236 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



JULT, 



thiuking that this order of architecture is not well adapted for tbe 

 framings of steam engines ; and, indeed, our opinion is that not one 

 of the existing orders is fitted for that purpose. There is something 

 very unmeaning in columns stuck upon the top of columns, and little 

 columns stuck here and there over the framing, of all possible propor- 

 tions and dimensions. Nevertheless, although figs. 28, 29, and 30 are 

 indisputably architectural monstrosities, they are in our eyes less 

 displeasing than the vapid and quakerlike arrangements shown in the 

 preceding figures, and we believe that two-thirds of our engineers 

 will be found to be of our way of thinking. 



In much of what Mr. Clegg says about wrought iron work we 

 perfectly concur, and we do not anticipate much opposition from 

 engineers to the doctrine that wearing parts should be susceptible of 

 re-adjustment, or that every portion of the moving parts should be 

 made equally strong. We'dissent, however, from Mr. Clegg when he 

 says that the arrangement shown in fig. 53 is the most approved system 

 of attaching the ends of rods to their cross heads (tails), and that the 

 arrangement sliown in fig. 54 is the one to be avoided. The former 

 method consists in constructing the cross (ail with a large oval hole in 

 the centre, through which a pin passes horizontally, and to which pin 

 the end of the connecting rod is attached by means of a strap and 

 cutter. The advantage of this plan Mr. Clegg informs us is " that it 

 allows some play and wear in the brasses, without giving rise to bad 

 consequences." But the bad consequences are altogether imaginary ; 

 a few marine engines have been constructed upon this plan, but the 

 provision has been found needless, and no engineer now thinks of 

 employing it, especially as it is reckoned unsightly and more expen- 

 sive to manufacture. The universal practice now is to attach the 

 connecting rods to the cross tails, in the manner shown in fig. 54, which 

 this gentleman reprehends; and we do not believe that he can adduce 

 a single example of any ill effect having resulted from it. The 

 angular straps shown in fig. 53 are objectionable ; they are very liable 

 to crack at the angles, and several of those of the City of London- 

 derry have so given way. In speaking of side rod eyes Mr. Clegg 

 says " The circular eye,' fig. 57, is not calculated for equal strength, 

 nor is the br.ass bush practically correct, for there is no provision for 

 .wear." We are unwilling to believe that Mr. Clegg supposes circular 

 side rod eyes are generally or ever made without any provision for 

 ■wear ; for we cannot suppose any one undertaking to write upon 

 marine steam machinery so profoundly ignorant of the subject as to be 

 capable of entertaining any such supposition. Yet, whilst resisting 

 this belief, we must confess ourselves unable to understand Mr. Clegg's 

 statement on any other hypothesis. 



We cannot follow this gentleman further, and have only room, in 

 conclusion, to say that although the several ordinary orders of archi- 

 tecture are unsuitable for machinery — and preposterous it is to copy 

 in iron the lineaments and proportions intended only for stone — yet 

 there may and there must be a species of architecture adapted to this 

 purpose, which, without interfering with the proper disposition of 

 materials, will accommodate itself to existing shapes and conditions, 

 and add the highest degree of grace and refinement; so that, whilst 

 securing the homage of the superficial and uninitiated, it cannot fail 

 to earn the approbation of the most proficient and fastidious. We 

 anticipated from the title of his book that Mr. Clegg would have 

 given us some examples of an architecture of this description, instead 

 of informing us that the first principle of the architecture of machinery 

 is that there be no architecture in it. Cast iron has its appropriate 

 architecture as well as stone, engines as well as cathedrals, differing 

 as much, too, from mere unembellished construction as a barn differs 

 from an abbey. On a future occasion we may perhaps give some 

 specimens of this architecture of machinery ; at present we can only 

 say that such an architecture exists, and it is no commendation of Mr. 

 Clegg's essay to say that it leaves the knowledge of tlie subject 

 precisely where it found it. The plates accompanying the essay are 

 very good, though for the most part superfluous ; the wood cuts are 

 excellent, and the typography magnificent. But the thoughts are for 

 the most part trivial and common-place, the reasonings sometimes 

 inconsequential, the statements often inexact, and the style neither 

 very elegant nor very perspicuous. Whatever other branches of 

 knowledge Mr. Clegg may be skilled in, it is plain that his acquaint- 

 ance with the structure of steam machinery, as well as with the 

 resources of decorative art, is limited and superficial ; and we conceive 

 it to be unfortunate for his reputation that he has ventured upon an 

 undertaking which renders those deficiences so conspicuous and so 

 inexcusable. 



