56^ General Notices. 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. General Notices. 



Wooden Pavement for Streets. — Of 'various modes of paving with wood 

 tried in London, we believe that of De Lisle to be the best. The chief advan- 

 tage of this plan consists in the system of doweling employed, which, com- 

 bined with the fignres of the blocks unites the whole in one mass so effectually 

 that it is prevented from subsiding unequally, or having the smoothness of the 

 surface deranged until the wood itself is worn out. Neither is this plan so 

 apt to cause horses to slip as some other modes, from the circumstance of the 

 blocks being cut or grooved on the face, and so laid that the diagonal of the 

 square of the surface of the block is always in the direction of the street. We 

 submit these hints to our readers, because we think that when wooden pave- 

 ment comes to be better understood, it will be adopted in the kitchen and 

 stable courts of various country mansions, where the noise of the carts of 

 tradesmen and others is felt to be offensive to the family. That the courts 

 of honour of all the royal palaces of France will soon have this pavement 

 substituted for the clumsy noisy stone pavements with which they are now 

 covered, we cannot have a doubt. The only thing to be wondered at is, that, 

 with the example of the courts of some hotels and palaces in Vienna, wooden 

 pavement was not adopted in Paris twenty years ago. — Cond. 



Model Farms, which for many years have been adopted in France, German}', 

 and even Russia, are nowbegining to be formed in Britain. One is commenced 

 by Mr. Morton, on the estate of Lord Ducie, in the Vale of Gloucester; one 

 is in progress in Yorkshire, for the Yorkshire Agricultural Society ; one is 

 contemplated in Kent ; one has been formed in Dingwall, by Sir F. Macken- 

 zie, Bart., and there is one or more in L'eland. It seems to us equally desir- 

 able that an Agricultural Society should have a farm, as that a Horticultural 

 Society should have a garden ; and we therefore trust that the English Agri- 

 cultural Society will soon have an experimental farm worthy of that powerful 

 and respectable body, in the vicinity of the metropolis. — Cond, 



Approach Roads, consisting of a layer of bitumen spread over a layer of 

 macadamised stone, cost, in the neighbourhood of Paris, 4 francs the square 

 metre, and garden walks which carriages are not to go over may be formed at 

 Si francs per metre. Footpaths along public roads, bordered with a kerb of 

 sandstone, cost no more than 3^ francs per metre. 



A Layer of Bitumen inserted in a wall, above the foundations, will prevent 

 moisture from ascending from the soil, as effectually as a course of brickwork 

 in Roman cement. Bitumen also preserves wood at a cheaper rate than 

 paint. (Dali/'s Revue generate de V Architecture, p. 161.) 



Clegg and Samuda^s Atmosj)heric Railway is an invention that promises to be 

 as great an advance upon the railways already in use, as these are upon com- 

 mon roads ; but we cannot step out of our way to go into details. While 

 observing the pumping of the engine in exhausting the air, we began to reflect 

 as to whether the power of exhausting and compressing air could not be ap- 

 plied in some manner or other to the culture of the soil. If a regular sub- 

 stratum of broken stone were laid under a level space of two or three acres, 

 and a system of cast-iron pipes pierced with holes throughout were laid in 

 this stratum, and communicating with an air-pump, then, in spring, when the 

 temperature of the atmosphere was considerably above that of the soil, which 

 it often is in warm days in March and April, the soil might be heated to the 

 same temperature as the atmos[)here ; either by working the pump as an ex- 

 hauster, by which the heated atmosphere would be sucked down through the 

 soil, so as to warm it and the stratum of stones ; or by forcing it down 

 the pipes into it, and up through it, so as to effect the same object. Whether 

 such a system could be made to pay or not, is another matter ; but we think 

 in the neighbourhood of such a metropolis as London, an acre or two covered 

 with grass, laid out as a public garden, and heated in this manner, might 

 possibly answer. — Cond. 



