THE

MECHANICS' MAGAZINE.

LONDON, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1859.

THE GREAT EASTERN.

might then be used for civil and commercial | be shared by all our professional readers-we
purposes. Such artillery could, moreover, be have observed with satisfaction that Mr.
worked with all needful efficiency by volunteer William Hawes, a highly influential member
forces formed along the coast, and, if necessary, and officer of the Society of Arts, has just been
batteries of guns could be transported from laying before that Society a valuable paper upon
place to place to afford opportunities for all the the Great Eastern. In this paper the writer
corps to exercise themselves with by turn. opportunely recals public attention from the
"petty jealousies of little minds," and from
the "misrepresentations of ignorant and in-
"terested opponents," and directs it to the
ship as "a great mechanical and engineering
work, fraught with great commercial and
"political results, the accomplishment of which
inay he retarded by bad management, but
"which will certainly be ultimately realized,
"however gloomy for a time the prospects may
"appear." For the sake of a magnificent ship,
which only its owners take pains to undervalue,
and will glance at her anew in the light which
we are pleased with Mr. Hawes' undertaking,
he throws upon her.
serious

OUR NATIONAL DEFENCES. THERE is a wonderfully simple means of defence accessible to us English people that has been A FREE press is a blessed thing unquestionably, many times suggested by individuals, but but it often works much mischief. We do not, never, we believe, taken into serious considera- we are happy to say, believe that newspaper tion by the authorities. We allude to the writers can repeal or set aside the laws of adoption of locomotive batteries, transportable nature-fortunately for us; but they can do from place to place around our coast on lines of marvellous things in the way of casting discredit railway. The Professor of Fortification at Addis-upon human enterprises even of the highest kind. What wonders have they not worked combe, Admiral Sartorious, and Mr. Bridges lately in reference to the Great Eastern? The Adams, (in Once a Week,) have all and severally design of that ship, in all its essential parts; proposed the employment of such a system of has been before the scientific public for several defence; and only last week we learned that years, and we never yet knew of any Mr. John White, the eminent shipbuilder of criticism adverse to it proceeding from any distinguished men of science. Men of science, West Cowes, Isle of Wight, no less than two moreover, have lately made two or three trips or three years ago devised elaborate plans of on board of her, and have discovered nothing carrying this system--which he seems to have seriously defective about her, so far as we have been one of the very first to devise-into heard. But newspaper writers have done what inen of science did not do, and their clever effect. disquisitions, aided by some singular proceedings on the part of the directors of the Great Ship Company, have brought the shares down ridiculously low.

Knowing as we all do, or may easily do, every assailable portion of our coast, and possessing as we possess the power of rapid transit which railways afford, it seems the height of folly to invest large sums of money in fixed defences. What could be easier than the simple process of connecting all or several of our assailable points by trunk lines of railway-placing upon, or in connection with them, a sufficient number of guns to meet every possible emergency-and furnishing ourselves with such an amount of locomotive power as would enable us to concentrate as many of our guns as we please upon any threatened point in a few hours? Taken broadly, it is possible that on close inquiry it would be found that no impediment would prevent us from suddenly concentrating all the strength of our coast artillery upon a single point if desirable; but even if such obstacles as the mouth of the Thames, the Southampton Water, Plymouth Sound, and other estuaries, were found to render this impracticable or undesirable, there could yet be no difficulty in bringing an overwhelming artillery force to hear upon every point where an enemy could land.

The advantages of such a system of defence must be very great. In the event of any attempt at an invasion being contemplated, we could put all our defensive artillery force into a state of preparation, and on the approach of the enemy, the telegraph would at once put every division of the force on the alert. No feints of the enemy could avail him anything, because our locomotive land force could be shifted from point to point, as he varied his position, with much greater facility than fleets of transports could be moved. On the actual landing being attempted, we should have the invaluable power of taking up whatever position we found best-either directly in the face of the landing force, or at any convenient distance from it, raking it more or less as opportunity served. Surely with the fleets of England afloat, and defences of this kind girdling our coast, we might lay down our heads at night in any corner of our happy island fearless even of Imperial France!

