40 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[Feb- 



1 on llic High Peak Riuhvav, 1629. Thomas Jackson Woodhouse, 

 Eiigiiioer. 



1 on the Stockton luiii D.irhngton ditto, 1S25. John Dixon, Engineer. 

 1 on the Great Xortli Road, three miles north of Newcastle, on the 

 road to Morpeth. 



15 on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, 1830, of the following 

 spans— 14 ft., loh ft., 31 ft., Si! ft., two 38 ft., 47 ft., 32A ft., 34 ft., 

 33 ft., three 3u ft., 54 ft., and one of two arches, G5 ft. span each. 

 The one 54 ft. span is built at an angle of 5ii°, or its complement, 34°, 

 at Riiinhili, and wholly of ashlar. George Stephenson, Engineer. 

 1 on Hartlepool Railway, at Castle Eden, 1834. 

 Several on the York and N. Midland ; 1 over the river Aire, G54 ft. 

 span, at an angle of 150"^ ; 1 over the Calder, of three arches, 50 ft. span, 

 at an angle of 75"; the arches are brick. 



Newcastle and North Shields, of small spans, IS ft. each, 1830. 

 Robert Nicholson, Engineer. 



Great North of England Railway, bridge over the Tees at Cross, 

 1830 ; four arches of 00 ft. span, being segments with a versed sine of 

 14i ft., built at an angle of 50^. The height of the bridge is nearly 

 70 ft. from the water, and measured from out to out of parapet, in the 

 square, is "23 ft. 9 in., whilst, measured in the direction of the abutment, 

 the length is 37i feet; 19 courses of the arch stones spring from an 

 abutment, and 44 are independent of either, (each stone is 13^ in. 

 broad on the soffit, lO-J in. long, and 2-2 ft. in depth,) making a mass of 

 stone in each arch, without including the haunches or parapets, of 

 oOO tons weight, suspended in mid air, capable of bearing as many 

 tons more passing over it, at th<; rate of 3u miles per hour. Truly 

 this is a work of which modern science may be proud. This mag- 

 nificent work was designed, and superintended during its execution, 

 by Mr. Henry Welch, the surveyor of bridges for the county of Nor- 

 thumberland. 



On the Brandling Junction Railway, 1 bridge Ss % ft. span, with a 

 versed sine of ft., segmental at an angle of 7(3°, 1839. John Benj. 

 Green, Architect, Newcastle. 



1 on Midland Counties Railway, near Sawley, 30 ft. span, built 

 wholly of ashlar, at an angle of io\ Thomas Jackson Woodhouse, 

 Engineer. 



The extraordinary expense in executing the oblique arches, coupled 

 with the risk of insecurity when carried to any large extent, has 

 induced engineers to find some other material than stone, and the 

 following plans have been adopted. In the year 1827, Mr. Leather, of 

 Leeds, constructed a bridge at Monk Bridge, near Leeds, and another 

 in 1833, at Hunslet, near Leeds, both of cast iron, on an ingenious and 

 novel plan, viz. two arches of cast iron, with the roadway suspended 

 below. This principle has been adopted on the London and Birming- 

 ham Railway, and the North Midland at Derby. Wooden arches on 

 the laminar principle have been similarly used by J. B. Green, of 

 Newcastle, and framing on the SchafFhausen plan, by Mr. Blackmore, 

 engineer to the Carlisle Railway. Cast iron arches and girders have 

 been extensively used, by building the abutments askew, and placing 

 the girders in the direction of the intended roadway. There is one of 

 cast iron, of 47 ft. span, over the Uppingham Road, on the Midland 

 Counties Railway, Thomas J. Woodhouse, Engineer; one on girders, 

 37 ft. span, over the Paddington and Grand Junction Canal, on the 

 Great Western Railway, I. K. Brunei, Engineer; on the Manchester 

 and Birmingham Railway, over the Fairfield street, Manchester, G. 

 W. Buck, Engineer; a cast iron arch, of 128i ft. span, at an angle of 

 25". The abutment is in the line of the street, and the arches placed 

 in the line of the railway, IJ ft. apart, and the stone abutment above 

 the spiinging line, set back square, with the end of each arch or rib so 

 as to form its abutment on the principle of a common square bridge. 



