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THE CJVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



43 



to do more than to point to it, as one of the remarkable works of 

 the present day of whi 'i we have justly reason to be proud. 



In Steam Navigation prreat efforts have been made by some of 

 the principal marine engineers and the builders of wood and iron 

 vessels. The result has been the production of four steamers, 

 with engines by Messrs. Seaward, Miller, Penn, and Forrester, in 

 vessels built respectively by Messrs. Mare, Miller, Thompson, and 

 Laird, for conveying the mails; and an equal number of engines 

 by Messrs. Maudslay and Field, Forrester, and Bury, in vessels by 

 Messrs. AVigram, Alare, Laird, and Vernon, for carrying passen- 

 gers between Holyhead and Dublin, which have attained the speed 

 of nearly 18 miles per hour, and accomplish the passage, on an 

 average, in four hours. By these means when the Britannia tubular 

 bridge is completed, the journey between London and Dublin may 

 be accomplished within 11 hours. This is an extraordinary ad- 

 vance upon the opinions of only a few years since, when it was re- 

 ported to be possible to perform the same distance in 14 hours. 

 The excellent machinery of Messrs. Maudslay and Field, and of 

 Messrs. Forrester and Co., in the iron steamers built by Mr. C. 

 Mare and Mr. J. Laird, have also contributed mainly in accom- 

 plishing a journey to Paris, as we have recently seen it performed, 

 in eight hours and a half; giving a death-blow to the onerous sys- 

 tem of passports, which hitherto interfered so materially with 

 that free and unrestricted communication so essential for the mu- 

 tual benefit of the two countries. In the accomplishment of this 

 rapid communication with Paris, I may be permitted to feel som 

 pride, as, in my capacity of engineer of the South-Eastern, and in 

 my professional connection with the Boulogne and Amiens rail- 

 ways, the possibility of expediting the intercourse between the two 

 capitals constantly occupied my mind; and so long ago as in June, 

 18i3, before the present fast steamboats were placed on the sta- 

 tion, I undertook and accomplished the task of conveying the di- 

 rectors and their friends from London to Boulogne, and home 

 again, between 6 o'clock in the morning and 10 o'clock in the even- 

 ing, with a sufficient interval for a public reception at Boulogne. 

 Among the builders of steam-vessels, iVIr. Scott Russell must be par- 

 ticularly mentioned, for tlie successful investigation and applica- 

 tion of the wave lines to the forms of vessels, so that the curves of 

 least disturbance can at once be adapted to a vessel the ultimate, 

 or greatest velocity of which has been previously determined; and 

 thus high speeds, and easy motion through the water, can be at- 

 tained; whilst a given immersion is arrived at with certainty. 

 These points were remarkably shown in the Manchester, a vessel 

 for carrying passengers across the Humber, at New Holland, and 

 with its consort steamer the Sheffield, constructed by Messrs. 

 Rennie, becoming as it were floating bridges, completing the line 

 of the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway, and con- 

 veying the contents of the trains, from point to point, at a speed 

 of about sixteen miles an hour. 



In connection with this railway must be mentioned, the large 

 pontoon, recently built by Messrs. E. B. Wilson and Co. (of Leeds), 

 from the design, and under the direction of Mr. John Fowler. 

 This immense iron vessel, which is four hundred feet long, fifty 

 feet wide, and eight feet deep, with a deck area of twenty thousand 

 square feet, serves as a floating landing stage, for these fast pas- 

 sage-steamers, rendering the railway ti-ains independent of the 

 tide, and of the muddy shores of the Humber. 



The deck-area of this landing stage is about half that of a some- 

 what similar structure, built a short time previous, from my 

 designs, and under my direction, at Liverpool, and of which a 

 description and drawings will be prepared for an early meeting of 

 the Institution; as an earnest of my intention to practise what I 

 have ventured to impress upon all those, who not only possess the 

 information, but the power of imparting it, for the benefit of their 

 professional brethren. 



A number of fine steamers have also been constructed, for the 

 Government, for private companies, and for foreign States, in 

 which the beautiful engines of Maudslay and Field, Miller, Seaward, 

 Penn, Napier, Rennie, and others, have fully maintained their 

 European reputation. 