In times of peace our coast artillery might be maintained at exceedingly little expense at the mere cost of the guns and carriages, in fact, for the locomotives, and even the railways,

How far there is room to doubt whether Mr. Scott Russell's late contract was fully and faithfully completed or not we cannot tell, of the contract, and have not the slightest simply because we never saw the specification knowledge of its extent or limitations. We know, of course-as everybody else knowsthe directors themselves long ago announced that the contract was finished entirely to their satisfaction. But since then the question has been raised, and has very properly been submitted to the decision of duly appointed arbitrators. While these arbitrators have been investigating the subject we have seen and heard much on one side of the question, while on the other side Mr. Russell has maintained silence. For our part, while we know that an immense amount of nonsense has been written about the condition of the ship, and while we further know that Mr. Russell spared no expense in performing his contract, we shall not be surprised to find that he gets mulcted to some extent by the arbitrators, simply because we believe no considerable quantity of contract work can be expected (in the present state of commercial and manufacturing affairs) to stand close scrutiny unblemished. But however this matter ends, it can bear but very slightly upon the actual value of the Great Eastern. Mr. Russell's last contract may have been well done, or it may have been ill done, but that is a mere question of a few hundred pounds at most; the value of the ship as a commercial instrument or agent cannot be greatly affected by it. As to the folly which we hear and read, about the paddle-engines being placed too low, and other such matters, no scientific man will give heed to that for a single moment until something more than gross absurdities are brought forward in support of it. We say this, not with the slightest disposition to check any sensible discussion of the great ship's construction and qualities; on the contrary, we will gladly open our columns to any scientific letters or papers on the subject; but we say it because we have not patience to comment upon the utterly senseless writings which have recently appeared in imposing forms in reference to the Great Eastern.

Holding these views-which we know must

There is much truth in what Mr. Hawes says in reference to the present management of the ship. No one, as he observes, appears to have sufficient authority to decide what is to be done, and few of those who are now connected with the administration of the company's affairs appreciate the vastness of the original design, fewer still being able to carry it out in its integrity. Judging from the criticisms we have all read upon the ship of late, we might fancy, he remarks, that neither of the experienced engineers of the paddle and screw engines knew anything of their business; for one critic says the chimneys are too small; another, the of the paddles is too great; another, the airboilers are insufficient; another, the diameter pump rods are too weak, and the engines themselves are in the wrong position; another finds fault with the donkey engines, and so on throughout the ship, "all of which criticisms "seem rather to originate in a desire to spend "the money of the company, or to obtain a "false reputation by appearing to remedy evils "which do not exist, than to complete in the "shortest time the work that is unfinished, and "to remedy, in the most economical manner,

any defects in her machinery and apparatus "which her trials may have rendered apparent." There is also much truth in his remarks upon the gorgeous and expensive fittings of the principal saloon. He believes the interests of the shareholders, and good taste, too, would both have been better consulted, if the utmost simplicity in ornamentation had been adhered to, and more attention paid to the introduction of the comforts we are accustomed to ashore, and which the steadiness of, and the space at command in, this ship would have enabled the directors to realize, to the infinitely greater satisfaction of passengers than any pleasure that sitting in a gaudy saloon can afford them. He also notices a remark which has been made respecting the absence of means to warm the state room and other saloons in a ship going to America. The ship was never intended to go to a cold climate; she was built for the Indian trade; she is not calculated for a voyage to America, and it is to be very much regretted that the concession to other interests than those of the shareholders, and perhaps the desire of exhibiting this great work to our transatlantic friends, should have been allowed for one hour to delay her departure on the voyage for which she was designed, for which she is fitted, and from which alone commercial results to the company can be realised. "The ship has been "looked upon too much as a sight, and far too "little as a great commercial machine by the

proper use of which alone can profits be "made." It is clear, he adds, that one great element of commercial success is to be found in

not allowing this great capital to be idle in port; another in avoiding, as much as possible, the dangers of passing to and from any coast, whereas by sending her to America the delays in port must be tenfold her time on the voyage -indeed so long that smaller steamers will fill with passengers and cargo and make the passage while she is loading, if indeed she ever will be loaded there. The whole object of the enterprise will thus be defeated, capital will be uselessly lying idle, and wages and expenses will be as uselessly paid. Then, again, as to the risks incidental to the voyage. We all know how comparatively small they are in a well-found ship when once at sea, and most are equally well aware of the risk in approaching the English and American coasts, of the fogs and ice incidental to the vicinity of the one, and the dangers of our rocky shores and narrow seas. "I never have been able to understand," sys Mr. Hawes, "why the directors determined to send this ship even one voyage to America, "fittings before the ship and machinery had or to spend the large sum they have done in "been tried, and the speed of 15 or 16 knots << per hour, which none doubt will be accomplished, had been proved to the satisfaction of "the world. I have always maintained that, as soon as she was launched, and the machinery completed, by which I mean everything required for her safe navigation, sufficient "ballast and coal should have been shipped, "and a voyage of 1,000 or 2,000 miles per"formed, with or without her masts. If that "trial had been successful, money would have "been easily raised to finish her in any style "the builder or directors might have chosen; "if a failure, the shareholders would have saved "the £100,000 spent in fittings and ornament." We need hardly say how entirely and cordially we agree with these remarks.

