, 

 scarcely forbear from a smile when we think of the Choragic Monu- 

 ment of Lysicrates turned into a distance post, and the Erechtheum on 

 the top of a grand stand. With all these incongruities, we must look 

 upon sporting architecture, or architecture for horses and hounds as a 

 subject of considerable importance. In connection with military build- 

 ings the proper mode of constructing stables, must be carefully studied, 

 and when we are informed that a sum of 10,0U0Z. has in more than one 

 instance been laid out on a dog kennel, 70,00U/. on stables at Windsor, 

 and that no expense is spared that can preserve the health of the 

 stock, it behoves the architect to look about him. In its bearings, too, 

 upon farm architecture, and the building of railway stations, riding 

 houses, cattle markets, and slaughter houses, the work before us is of 

 interest, and in fact, whether in the stable attached to a private dwel- 

 ling house, or whether in buildings specially appropriated to the horse, 

 every professional man will find liis advantage iu adopting Mr. Tatter- 

 sail's volume as a work of reference. When we look into it we are 

 pleased to see the care the author has taken in availing himself of in- 

 formation from the best sources, and we are pleased with the attention 

 he has devoted to ventilation, drainage, soil and materials. Mr. Tat- 

 tersall is a man of taste, also ; we find his work well and usefully 

 illustrated, so that we look upon it as a good addition to our profes- 

 sional library. Utility is Mr. Tattersall's motto, and in a subject which 

 is generally treated ad ciiplandum, it does him great credit that he 

 should have so steadily fulfilled his promise. 



Companion to the Almanac for 1842. Knight and Co. 

 The architectural portion of this new volume of the " Companion," 

 which has just made its appearance so late in the month as barelv to 

 allow us to mention it — contains much interesting matter, both des- 

 criptive and critical. Among the buildings which are more fully 

 noticed, are, the Houses of Parliament, — Royal Exchange, — the struc- 

 ture in Threadneedle Street, — St. George's Hall and Assize Courts, 

 Liverpool (with plan and persjiective view), — Collegiate Institution, 

 do., (with view),— Surry Pauper Lunatic Asylum,— Savings Bank, 

 Bath (with view),— Streatham Church (with elevation), — St. Mary's 

 Southwark (with view), — Trinity Chapel, Po|)lar (with elevation and 

 section), — and St. Chad's, Birmingham. 



A Hand Book for Plain and Ornamental Mapping. — Part II. By 

 Benjamin P. Wilme, C.E. and Surveyor. London: Weale, 1841. 

 Mr. Wilme's book is a collection of designs for executing the seve- 

 ral parts of a map, including ornamental titles, sections, hills, embank- 

 ments, drains, &:c., and may be advantageously used by the engineering 

 draughtsman. 



ON EARTH WORK. 



By Ellwood Morris (United States), Civil Engineer. 



[The following extracts from the American Franklin Journal, show 

 that our transatlantic brethren are alive to the economical working of 

 earth work. We shall be glad to receive from some of our engineers 

 their observations on the increase or decrease of earth work and rock 

 when removed from cutting to embankment. — Editor.] 



On the Coit of Excavating Earth by tneani of Scrapers or Scoops. 



Of all machines known to American Engineers, and used upon our 

 public works for the excavation of earth, and its removal to short dis- 

 tances, the scraper, or scoop, is, within its proper sphere of influence, 

 by far the most economical. 



This instrument is particularly well known to canal contractors, 

 much used by them in earth cuttings, and most frequently employed 

 in excavating the trunks of canals, where they are so laid out that the 

 cutting makes the bank, or nearly so ; but the scoop may be used with 

 success in all excavations of earth where the slopes do not exceed li 

 to 1, if the material to be taken out yields readily to the plough, and 

 is not required to be moved horizontally more than 100 feet, nor to 

 vertical heights exceeding 15 feet; there are doubtless instances 

 where both these limits may be surpassed, and the use of the scoop 

 still be highly economical, but such cases are not general, and the 

 practical scope of the utility of scoops may be regarded as confined to 

 the excavation of canal trunks, and the formation of low road embank- 

 ments from side trenches, for both of which purposes it is more ad- 

 mirably adapted. 



This machine is drawn by two horses, managed by a boy, and usuallv 

 requires the ground to be first ploughed ; then by simply elevating 

 and guiding the handles a little, the driver causes it to load itself, for 

 the horses being in motion it turns in its clevisses, and inclining down- 

 ward, runs under the loose dirt like a plough; the handles being re- 

 leased, the loaded scoop moves upon two iron shods runners which 

 form the sides, and project below the bottom, and finally after reach- 

 ing the place of deposit, the handles being smartly elevated, the edge 

 of the scoop, which is armed with iron, takes hold of the bank, and the 

 horses moving on, it overturns and discharges its load ; in this over- 

 turned position, with the handles resting on the double tree, it returns 

 upside down to the place of excavation, and is there loaded, &c., as 

 before. 



Although for successful scooping the ground usually requires loosen- 

 ing, and must not be so hard as to resist the plough; it is often the 

 case, especially in sandy material, that it is to soft that the scoop, by 

 its armed edge, is able to excavate it, and load itself, without any pre- 

 vious loosening of the earth. 



All this will be rendered so evident to the reader, by an inspection 

 of the annexed isometrical sketch, showing a scoop, with its double 

 tree, and single trees, that any further description of the mode of ope- 

 ration seems to be entirely unnecessary. 



The writer pursuing his object of acquiring, from actual experi- 

 ment, a knowledge of the cost of excavating materials and forming 

 embankments upon public works, early addressed himself to observe 

 the effect produced by scoops, and the results of numerous observa- 

 tions upon scooping earth to horizontal distances of from 30 to SO feet, 

 and heights of 5 to 15 feet, where the slopes are 2 feet base to 1 foot 

 rise, established in a satisfactory manner the following data : 



