1842.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



253 



more cleauly kept than one not so distinguished; it will realize a 

 higher jirice if sold, and need cost little if anything more in the first 

 production. We would not, it is true, sacrifice any useful quality to 

 embellishment, nor would we purchase beauty at any great expense ; 

 but we think it extremely desirable that the patterns for the cast iron 

 work of machinery should be so made that, whilst securing the most 

 attainable degree of fitness, tmy will, without any great additional 

 trouble, confer the additional quality of beauty. We know that there 

 are those who maintain that beauty consists altogether in fitness, and 

 that that object is the most beautiful which possesses every physical 

 property necessary for its intended uses, and nothing more ; but this 

 is so preposterous and puerile a heresy that it scarcely merits confuta- 

 tion. A Corinthian column would be quite as fit for supporting its 

 superincumbent weight, if reduced to a mere cylinder of stone ; but 

 would it then be as beautiful? The dusky plumage of the sparrow 

 forms as eflicient a defence against the weather's inclemencies as the 

 metallic splendour of the humming-bird, and the lumiblest productions 

 of our looms as effectual habiliments as the gorgeous fabrics of Da- 

 mascus, or the choicest productions of Cashmere. Fitness is indeed 

 in most things one of the must conspicuous constituents of beauty, but 

 it is one only of a great number, and not always the one which most 

 prominently interests us ; and although there are men of such cold 

 imaginations and lethargic sensibilities as to disenable them to per- 

 ceive beauty in objects except in the ratio of their fitness for a specific 

 purpose, yet such men are only exceptions to the order of nature, and 

 are as surely of a defective constitution as those who are unable to 

 relish the delights of harmony in consequence of the want of a musical 

 ear. The pleasure we derive from the contemplation of the works of 

 Nature is not in many cases due to any sense of fitness. The spectacle 

 of a mountain landscape does not awaken the sentiment of beauty 

 from anv specific configuration of the cliffs, or any distribution of the 

 rocks and rivers connected with ideas of fitness, but by virtue of the 

 sympathy with sentient beings associated with the perception of those 

 objects, and which appeals not to the judgment but to the imagination 

 and the heart. The rugged mountain vk'hich starts abruptly from the 

 vale — the eternal snows which crown its summit, and pour Irom their 

 bosom innumerable cascades, and the giant fragments, grey with age, 

 that are strewn about its base — fathomless and impassable ravines, 

 through which the waters foam and wrestle, like an angry and impri- 

 soned maniac — clifis overhanging and inaccessible, where the eagle 

 reigns in solitary majesty — and echoes which repeat the roar of the 

 cataract and the sighs of the rising tempest — these are all admitted to 

 be beautiful, but it is sympathy alone to which their beauty is attribu- 

 table, and which gives them life and interest. Without it the sub- 

 limest landscape would no more affect us than any casual assortment 

 of colours on a painter's palette. 



The ruling appetite of human nature is love of sensation, and 

 nothing is capable of making us feel deeply but the fortunes, past, 

 future, or possible, of man, or at least of some sentient being. Objects 

 do not possess any property in tlicmselvcs capable of exciting the 

 sentiment of beauty, but interest us only by their capability of reflect- 

 ing emutions associated with them ; and that man will relish beauty 

 most strongly and perceive it most readily, whose imagination is most 

 lively and whose social aftections are the most fully developed. The 

 beauty of material objects being merely the reflection of emotions 

 pre-existing in the mind, no beauty will be perceived where tliose 

 emotions do not exist ; and those emotions are so nearly akin to 

 benevolence, that a iove of beauty is justly held to be symptomatic of 

 an excellent heart, and those whose taste is inanimate or perverted, 

 are, not without reason, suspected to be persons of a low morality, 

 especially in its finer gradations. Good and sensible men cannot 

 regard the quality of beauty as unimportant to any object, and will 

 advocate its creation in all cases where great expense would not be 

 the consequence ; and in the frames of steam engines where it may be 

 attained so easily, we think there are few who will advocate its 

 rejection. There is a species of decoration answerable to steam 

 engine frames, or rather an infinitude of kinds, which would confer a 

 high degree of beauty, not by the use of any of the existing archi- 



tectural orders, which will create associations which must end in 

 disappointment, hut a species of embellishment proper to this specific 

 purpose, and such as to be susceptible of adaptation to all the shapes 

 which science indicates as the fittest for resisting the strains to which 

 the framing is subjected. 