66

66

EXPENDITUre.

Two Voyages-Coals

Officers, Engineers, Crew, &c., wages
Dietary for Crew and Passengers...
Engines, Oil, &c.
Working Expenses
Wear and Tear..
Depreciation
Insurance

Balance or Profit

gence

£80,000
20,000
60,000
5,000
50,000
50,000
50,000
50,000

365,000
153,000

£518,000

Much misconception, owing no doubt to a vague idea of the real distance to Calcutta, to the great length of time occupied by clipper ships and auxiliary steam-ships in the voyage, and to the apparently (as compared with them) very short time given to the Great Eastern, has got possession of the public mind as to the speed per hour necessary to accomplish the duty undertaken. The speed proposed by Mr. Brunel in the first-published prospectus, in 1852, was that "which experience proves such "vessels to be capable of, and which will per"form the voyage easily in 32 days." To do this he determined to employ engines of 2,600 horse power, consuming from 250 to 300 tons by him as the required speed. Is this rate of fuel per day, and 15 knots per hour is stated likely to be realised? The trials prove,"

No estimate is made of the receipts likely to exclusive of these sources of income there can be derived from mails, parcels, or specie. But hardly fail to be, if this amount be even near to correctness, an ample return to the shareholders, and if the wear and tear be estimated at the cost of the ship to the present company, says Mr. Hawes, "as far as they go (the en-. the result will be much more favourable; but gines never having been worked to full speed), Mr. Hawes has estimated them upon what he "that after a little working, when everything assumes would be the cost of a second or sister "is in order, this rate will be attained." He in obtaining a sufficient number of passengers cutta by Peninsular and Oriental ships, 38 to ship. He considers there will be no difficulty then argues, the distance to Calcutta is 11,819 geographical miles or knots; the time to Calor tons of freight to fill the ship so long as we are annually exporting to or importing from 40 days; time to Calcutta vid Marseilles, 34 India £15,000,000 to £20,000,000 value of to 36 days; time to Calcutta by Great Eastern manufactures and merchandise, and employing at, per hour, 16 knots, 31 days; 15 knots, 33 hundreds of thousands of tons of shipping, days; 14 knots, 35 days; 13 knots, 38 days; especially when we recollect that the line by Oriental boats and rail, £102; do, per Great cost of first-class passage by Peninsular and these ships will be a trunk or feeding line to the whole of our Indian einpire and the Eastern Eastern, £60; Luggage for each passenger (free) world. The cargo of 10,000 tons at high rates 336 lbs. per Peninsular and Oriental; do., 40 will consist of the first-class goods required at cubic feet per Great Eastern; charge for extra every port to which we trade, and the advan-luggage per Peninsular and Oriental boats at per ton; do. per Great Eastern, tage to merchants on either side, whose intelli- the rate of £36 say £12 per ton; trade to India-Tonnage and good information enables them to foresee a coming demand before it actually cleared to Calcutta, Madras, and Ceylon (185), arrives, of receiving goods by a conveyance 294,162 tons; estimated annual value of trade to as quick and regular as that which conIndia, per annum, £15,000,000 to £20,000,000. veys the orders, cannot be overrated. At From 12 to 15 knots have already been done The fact is, there is no visible hope of doing present orders are received by the overland with a maximum rate of 12 revolutions of the anything useful with this ship until the object mail to be forwarded by sea, the shipment of paddle and 40 of the screw engines per minute; with which she was designed and built is once which is notified to every one by our Customs' give them 16 and 48 respectively, and more more set before her proprietors. How will she reports, and frequently in time to enable merthan the anticipated duty will be done. answer for the passage to India ?-answer, that chants having no similar orders of their own to is, in a commercial sense? is the one inquiry make shipments on the faith of the known which should be resolved with all possible intelligence of others, which goods may arrive haste. If she can accomplish what her deas soon, or perhaps sooner, than those shipped signers promised, there can be little doubt, as by the parties by whom, in anticipation of a Mr. Hawes remarks, that a fleet of such ships demand, orders were first transmitted to Engwill soon be built, and a visit to India via the land by the overland route. To ensure the Cape will become one of our holiday trips, the earliest possible arrival of goods after the repassage being performed in a luxurious hotel ceipts of orders will command, Mr. Hawes instead of by the overland route, which “conargues, an amount of freight which this ship, centrates in a journey of six weeks as capacious as she is, will hardly be able to carry. "much discomfort as it appears possible to Commercially, then, the establishment of a experience in so short a time." Mr. Hawes trunk route which shall combine speed and states the conditions of the question in the comparative cheapness, must command as large following manner :-The cost of a passage to a share of business as can be undertaken by a Calcutta is now £102, and, excepting servants, fleet of such ships to sail monthly from either is limited to 1st class. If the Great Ship Com-terminus. It appears to him almost impossible pany, relying on her size and economical arrangements, boldly meets the wants of the time, and charges but £60 for a 1st class, £40 for a 2nd class, and £25 for a 3rd class passage, and freight at proportionately low rates, its annual earnings and expenditure-so soon as her speed is proved, and making two voyages only-may be estimated thus:

