1850.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



45 



joining reservoir, and force it into the hydraulic cylinder. The 

 ram is thereby made to move steadily up out of the cylinder, with 

 « force in comparison with the steam-enffine, as the area of the 

 forcing pumps to the area of the ram; and, by means of the side- 

 rods (/, communicates the motion to traction-rods connected with 

 the carriage, which, with the vessel on it, is thus hauled up on the 

 rails of the slip. When the ram has moved out of the cylinder to 

 its full extent, or completed its stroke, the traction-rod (being the 

 »ame length as the stroke) nearest the top is removed. At the 

 same time self-acting apparatus shuts the cock k, for admitting 

 water from the pumps into the hydraulic cylinder, and opens an- 

 other /, for the eduction of that which has been forced in, whilst a 

 roller M, on the shaft is put into gear and winds round it a rope or 

 chain n, proceeding from the crosshead of the ram, and speedily 

 brings back the ram into the cylinder to its former position, ready 

 to take a fresh hold. The next traction-rod of the purchase chain 

 is now attached to the crosshead E, while the self-acting apparatus 

 is reversing the cocks, and putting the winding-up roller out of 

 gear. The same action as before again takes place, and the ram 

 moves up to the end of its stroke, when another traction-rod is 

 knocked off, and the ram returns to be attached to another. And 

 so on, by a succession of these movements the carriage, with the 

 ship upon it, is steadily and quickly drawn up on the slip to the 

 distance required. 



When not employed for hauling up vessels, the steam power 

 may be rendered available for working circular saws, grindstones, 

 and other apparatus required in ship-building yards. 



The foregoing represents steam as the motive power employed 

 for working the hydraulic purchase, but, of course, if preferred, 

 manual or other power may be substituted with similar advan- 

 tages. 



GREAT SUSPENSION BRIDGE IN RUSSIA. 



Considerable interest has been excited in St. Petersburgh by a 

 remarkable model of a suspension bridge across the river Dnieper, 

 at Kieff, one of the principal cities of Russia. This model was 

 made in London, where it was exhibited to most of the principal 

 engineers and architects. It has since arrived in St. Petersburgh, 

 and has been put up in one of the grand saloons of the Winter 

 Palace, where it was formally presented to his Imperial Mnjesty 

 on hisjyie day (18th of December), by Mr. Vignoles, the English 

 engineer, from whose designs, and under whose immediate direc- 

 tions, this bridge is now constructing. 



The Dnieper is one of the largest rivers in the Russian empire, 

 rising in the vicinity of Smolensko, and flowing in a southerly 

 direction it enters the Black Sea, to the eastward of Odessa. In a 

 broad geographical sense, the Dnieper may be considered as the 

 easternmost boundary between Russia Proper (or Muscovy) and 

 the great kingdom of Poland, which once extended westward 

 nearly to the Giant Mountains of Bohemia, southward to the Car- 

 pathians, and northward to the Baltic. The principal city entered 

 by the Dnieper in its long course to the sea is Kieff, celebrated in 

 history as the first spot whereon Christianity was planted among 

 the barbarous hordes then leading a nomadic life over the steppes 

 of Russia, is well known also as an important military frontier 

 post, alternately possessed by the Poles and by the Muscovites, 

 and at piesent rising into great iniportante as the capital of the 

 south of Russia. 



Kieff is most picturesquely situated on the right or southern 

 shore of the Dnieper; it covers a great extent of space, with nu- 

 merous public buildings crowning the many heights of the undu- 

 lating ground on which the city is built. The general aspect of 

 the city is very striking, and the impression on a traveller from 

 the western parts of Europe is that which he would expect to re- 

 ceive on first viewing some Asiatic capital. The commercial part 

 of the town, called the Podol, lies on a low plain at the western 

 extremity; the rest of Kieff is elevated from 200 to 300, and even 

 400 feet above the level, overlooking all the left or northern shores 

 of the Dnieper, which are low and flat marshes, extending for 

 many leagues above and below Kieff, and from one to two leagues 

 ^vide. In the spring the whole becomes a lake, as the waters rise; 

 the only approach from the north to Kieff is along a causeway raised 

 above the level of the floods. It is from the end of this causeway 

 that the suspension bridge is thrown across the Dnieper to the 

 foot of the steep acclivities on the right bank. The river, which, 

 for several leagues above, has spread through numerous lateral 

 channels, here unites into one deep bed, and presents the narrowest 



passage. This passage is, however, still half an English mile in 

 breadth, the depth of the water, in a dry autumn, being upwards 

 of 30 feet in the streamway, and sometimes more than 50 feet after 

 the melting of the snow in spring. Over this chasm, which once 

 formed the barrier for Poland against the invasion of the Musco- 

 vites, the necessity of internal communication and the general 

 march of improvement has called for the erection of a permanent 

 bridge, and with enlightened policy the Emperor of Russia has 

 ordered such a bridge to be constructed. 



