183o.] Account of the New Roof at Kdsipur. Ill 



V. — Roof of the New Iron Foundery at Kdsipur near Calcutta. 



We have requested Major Hutchinson of the Engineers, the archi- 

 tect of this elegant structure, to favour us with drawings of its various 

 details, that we may make known, as far as the circulation of our jour- 

 nal permits, his very successful combination of the cast-iron truss 

 with a wrought-iron tie to roofs of large span in this country. We 

 are so little accustomed to see any thing else in India but the heavy 

 flat roof with its massy timbers groaning under an inordinate load of 

 terrace-work heaped up most disadvantageous^ in the centre to allow 

 a slope for the water to run off", while the invisible white ant is scoop- 

 ing out the solidity of the timber, and the dry rot is corroding the 

 ends that support the whole on the wall, — that the eye rests with 

 quite a pleasurable sensation on the view of a light, airy frame-work 

 like that before us, composed of materials indestructible, wherein the 

 strains and pressures are counterpoised, the load lightened, the liability 

 to crack and leak lessened, and the repair of every part rendered easy 

 and entirely independent of the rest. 



The progress of improvement is notoriously slower in Government 

 operations than in private works. When cast- ii on beams were first 

 brought to India on private speculation, and were offered to Govern- 

 ment by a mercantile house in this town, they were rejected. The 

 roof of a large private godown was soon after constructed with them, 

 and their efficacy thus proved; then immediately a re-action took place, 

 and a large quantity was indented for by Government. The Hon'ble 

 Court sent them out, and they have remained until now totallv un- 

 employed, although numerous public buildings have been erected 

 since they arrived. 



It was, we know, a subject of lengthened debate what sort of roof 

 should be given to the foundery. A timber trussed roof had been 

 sanctioned at 15,000 rupees, and we may, perhaps, rather attribute 

 the substitution of the present one to the numerical reduction of the 

 pecuniary estimate, than to any actual conviction of its superiority in 

 other respects, for the beams being already provided, the whole cost 

 of the present roof, exclusive of them, has been only rupees 1 1 ,000. 



The New Foundery, or rather the room in which the cannon are 

 turned and bored, is a spacious hall, of 169^ feet long by 50 feet clear 

 span in breadth, and 40 feet in height from the floor to the vertex of the 

 roof; entirely open from end to end, lightedby a range of upper windows, 

 and surrounded by a suite of apartments of half elevation. The steam 

 machinery of the several borers and lathes, is arranged along one side 

 of this room, in a compact and exceedingly neat manner. It is impossible 



