266 Chronicles of Science. [April, 



of this work is the extreme rapidity, and comparatively trifling cost 

 at which it has "been constructed, the time occupied being only one 

 year, and the total expense less than 20,000?., whereas the old 

 Thames Tunnel occupied eighteen years in construction, and cost 

 over half-a-million sterling. This new tunnel consists of a circular 

 driftway, 7 feet 3 inches in diameter, having an inclination from either 

 side towards the centre of the river of 1 in 30. It is approached on 

 each bank by a perpendicular shaft, that on the Middlesex side 

 being 56 feet deep, and that on the Surrey side 52 feet. The lift 

 at either end consists of an iron chamber, to the roof of which a 

 chain is attached, which passes over a pulley at the head of the 

 shaft, and at the other end is fixed to a balance weight, capable of 

 adjustment according to the number of passengers in the lift. The 

 bottom of each shaft communicates with a waiting-room, having 

 seats along the sides. Along the tunnel is laid a railway of 2 feet 

 6 inches gauge, on which a small omnibus runs, capable of accom- 

 modating fourteen passengers at one time. Under the level of the 

 tunnel at the bottom of each shaft there is an engine-room contain- 

 ing a 4-horse power engine for raising and lowering the lifts, and 

 that on the Surrey side is also employed for hauhng the omnibus, 

 which is driven by means of an endless steel cord passing round a 

 vertical pulley- wheel at the Surrey end of the tunnel, and a horizon- 

 tal pulley-wheel placed between the rails at the Middlesex end. 



Proceedings of Societies. 

 Institution of Civil Engineers. — The session of 1870 was in- 

 augurated on the 11th January by an address from the newly- 

 elected President, Mr. Charles Blacker Yignoles, F.E.S. It would 

 be impossible briefly to summarize Mr. Yignoles' speech, which for 

 interest and importance has never been surpassed, and rarely 

 equalled. In reading over this important paper, it appears that no 

 branch of the profession has escaped notice from the time when " in 

 the earlier stages of the human race their first want must have been, 

 as it is now, a supply of water for men and beasts of tribes, whether 

 nomadic or stationary, when no longer within reach of the natu- 

 ral streams or springs; and assuredly," said Mr. Yignoles, "the 

 individual who first dug a well in the desert, and raised water to 

 the surface, by the simple contrivance of pole and bucket, was the 

 first mechanic — the first pre-historic engineer, whose rude invention 

 has nevertheless been followed in all subsequent ages," down to the 

 completion of the Suez Canal, " by cutting across the sandy ligament 

 which has hitherto united Asia and Africa, by which a water com- 

 munication has been opened, which will never again be closed so 

 long as mercantile prosperity lasts or civilization exists." 