ON PAINTING TIMBER. 



We extract the following observations on painting timber when 

 exposed to damp, by Mr. Lander, from the Professional Papers of the 

 Roval Engineers. 



" I beg leave to lay before you a few observations which I have made 

 on the construction and causes of decay in bridges, on the works at 

 Devonport, having been employed on the erection of the bridge at the 

 north-west barrier in the years Is! 12 and IS 13, and also on a large repair 

 in 1S37 ; and I am now employed on a similar repair at the north-east 

 barrier bridge, which, I think, was built in 1>1G, which has induced 

 me to make the following remarks : — 



" 1st. These bridges were paved with Guernsey pebbles, which, I 

 think, was one cause of decay, as the wet constantly dripped through 

 the joints; an evil which may be avoided by macadamizing, by which 

 such a compact body is formed that the wet cannot get through, and 

 the joists and girders, &c., are thereby kept perfectly dry, besides the 

 advantage of the vibration being very much reduced, as is the case 

 now at the north-west barrier. 



•2nd. The whole of the wood-work below, as well as the under side 

 of the flooring, was frequently payed over with coal tar, which, form- 

 ing a thick bodv on the surface, was another, if not the greater cause 

 of decay, as it completely prevented the air from acting on the wood, 

 thereby keeping all moisture within, which of itself is suflicient to 

 decay it. It must be observed that the plank or flooring was so rotten, 

 th >t in many places it would not bear the weight of the men to work 

 on it, and many of the joists and girders broke into two or three pieces 

 in removing them : some of them were found to be quite dry, and in 

 a similar state to snuff. 



3rd. As a further proof of the bad effects of paying and paving 

 bridges, I may state that the bridge at the south-east barrier across 

 the old works leading to Stonehouse, the girders, joists, &c. of which 

 have never been payed or painted, and the road above always mac- 

 adamized, remains sound and good at this time ; and I know this to be 

 a much older bridge than either of the former. 



4th. I should state that the timber alluded to above is oak, but I 

 think the same observations will apply to other timber, and in other 

 situations, such as fences; for many posts and rails of the stockade 

 fence here have frequently been found decayed, while in other and 

 older fences, although much worn by time, yet not having been payed 

 or painted, the fibre of the wood remains in a healthy state. 



51h. I am also of opinion that skirting to walls, anil linings to store- 

 houses and other buildings, if not painted, would last much longer, as 

 the damp from behind would then be allowed to evaporate by the 

 action of the external air. 



PROFESSIONAL BEQUEST. 



Siu — The following information deserves to . be more generally 

 known to the public, and particularly to the profession, than I believe 

 it to be ; and no way occurs to me more likely to attain that desirable 

 end than the notice of it in your journal, w hich, as it is especially 

 dedicated to whatever concerns architecture and surveying and their 

 professors, is a very suitable medium for giving it publicity. 



By the will of Mr. (ieorge Jernegan, o"f Hatton Garden, himself in 

 the profession, dated the 2Sth November, 1812, and proved in the 

 Prerogative Court of Canterbury in IS Hi, the following bequest, iitler 

 aha, is njade. viz., after stating "Ten pounds per annum in perpetuity 

 I present to my two executors, viz., Jl. each, for their attendance and 

 trouble, in seeing to the final adjustment of these concerns," the will 

 proceeds "the residue and remainder of interest in the 3 per cent. 

 Reduced Annuities, I wish to go towards the support and comfort of 

 some worthy character bred a surveyor and architect, and in aid of 

 any charity for such a purpose, and this annuity in perpetuity." By 

 the details stated in the will, it would appear the amount of the 

 <lividends applicable to this purpose is 10/. per annum. The executors 

 appointed in the will were Mr. William Baxter of Clapton, and Mr. 

 George Booth of Bucklersbury. 



2 N 



