THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, October 27, 1857. 
The best tanks for general purposes are those of a 
rectangular shape, the bottom inside of slate, let into 
mouldings on a ziuc bottom, and with zinc joints to unite 
the plates of glass. I will describe a tank which was 
made for me a year ago by Messrs. Treggon, of Jewin 
Street, and which has been in use ever since as a river 
aquarium. I consider it, as to size and make, one of the 
best models for a drawing-room or parlour window. 
One grand essential of a glass tank is strength; hence 
plate glass is always best, but for moderate-sized vessels 
sixteen-inch crown glass does very well. The joints ought 
to fit well, so that the glass is held in the grooves firmly and 
almost water-tight without cement of any kind. The 
material mostly used for cementing is Scott’s cement, which 
can be had direct from Mr. Scott, of Newcastle; but white- 
lead putty is very effectual, but requires careful seasoning 
by filling and emptying the tank frequently before any live 
stock is committed to it. Indeed, a new tank, if not 
carefully seasoned, will be pretty sure to poison everything 
for several weeks when first put to use. Instead of zinc 
pillars to unite the sides turned rods of birch wood may be 
used, and may be either painted or polished ; and to hasten 
the tank for use the cement, if white lead be used, may be 
coated with shellac dissolved in naphtha, and made into a 
paste with whiting: this shields the lead from contact 
with the water, and renders only one filling and emptying 
necessary. 
The same rules apply to the use of wood for tanks; for 
though not so durable as slate and zinc, wood without the 
aid of any metal is a very good material, and its lightness 
when the vessel requires to be moved gives it an additional 
advantage. But wooden tanks are generally clumsy looking, 
the pillars being necessarily rather stout, and hence they 
lack the elegance of the vessels turned out in metal by 
experienced makers. Mr. Gosse, one of our most practical 
advisers on these matters, describes a mode of making 
vessels of potters’ clay, or terra cotta, Mr. Dodgson, of 
Wigton, having used such materials with success. They 
are simply moulded in the usual way, all of a piece, and the 
required size and shape; that is to say, the bottom, the two 
ends, and a rude arch across to brace the ends together, 
the front and back being left open to receive sheets of glass. 
After being submitted to the fire they become as hard as 
stone, and may be made to look as well and last as long as 
real masonry; but they are enormously heavy, and can 
only be used in pottery districts, because their carriage for 
any distance would make them as expensive as metal tanks 
made on the spot; but their first cost, even when made to 
hold from twenty to thirty gallons, is but a few shillings. 
The two leading makers in London are Messrs. Treggon, 
who made the first vessels for Mr. Warrington, Mr. Gosse, 
and Dr. Ward; and Messrs. Sanders and Woolcot, who 
fitted up the exhibition at the Regent’s Park Gardens, and 
the tanks of the Zoological Society of Dublin. This firm 
has entered into the work with unusual enterprise, and has 
quite taken the lead in such matters, both for ornamental 
design and.the various scientific purposes for which peculiar 
kinds of vessels are requisite. They have ably carried out 
It is oblong, and with all four sides of plate glass. The 
j joints are elegantly moulded in zinc, and are very light in 
‘ appearance, but strong. The base is of zinc, with bold 
mouldings, and it has a zinc bottom on which it rests. 
Inside the bottom is of slate, and all the joints are 
cemented with white-lead putty, neatly painted over white; 
outside the metal work is bronzed, and the top is made with 
a rim on three sides, so as to receive a sliding sheet of 
glass whenever a cover is necessary, but which has never 
been used. Its measurements are from base to upper 
edge sixteen inches, from front to back sixteen inches, and 
along the front and back two feet seven inches. The cost of 
this was £0*. 
* This is nearly a double cube, a geometric form which gives the 
greatest possible elegance to an oblong rectangular object. But as the 
mind is apt to resolve it into its elements, and so compel the eye to see 
its natural division into two cubes, it is best to deviate slightly, as in the 
case of the measurements just given, which in length is one inch less 
than it should be to lorm a double cube. 
the union of the Fern case with the aquarium on the plar 
which I suggested three years ago in “Rustic Adornments,’ 
and any one curious in these matters may see at 54, Doughty 
Street, Bloomsbury, an exhibition of their tanks in use 
and one very fine sample of Fern case, and aquarium 
combined. 
Among their patterns, which comprise all ordinary forms 
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