railway-I think the question is one I would answer with doubt and hesitation. We have on the Basing line the slopes of 1 in 250, which require engines capable of exerting a double power, therefore of double weight. Then there is to be taken into account the waste of power in moving that additional weight; and then there is also the increased wear and tear of the railroad, if the rails be of equal weight, or the interest of capital in making them of greater weight in order to resist the increased weight of those locomotive-engines. I do not imme. diately recollect any other disadvantage there is on the Basing line. Strong engines should be provided to go over those slopes with sufficient velocity for passengers; double the quantity of steam must be produced with sufficient velocity, and consequently they must be of more weight, and these precautions and disadvantages must be attended to. Then on the Western line, exclusive of the Box-hill slope and the Euston-square slope, the gradients are better, and lighter engines would answer the purpose; there would be proportionally less wear and tear of rails; there would be also less wear and tear of locomotives; these would appear to be the advantages, and the locomotives would cost a little less. Then the disadvantages of the Great Western would be the very great waste of power that must be incurred in whatever way the two slopes at Euston-square and Box-hill are worked; if by assistant locomotives, which in my opinion they must be, I am quite sure that a rope, single or endless, must be abandoned; then there is the waste of power that necessarily attends the use of such an engine as that; you must keep the fire up all day, and keep the steam roaring out of the safety-valve, always ready for action, if not, the machine cannot be brought into action when wanted to push up a train of passengers; there is this waste of power, if the locomotive is used, in each of those

cases.

Then, if a rope be used, and I doubt, on consideration, whether an assistant locomotive would do upon a plane of 1 in 86, it might do, but you might be obliged to work it by a rope,-if a rope be used on either or both of those, then there will be a very large waste of power indeed in moving the rope itself; a great deal more power will be used in moving the rope than will be used in moving the load, and that is a waste of power that I have entirely left out of the account in the mechanical estimate of the two lines. Then the other disadvantage I see in the Western, compared with the Basing, is the difference of length,-the Basing is the shorter.

Do you also take into your account the much greater number of their tunnels upon

this line?-I was not informed of any tunnel but the one; and it would only affect the cost of making the road.

Do you not consider tunnels generally ob jectionable?-Not short ones; I do not ob ject to tunnels on a level; I would not object to any tunnel on the rest of the line; my objection is to a tunnel on a slope; no other tunnel on the line would do any harm. Then I confess I incline to think, in considering those disadvantages and advantages on both sides, that the Basing, for passengers, would certainly be the best.

You have stated the grounds on which you prefer the Basing line to the Great Western; are you aware of the different termini of the two, that the one does not reach the River Thames but by the Regent's canal, and has to go through twelve locks to it?-I have not any thing before me about the termini.

In your results you have not taken these termini as to the goods into calculation?—I have not. There is one point in the answer that has been read I would correct. It states, I incline to the opinion it would be more convenient to passengers; upon reflection, I do not know why I should limit it to passengers; I do not see any reason why I should limit it to passengers.

You think it altogether a preferable line? -Yes, I incline to that opinion.

Independently of the way in which they both reach the Thames ?-Yes.

ON WATER AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR STEAM.

66

Mr. Editor,-On perusing Mr. Galt's "substitute for steam power," No. 629, p. 403, and the subsequent remarks of Hydraulicus," No. 631, p. 460, I was reminded of an attempt made about two years ago by myself and an engineer, who has since constructed for me a steamcarriage, to employ water on the principle of Bramah's hydrostatic press, as a substitute for steam. My object was to propel a slow heavy carriage as a substitute for the carriers' waggons in present use. The experiment may be said to have failed: the utmost velocity that the experiment promised, supposing all intermediate difficulties could have been successfully combated, would not have exceeded a quarter of a mile an hour— too slow for my purpose. The same ideas, or some modification of them, seem to have presented themselves to Mr. Galt and to Hydraulicns. Should my experi ment, and its result, possess enough of interest to entitle them to a place in the Mechanics' Magazine, you will oblige

me by inserting this paper, whilst attention is directed to the subject.