Memorials of Cambridge : a series of F'ie/vs, ffc. 



Of this work, which has now reached its 29th number, and which 

 is, therefore, approaching towards its conclusion, by no means can we 

 report so favourably as we could wish, for instead of manifesting any 

 improvement upon its predecessor, "The Memorials of Oxford," it 

 shows an evident falling oft" in tbe graphic department, many of the 

 views being uninteresting in subject, poor, spiritless, and inaccurate 

 in drawing; and but very so-so/s^/y engraved, notwithstanding that 

 the name of J. Le Keux is aflSxed to them, which is all, we suspect, 

 that there is of his in those we allude to. Mr. Bell is so decidedly 

 inferior to Mackenzie as an architectural draughtsman, that by yoking 

 them together in the same work its character has been rendered very 

 unequal. Even Mackenzie himself has here somewhat disappointed 

 us, several of the subjects by him being not fresh views, but 

 merely repetitions of former ones by himself, and probably engraved 

 from the same drawings as the latter. This ought not to be, more 

 especially as many of the subjects might be shown to greater advan- 

 tage by being taken from a different point of view. Hardly, too, do 

 we complain very unreasonably, when we allege it as a fault that in 

 some of the views the buildings themselves are shown so remotely as 

 to be very little more than accessories in the general scene ; or again, 

 when we say that more than one piece of architecture is here very 

 inadequately represented. In this latter predicament is the Fitzwilliam 

 Museum, of which merely a view of the front is given, and that by no 

 means a very good one, although it bears the name of Mackenzie as 

 the draughtsman.* Yet as this structure is entirely a new one, more 

 than a single drawing of it would have been very acceptable ; or, at 

 all events, there should have been one interior view, and if only one, 

 it should have been that of the entrance hall, and sculpture gallery 

 around it. But if little has been done with the pencil towards ex- 

 plaining that important public edifice, very much has been done with 

 the pen in describing it; at any rate comparatively much, for the 

 account of the Museum is almost the only satisfactory piece of 

 arcliitectural description that has yet been given in the course of the 

 work. It is indeed so unlike any of the other " descriptions," that 

 we almost suspect it must have been derived from some other pub- 

 lication ; in which case it is a pity that the editors — for there are 

 actually two employed — did not help themselves to more matter of 

 the kind equally good. Yet of description and remarks on the 

 respective buildings there is scarcely anything at all, although such 

 would seem to be an almost indispensable accompaniment to a series 

 of views — to what is a graphic publication of popular character as to 

 size and the mode of getting up, not a library work for the antiquarian 

 student. The "Memorials" smell too much of the laboratory of the 

 British Museum — that admirable national establishment where old 

 books are ground young again — a process that may in time be applied 

 to old women also. Of most undisguised book-making the very last 

 number exhibits a striking specimen; the account is that of Queen's 

 College, and because Erasmus happened to reside there some time 

 while he was in England — a fact that might have been stated in a 

 couple of lines — we are treated with a whole history of him, for it 

 would seem no information relative to him is to be met with in any 

 biographical dictionary or encyclopedia. However, if the learned 

 editors help themselves hugely to such pieces of fat, they give their 

 readers plenty of lean, for nothing can be more meagre, jejune, and 

 scanty, than the information to be here picked up relative to the build- 

 ings themselves. What they will say of Downing College and of the 

 new libraries by Cockerell remains to be seen ; perhaps it will turn 

 out to be just as much and no more than what they have said of the 

 Observatory. Mr. Le Keux has been most unfortunate in choosing 

 his writers, for they seem to have been recommended to him by that 

 sable gentleman who sends not only cooks, but book-makers. 



Appendix C to the new edition of Tredgold on the Steam Engine and 

 Steam jsTavigation. Gorgon engines, as fitted on board H.JVI.S, 

 Cyclops, illustrated by ten plates and descriptive letter press. By 

 Samuel Clegg, Jun., C.E. London : John Weale, 1842. 



This is a very valuable addition to Tredgold : the execution of the 

 plates is perfect, and the manner in which the several objects are 

 represented is unexceptionable. The whole of the details of the 

 Gorgon engine are given with the sizes marked upon the several 



* The design is more intelligibly shown in a woodcut view of it in the 

 Athenaeum, No. 512, which also contains plans of both floors ; and a section 

 of (he building and other illustrations have also appeared in the Companion 

 to the Almanac. 