66

:

to appreciate, much less to estimate, the effect
of thus reducing the distance between England
and India; even the effect produced upon the
home trade by the introduction of railways, or
the increased facilities for our correspondence
by the joint effects of penny postage and rail-
way conveniences, invaluable and startling as
they are, or the daily increasing traffic between
England and America, since 1838, when the
first passage was made, to the present time
when steam-boats are running almost daily,
offer but poor means of estimating the advan-
tages to be derived from bringing several hun-
dred millions of fellow-subjects and their wants
within a few days of our shores. Surely, as he
says, support ought not to be wanting to aid in
overcoming the difficulties attending the com-
mencement of so vast an undertaking, for when
once the fact is established means will soon be
found to develop it more fully.

In comparing her speed with that of our large ocean passenger ships supported by large Government subsidies, it must not be forgotten that while by this ship it was proposed to accomplish a higher average ocean speed than has yet been attained, it was also calculated to carry so many passengers and so much freight that it should be worked protitably without subsidy, the sum annually paid by Government to mail steamers being £982,000; of which £167,125 is paid for the Indian route; £204,000 is paid for the Australian; £172,840 is paid for the American; and £244,000 is paid for the West Indian. In every other fast passenger ship the coals and engines, even for a short voyage, occupy so much of the ship that but little freight can be carried, and only a limited number of passengers in proportion to the size of the ship, and these mainly of the first class. "They occupy "the same relative position in ocean travelling 66 to other steamers that the fast coach or the "mail did to the six-insider of former days. "The one quick used only by the rich, the "other slow, but paid for by the public." Railways, continues Mr. Hawes, have abolished this distinction ashore; rich and poor travel at nearly the same speed, though at varying rates; and this great ship is the first step in the same direction afloat. Mail coaches required subsidies; by rail the mail is carried at rates scarcely equal to the actual cost of transit. So the mail steamers now built cannot run without subsidies; "and as the rail has beaten the coach, so

66

we hope in this ship to beat the subsidised "mail steamers in speed and economy, and thus "to secure large public support, which is of in

66

the undisguised cheerfulness and systematic order which appeared to reign throughout the varied ramifications of this vast concern. Indeed, although the proprietors with commendable modesty consider it an experiment, our belief, from no little experience in such matters, would lead us to pronounce it a fait accompli, and one which is eminently deserving of the most serious consideration of those who are unselfishly devoting their minds, both privately and legislatively, to the welfare of succeeding generations. The manufactures pursued at these works, which stand on ten acres of ground, are manifold in their character, and rise by almost imperceptible degrees from the merest mechanical application of the fingers alone, to matters which are engaging the most gifted minds in these days of rapid intellectual progress; from the punching of holes in wood, in metal, or in composition, and the canebottoming of a chair, to the highest branches of practical science. It is impossible to conceive an area more fraught with promise; for there exists an appropriate sphere within reach of every capacity, be that capacity mental or mechanical, or both. In the school, which is a lofty, well-ventilated structure, we found some sixty children, boys and girls, the offspring of the work-people, under the tuition of a master and mistress, assisted by monitors selected from the more advanced of the pupils. In order not to