Having, in the first place, prepared a suitably strong iron stage, and an iron frame to carry a four-inch iron shaft, with a nine-inch throw crank at its centre (the same I now have in my steam-carriage); there was, in the next place, fixed upon the centre of the stage, or platform, an ordinary double-acting steam-cylinder, 12 inches diameter, 189 stroke. An ordinary sliding valve, moved by an eccentric upon the shaft, which valve I now use to govern the ingress and egress of steam, was used, on that occasion, to regulate the ingress and egress of the water. To get over the dead points, a compensating fly, just previously patented by my engineer, was added at his suggestion: this was intended to supersede the necessity of introducing a second cylinder; the motion was, however, too slow to demonstrate the utility of that fly. After the water, which was conducted from the pump into the working cylinder by a two-inch pipe, had caused the desired motion of the piston, it escaped through a two-inch eduction pipe into the tank to perform again and again the same circulation. In the tank, which was of cast-iron, and firmly fixed upon the platform or stage, was fixed a double-acting pump on the principle of De la Hire. This pump is, I presume, so well known as to need no description. In virtue of certain arrangements for working this pump, by which it was filled four times, and emptied four times, by one revolution of its lever or handle, I hoped to obtain four times the speed that could be divided from a singleacting pump: these arrangements were as is below stated. The pump strongly fixed, horizontally, in the iron. tank. The rod of its piston was restrained to perfect perpendicularity of action by a strong guide. In the parts which may be denominated the continuations of the piston rod, was a joint just without the guide; at about 18 inches beyond this was another, a double joint, where was united, at right angles to the line of direction of the piston-rod, a rod from the lever or handle; and at about 20 inches farther was another joint near to the fulcrum, which was as firmly fixed as our ingenuity could contrive. When the machine was worked, by raising and depressing the lever or handle, the dou

was

ble-joint oscillated past the line of direction of the piston-rod. When the continuations of the piston rod were in a right line, the piston was at the bottom of its stroke; when these continuations were at their extreme angle, the piston was at the top of its stroke. The piston of the pump was thus worked by an oblique leverage; such as is, I believe, regarded as the peculiar principle of the Russel printing-press. According to theory, the force moving the piston of the pump is augmentable to any extent, by shortening the oscillations of the double-joint.

By thus uniting the principle of the Russel printing-press, to be worked by a common lever that of the double-acting pump of De la Hire, made to double its celerity of motion by an arrangement of parts of its piston-rod, and that of Bramah's hydrostatic-press, to move the piston of a common double-acting steamcylinder, so as that as little as possible of the resulting force should be neutralised by friction, I did hope to cbtain an effi.. cient power, which might be advantage ously employed to propel heavily laden, slowly moving vehicles. But the experiment failed, in as much as the motion afforded was manifestly too slow for the purpose. When two men were working the lever, the engineer dryly remarked, "the principle throughout is good and correct, no doubt; it only wants a steamengine to work the pump."

If-in mechanical pursuits, if is often a stiffly perverse monosyllable: it sometimes sticks, like a totally insuperable obstacle, right in the way of what you would do. If the resulting velocity had been satisfactory, the advantages contemplated were numerous. Amongst them are the following. The stock of water, costing nothing, would have circulated somewhat like the sanguineous fluid of an animal, and lasted an indefinite time. The expenses of fuel, of repair of injuries from fire, &c. &c., to which the steam-engine is liable, would have been avoided. Almost any imaginable force, at all events any force likely to be required to propel the most heavily laden carrier's waggon up the steepest roads in England, would have been ob tained from the bodily strength of two or three men, simply by shortening the oscillations of the double-joint; but the machine would have crawled more slowly. When the machine was moving upon a

Z is the cast-iron water-tank; y the double-acting pump of De la Hire, strongly fixed horizontally in the tank, under water; X the guide of the piston rod; W the end of the eduction-pipe from the working cylinder, which returns the water to the tank, to be used over again; a 1, a 2, are the induction pipes of the pump, having valves opening towards the pump, or upwards. In using this pump for a common well, these pipes may be united below the valves, so that one tube only may run down into the water; b1, b2, are the eduction or force pipes of the pump, having valves opening from the pump, or upwards; they convey the water to the working cylinder, which is not represented. In adapting this pump to domestic uses, these pipes may be united above the valves, to form one main, which may be carried to the top of the house, if required; c is the first joint of the continuations of the piston rod, situated just without the guide X; dis the second or double joint of the continuations of the piston rod; at this point the rod df, from the lever or handle, joins the piston rod at right angles; e is the third joint of the continuations of the piston rod, situate near the fulcrum h; ƒ is a joint which unites the rod df to the lever or handle k; g is another joint of the lever or handle, situate near its fulcrum j.

