the men could only work in the summer months. The first summer was
occupied in making holes in the rock, and fastening irons to hold the
future work. The second year was spent in erecting a solid pillar,
of fourteen feet diameter, and one hundred and twelve feet high, for
the future support of the building. The third year, it was augmented
in diameter and increased in height. This building was eventually
finished, within the time above-mentioned, at an enormous expense. It
stood the opposition of the elements. The violence of the sea was so
great, that Mr. Winstanley said it has been seen to rise upwards of
one hundred feet above the vane, whilst the sides of the building were
covered with surf as with a sheet, so that the whole house and lantern
were occasionally under water. This edifice withstood the conflict of
elements till 1703, when the architect, being at Plymouth, and desirous
of visiting it, for the purpose of inspecting some repairs, went to
it, but returned no more; for a storm arose, which left not a relic
of it standing, except the iron work, which had been fixed in the
rock. The Corporation of the Trinity House had then to erect another,
for which purpose they employed a Mr. John Rudyard, who was a silk
mercer, on Ludgate-hill. Mr. Rudyard’s mechanical ingenuity was said
to have qualified him well for the undertaking. It appears that he
erected a house made chiefly of wood, which presented many traits of
his genius. It was a conical frustrum, one hundred and fifty-six feet
in diameter at the base; its altitude sixty-two feet. At the top of
the building was a balcony, railed round; in the centre of its area
was the lantern. This building was made quite plain, excepting the
well for the staircase, which was solid for thirty-two feet. In the
centre a strong mast was erected. The building was admirably fixed to
the rock, from the very peculiar manner of making the holes to hold
iron cramps, they being made for the internal cavity to diverge on
each side, by an extreme of one inch at the depth of sixteen inches.
The cavity was first filled with tallow; the hot iron then dipped
in the same substance, put in the rock, and eventually filled with
pewter, which displaced the tallow, being heavier, the grease serving
to protect the iron from the corrosive acidity of the salt water. In
1708, it was finished so far as to receive a temporary light. It stood
forty-four years, and showed that it was liable to destruction from the
very perishable nature of its materials. However, on the 2nd December,
1755, the upper part of it taking fire, burnt downwards to its entire
consumption. The concern had been leased to a Captain Lovell; but at a
later period his possessions were distributed among a number of people,
when the care of rebuilding it was entrusted to Mr. Robert Weston, to
whom Mr. John Smeaton was recommended by the President of the Royal
Society, who appears to have been well qualified for the undertaking.
He accordingly furnished a plan for, and superintended the building
which now stands. Mr. Smeaton’s conjecture was quite different to that
of the late projector; he conceived that nothing could withstand the
action of the wind and water so well, and at the same time, prevent
such accidents as the past, as could a building whose gravity should
secure its most sure protection, He accordingly constructed his of
the most massy stones, all dovetailed into each other, formed of
Cornish-moor and Portland stone; all the joints breach each other, as
the masons term it, or on each joint occurs the central stone of the
next course. There are fourteen courses of these stones first laid in
this manner, of a great thickness each course. On the 12th June, 1757,
the first stone was laid in its place, each stone being pierced when
it was laid, a strong oak pin was driven through to pin it fast to its
place: the dovetails not fitting so close to each other, because it was
necessary to leave some space for the cement, this pin was calculated
to secure the stone till this could be applied and had fixed; the
cement used was composed of Watchet lime and _puzzolana_, or Dutch
terras, being made at the moment by mixing up in a pail, with water;
this mixture was poured upon the work, and run into every cavity and
crevice; this, however, was sometimes not exempt from the injury of the
sea; whenever it was injured, the defect was supplied by having some
oakum cut fine, and mixed with this cement, introduced into the joints;
then they were secured with a coat of plaster of Paris, _pro tempore_,
and this was never known to fail, if the work stood for one tide. In
this manner the platform was erected, all of the most solid materials,
and substantial workmanship.
On the 30th of September, 1758, the work having been continued from
the 11th of the preceding May, had arrived at the store-room floor;
here an iron chain was let into the stone, as follows: the recess being
made and the chain being well oiled before insertion, the groove which
received it was divided into four separate dams by clay; two kettles
were used, to hold a sufficiency of melted lead, eleven hundred weight;
whilst the lead was in a state of fusion, two men with ladles filled
one quarter of the groove; as soon as it set, they removed one of the
clay dams, and then filled the next quarter, pouring the liquid on the
middle of the first quarter, it melted together into the second; the
dam at the opposite end was now filled, and then the fourth; by this
means the lead was associated into one solid mass. The centring for
the floor was next set up, the outward stones being first set, and
then the inner ones. Thus the base floor was finished. The men could
work no longer than till the 7th of October that year. The winter was
spent in preparing the iron, copper, and glass work for the lantern;
and the spring in unsuccessful endeavours to discover the moorings
for the vessel which attended the works, for the occasional retreat
of the workmen. On the 5th of July the work was resumed: the stones
for building had been hitherto raised from the boats by what are
called shears, formed of two poles, with the lowermost ends extended
to a sufficient width, whilst the upper ends met in a point; here was
fastened tackle, pulleys, &c., to raise them to a sufficient height to
be swung over the building; this course was now of necessity altered;
a block with pulleys being suspended from the top, projected to a
sufficient distance, supported by beams. After the base had been formed
as described, a different mode of operation was necessary to complete
the superstructure; the work being now advanced so high as to be out of
the constant wash of the sea. Instead of grooves being formed to fasten
the stones together, they were fixed by means of iron clamps and lead.
