1840.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



141 



Ai'e you prepared to answer these questions? — if not, and you 

 request me to come to my own conclusions respectinir these pre- 

 liminary points, 1 must put off the main one of an eft'ective drain- 

 age, until I have instituted the necesary inquiries in connection 

 Tvith some of tliem; and obtained the furtlier information, over 

 •which I have no control, respecting the remainder." — His ne.vt 

 step is to obtain the required local data, which \\ ould he comprised 

 principally in — 1st, an accurate trigonometrical survey of the 

 whole area at all likely to be necessary for a full investigation; 

 plotted, first, to a sufficiently large working scale for all matters 

 of detail, say five feet to the mile; and, secondly, to a smaller 

 scale of perhaps eight inches to the mile. 2ndly, a net-work of 

 levels plotted on botli plans, in contours at vertical equi-distances, 

 say of two feet; with, on the larger plotting, a second, and may be 

 a third, set of secondary contours, equi-multiples of the fii'st, on 

 all such portions necessitating the same, on account of the lowness 

 of districts or other cause. 3rdly, a skeleton plan of the present 

 drainage ivorks, the levels of the underground portions of which 

 would be embodied chiefly in, 4thly, a set of longitudinal sections, 

 reduced to the same datum as the contours, of all the ])resent main 

 and brancli sewers and drains. And, 5thly, other local informa- 

 tion of different kinds, respecting the nature of which it is not 

 necessary for us here to dwell. Are we prepared to furnish these.'' 

 — If not, we must give up all thoughts of a "comprehensive" 

 scheme, truly capahh of being found efficient in praetiix, until we 

 have obtained them. 



Admitting these requirements obtained, an engineer would still 

 have a great number of difficulties to contend with, for the reasons 

 stated at the beginning of this paper; and the result of his labour 

 would probably be the production of two or three schemes, varying 

 in principles — each with advantages and disad^•antages, of which it 

 would be his duty to point out the nature. For instance, one plan 

 might embody a comprehensive scheme, depending upon natui-al 

 resources as far as possibly available, with many of the consequent 

 advantages of a natural system of drainage, but defective in as 

 much that these natural resources are not available in certain low 

 districts without flushing — itself an artificial means — and that a 

 portion of the drainage would be intermittent. The next, on the 

 contrary, might provide for the removal of the sewage by artificial 

 power; it would have the advantages over the first scheme, of 

 being constant and thorotighly effective tliroughout — its defects 

 would lie in the adoption of purely mechanical means and exten- 

 sive machinery, instead of merely tlie natural power afforded by 

 gravitation. The third would probably be a combination of the 

 principles of the two first, according to local circumstances of 

 level, including only the minimum amount of artificial power con- 

 sistent with a constant and truly efficient discharge of the refuse. 

 This last would probably be recommended. 



Had these steps been followed more strictly, we should now be in 

 a better position to report progress; but as it is, we are anything 

 but prepared to frame a compreliengive plan. Moreovei-, ive fear 

 our progress, of late, has been like that of the crab — backward: 

 we are beginning to doubt that tlie pollution of the Thames is an 

 evil; and soon we shall be informed that the defective state of our 

 drainage is in a great measure a fallacy, and tliat, with a few im- 

 provements — ja. main sewer here, and a brick drain there — we shall 

 do very well indeed. This, however, is not the greatest evil we 

 have to dread; we have to fear the endeavour, hy the waste of 

 hundreds of thousands, to force the river Tliames to do— by what 

 we are pleased to term "natural means" — what, in spite of Mr. 

 Sheriff Lawrence's opinion, she never was intended to do. The 

 extraordinary accumulation of population on the river bank 

 of Middlesex is a purely accidental circumstance, perfectly inde- 

 pendent of nature, her laws, or her provisions; and the business 

 of engineering is to ndnpt the resources she ha,s so bountifully 

 placed at our command for our well-being and happiness, and not 

 to force ujion her what she ne\er provided for, wlien fortuitous 

 circumstances of man's own creating render her provisions inade- 

 quate to his demands. 



East Indian Raihoa/s. — .Iniongst tho passengers for India Ijy the steamer 

 of the 2Utli ult., was Mr. George'Turnliull, the resident engineer of the East 

 Indian Railway Company, and his staff'. A vigonms pros^-cution o( the worlis 

 is now hidked for. From the recent reports of the Company, it appears tliat 

 more than 300,000/. of tlie capital is already paiil-up, upon whieli the gua- 

 ranteed interest of 5 per cent, is accruing, and th.it arrangements have been 

 made with the India llonse. hy which, at the i-xpiration of the current year, 

 the paid up capital will amount to ahout 500,000/., or one-half of the mil- 

 lion required for the first section of the line. 



INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 



Fell. 26. — WiLiiAM Ct'BiTT, Esq., President, in the Chair. 



The paper read was " On the Street Paving of the Metropolis, with an 

 Account of a pecidiar system adopted at the London and North-Western 

 Uailwaij Station, Fusion- srpiare." By Mr. William Taylor. 



