1841.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



421 



The competition for the new church at Paddington does not appear 

 to have been an immaculate one, b.it on the contrary, so conducted as 

 to give rise to no little scandal. Among the competitors were several 

 of note— Wild, VuUiamy, &c., and the fortunate one was a young 

 architect of the name of Lindsay, whose design, which was in the 

 Grecian style, w^as approved of by the committee. Mr. Lindsay was, 

 however, doomed to be convinced practically of the truth of the pro- 

 verb, "Between the cup and the lip," for incredible as it niiiy seem, 

 the committee afterwards thought fit to rescind their decision very 

 cavalierly, entirely setting aside the whole affiiir of tlie competition, 

 and appointing Mr. Gutch, a surveyor, and, as is asserted, actually 

 one of the committee, as architect conjointly with Mr. Goldicutt. 

 They — or one of them, but which we are unable to say — then pro- 

 duced the present Gothic design, the expense of wiiich, it is under- 

 stood, will not be at all under £10,000, although the competitors were 

 limited in the first instance to £7,000; therefore it ought, at all 

 events, to be something very superior to what was originally contem- 

 plated. How far such be really the case, is what we have not the 

 means of judging; but if the published lithograph view may be relied 

 on as a tolerably ftiir representation of the building, we think the com- 

 mittee have made after all an exceedingly bid bargain. In regard to 

 style it is a mere jumble, while, looking at it merely as a composition, 

 it is poor, trivial, and insipid. 



As to the manner in which the competition has been conducted, and 

 the original competitors treated, should there be any error or mis- 

 statement in our account of it, we shall be glad to be corrected, and 

 to be assured that whatever the adopted design may be in itself, there 

 was no kind of manoeuvring on the part of any one in the case. 



Sill — Enough has already been said respecting the present system 

 of competition, it is now high time for the profession to do sometliing 

 in order to redress their grievances. A Society might be formed of 

 as many architects (I would not exclude those wjio practice surveying 

 also), as would join themselves together for mutual protection, binding 

 themselves not to compete for any building, the committee of which 

 would not conform to certain fair and impartial rules adopted bv the 

 society; there are no doubt many gentlemen in the profession well 

 qualified to organize such a society, and surely all honest architects 

 would join in the attempt to remove their liability to such dirty actions 

 as it is too well known often disgrace "respectable" committees. 



I sincerely hope that the influential part of the profession will take 

 the matter up. 



I am. Sir, your most obedient servant, 



Parvo. 



[We do not see the utility of any other Society than those already 

 established in the metropolis and various parts of England and Ireland ; 

 if they would do their duty, they might, in some measure, put an end 

 to the present deplorable state of competition. As far as we are con- 

 cerned, we shall be at all times happy to give a Iielping hand to im- 

 prove the system, but we must have the assistance of the Members of 

 the Profession, who ought to act in concert, and not as now, opposed 

 to each other. — Editor.] 



ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF OBLIQUE ARCHES. 



Sir — In your Journal for September 1841, Mr. Barlow in his reply 

 to Mr. Nicholson, has thought proper to make some severe observations 

 on the "Guide to Railway Masonry," published by that gentleman, 

 and as I think very unwarrantably ; Mr. B. only selects a small portion 

 of that work, and because the whole of the oblique arch is not con- 

 tained in his selection, he cannot award that merit to Mr. N.to which 

 he is entitled. To take Mr. B.'s proposition, viz.: "suppose it was re- 

 quired to construct an oblique arch of the following dimensions, 

 span = 10 = A. C. rise 2-.'> = angle 45^ = A. H. C— Width of bridge 

 10 ^ A. U." I will now endeavour to show, aided by the instructions 

 derived from the above publication, that the work can be correctly 

 accomplished. Having laid down the plan and development, &c. &c. 

 as per sketch, II Q G A and E F G A, then at page 10, Guide to Rail- 

 way Masonry, will be found nearly the following directions : divide the 

 straight line E A into nine equal parts, and let S U be respectively the 

 eighth and ninth parts of division from E, draw F v perpendicular to 

 A E meeting it in r, and as the point v falls between the eighth and 

 ninth point, but nearer to the ninth v, than to the eighth s, join 

 F and divide each springer line E F A G into nine equal parts, 

 &c. Thus it will appear from the above that Mr. N. was not so 

 "ignorant" of the fact, of the necessity in some cases of adjusting the 



angle of intrado ; and I believe fliat the first time Mr. Buck mentions 

 the subject, is at page 9, and Mr. N. in his work, at page 10, showing 

 that both Mr. Nicholson and Mr. Buck considered all the instructions- 

 preceding these pages, to have been preliminary. It is rather singular 

 to find Mr. Barlow condemning Mr. Nicholson's "Approximations," 

 when he in your Journal for October, arrives at the very same conclu- 

 sion. " I guess" your readers will understand his position. Certainly 

 no one can deny the "duty" of Mr. Barlow or Mr. C. to "expose 

 errors," &c. Great men should be actuated by great and generous- 

 actions, and not as it appears in Mr. Barlow's case, made the means of 

 suppressing the work of a worthy, intelligent and laborious old man. 

 Highly creditable will it be to Mr. Barlow should he be permitted to- 

 attain to the same venerable age; could he exclaim, I too have beerj 

 as useful to the artisan as a Nicliolson. 



I am, Sir, vour's, &e. 



M. Q. 

 rorA-,Oe/o6cr 8, 1841. 



STEAM NAVIGATION TO THE PACIFIC BY THE ISTHMUS 



OF PANAMA AND ALONG THE WESTERN COAST 



OF SOUTH AMERICA. 



(From Si/liman's American Journal.) 



Some interesting pamphlets on the subject named in the title were 

 placed in our hands earlv in 1840 in Boston, by a brother of Mr. Wil- 

 liam Wheelwright, to whom mainly the world is indebted for an 

 undertaking which may be with prop'rietv ranked the first among the 

 enterprises by steam. Mr. Wheelwright has laboured several years 

 at this undertaking and is now on the eve of success. From himself 

 we have just received a communication, which, although not intended 

 for the public eve, contains many facts in which the world is interested, 

 and we therefore ventiirj to annex certain portions of his letter or 

 abstracts from if. 



Takahiano, March 8, 1841. 



TO r-ROFESiOl; SILLIMAN. 



Dear Sir. — I had the honour of receiving your valued favour only 

 a dav or two since, having left the United States about the time it 

 was Written, to take up the superintendence of the Pacific Steara 

 Navigation Company, wliich I had previously formed in England. 