The stones to complete the superstructure were landed, and first drawn
up by machinery, called a _jack_, through the well, in the interior of
the building, being a cavity for the staircase. The work now proceeded
more rapidly, so that by the 26th of August, the stairs and all the
masonry were finished: the iron frame for the lantern was next screwed
together in its place, and the lantern soon completed. It should have
been noticed, that after the first entry was closed, the shears were
supported by a tackle called a _guy_, attached to the top of the
shears, and hooked so far on the outside of the building; the stone
being drawn up by a windlass, the guy was drawn in to swing the stone
over the building. The balcony rails and the stone basement for the
lantern having been completed, on the 17th of September the cupola was
set up by a particular kind of shears constructed purposely, the guy in
different places being fastened to booms projecting from the several
windows of the upper rooms; the next day the ball was screwed on,
and on the 11th of October, an electrical conductor was fixed, which
finished the edifice. A light was then exhibited, which has continued
to warn the mariner ever since. An ably constructed cornice throws the
spray from off the building, so that it is often seen at Plymouth with
the appearance of a white sheet, throwing itself to double the height
of the building, which from low water mark to the apex of the ball is
one hundred feet.
We have been thus minute, because this pharos is considered to be the
best constructed of all our lighthouses.
ELECTRICITY.
Electricity was a property but imperfectly understood by the ancients;
indeed, it has been said, they were entirely unacquainted with it. But
we propose, shortly, to show the extent to which we are informed their
sphere of knowledge extended. This much cannot be denied, that they
were acquainted with the electrical properties of amber, of which fact
we are informed by Pliny.
Even before Pliny, however, as early as the days of Thalis, who lived
near six hundred years anterior to the Roman historian, the Miletine
philosophers ascribed the attractive power of the magnet and of amber
to animation by a vital principle. Our word “electricity” appears to
be derived from the name the Latins gave to amber, _electrum_. It is
also evident that they were acquainted with the shock of the torpedo;
although they were ignorant, as are the moderns, of the concealed cause
of this effect.
It has been asserted that the ancients knew how to collect the
electrical fire in the atmosphere; and it is also said, that it was
in an experiment of this nature that Tullus Hostilius lost his life.
Etymologists have carried us still farther back, and assert that it
was from the electrical property in the heavens that Jove obtained his
surname of Jupiter _Eliaus_. This, however, may be only conjectural.
The first discoveries made of sufficient importance to demand the
appellation of “scientific” in the science of electricity, were
effected by Dr. W. Gilbert, the result of which he gave the world, in
the year 1660, in a book then published, entitled “De Magneto,” and
Dr. Gilbert was followed in his pursuits by that celebrated scientific
character, the honourable and illustrious Boyle, and other men eminent
for that species of information.
This science was successfully cultivated in the last century by many
eminent philosophers, among whom we may mention Hawkesbee, Grey,
Muschenbrook, Doctors Franklin and Priestly, Bishop Watson, Mr.
Cavendish, and several other members of the Royal Society of England;
whilst those worthy of the true philosophic character in France did not
neglect its cultivation.
Many fatal accidents have resulted from experiments made by people
ignorant of the science. On the 6th of August, 1753, at Petersburg,
Professor Richmann lost his life by endeavouring to draw the electric
fluid into his house.
Electricity, like many others of the arcana of nature, still retains
almost as deeply shaded from human view as when its existence was first
made known. Nature appears to have certain secret operations, which
are not yet, perhaps, to be revealed.
ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
This is the most surprising invention of modern times, and of the
greatest importance to a commercial people; by means of it intelligence
is conveyed from one end of the kingdom to another, in the twinkling
of an eye. A company was fully organised for the carrying out this
invention, which commenced its operations in 1848, and established a
system of no ordinary complication and extent. Their wires stretch
from Glasgow on the north, to Dorchester, on the south, from the east
coast, at Yarmouth, to the west, at Liverpool. These have brought
upwards of one hundred and fifty towns into instant communication
with each other. The wires set up for the use of the public alone are
upwards of nine thousand eight hundred miles in length, and extend over
a distance of two thousand and sixty miles, and, exclusive of those
running underground, and through tunnels or rivers, are stretched on
no fewer than sixty-one thousand eight hundred posts, varying from
sixteen to thirty feet in height, and of an average square of eight
inches, with an expensive apparatus of insulators and winders attached
to each. As the most trifling derangement of the wires or apparatus
will stop the communication, it is obvious that the utmost care and
watchfulness is requisite to prevent and detect accidents. Accordingly,
the whole distance is divided into districts, each district having
a superintendent, and under him several inspectors, and a staff of
workmen, batterymen, and mechanics, more or less numerous, according to
the extent over which he presides.--When we consider these things, in
conjunction with the central staff of engineers, secretaries, &c., at
the head-establishment in London, a maximum charge of one penny per
mile cannot be considered an exorbitant demand for the accommodation
afforded to the public in keeping open so many receiving stations,
and the maintenance of the expensive establishments. The telegraphic
system is designed for important and urgent messages, and it may be
safely averred that not one despatch in a hundred has been as yet
forwarded by it, which has not been by many times worth more than the
sum paid by the sender. A commercial house in Liverpool will scarcely
grudge 8s. 6d. for a communication by which a necessary payment may be
made, an important order given, or a profitable operation facilitated
in London; and the message from Glasgow, which traverses a distance
of five hundred and twenty miles in an instant, to summon a son from
the metropolis, it may be, to the bedside of a dying parent, cannot
be judged exorbitant at a charge of 14s., considerably less than one
halfpenny per mile.
Messrs. Wilmer and Smith, of Liverpool, publishers of the “European
Times,” have arranged the most admirable code of signals in the world;
and by the use of forty-eight letters are capable of transmitting
intelligence equal to half a column of an ordinary newspaper. The
telegraphic company disapprove of this species of short-hand, and,
therefore, charge for the forty-eight letters 13s. This Messrs. Wilmer
and Smith consider excessive, as they have forwarded similar messages
by telegraph, four thousand miles in America, for 8s., and from
Philadelphia to New York for 1s. These gentlemen, therefore, consider
they have cause to find fault with the company in reference to charges
for communications in cipher.
STEAM-ENGINES.
The Steam-Engine is one of the most important of human discoveries, and
is certainly one of those which afford the greatest portion of ease
and advantage to the human species, as well in the operation of its
cause, as in its ultimate effects. The most powerful of machines had
its origin from the single idea of one individual of our own nation. It
has been, from time to time, improved by different individuals, also
natives of Britain, the precise period of which improvements can be
traced, and their effects fortunately ascertained.
Although we should observe, that the first principle of this mechanical
power was discovered by some of the ancient nations, many ages before
that which gave the origin to the present practised invention, but
from the state of information, it is conceived, to answer no purpose
of utility. It may be said to have occurred in a small machine which
the ancients called an _Æolipila_ (the bull of Æolus) consisting of
a hollow ball of metal, with a slender neck, or pipe, also of metal,
having a small orifice entering into the ball, by means of a screw;
this pipe being taken out, the ball being filled with water, and the
pipe again screwed in, the ball is heated--there issues from the
orifice, when sufficiently hot, a vapour, with great violence and
noise; care was required that this should not be by accident stopped,
if it were, the machine would infallibly burst, and perhaps, to the
danger of the lives of all in its vicinity, so immense is its power.
Another way of introducing the water was first to heat the ball
when empty, and then suddenly to immerse it in water. Descartes,
in particular, has used this instrument to account for the natural
generation of winds. Chauvin thinks it might be employed instead of
bellows, to blow a fire. It would admirably serve to fumigate a room,
being filled with perfume instead of common water. It is said to have
been applied to clear chimneys of their soot, a practice still alleged
to be common in Italy. Dr. Plott, in his “History of Staffordshire,”
records this singular custom, where the Æolipila is used to blow the
fire. “The lord of the mannor of Essington is bound by his tenure to
drive a goose, every New Year’s day, three times round the hall of the
Lord of Hilton, while Jack of Hilton, a brazen Æolipila, blows the
fire.” The last circumstance we shall mention of this instrument, has
relation to an antique one, discovered whilst digging the Basingstoke
canal, representing a grotesque metallic figure, in which the blast
proceeded from the mouth. This figure is now in the possession of the
Society of Antiquaries of London. In this instrument, the uncommon
elastic force of steam was recognised before the suggestion of the
Marquis of Worcester, which follows:
“In 1655, or subsequent thereto, the Marquis of Worcester published
the earliest account of the application of this power for the
purposes of utility, and suggested it as applicable to raising water.
