126 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[April, 



panicd by three drawings, descriptive of the general plan and the details of 

 these works, which were criginaUy designed liy Mr. Telford, and are now 

 under the direction of Mr. Cubitt. Tliey have been executed almost entirely 

 under the superintendence of the author. 



'* An account of the Pennanent U'ay of the Birmingham and Gloucester 

 Sailway." By G.' B. W. Jackson, Grad.'lnst. C. E. 



The object of this railway is to afford a direct communication between the 

 western and tlie midland counties of England. The communication describes 

 the course of the line until it reaches Cheltenham, where it joins that which 

 was formerly called the Great Mestcjn and Cheltenham Railway, which ter- 

 minates at Gloucester. Its length is .'it miles. The prcvaUing inclination is 

 1 in 300 ; but on the " Lickey " incline, near Bromsgrove, the rise is 1 in 37 

 for a distance of 2 ^ miles, in aseendinu: which the trains are worked by Ame- 

 rican locomotives, in addition to the usual train engines. The northern por- 

 tion of the railway appears to lie on the new red sandstone ; then passes to 

 the oolitic formation, on which it terminates. In the former, the principal 

 cuttings are through marl, some of which is exceedingly indurated, and 

 troublesome to work. The principal strata of the latter system are bhie and 

 yellow clays. Xear Cheltenham, the shifting sand frequently necessitated 

 the use of sheet-piling in passing through it. The w.iters of Droitwich and 

 Cheltenham were found to possess a saline quality, wliich rendered them 

 unlit for the use of the engines. That from the surface sand near Cheltenham, 

 however, is exceedingly good. 



The building materials employed on this line were — the sandstones of the 

 Lickey and Forest of Dean, the lias of Norton and M'adborough, and the 

 oolites of Cheltenham and Bredon, together with brick, for whicli earth was 

 readily produced throughout. The cuttings and embankments, with the 

 dctaUs of the permanent way, are severally described. The surface width is 

 30 feet. In the formation of embankments and cuttings, the usual methods 

 appear to have been adopted. In the former, the ratios of the slopes vary 

 hetween 3 and 2J to 1 ; in the latter, between 2 and H to 1. In cuttings, 

 there is a system of drainage bencith the ballast, consisting of lo]igitudinal 

 drains on either side of the line, connected by cross spits, all of which are 

 filled up with broken stones. The rails are supported by chairs and inter- 

 mediate saddles, which rest on longitudinal balks ; and these are bolted to 

 transverse tics. On embankments whose height exceeds live feet, the cross 

 spits, longitudinal balks, and saddles, are all dispensed with. Tlie length of 

 the bearings, tiie weight, dimensions, &c., of the iron and wood work, with 

 the manner of jnitting together the whole, are then noticed. The timber 

 employed was, American pine, and English beech, or larch. The various 

 prices are enumerated of the materials and labour for the permanent way, of 

 ■which the average cobt per mile amouuted to 5,430/. The present condition 

 of the line is stated to be good, and its general working to have been perfectly 

 satisfactory, since its opening in June, 1S40. 



Subjoined is a description of an artificial ballast obtained by burning clay, 

 which was employed wlien the country did not afford natural ballast. Its 

 expense slightly exceeds that of tlie ordinary ballast; blue clay burnt in 

 kilns was found to answer the purpose best, but it does not appear to form a 

 successful substitute for gravel. The results of experiment show it to form 

 a very imperfect drain. The author states that he has always observed the 

 quality of this ballast to suffer in proportion with the quantity of lime con- 

 tained in it composition.- — The paper is accompanied by four drawings, illus- 

 trating the construction of the permanent way. 



*' Description of a Water-pressure Engine at lllsang in Bavaria.'' By 

 William Lewis Baker, Grad. Inst. C. E. 



The machine described in this paper is the most perfect among nine 

 engines constructed by M. de Reichenbacli, for the saltworks at lllsang, in 

 Bavaria. Tliese important works are situated in the most southern part of 

 the kingdom ; they are supplied from a mine in the valley of Berchtesgaeten, 

 and the salt springs at Ueichenhalle. The salt was procured from the 

 former in two slates, — that of rock salt, which was extracted by blasting, 

 and that of brine. The rock salt was conveyed to Ueiclienhall, and there 

 underwent the purifying process. But both these methods were attended 

 with disadvantages from the scarcity of fuel ; the old method was therefore 

 abolished, and a line of pipes of seven inches diameter was substituted ; it 

 was laid between the two places, and extends about CO miles in length. A 

 series of water-pressure engines, each working a forcing pump, and being 

 themselves worked by a head of water, were placed in convenient situations 

 upon the line. The mine is now worked by forming cavities in tlie beds of 

 salt, and filling them with water, which soon becomes strongly saturated 

 brine ; it is then pumped up, and forced through the pipes to Iteichenhalle, 

 ■where a portion of it is retained, and the rest is sent on to Franenstein, which 

 is at the extremity of the line. At these places, the process of evaporation 

 is carried on, and the salt is manufactured in the usual manner. — The paper 

 is illustrated by a drawing of the engine, showing the details of construction 

 alluded to in the communication. 



INSTITUTE OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS. 



Feb. 2«.— H. E. Kknd.1l, Esq. in the Chair. 