The fulcri hj being immoveably fixed, when the lever or handle k is raised, the double joint d will be moved through the point d 1 to d 2, above the line of direction of the piston rod; and when the double joint shall have attained the position of d2, the piston will be drawn to the end of its stroke upwards, near the pipes a 2, b2. By this motion the pump will be filled once, through the pipe a 1; and emptied once, through the pipe b 2. On depressing the handle or lever k, until it regain its original position, the double joint will travel through the point d 1, and attain its original position at d. The piston will be forced to the end of its stroke downwards, near the pipes a 1, b1; and the pump will be discharged, for the second time, through the pipe b 1, and synchronously filled, for the second time, through the pipe a 2. On continuing the depression of the handle or lever below its present position, until the double joint d passes through the point d 1 to d 2, below the line of direction of the piston rod, the piston will be again drawn to the upper end of its stroke, near to the pipes a 2, b2; and the pump will be discharged, for the third time, through the pipe b 2, and filled, for the third time, through the pipe a 1. On now raising the lever or handle until it shall have

regained its original position, (when it

will have completed just one revolution,) the double joint will pass through the point d 1, below the line of direction of the piston rod, to its original position at d; and the piston will be forced again to its original position near the pipes a 1, b 1. By this motion the pump will be emptied, for the fourth time, through the pipe b1; and filled, for the fourth time, through the pipe a 2. Thus by one revolution of the lever or handle, or by one oscllation of the double joint d, the pump will be emptied four times, and filled four times. When efficient power is to be derived from the principle of Bramah's hydrostatic-press, the expeditious filling of the working cylinder is the grand desideratum-the difficulty. In short, from the relations of the two pistons concerned, (upon which relations the power of the machine depends,) it is impossible the filling of the working cylinder can be quickly enough effected, if the power to be used is to be derived solely from the principle of the hydrostatic-press. From this circumstance arose the necessity of lessening the disproportion between the two pistons; so as, in the first place, to derive only part of the efficient force required, upon the principle of the hydrostatic

c-press; and, in the next place,' make up in some degree by advantageous leverage, that could be worked quickly and powerfully, to impress the first impetus upon the water. This leverage seemed attainable most easily through the principle of oblique action used in the Russel printing-press; and if obstacles should arise, such as ascending a steep hill, greater than the primary force at command could overcome by full strokes of the pistón, the resultant force might easily be augmented, by the employment of only the same primary fɔrce, by using half-strokes of the pump, by keeping the oscillations of the double joint between the points d 1 above and d below the line of direction of the piston rod.

Although the combination of levers for working the pump was, I think, un exceptionable, and might be advantageously used on some occasions, still the experiment, on the whole, failed.

If there be any originality in the combination, I have no desire to reap any advantage from it by way of patent. I should, indeed, more desire to hinder any one else from so doing; first, by

offering herein the unlimited use of it to any one who may chance to see its utility and applicability; and, secondly, by stating, that I have lately constructed another pump upon nearly the same plan. This pump, during the summer, I have had fixed half-way down in a deep well

-the surface of the water being 36 feet below the surface of the earth, and I have carried the eduction pipe, or main, up to near the top of an adjoining chimney. From the main go lateral pipes, of less diameter, to coppers, sinks, dairy, &c.

This pump raised water faster than either of the cocks upon the lateral branches would deliver it, whilst subject to only the pressure of the atmosphere. The water then accumulated in the main, more or less, according to the strength and activity of the pumper. The weight of the column of water in the main, which kept augmenting only until it reached a point now to be noticed, was adding continually its pressure to the weight of atmosphere, by which the delivery was accelerated by the cocks upon the lateral branch, turned on till it attained a point of equilibrium-a point at which the cock upon the lateral branch, although of less diameter than the main, or the barrel of the pump, delivered water just as fast as the pump could raise it.