finitely more value than a Government subsidy. on the national importance of this great underThe one tends to check progress so long as a taking. At present, the most rapid means of contract continues; the other stimulates and intercourse with our Eastern possessions is encourages it, because it rewards every im- through France, across the Mediterranean, and "provement." At 15 knots per hour this ship through Egypt by the Red Sea to the Persian will reach Calcutta in 32 days, and at 16 knots Gulf. This route can be stopped at any moment in 30 days and 12 hours, with a consumption of by the Emperor of the French. The next in fuel, when the aid of trade winds and favourable shortness is by sea to Alexandria, which can monsoons is allowed for, not exceeding 280 be very much endangered by French fleets, and tons per diem. We may fairly expect from thereby deprived of its certainty and safety, what has already been done, that when every- besides the risk attending the transit through thing is in order, and all hands, from the cap- Egypt. Such are the difficulties and expense of tain to the stoker, are up to their work, and the this route, that it can only be maintained by engines do the duty assigned to them, this aid of an enormous subsidy from the Governspeed will be attained, and the distance accom-ment, and even then with very high charges for plished in the time originally contemplated. the conveyance of passengers and small parcels; Extra speed can only be attained by the dis- to commerce it is entirely inaccessible. The placement of passengers and cargo; and it is charge by the Peninsular and Oriental Comthe skill with which the space allotted to ma-pany is, by sea to Calcutta, £102, and the chinery the source of expenditure, and that ordinary time required to reach Calcutta is 38 allotted to passengers and cargo-the sources of days, or four days less at an extra charge, via income, have been determined, that forms the Marseilles. The Great Eastern, therefore, will best ground of our hope that this ship, when forestall the arrival of the Peninsular and the first difficulties of starting so novel an Oriental boats, by several days, at Calcutta, and undertaking are overcome, will be a great com- this without subjecting either letters or pasmercial success. Disturb the one, and the sengers to the risks and inconveniences of three rates for the other two must be increased, and times passing through foreign countries, or to our surest element of prosperity destroyed. being transferred from one conveyance to These facts are strikingly illustrated by Mr. another, or to being interfered with from Hawes, who compares some of our largest pas-political disagreements between France and senger ships with the Great Eastern, thus :- ourselves. By such means, then, may our Eastern possessions be brought not only so many days nearer to us, but the communication be rendered more safe than, and equally certain as, by the existing routes. Every one must at once see the importance of thus reducing the distance as measured by time between India and this country, especially if at the same time we afford infinitely superior means than now exist for transporting an al-exertions. most unlimited number of troops and material or merchandise to and from any part of our distant possessions.

Ships.

Great

kts.

Carrying

Power for Passengers and Cargo. dys. Perans Tons.

Eastern 22,500 2,600 300 14 650,000 40 4,000 10,000

Atrato.. 2,720 800 95 11 105,000 15
Shannon 3,092 800 92 11 120,000 15
Persia... 3,585 1,000 140 11 140,000 14

194 300

268
350

450 400

Or, as compared with the average of these three ships.

The Great Eastern has cost

has

5 times as much.
7 times larger.
3 times the power.
has at 14 knots 1-22 times the speed.
carries 40 days' fuel against 15.
has carrying or commercial
power
for passengers 15 times greater.
for cargo 26 times greater.

In all these ships-and they fairly represent
the subsidised mail and passenger ships-it will
be seen that the quantity of cargo carried is
trifling in proportion to their size, and that the
expenditure of coals in proportion to size and
speed is enormous; and whilst, with a horse-
power of 1 to 3 or 4 tons of burthen, they give
an average speed of only 11 knots per hour, the
Great Eastern, to run 15 knots, has but 1 horse-
power to 8 tons burthen. Mr. Hawes sums
up thus:-"This then is the measure of the
advantage gained by her beautiful form, great
"size, but comparatively small steam-power.
"We have a higher speed by a vessel 7 or 8
"times larger than any afloat, than has yet been
"attained-capable of carrying from 5,000 to
“10,000 passengers, or 4,000 passengers and
10,000 tons of cargo; burning per hour but
"three times the quantity of coals now used by
ships one-eighth her size, and carrying fuel
"for 40 days steaming instead of for 15 days-
"can any one doubt this being a great advance
"in ocean steam navigation? Railway speed
was never the object of the engineer, but large
carrying power with great safety, at a speed to
"accomplish the distance to India in the same
or in less time than by the overland mail
"route, with the economy of ordinary clipper
ships, was his object, and, as far as we can see,
"it
appears likely to be fully realised."

tax their young energies too stringently, one half of the children is mentally employed, while the other half is mechanically so, and a liberal regard to out-door amusements in the field within the bounds of Silvertown healthfully tempers both

Those of the children not in school are employed principally in minor portions of carpentery-in the caneing of chairs, sofas, &c., for the cabins of ships and officers' outfits, and for domestic purposes in India and our colonies. It was interesting to notice the growing intelligence