TuE principal business of the evening was to decide on the merits of the 

 drawings and es3.ay4 submitted to the Institute for their annual prizes. 



The Soane Medallion was awarded to Mr. John W. Papworth, associate, 

 for a restoration of Crosby Place, Bishopsgate, as it may be supposed to have 

 existed in the lOth century. To the medalliou, a premium of ten guineas 

 has, on this occasion, been annexed, by the liberality of Miss Ilackett, the 

 lady to whose antiquarian taste and zeal the public are mainly indebted for 

 the preservation of the Hall, and other remains of this beautiful monument 

 of the domestic architecture of the middle ages. 



The medal of the Institute was awarded to an essay* — On the effects which 

 stiould result to Architectural Taste, from the general use of Iron i7i the Con^ 

 struction of Buildings." In this essay, (whicli was read to the meeting,) 

 tlie writer argued, that a new style of architecture ought to arise from the 

 introduction of a new material, to the extent to which the practical appli- 

 cation of cast iron may be, and indeed has already been, carried; and that it 

 is a blot upon the inventive faculties of the age, that art has done little or 

 nothing with a material which has proved of such vast importance in the 

 hands of science. It was further argued, that nothing, probably, but preju- 

 dice stands in the way of the development of as mueli beauty, in a style 

 adapted to the extensive employment of cast iron, as in styles adapted to 

 marble, or any other material. To strike out new combinations and charac- 

 teristics, the writer did not profess ; but that they might be struck out in 

 strict accordance with the principles which govern beauty and taste, he in- 

 ferred, from the practice of the ancients, who liave left us works of art in the 

 most opposite extremes of proportion, and yet equally admitted to be beau- 

 tiful; the proportions and principles of beauty being governed by the materials 

 in which they are executed, in support of which proposition he cited the 

 candelabra, tripods, chairs, and other works of antiquity in marble and 

 bronze, contrasting the characters of these objects, destined for the same 

 purposes, and exhibiting the same general designs ; and that this principle 

 may be carried icito architecture, we have also the authority of the ancients, 

 wlio not only conceived, but systematized a style of architecture of extreme 

 lightness and delicacy, although we do not know that it was ever carried into 

 execution, except witii the brush — alluding to the .architectural frame-work 

 of the ancient fresco paintings. Instead of working upon such lessons as 

 these, the modern architect has, hitherto, used one of his most important 

 powers in construction only in disguise — misled by pre-eonceived ideas on 

 taste. In considering the characteristics of Gothic architecture, which formed 

 a second division of this essay, this practice was shown to be still more absurd, 

 since cast iron lends itself with the utmost facility to this style, especially in 

 its earlier periods, when it appears to have been a principle to reduce the 

 supports, not only apparently, but really, to a minimum, of which the Lady 

 Chapel, of Salisbury, offers proof. In this portion of his subject, therefore, 

 the writer sought to reconcile the use of cast iron with existing principles of 

 taste, and pointed out the peculiar modes which the architects of the middle 

 ages adopted in tracery when executed in metal, as evidenced by the screens 

 of Edward IV. and Henry VH's tondis, contrasting them with modern cast 

 iron window frames modelled upon precedents in stone. The conclusion 

 drawn was, that whenever ])rejudiee shall give way, and iron be recognized as 

 a legitimate resource in art, new architectonic combinations v\ill be produced; 

 and that in Gothic architecture especially, we shall have at our command 

 effects, of which our predecessors could only dream, although they made bold 

 efforts to realize them. 



The Honorary Secretary reported, that an answer to the address of the 

 Institute to Prince .\lbert had been received through the hands of the Presi- 

 dent, Earl De Grey, and that H.R.H. had been graciously pleased to become 

 the Patron of the Institute. 



ARCHITECTURAL SOCIETY. 



A CLOSING conversazione of the Architectural Society was held at their 

 apartments, in Lincoln's-inn-tields, on Tuesday evening, March 1st, on the 

 occasion of the juncture of that society with the Institute of British .\rtists. 

 The rooms were crowded with the leading architects, engineers, and artists 

 of London. The chair was taken by the late president of the Architectural 

 Society, William Tite, Esq. F.R.S., &c. 



The chairman prefaced his address by a rapid glance at the state of archi- 

 tecture in England uji to the close of the late war, when the opening of the 

 continent furnished the artists with models, and gave a stimulus to their ex- 

 ertions of the most useful nature. The spread of information and of educa- 

 tion led to the demand for means of co-operation and combination which the 

 Royal Academy did not furnish, and in consequence, about twelve years ago, 

 the two societies, in connection with architecture, arose. The Architectural 

 Society was first in point of time, but the Institute obtained a charter, and 

 thereby the means of conferring the honorary distinctions of fellow and asso- 

 ciate. The plan of the two societies was at first very different, but they 

 had gradually assimilated : and in consequence of a general fcehng that a 

 junction was desirable, Mr. Tite was (with the sanction of his Royal Highness 

 the Duke of Sussex, the patron of the Architectural Society) authorised to 

 communicate with Earl de Grey, the president of the Institute on the sub- 

 ject. His Excellency forwarded tlie suggestion by every means in his 

 power, and after the necessary meetings of the two bodies, the junction was 

 effected early in the last month, the members of the two societies being then 



* The essay is anonymous, and no claimant has come forward to receive 

 the medal. 



