282 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[August, 



he can at all satisfactorily accomplish. If architects are so pinched 

 by their employers that they cannot finish up their buildings consist- 

 ently, why, in the name of common sense, do they squander away so 

 great a part of their pecuniary resources upon such extraneous common 

 places as columns and pilasters, dragged in for the nonce, as if for the 

 express purpose of making the poverty of the rest of the building all 

 the more apparent and offensive ; and in such manner as to bring 

 columns and porticos now almost into disrepute? Such a system is 

 no less at variance with economy than with good taste ; and has 

 served only to fill the land with buildings in a pseudo-Grecian style, 

 marked by an offensive mixture of showiness and poverty — with what 

 is, in fact, hardly worthy of the name of style at all, it amounting to 

 DO more than feeble, mechanical mannerism. Private speculation has, 

 on the other hand, occasionally encouraged architectural design on a 

 scale of liberality that contrasts forcibly with the petty parsimony 

 observable in buildings of a higher grade, and where it becomes posi- 

 tively offensive. The shop architecture of the metropolis has im- 

 proved, although by no means in the degree that could be wished ; 

 since, for the greater part, it exhibits more of expensive showiness 

 than of either good taste or invention. The individual architectural 

 specimens of this class, which deserve to be pointed out, are com- 

 paratively few ; for when we have mentioned one at the corner of the 

 Quadrant, opposite the County Fire Office, at the corner of Oxford 

 Street and Berners Street, another by Mr. Inwood, in Old Bond Street, 

 a fourth in Tavistock Place, by Mr. Maddox, and one just opened m 

 Aldgate — which last is a more striking facade of its kind than, perhaps, 

 any other in town — we have enumerated nearly all that are remarkable 

 for more than the superficies of plate glass. There is, however, 

 one piece of architecture which, though it does not exactly answer 

 to the name of shop, belongs to the same caste, and which certainly 

 may be referred to with approbation; we mean that called the Kemble 

 Tavern, at the corner of Bow Street and Long Acre. Notwithstanding 

 }bat it is executed merely in compo, and that it is now barbarously 

 disfigured and vulgarized by certain very uiiclassical insignia of the 

 business to which it is devoted ; in point of design this building puts 

 to shame many which are constructed of far more durable material — 

 some of them, too, by men of eminence in their profession — persons 

 who would, doubtless, stand amazed, if asked to make a design for a 

 similar purpose. When we look at the two new Assurance OflSces 

 in Bartholomew Lane, at the " Atlas " in Cheapside, or the "West- 

 minster and British" in the Strand, we feel not only dissatisfied, but 

 convinced, that the architect of the Kemble Tavern would have 

 acquitted himself far better, and made much more of them, had the 

 opportunities been afforded him : in saying which we are at any rate 

 unprejudiced, for of the individual we know nothing whatever, but 

 form our opinion solely from that sample of ability and taste. He 

 certainly has shown more than ordinary gusto in that little production, 

 which, though not quite so celebrated, is, we venture to affirm, a better 

 piece of design than Palladio's House at Vicenza. He — that is, the 

 Bow Street, not the wonderful Vicentine architect — has there intro- 

 duced some novel and pleasing ideas, and in adopting the Tivoli 

 example of the Corinthian, he has not, as some others have done, 

 omitted what is so strikingly characteristic in the original, namely, the 

 "bossy sculpture" of the frieze, deprived of which the whole is 

 thrown out of keeping, and the entablature no longer agrees with the 

 columns. At the same time we must admit that he has, in one 

 respect, deviated both from the character of the order, and from that 

 of the rest of his own design, inasmuch as he has made the antre-caps 

 by far too plain, so that they contrast disagreeably both with the en- 

 tablature and the capital of the columns themselves ; which is, in our 

 eyes, a greater blemish than the accidental disfigurement we have 

 alluded to. 



Among other architectural speculations belonging to the genus 

 "shop," we have the Pantheon Bazaar and the Lower Arcade, either 

 of which might almost satisfy the most Pennantizing antiquary for 

 the loss of old Exeter Change. As a speculation, it may be doubted 

 whether the "Arcade" has answered ; neither does it seem to have 

 conferred any reputation upon the artist who designed it; yet it is, 

 nevertheless, a tasteful and scenic merceria, and is, besides, admirably 

 accommodated to a climate like ours.* 



' We have just heard that a similar passage, as the French call it, is about 

 to be formed, extending from Wellington Street North, facing ihe English 

 Opera House, to Catherine Street. The situation Joes not promise much for the 

 scheme, becauie no additional communication or thoroughlarc in that direc- 

 tion seems to be required ; whereas it would be a great public improvement 

 could some of the narrow lanes and alleys, in difierent parts of the town, 

 be converted into Hell-paved covered passages, so as to be cool in summer, 

 and deaji and dry in wet weather. 



APPARATUS FOR REVERSING ENGINES. 

 Sir — Having seen in your valuable Journal a description of a 

 method for reversing engines, by the use of the common side valve, 

 making the induction and eduction pipes alternately steam pipes, I 

 submit to your notice a method of accomplishing the same in a much 

 more simple manner, as will be seen on reference to the accompany- 

 ing diagram, and shall feel obliged by your giving it a place in your 

 forthcoming number. 



Fig. 1. 



Figure 1 represents the section of 

 a cylinder and nozzle of the form 

 generally used, with the addition of a 

 valve for reversing, made with two 

 pistons to obviate the pressure at- 

 tendant on the use of the slide valve 

 — the pressure on the pistons being 

 the same on both ends. 



Figure 2 is a horizontal section of 

 the same. 



Figure 3 is a section of the valve 

 for reversing ; C passage to condenser : 

 S steam pipe ; A and B passages 

 leading to nozzle. The letters are 

 the same in all the diagrams. 



Fig. 2. 



Fi?. 3 



^Jl^ - 



In the position of the. valve as sliown, the steam is admitted 

 through S, passing through A into the cylinder, forcing the piston P 

 up. If it is wished to reverse the engine, we have only to move tlie 

 piston valves to E E, as shown ; the steam being admitted through S, 

 as before, passes through B B to the top of the piston P, and forces it 

 down. The slide valve will have to be made with no lap, and roust 

 be worked by an eccentric keyed on the shaft. 



In large engines where expansion valves are used, they could be 

 set so as to cut off the steam to the end of the stroke, as the slide 

 valve would be open to the full length of the stroke. The piston 

 valves would also act as a throttle valve, and could be worked easily 