One Great Eastern will not suffice, probably, either for commerce or the Government, when her power and speed are fully proved. The objection made by many that it would not be pru- of the children in these branches of industry, dent to put 5,000 or 10,000 troops in one bottom the fingers of some plying the split cane in the is, as Mr. Hawes observes, most futile. Let it reticulation of the seats of the chairs with a surbe proved that this conveyance is the safest, the prising celerity, while others, but young beginquickest, and most certain, and the objectionners, did and undid their work in evident mortifails at once. Experience has fully proved that fication at their own incipient want of skill. Each large ships are safer than small ones, and no child receives payment for its work according to one ever thinks of refusing to take a passage in a good ship because she carries a large number its quality and quantity, and some of them, mere babes, obtain about six shillings a week for the short period of the day they are thus permitted to employ their time. It was obvious to us that AN important social "experiment" is at present this was a very happy state of things, showing a being simultaneously tried in various portions of very far-seeing policy upon the part of the heads the British dominions, and is watched with con- of the works, inasmuch as the child is not only siderable interest by true and zealous philanthro-reared to an independent position by the knowpists. We allude to the foundation of training schools, where a solid but plain education, and a knowledge of the manufactures carried on around, go hand in hand in fitting the offspring of the men employed upon the works, of both sexes, for their future independence and well-being. The enormous factories at Saltville, for the manufacture of woollens, the extensive glass-works of Messrs. Chance and Co., near Birmingham, and the extensive producing resources at Silvertown, opposite Woolwich, are successfully developing results in the highest degree encouraging to the permanent unity and good fellowship of the employer and the employed.

The impression left upon our minds by a visit to the latter place, which, through the courtesy of the Messrs. Silver, we thoroughly inspected, was one of a very promising description, arising from

ledge of a trade, while it is receiving that religious and moral education without which the greatest mechanical acquirements are rendered so often unstable, but the parents themselves working almost in sight of their offspring are relieved from that depressing and feverish weight of anxiety which is ever attendant upon the parental care of children not similarly provided for. These children, as they rise in mechanical acquirements, work immediately under their parents' eye, and in due time, in sickness or death, succeed to their positions and emoluments. A committee of taste, tending to bring out the latent talent of old and young, is amongst the noticeable features of this community; and from time to time plans and models are examined, and suggestions for the advancement or improvement of any of fourteen different descriptions of trades carried on at Silver

town are examined and canvassed, and prizes awarded for those of a practical nature. A Mutual Improvement Society in connection with the for mer, gives unity and force to its other beneficial tendencies. The school-room serves as a temporary place of worship, a chaplain being appointed to the duty. This gentleman does not, however, confine his ministrations to these works, but extends them also to the numerous employés at the warehouses in Cornhill and Bishopgate, where social and religious meetings take place monthly, marked by appropriate addresses, prayer, &c. mechanics' and news institute are likewise in full and useful exercise in one of these warehouses, in which classes for instruction are formed, and lists of sessional lectures printed and delivered by its members.

|

nitude of which can best be judged of by a glance |
at the busy scene of the packer's department upon
the basement of these establishments, where enor-
mous cases are being labelled with their various
destinations, and are constantly departing for
shipping to almost every quarter of the world.
This department, and the general sample room,
where specimens of the manifold articles manu-
factured by the firm permit of the merchant
selecting at once and giving his orders, perhaps
best served to convince us of the magnitude of the
manufactures carried on by the firm, to which we
have to tender our thanks for the courtesy which
thus permits us to afford our readers a slight, and,
we trust, interesting insight into its workings.

ON HEAT.

PROVE THAT THE HEAT WHICH DR. BLACK
DISCOVERED TO BE ABSORBED DURING THE

LIQUEFACTION OF ICE, AND WHICH HE CALLED
LATENT HEAT, IS NEVER GIVEN OUT AGAIN ON
THE FREEZING OF WATER, WITH REMARKS ON
A PECULIAR PROPERTY WHICH SEEMS TO BE

