No. 216.] 217 



Knowing that the surface of the clay would bear almost any weight, 

 he formed his exterior line around a large area, by piers and arches, 

 sustaining an inclosing wall above; within this area he placed 

 large flat disks of cast iron, fitted to receive and secure the feet of 

 iron columns, of about twelve feet high, and fitted the tops of the 

 columns to receive, and interlock the ends of lateral cast iron girders 

 from the walls, and longitudinally of the building, leaving a central 

 space dug out about seven feet deep, surrounded by a strong brick 

 curb rising about twenty feet from the bottom, this made his pit ; in 

 the sections iron girders were formed to fit the haunches of flat arch- 

 es in brick work, having a horizontal chord of about sixteen feet 

 each way, with a rise of about twenty inches, and on the upper sur- 

 face of these arches he laid the sand, and other earthy materials to 

 form the moulding floor, thus avoiding the water beneath, and con- 

 verting the ground floor of the building into a storehouse for the 

 foundry above; this contained the melting furnace and steam engine 

 for the blast, with all the needful convenience for such work sur- 

 mounted by an iron roof covered with slating. 



The unqualified success of this novel style of building, is believed 

 to have done much in calling the attention of other engineers, and 

 the public at large, to extending the use of iron in building, for it 

 demonstrated the fact, that brick and iron could be combined to bear 

 almost any weight short of breaking the metal, without the enor- 

 mous cost of thick interior walls to carry the great weight, and sus- 

 tain the heavy lateral thrust of semi-circular or elliptic stone or brick 

 arches. 



Up to 1824, the undersigned was cognizant of several buildings 

 thus constructed, and had to do with the erection of some of them. 

 The improved means of working and using iron within thirty years, 

 would fill a volume to detail them ; but the results are, that iron 

 bridges, iron light houses for the coast, iron or fire proof fattories, 

 iron dwellings, iron churches and iron ships, are no longer novelties; 

 in Great Britain, an in n light house for the entrance of the harbor 

 of Havanah, built in this city for the Spanish government, by Mr. 

 James Rodgers, is believed to be the first of the kind constructed in 

 this country. 



The " Old School,'" of architects and builders, struggled long and 

 loudly against this " innova'ion," on their practice, and the jealousy 

 of this class is not much changed by time and facts; the undersigned 

 has met some instances of this character in even high quarters; but, 