Railways. — This incomplete sketch of a few of the engineering 

 works of the past year, leaves untouched that vast subject, the 

 Railway System, towards the completion of which, much has been 

 accomplished within the last twelvemonths, without that public 

 excitement which accompanied all its former progress. There are 

 now nearly five thousand five hundred miles of railway completed 

 in Great Britain, at a cost of about two hundred and twenty mil- 

 lions sterling, which immense sum, derived from private sources, 

 has been expended within the realm, encouraging in an extraordi- 



nary degree, productive industry of all kinds, and inducing a revo- 

 lution in all mercantile transactions and social relations. The 

 Steam Engine and the Power Loom have been regarded by the 

 sober-minded political economist, as the real sources of the power 

 and influence of Great Britain, and though the gallantry of her 

 hardy sons, both in the military and naval services, may Iiave been 

 more publicly apparent, and were, in fact, inestimably valuable 

 when called into action, it is the productive classes of this country 

 that constitute its real strength. The example of England, in 

 boldly abandoning the finest roads, and adopting throughout the 

 length and breadth of the land, a network of iron ways, over which, 

 by the aid of steam, passengers and merchandise are conveyed at a 

 velocity, which, at its first proposition, was by the world deemed 

 worse than visionary, first filled our continental neighbours with 

 astonishment, and then compelled their imitation, so that within a 

 few years, by this new power, the relative positions of the conti- 

 nental states are changed, and the ultimate effect must be to intro- 

 duce wants, and consequently civilisation, to the most remote 

 corners of the earth. 



If this be true, we are naturally led to inquire who were the 

 authors of this great revolution, what minds conceived, and what 

 energies executed these vast projects, thwarted and controlled, as 

 theymust have been, by vested interests on the one hand, and the 

 necessity of urging into action a whole nation, before such a mo- 

 mentous change could be effected. The reply. Gentlemen, must 

 spring spontaneously from you all. The Civil and Mechanical 

 Engineers have been the great actors in this most interesting 

 chapter of the social history of our country; and if we may look 

 back, almost with reverence, to the splendid careers of Arkwright, 

 Brindley, Smeaton, Jessop, Mylne, Ralph Walker, Dodd, AV^att, 

 Telford, Rennie, and a host of other illustrious names, we may 

 with equal pride look around upon the men of our own time, whose 

 voices have frequently been heard within these walls, instructing 

 and urging us onward in the course they had so successfully fol- 

 lowed; some of them are removed from us, but the names of 

 Rennie, AValker, Stephenson, and Brunei, are yet here, and they 

 have left worthy scions to complete the works they so nobly com- 

 menced. One great duty the departed have enjoined on us — the 

 record of their works and of our own; and let us remember, that if 

 we desire to hand down our names to posterity, as useful members 

 of society, it is our duty to render this Institution the depository of 

 the accounts of our works, that the future historian of this event- 

 ful age, may find in our archives, not only accounts of the works 

 themselves,' but of the men who conceived and accomplished them, 

 and to whom their country is so deeply indebted. 



For the junior members of the profession, many of whom have 

 already given indications of talent and power, auguring iveU for 

 their future fame, a wide field is opened in the sanitary question, 

 which embraces the subjects of the drainage and sewerage, the 

 paving, lighting, and cleansing of cities and towns; the more 

 copious and less expensive supplies of water and gas; and, in con- 

 junction with the architects, the improvement of the dwellings of 

 the labouring classes; the establishment of baths and wash-houses; 

 and the introduction of abattoirs. 



In this latter portion of the question, the railways should act an 

 important ]>art; for if their establishment has created a wish, or a 

 necessity for travelling, and produced great changes in commercial 

 transactions, by rendering unnecessary the intervention of a third 

 person between the manufacturer and the tradesmen, it would 

 appear feasible to use the same facilities for bringing up from the 

 country large supplies of animal food, ready for sale, instead of the 

 living animals, to be slaughtered in a crowded city, and introdu- 

 cing noxious and unhealthy trades, for using up those portions not 

 fit for food. If, as we have been recently informed by the jour- 

 nals, there be a great discrepancy in the prices of food, between 

 London and the country towns, the aid of the railways should be 

 invoked, and the same producers should be glad to avail them- 

 selves of an opportunity of supplying the metropolis, in such a 

 manner as would soon equalise the general prices. 



The engineers have always been the real sanitary reformers, as 

 they are the originators of all onward movements; all their labours 

 tend to the amelioration of their fellow-men; and though in times 

 past the introduction of machinery was looked upon with jealousy, 

 education has now happily caused a more just appreciation of their 

 labours; indeed they would deserve the highest encomiums if only 

 for the application of steam, which, in production alone, now repre- 

 sents the power of forty millions of human beings, who, even if 

 thev had been able to perform the labour, would have been degraded 

 by it to the level of mere animals, instead of thinking creatures, 

 sent each to perform his part in the complete system of social life. 



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