The soil of the bed of the river being wholly of sand, and the 

 current often changing its channel, considerable difficulties pre- 

 sented themselves, while the tremendous breaking up of the ice 

 after winter followed by the melting of the snows in the more 

 northern districts, swelled the stream to an extent scarcely com- 

 prehensible to the inhabitants of Great Britain. It became, there- 

 fore, a necessary condition that the number of piers of any bridge 

 to be built there should be the fewest possible, with the largest 

 openings between them. Hence it seemed most natural that, with 

 the given limit of expense, the principle of a suspension bridge 

 should be preferred, and the designs were so prepared accordingly, 

 and submitted to his Imperial Majesty. On Mr. Vignoles' urgent 

 recommendations, the use of wire ropes as the means of suspen- 

 sion was negatived, and the adoption of w rought-iron chains with 

 broad flat links was decided on. Such was the system employed 

 for the Menai and Conway bridges in Wales, by Telford; at seve- 

 ral places in England; and also in Hungary, at Pesth, across the 

 Danube, by Tierney Clarke. All these bridges, however, have but 

 one central opening. The suspension bridge at Kieff has four 

 principal openings, each of 440 feet, and two side openings of 2-25 

 feet each, and also a passage of 50 feet on the right shore, spanned 

 by a swivel bridge, opening for the passage of the steamboats and 

 other river craft. There are, therefore, five suspension piers in 

 the river, one mooring abutment on the left bank, another moor- 

 ing abutment on the Kieff side of the stream (which, on account 

 of the passage for boats beyond it, is actually an island of masonry 

 in the river,), and an abutment for the swivel bridge on the right 

 bank. Each of these have required a cofferdam of unusual size — 

 particularly the two last mentioned. The architecture of the river 

 piers is rather novel, and of a striking character, harmonising 

 with that used in the extensive range of first-class fortresses which 

 crown the heights of Kieff. The ways through the piers have a 

 clear breadth of 28 feet, and a height of 35 feet to the soffit of 

 the semicircular arches. The platform has nearly 53 feet of 

 extreme breadth, of which 35 feet are exclusively devoted to the 

 carriage-way; the platform is suspended by chains, all on the same 

 horizontal p'lane, two on each side of the road; the footpaths pro- 

 ject beyond the chains, and are carried by cantilevers round the 

 piers e'xteriorily, so that the foot passengers are completely sepa- 

 rated from the horsemen and carriages. The chains are composed 

 of links 12 feet long, and each weighing about 4 cwt.; eight links 

 form the breadth of each chain, and the total length measured 

 along their curves being about four English miles. For the swivel 

 bridge the iron employed is almost exclusively malleable; the 

 breadth of the platform' is nearly 53 feet, and the weight of iron 

 employed scarcely exceeds 100 tons. The bridge is moved hori- 

 aontally (on tlie'same principle that locomotive engines are sent 

 round on the large turntables at a railway station), and by the 

 efforts of four men only, acting on a very simple apparatus. Th« 

 construction of the platform of the bridge presents several novel 

 combinations of wood and iron, and is of extreme stiffness, to re- 

 sist the violent action of the eddies of air in violent winds, which 

 have so often injured, and even destroyed, the ordinary platforms 

 of suspension bridges in other places. The balustrade is remark- 

 ably light and elegant, in ornamental panels of wrought-iron. 

 Indeed, cast-iron has been carefully excluded from every part of 

 the whole bridge, except where its use was really preferable or ab- 

 solutely unavoidable. The total weight of iron used in the con- 

 struction of the bridge is about 3,300 tons, including the machinery 

 used in the various stages of its construction. The whole was 

 made in England, several of the most celebrated ironmasters and 

 manufacturers having been engaged upon it. It required fifteeji 

 vessels to bring the iron to Odessa, whence it was taken up to 

 Kieff in small wagons drawn by oxen, over the wild steppes, almost 

 witliout roads, or none that deserve tlie name. 



The quantity of machinery of every kind employed in the con- 

 struction of the Kieff bridge is most enormous, and not less than 

 nine steam-engines are in use. Two of these are large stationary 

 ones, each capable of working up to a power of 50 horses; the rest 

 are from four to eight horses' power, and can be moved about as 

 required. These engines pump water, drive piles, grind mortar, 