‘Sixty-eight. An admirable and most forcible way to drive up water by
fire; not by drawing or sucking it upwards, for that would be what
the philosopher calleth it, _intra spherum actroctatis_, which is,
but at such a distance. But this way has no bounder, if the vessel be
strong enough; for I have taken a whole piece of cannon, whereof the
end was burst, stopping and screwing up the broken end, as also the
touch-hole; and making a constant fire under it, within twenty-four
hours it burst and made a great crack: so that having a way to make
my vessels, so that they are strengthened by the force within them,
and the one to fill after the other, I have seen the water run like a
constant fountain stream, forty feet high; one vessel of cold water
being consumed, another begins to force and refill with cold water,
and so successively; the fire being tended and kept constant, which
the self-same person may likewise abundantly perform, in the interim
between the necessity of turning the cocks.’”
The marquis’s ingenuity did not, it appears, meet with that attention
which it deserved, from those to whom his communication was addressed.
In the article of steam it has been since very much improved, and
is acted upon for the most useful of purposes; also his ideas for
short-hand telegraphs, floating baths, escutcheons for locks, moulds
for candles, and a mode to disengage horses from a carriage, after they
have taken fright; which, with several others, proclaim the originality
and ingenuity of the mind of this nobleman--an honour which very few of
the British nobility aspire to.
Since his time, another design upon the same principle has been
projected by Captain Thomas Savery, a commissioner of sick and
wounded, who in the year 1691 obtained a patent for “a new invention
for raising water, and occasioning motion to all sorts of mill-work,
by the impellant force of fire.” This patent bears date the 25th of
July, sixteenth of William III., A. D. 1698. The patent states that the
invention will be of great use for drawing of mines, serving towns with
water, and working all sorts of mills. “Mr. Savery, June 14th, 1699,
entertained the Royal Society with showing a model of his engine for
raising water by help of fire, which he set to work before them; the
experiment succeeded according to expectation.”
The above memoir is accompanied with a copperplate figure, with
references by way of description; from whence it appears, that the
engine then shown by Captain Savery was for raising water, not only by
the expansive force of steam, like the Marquis of Worcester’s, but also
by the condensation of steam, the water being raised by the pressure
of a rarified atmosphere to a given height, by the expansive force of
steam, in the same manner as the Marquis proposed. This action was
performed alternately in two receivers, so that while the vacuum formed
in one was drawing up water from the well, the pressure of steam in
the other was forcing up water into the reservoir; but both receivers
being supplied by one suction-pipe and one forcing-pipe, the engine
could be made to keep a continual stream, so as to suffer very little
interruption. This engine of Captain Savery’s displays much ingenuity,
and is almost as perfect in its contrivance as the same engine has been
made since his time. We regret, that without a figure we cannot supply
a perfect description of it.
However, it appears that it was necessary to have two boilers, or
vessels of copper, one large and the other smaller: those boilers have
a gauge-pipe inserted into the smaller boiler, within about eight
inches of its bottom, and about the centre of the side of the larger
boiler; the small boiler must be quite full of water, and the larger
one only about two-thirds full. The fire is then to be lighted beneath
the larger boiler, to make the water boil, by which means the steam
being confined, will be greatly compressed, and will, therefore, on
opening a way for it to issue out (which is done by pushing the handle
of a regulator from the operator), rush with great violence through a
steam-pipe into a receiver, driving out all the air before it, sending
it up into a force-pipe through a clack, as may be perceived from its
noise; when the air is expelled, the receiver will be very much heated
by the steam. When it is thoroughly emptied of atmospheric air, and
grown very hot, which may be both seen and felt, then the handle of
the regulator is to be drawn towards the operator, by which means the
first steam-pipe will be stopped, so that no more steam can rise into
the first receiver, by which means a second receiver will be filled
in like manner. Whilst this is doing, some cold water must be poured
on the first receiver, by which means the steam in it will be cooled,
and thereby condensed into smaller room: consequently the pressure
in the valve, or cock, at the bottom of the receiver--there being
nothing to counterbalance the atmospheric pressure at the surface of
the receiver in the inner part of the sucking-pipe, it will be pressed
up into the receiver, driving up before it the valve at the bottom,
which afterwards falling again, prevents the descent of the water that
way. Then the first receiver being, at the same time, emptied of its
air, push the handle of the regulator, and the steam which rises from
the boiler will act upon the surface of the water contained in the
first receiver, where the force or pressure on it still increasing its
elasticity, till it exceeds the weight of a column of water in another
receiving-pipe, then it will necessarily drive up through the passage
into the force-pipe, and eventually discharge itself at the top of the
machinery.
After the same manner, though alternately, is the first receiver
filled and emptied of water, and by this means a regular stream kept
continually running out of the top of a force-pipe, and so the water is
raised very often from the bottom of a mine, to the place where it is
meant to be discharged.