When all the cocks upon the lateral branches were turned off, the discharge up at the chimney, at the top of the main, was so profuse and forcible, that it led me to expect that, if a pump of this description were fixed in every house, and a flexible or hose pipe fitted by an union joint to the end of the main, or at some more convenient part, it might, in the case of fire in the establishment, be of considerable use as a fixed fire-engine, as well as serve the purposes of an ordinary pump for domestic uses. ΚΑΡΡΑ.

Sept. 21, 1835.

ON RAILWAYS. BY JOHN HERAPATH, ESQ. NO. XI.

On the Right of Property in, and Piracy of, Railway Projections.

In a state of society so constituted as ours now is, property is a term of a most general and comprehensive signification. There was a time when the word property was solely confined to signify lands,

goods, and chattels; in short, something tangible and ponderous. But this limitation has long since passed away, and the offspring of the mind is now as much a man's property as his houses and lands are; he is even liable to be taxed to the relief of the poor for the produce of it. It is true, in common parlance, when we call such a one a man of property, we immediately understand that he is possessed of extensive lands, considerable money in the funds, or a large stock and floating capital in trade. We never cer tainly designate a man of great intellectual attainments or knowledge a man of property; yet, curiously enough, men claim a property in ideas, and law has sanctioned the claim. If a person hear and publish the sentiments of another for his own profit, though he had paid for the information and had heard it in comnon with hundreds, so jealous is the law of the author's rights, that the publisher is amenable for the publication as for a theft, unless there had been a special or implied permission to publish.

This

point has been settled in the celebrated case of Abernethy and the Lancet. Property, indeed, is now a term so very comprehensive, that it includes every thing corporeal or incorporeal which can be turned any how whatever to advantage or profit.

As fast as a new species of property rises, statutes for its protection, as they are called, are framed; but it would be much better to leave it to the protection of the common law. Thus, in literary property, what have the statutes done?_ abridged the author's right from perpetuity to twenty-eight years. Have they not by this means plundered his posterity of an inheritance probably of the utmost value, which may have cost him half as long again in the labour of composition as the time allowed for his proprietary right? A man shall devote a long life to the perfection of some object which shall be an honour and ornament to his country, in which the whole human species may derive a perpetual and incalculable benefit, yet he, the author of all, is in this way, by legislative wisdom, clipped of his just reward and that equitable property in his works, which the common law would have given and secured to him. Is this, I would ask, encouragement? Is it even equity or honesty? We are told, "the common

law is the perfection of reason, whose object and end are justice in the most comprehensive sense." Surely here, statute law is the perversion of reason, whese object and end are injustice on the most incomprehensible grounds.

Public interest having now been found to be deeply connected with railways, projectors, like mushrooms, have sprung up in every possible direction. Being objects of considerable profit, they are sought after with avidity. Never did phrenologist more sedulously explore the bumps and cavities of a thief or a sage's skull, than railway schemers do now the knobs and vallies of old mother Earth's surface. Smitten, I presume, with the

amor nummi," even some lawyers are turned railway projectors, or railway company concoctors; but of this more byand-bye.

Probably it is not of much consequence who plans and executes railways, provided there is some regard paid to honour and honesty; for the difficulties in the executive part are rarely of an elevated character. It is, however, quite necessary to check the effrontery with which some invade the rights of others. They think, or pretend to think, because there is no statute for it, that projectors have no protection, and that every daring knave, who, by unblushing impudence and falsehood, can get together a company, may play the rook on the invention of his neighbour. This is particularly the case with a few who affect to appear before the world as the more respectable portion of the engineering profession.

It is with the view of showing these railway purloiners that they have no such privilege of self-appropriation, and cannot make these thefts with impunity, that I now call public attention to the subject, and I trust it will not be in vain. At least, I hope it will excite some one, within the circle of whose pursuits it more immediately falls, to take the matter up, and to show the public in befitting terms the gross illegality as well as injustice of such conduct. If my observations have this effect, the end will be answered and justice will be done. Men of honourable minds wi!!eat they cannot support such schemes without contaminating their own fair characters, and will consequently find it needful to shrink from such unprincipled