212 
MAGAZINE OF SCIEMCE AND ART. 
said that gardeners were in the hahit of keeping 
cucumber and melon seeds in thair pockets in order 
to ensure their more efficient germination. 
“ On the Advantages arising from thelmprove- 
ment of Tidal Rivers, as exemplified by the State 
of the Clyde," by Dr. Strang.—Though the area 
drained by the river above Glasgow is 736 square 
miles, anil sends down water in Hoods to the extent 
of 33,885 cubic feet per second, it remained in a 
state of nature till 176S, having only about two 
feet depth of water. By different engineering 
appliances it has been rendered navigable for ves¬ 
sels drawing twenty feet of water. This has been 
accomplished—first, by planting jetties on its sides, 
whereby to contract the stream and cause it to 
deepen itself by' its own flow and scour; this 
obtained a depth of 8 feet; secondly, by connect¬ 
ing these jetties by half-tide parallel dykes, a depth 
of 10 feet,-and thereafter by raising them to full- 
tide dykes, a depth of 111. feet; thirdly, by the 
combined processes of dredging and steam naviga¬ 
tion prior to 1839, which augmented the depth to 
15 feet; and, fourthly, by tile combined action of 
the dykes, deepening machines, and steamboat 
traffic, an artificial river has been got at this 
moment of a depth of 18 feet water at neap, and 
20 at spring tide. With respect to the harbour of 
Glasgow, its changes had been equally marked. 
In 1800, the whole quay was limited to a few hun¬ 
dred yards; now it extends to about two miles and 
a half, leaving an extent of harbour of upwards of 
60 acres. From these causes the number of vessels 
arriving at the harbour of Glasgow has increased 
from 11,505, with a tonnage of 696,261, in 182S, 
to 17,960, with a tonnage of 1,612,681, in 1857. 
While in 182S, there was not a steamer above 100 
tons at the harbour, now such vessels as the Persia 
of 3,600 tons sail down the river. The cost of the 
vast improvements made from 1770 to July, 1856, 
has been £2,527,19.9. The revenue collected during 
the same period has been £1,603,219, the annual 
revenues being in 1771, £1,016; in 1857, £82,797. 
The debt of the Clyde Trust is about £92,000, con¬ 
sequently a large portion of what may be called 
real capital has been paid out of revenue. The 
following commercial results may' be mainly attri¬ 
buted to the improvement of the Clyde navigation. 
Before these operations were begun, Glasgow had 
little or no trade, whereas in 1851 the aggregate 
value of exports from its harbour was £1,905,557. 
Previous to 1801 her registered ships were nil; in 
1 856 they amounted to 563, with a tonnage of 
204,331. Formerly no sliips were built on the 
river ; now there are no fewer than 30 large ship¬ 
building yards, which in 1853-4 constructed no 
less than 266 vessels, having an aggregate tonnage 
of 168,000 tons, which, with the marine-engines 
made during the same period, involved the enor¬ 
mous cost of nearly £5,000,000 sterling. Previous 
to the commencement of the river improvements 
Glasgow bad only 24,000 inhabitants, now she can 
count 420.000, whilst its annual rental, which in 
1750 was only a few thousands, was last year 
£1.319,720. The improvements on the Clyde have 
given a most decided impulse to the opening up 
and working of the rich fields of minerals by which 
Glasgow is surrounded, and which produced in 
1855 from coal and iron alone nearly £4,900,000, 
and gave employment to 233,912 persons, who 
received for their labour wages to the amount of 
£1,975,919. So much for Glasgow. In a national 
point of view these improvements have proved 
equally beneficial. In 1796 the Customs duties 
levied at Glasgow were only £125, whereas last 
year they amounted to £718,855. In 1781 the 
revenue of the Glasgow Post-office was only £4,341; 
in 1856, with a penny postage, it reached £64,958. 
In one word, while the taxes paid into the public 
treasury through the city of Glasgow before the 
Clyde improvements commenced were, compara¬ 
tively- speaking, nothing, the various crown reve¬ 
nues collected there last year reached no less a 
sum than £2,800,000, or about l-25th part of the 
whole revenue of the country. 
REMARKS ON THE STEAM 
PUMPING ENGINE OF CORNWALL. 
By F. S. Peppercokne, C.E. 
Tiie great improvements made by Mr. Watt in the 
Steam Engine, both in double and single action, 
are too well known to need description ; but while 
admitting to its fullest extent the genius of Watt 
in effecting these improvements, which laid a sure 
foundation for those triumphs of mechanical power 
which we see in the present day, the writer must be 
permitted to call in question the accuracy of a 
statement made in a modern “ Treatise on the 
Steam Engine," by Mr. John Scott Russell. This 
statement is that “ the history of the Steam Engine 
entfs with the history of Mr. Watts’ labours.”— 
(Treatise, p. 137.) 
Now this statement is not only untrue, hut it is 
absurd, as in fact Mr. Watts’ discoveries furnished 
the materials for the many improvements which 
have been effected in the steam engine since his 
time. The talents and the mechanical skill of Mr. 
Watt needed no such extravagant enconium, and 
if, as Mr. Russell would lead us to suppose, Mr. 
Watt left the steam engine a perfect machine nearly 
sixty years ago, how is it that its “ duty ” has been 
increased from 60 millions of lbs. lifted one foot 
high by the consumption of one bushel of coals, as 
Mr. Watt left it, to upwards of 120 millions, as it 
now is ? 
It must he home in mind that the steam engine, 
as improved, hut not perfected by Mr. Watt, was 
essentially an engine for pumping water, and it 
may prove interesting to notice tlie result of these 
improvements, as recorded in Cornwall, under the 
system of public inspection of the performance of 
engines working in the mining districts. 
Mr. Watts’ improvements commenced in the 
year 1776, when the average duty of the Cornish 
engines was declared at 21,600,000 lbs. 
In 1779, Mr. Watt introduced the improvement 
of working steam expansively, which raised the 
duty to 26,600,000 lbs. 
From 1779 to 1812 few improvements were made 
in the steam pumping engine, but about the year 
1812, Mr. Woolf came into Cornwall, and Mr. 
Trevithick, who was a large contractor for the erec¬ 
tion of steam engines, erected several, the perform¬ 
ance of which was very good. His high pressure 
engine was also first adopted, in consequence of a 
scarcity of water for injection, and amongst other 
valuable inventions of his, was the cylindrical tubu¬ 
lar boiler now so generally used. Mr. Woolf had 
also invented a boiler which was said to possess 
many advantages, but frequent trials demonstrated 