On the Midland Counties Railway, where the Loughborough and 

 Stamford road is carried over the railway, Mr. Woodhouse has erected 

 a bridge wholly of brickwork, on the principle of the iron bridge of 

 Mr. Buck. The ribs of brickwork, if we may use the term, are 

 elliptic, 42i ft. span, with a versed sine of 11 ft., and ;ue 4 ft. in 

 breadth, measured on the square. The soffit of the arches, or ribs of 

 brick are level or flush, in the direction of the centre of the railway. 



u^ are not so in any othe:- direction, dipping below each other in 

 succession, and increasing gradually as the abutments are approached, 

 being greatest at the obtuse end of the abutment. The above is a 

 unique specimen, being the only one ever erected, and is the bold 

 invention of Mr. Woodhouse, and was erected in 1830-40. 



I trust that, as the origin of the arch in architecture, as also the 

 time of the introduction of the pointed arch, are both lost in the annals 

 of time, it will be a sufficient ground for your republishing, at full 

 length, the article of Chapman in Rees' Cyclopedia, that the time of 

 the introduction of the oblique arch may be more fully known, and the 

 real inventor have his due meed of praise. This is certainly due to 

 the memory of Chapman, and I trust, from the principles developed 

 in the paper of Henry Glynn, as first promulgated by Chapman, will 

 justify me in coming to the brief conclusion, in respect to the other 



writers on the subject, that they have developed no new principle, but 



only improved the mode of working the stones, and perhaps mystified 



the subject \\i:\\ unnecessary technicalities. 



I am, Sir, 

 .S7. Ann's, Your's obediently, 



Newcastle-upon-Ti/iic. Oliver Twist. 



MR. CHARLES WYE WILLIAMS AND HIS BOILER 

 PROJECTS. 



Considerable attention has been lately excited by the disquisitions 

 of Mr. Charles Wye Williams, respecting two alleged inventions of his, 

 one of which has for its object the prevention of smoke, and the other the 

 increase of the evaporative rate of boilers, by studding them over with 

 spikes, "like quills upoH the fretful porcupine." In the belief that 

 an analysis of these projects will be acceptable to our readers, and 

 may possibly be beneficial to this gentleman himself, we are induced 

 to offer a few observations respecting them. 



Let us first anatomize tl;e spike boiler plan. The following account 

 of this notable invention we extract from the 950th number of the 

 Mechanic's Magazine : — 



"When the gases which are the products of combustion (and which 

 contain all the heat arising from such combustion) pass along through 

 the flues impinging against the surface of their metallic plates, the 

 heat is conducted in a direction at right angles to these surfaces, to 

 the water in the boiler. This then may be called transverse conduction, 

 as the heat passes transversely through those plates. But if we heat 

 one end of a rod of iron, we find a very large conducting power is 

 brought into action, by reason of the heat passing longitudinally along 

 its fibres, and with great rapidity. This may, therefore, be called 

 longitudinal conduction, in contradistinction to the former tranaverse 

 conduction. Now this is the power, or modification of the power, of 

 metallic conduction, which it is proposed shall be rendered available, 

 and the application of which is at once so practicable and eflfective. 



" Independently of the conducting power which a metallic pin of 

 any size mav have, it is manifest that it possesses an absorbing or 

 receiving power, in proportion to its length as well as its diameter, 

 and this it is which gives it an available applicability in the flues of 

 boilers. Suppose an iron or copper pin, of half an inch in diameter, 

 inserted into a metallic plate, and projecting 3 inches beyond its sur- 

 face. In that case, a portion of such surface plate, equal to a circle 

 of but half an inch in diameter, is occupied, while the pin itself presents 

 a heat-receiving surface equal to 43 inches, or as 9 to 1. If this pro- 

 jection be presented to the stream of heated gaseous matter in the 

 flue, w^e obtain an effective heat-receiving surface, nine times greater 

 than the area of the plate which the pin occupies. In other words, 

 the half-inch circular portion of the flue plate which such pin has dis- 

 placed is thus made to possess the faculty of transmitting as much 

 heat as is received and absorbed by nine half inches superficial." 



Well ; if this be not carrying absurdity to an imperial pitch, we 

 really do not know what is. Were the evidence of the existence of 

 the scheme less unequivocal, we should be disposed to regard the 



