SPIRE ON A KEW CONSTRUCTION. QA9 



W W, the horizontal windlasses, over which two of tht? 

 ropes were coiled, once round, with weights hung to thenii 



r r, pullies, orer which the ropes passed. Of these there 

 were ten sets, with weights, to counterpoise the pedeatal and 

 apire, 



h A, handspikes. 



Four men were sufficient to work both the windlasses; The spire 

 and on the 19th of this month, before a very respectable '^'^'•''^ "P» 

 concourse of spectators, tlie spire was drawn up w^ithout 

 difficulty or noise in eighteen minutes. It was soon de- 

 tached from its pedestal, and fixed in its proper place pn the 

 consols, with the washers and keys, or forelocks. 



A sufficient number of the counterbalancing weights were 

 cut off by sheers ; and the men, who had worked the wind- 

 lasses, descended npon the pedestal to the bottom of the 

 tower. 



A plurnbline was hung from the top of the spire within placed truly 

 side, by which it was properly adjusted; and by a tew P*'"?^"^^'^"''^''* 

 wedges it was placed perfectly upright. 



To add security to the connexion between the spire and «nd farther le- 

 the tower, iron cramps of 7 or 8 feet long were hooked into ^^^^^' 

 the mortices, which had served to join the legs of the spire 

 to the pedestal, and were firmly fastened to the walls of the 

 tower by proper holdfasts: so that, though the spire and 

 tower may be blown down together, it is scarcely possible, 

 that they can be severed by the violence of any storm. 



The cost of this spire has not yet been entirely ascertained. Expense of the 

 but it does not exceed one hundred and fifty guineas. Aspire »pire. 

 of the same dimensions, built of Portland stone, would, in 

 this country, cost at least six times this sum, and if it were 

 formed of the limestone of the country, it would cost four or 

 live hundred pounds. 



I was this day, September the 22nd, enabled to deter- 

 mine, whether strong wind had any sensible effect on the 

 apire, as its spindle happens to coincide with a vertical wire 

 of a transit instrument in my observatory. The violence of 

 a sudden squall did not seem in the least to affect it. 



I have therefore reason to hope, that it will remain undis- 

 turbed by future storms: and, as a thunderstorm passed 

 over this place the night before, I trust, that the conductor, 



which 