To return to Silvertown: the parents of this infant colony work at the more matured require- EXPERIMENTS AND OBSERVATIONS TENDING TO ments of the factories, which are devoted to ponderous machinery of Herculean strength for the mastication of crude india-rubber, until that wondrous product acquires its perfect protean powers, and is converted into rick and waggon cloths, carriage aprons, macintosh and various waterproof garments, waterhose of almost endless lengths, air goods, such as life-boats, mattresses, cushions, inflated children's balls for play-a comparatively recently manufactured article of very extensive use. Buffers, washers and bearing springs now so extensively used for machinery, are here likewise turned out after the severest tests in almost fabu

lous quantities. The tenacity and power of resisting great weights as evidenced by these washers, as well as the buffers and packers similarly constructed for railway carriages, is something marvellous. The manufacture of hose for water pipes, &c., is another branch of this peculiar industry, which more than usually interested us, inasmuch as we saw no less than sixty feet of rubber placed around a mandrel or tube, and after being joined throughout the whole of this length, the entire mould or tube was withdrawn by one man with an ease and facility which at once proved how little friction must exist between metal and this extraordinary compound. This fact is surely as suggestive as it is curious. It is likewise within the precincts of these works that india-rubber is undergoing trials for the purpose of being enlisted yet more extensively as an important auxiliary for the more impervious insulation of electric-wires.

The houses already built at Silvertown are some fifty in number; they are without the gates of the works, and from external appearance seem to be inhabited by an industrious community, who intuitively entertain a high regard for almost a Dutch notion of cleanliness. The street is wide, well paved, drained and lighted, and in it we noticed a store for food. The latter we were informed was self-supporting, and each article being bought at trade price, and of the leading wholesale houses, its purity and economy are ensured. It is again retailed at a fractional advance of cost to meet the contingent expenses of rent, &c. A medical practitioner is also attached to the firm, and a sick fund has likewise been established under proper regulations, which not only brings with it a due amount of independence, as the men find in it a fund which provides for accidents, but absolves them from the necessity of seeking eleemosynary aid from their employers. The houses devoted to the chaplain, the manager, and principal clerks are within the gates, and are well built, commodious, and comfortable structures. Indeed, everything around bears the unmistakeable impress of a well-organised system, which distributes industry, ease, and happiness over the largest

surface.

Although the products of this industrial town are enormous in their aggregate, the warehouses in London take their share, and some hundreds of men, women, and the youth of both sexes, are there employed in the completion of shirts, knapsacks-both for military and touring purposes— belts, caps of all descriptions, toilet requirements, clothing, &c., &c., as well as the resources of a private outfitting trade for Great Britain, the mag

DEVELOPED IN

WATER AND MANY OTHER
FORMS OF MATTER ON CHANGE OF STATE.
By HORATIO PRATER, Esa.

(Continued from p. 378.)

THAT the theory of the separation of atoms being the cause of cold is right, follows also from Sir J. Leslie's experiments on the exhaustion of air (i. e., separation of the space between its atoms). "The thermometer always suddenly sinks a few degrees when in the receiver, (says Thomson, when air is let in again, is also best explained by p. 108.) And the sudden rise to so great a degree the theory now proposed. The density of air being 0,0003, Leslie found that the degree of heat produced by letting the external air rush into the receiver, so as to return to density 1, was so wonderfully great as 13,500 F., and even when the air was 0.2, was as high as 216° F. (p. 111.) Some heat in this case may be generated by the friction of rushing in, but the greater part is probably due to the atoms of air COMING CLOSER TOGETHER THAN USUAL, in consequence of their having been previously placed in an unnatural and forced state of VERY great separation. The degree of cold will be greater the greater the RAPIDITY of the action of separation of atoms, whether in the case of the solution of salts, or of the exhaustion of air, and vice versa, as regards the production of heat. But in both cases rapidity of action must be regarded as an essential element, whether of the production of cold or heat, only that the out or drawing in of an ether (the cause of heat) motions will be inverse; but the idea of pressing seems to explain the effect just as well (to say the least) as the theory of the opposite motion of atoms.

In the case of snow and water at 172° the more

rapid and greater production of cold than when
water at 32 is used, is also to be paralleled with
the greater production of cold when snow and
muriate of soda are used, than when water at 32°
and muriate of soda are used. I have already
stated that in this case the production of cold
certainly greater than what the mere absorption
of 140° can account for, is to be attributed to the
natural action being hurried, and in the same way
when snow is dissolved in water at 1722, I
whether, at least, part of the cold produced is not
may ask
to be ascribed to a similar cause?†

I know that an attempt has very lately been

Of course this separation of atoms is the cause of the
cold produced by evaporation. It also explains why high
pressure steam does not scald, at least when this is allowed
to expand by rushing into the air. Also the freezing of
water when this is put in anhydrous sulphuric acid in a
red hot crucible, the separation of atoms being so quick
remains under 32° F.
and wide of the ether evaporating, while the fluid portion
But as so little water is used when
the hand moistened is dipped in melted iron, by itself
(unless the sudden expansion of air in the water and all
about the hand assists) it seems inadequate to explain this
wonderful fact. It explains well the sudden sinking of
water from 418 to 212° in Papin's digester, when the steam
is let out. (Thomson, p. 195.)