The paper commenced hy directing attention to the importance of a good 

 system of paving, in conjunction with a more perfect plan of sewage for all 

 large towns. The paving of the metropolis has too long been carried on 

 under an antiquated and unscienlifie system, nf using large masses of granite, 

 placed upon an inefficient substratum ; the consequences of this were great 

 noise, an imperfect foot-hnid for the horses, danger of the constant fracture 

 of the springs and axles from the jolting over an uneven surface, and 

 great expence of repairs. The macadamised streets were manifest improve- 

 ments on such a system, but the surface was not found capable of resisting 

 the heavy traffic of the main thoroughfares of the City. The defects of the 

 wood pavement so greatly exceeded the merits that it had been nearly 

 abandoned. 



liiipressed with the disadvantages of the present system of paving, 

 Mr. Taylor tried an experiment about ten years ago, by covering a surface 

 subject to very heavy traffic, and subsequently, about five years since, 

 entirely paving the departure side of the Euston Station of the London and 

 North-Western Railway in a peculiar manner. The system was upon 

 entirely new princi|iles. The method employed was, after removing the 

 subsoil to the depth of sixteen inches, to lay a thickness of four inches of 

 strong gravel, equally and well rammed, then another layer of gravel mixed 

 with a small quantity of chalk, or hoggin, for the purpose of giving elasticity, 

 the ramming being continued as before; a third coat of the same materials, 

 was then laid and rammed, a regular degree of convexity of surface being 

 preserved. The stones used were of Mount Sorrel granite, dressed and 

 squared into regular masses of four inches deep, three inches thick, and 

 four inches long: these stones were laid in a bed of (ine sand, one inch in 

 thickness, equally spread over the surface of the substratum, and they were 

 carefully placed, so that no stone should rock in its bed. The whole surface 

 was then well driven down with wooden rammers, weighing fifty-five pounds 

 each. The small size of the stones enabled them to be well rammed home, 

 so that the surface of the pavement never sunk, and the hardness and tough- 

 ness of the material, prevented the stones from being worn down by any 

 traffic, however heavy. 



It was stated, that this system was found infinitely preferable to the em- 

 ployment of large stones, and the statement of cost was vastly in its favour; 

 the price of the ordinary kind of granite paving, in London, being eighteen 

 shillings per superfiiial yard, and the maximum cost of the new or "Euston" 

 pavement, including the substratum, was not twelve shillings per yard, and 

 deducting the value of the old stones, not (in this latter case,) claimed 

 by the contractor, the nett cost would only be nine shillings per yard. 



The system was stated to have been very extensively employed at Bir- 

 mingham, and many provincial towns, and it appeared admitted, that the 

 beauty of the pavement vvlien completed, was only equalled by its extreme 

 durability, and hy the manifest advantages it offered in its noiselessness, 

 good foot-hold for horses, freedom from jolting, and the small repairs it 

 required. 



It was suggested, that the different Paving Boards should make a trial in 

 streets of small traffic, hy lifting the large stones, and cutting them into 

 small cnlies, or rectangular pieces, of three inches in depth, for the future 

 pavement; so that a good field would be afforded for the practice of the 

 paviours, which would enable them to be better qualined for the task of ex- 

 tending the system to the more important thoroughfares: by this means, 

 too, a large surplus of stone would be accumulated for paving, and the refuse 

 would be valuable for macadamising the roads in the outskirts. 



March 5. — In discussing the merits of Mr. Taylor's system, it was con- 

 tended that a rigid and unyiehling substratum had been tried hy Mr. Telford 

 many years since, and bad been used with success in some parts of the City 

 paving, up to the present time. The average duration of the pavenaent on 

 the streets in the City was stated to be eiglity years, but that it was con- 

 stantly subject to injury, from being moved by the water and gas companies. 

 The pavement on London Bridge by Sir John Rennie was instanced as a 

 good, but expensive, example of the use of long narrow stones; and that by 

 Mr. Walker, on Blackfriaps Briilge, was quoted as another instance of the 

 success that might be olitained by great care in the preparation of the 

 substratum, which was of concrete, and the stones of the pavement being 

 lai.l with more than ordinary skill and care. The results in both cases were 

 eminently successful, but it was allowed that such an expensive system, 

 however beautiful, was not a[iplicable to the ordinary streets. 



It was admitted, that, allbough the principal streets of the City and the 

 main thoroughfares of the West and East ends were well attended to, yet it 

 must be allowed, that the paving of the inujority of the streets was not in a 

 satisfactory state, and it was atinbuted, in a great degree, to the want of a 

 definite system being adopted; there being too many authorities in the 

 shape of parish paving hoards, each of which had a separate surveyor, too 

 often equally inefficient and ill-paid. The water and gas companies ap. 

 peared to vie with each other in their endeavours to destroy the paving; and 

 a portion of the Strand was quoted as having been removed thirty times 

 within two vears. 