other, hence there should be an extra production of cold
+ The particles of snow are separated rapidly from cach

[DECEMBER 23, 1859.

made to show that the same actual amount of heat is produced, whether some metals oxidise slowly or rapidly. But I must be allowed to doubt whether these experiments are satisfactory; and I believe any person will agree that they can. not apply to the slow or rapid oxidation of iron; for to conceive by any slow operation as much heat is altogether given out as when it burns in oxygen gas seems actually impossible; and for the simple reason, that no man can measure exactly the very high degree of heat produced by this latter experiment. This heat, like that produced by heating vitreous selenium slowly to 1929, when it suddenly rises to 450° (Regnault's Cours. I. p. 245), by the cold powder of antimony in chlorine, and by potassium when laid even on ice, or when the rays of a powerful sun fall on sawdust moistened with oil, or by Sir J. Leslie's air-pump experiments, nay, even by igniting a lucifer match, &c., &c., is so great that it forces us to acknowledge the truth of the theory I have elsewhere advocated, of the generation of heat from heat, much in the same way in which life is generated from life.

It will be seen that I admit that Dr. Black's theory is true as regards the absorption of heat when ice becomes water. I shall now proceed to show that his experiments are not so satisfactory when he attempts to show that water gives out these 140° again when it becomes ice.

160) prove that the heat of 140 which enter into The following experiments (says Thomson, p. ice to change it to water, are "not altogether destroyed." (1) "If when the thermometer is at 22, we leave a vessel of water at 52° to the open air, and beside it another full of brine at the same temperature, with thermometers in each, we shall find that both of them gradually cool to 32°. After this the brine (which does not freeze till cooled to 4°) cools gradually to 22°, the temperature of the air; but the pure water remains at 32°, and freezes very slowly, and never gets below 32°. Now, is it not probable that the water as it freezes gradually gives out the heat of 140° it absorbed during its liquefaction, and that water at 32, notwithstanding what it parts with this evolution maintains the temperature of the to the air during the whole proceedings?

Now, I may observe that the reason why the water does not fall lower than 32°, seems to depend on the sudden production of a nisus at this tem perature to resist change of state (for this is the natural freezing point), which nisus prevents the equilibrium of heat being established, just in the same way when a similar sudden production of force (nisus) prevents the water in a red-hot crucible arriving at a heat above 96-5 C. (Boutigny), or altogether to the boiling point.

This theory seems well to explain the fact that induced Thomson to think that the above experiment almost proves the evolution of 140°, viz., that the brine may be cooled to 22°. But why? Because as this does not freeze till at 4°, the

over the 140° theory. As the force of heat is used to over.
come cohesion in the two cases in the text, is it not
destroyed by its struggle with cohesion?
natural to suppose that the force should be diminished or
another force without losing any of its power, is contrary
To assert, as
Black's 140° theory does, that one force can conquer
solution in dilute sulphuric acid, heat instead of cold is
to all analogy. When the cohesion of zinc is destroyed by
produced in consequence of the very rapid combination of

the acid and metal; hence IMMEDIATELY on the separation
of homogeneous atoms, there is a CLOSER UNION of hetero-
geneous atoms.

• Thomson must mean till long after it is frozen; for ice at 322 may be cooled to 222; though the operation is slow. + The addition of salts makes freezing, as well as boiling, more difficult; and it is worthy of remark that as chloride of calcium impedes freezing more than chloride sodium (salt), so it impedes boiling more, and while with salt (30 to 100 parts) water boils at 224°, it (with a saturated solution of the former) does not boil at 264°. (Thomson, p. 1791 But as according to Despretz's experiments, when 148-156 parts of chloride of sodium are dissolved in 1000 parts water, the freezing point of the solution is 14:410, and with the same quantity of chloride of calcium in the same of potash, it is at 30-4880. (Thomson, p. 156. Tables.) quantity of water, is at 15.962", and with ditto of carbonate In this case, then, the nature of the salt seems to make a great difference, and it does not aet merely mechanically by any supposed separation of the atoms of water; Sir C. Blagden's experiments on other saline solutions (p. 154) prove the same. It is curious, however, that common salt is that in freezing mixtures it lowers temperature so far less. even a little more powerful than chloride of calcium, seemg