The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-12-04 00:00:00

SCIENCE AND ART.

THE BELLS FOR THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT.—
Messrs. Warner, of Jewin -street, London, are about to
cast the bells for the great clock of the Houses of
Parliament, The principal bell is to be 9 feet in
diameter and to weigh about fourteen tons, and will
be the largest bell (they say) ever cast in England. It
is calculated that the four quarter bells will weigh
about ten tons more. The work is to be done from the
directions of our correspondent, Mr. E. B. Denison,
Q.C., from whose designs the clock has been made; and
the bells are to be subject to the final approval of that
gentlemen and the Rev. W. Taylor, F.R.S. and Pro-
fessor Wheatstone.—The Builder

CLEANSING TUBULAR DRAINS.—My practice with
tubular drains is as follows :—Flushing pipes are
brought up to the surface, at convenient distances
from each other, and flushed from a hose, and a cir-
cular brush is put down the pipe to stir up any sedi-
ment that may be deposited on the bottom of the
pipes. If this is practised periodically, it will. keep
the pipes always thoroughly cleansed, and completely
obviate the necessity of large tunnels to allow men to
travel through them and cleanse by hand. If this
system of sweeping the drains and sewers were gene-
rally carried out, there could be no danger of any
nuisance arising from stoppages in pipes. I find that
a gutta percha pipe, with a stiff rope drawn through
the bore, with a brush fixed on the end, answers the
purpose very well : it can be coiled up in 100 feet
lengths, and one man can work a 100-feet brush with
great ease.—Correspondent of The Builder.
A PORTABLE BRIDGE.—After the meeting of the
Institution of Civil Engineers, on the 20th ult., Mr.
La vanehy exhibited in the library, a model of an ex-
panding portable bridge of his invention. The system
had been tried at Paris, where a bridge on this princi-
ple, fixed upon a boat in the canal, had been used for
permitting the passage of troops ; the boat yielded con-

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siderably to the weight of the men brought upon it, but
the bridge remained stiff, and the commanding officer
had reported well of its properties. The principle was
that of a number of strips of iron, or wood, pinned
together transversely at suchpoints, as that they should
form a series of equilateral parallelograms, the ex-
tension being obtained by the motion upon the con-
necting pins, somewhat on the principle of what was
commonly called " lazy tongs." A bridge of this con-
struction could be made very light, for any moderate
span, and be conveyed upon a boat to be projected to
both banks of a stream ; be used for the centre, or any
portion of a long floating bridge of boats ; be carried
upon a pair of wheels with a regiment, or used for
numerous civil purposes, and its construction was
stated not to be at all expensive.
ARTIC COLD.—Dr. Kane, in his official report to
the Secretary of the Navy, says that where he and his
party wintered, lat. 78 deg., 44 min., mercury re-
mained sold for nearly four months ! The range of
eleven spirit thermometers, selected as standards,
gave temperatures (not yet reduced) of 60 to 75 degs.
below zero, and the mean annual temperature was
5 deg. 2 min. Fahrenheit, the lowest ever registered.
" This extreme cold," he adds, " combined with 120
days of absence of sun, gave rise to an obscure but
fatal form of tetanus (lockjaw). The exertions of Dr.
Hayes, the surgeon of the expedition, had readily sub-
dued the scurvy, but these fearful tendencies to tonic
spasm defied our united efforts. This disorder ex-
tended to our dogs, 57 of which perished, thus com-
pletely breaking up my sledge organisation. " The
second winter," he says, " was one of extreme trial.
We were obliged, as a measure of policy, to live the
lives of the Esquimaux, enveloped in walls of moss,
burning lamps, and eating the raw meats of the
walrus and bear. At one time every member of our
party, with the exception of Bonsall and myself, was
prostrate with scurvy, unable to leave their bunk.
Nothing saved us but a rigorously organised hut, and
the aid of dogs, in procuring walrus from the Esqui-
maux, the nearest settlement of which people was 70
miles distant from our harbour. With these Esqui-
maux—a race of the highest interest—we formed
a valuable alliance, shaiing our resources, and
mutually depending upon each other. They were
never thoroughly to be trusted, but, by a mixed course
of intimidation and kindness."
GOTHIC AND ITALIAN ARCHITECTURE.—In a dis-
course to the Architectural Institute, at its recent
opening for the session, Mr. Tite, in allusion to various
styles of architecture, said he was of opinion that
Gothic architecture was too fashionable in England ;
and he sincerely regretted it,—partly, perhaps, be-
cause of early teaching, and perhaps because his recent
visit to Italy had revived his old impressions. Classical
architecture appeared to be almost forgotten by Eng-
lish students. At one time English architects had
been mad for Grecian architecture ; but now the great
works of Wren, Palladio, Inigo Jones, and the great
architects of Italy, were neglected ; and one gentleman
(Mr. Ruskin) admired to the very echo the Ducal
Palace at Venice—a feeling which he regretted should
exist amongst the architects of England. He thought
that architects and architecture were much indebted
to Mr. Ruskin, but he regretted that his lot had been
cast in Venice ; for of all the ugly types of Gothic
architecture to be found on the continent, that of
Venice was, in his opinion, the most ugly ; and although
he agreed with Mr. Ruskin and Mr. Street that the
origin and progress of Gothic architecture might be
traced in Venice more successfully than elsewhere, his
own opinion was, that the Venetians never attained
any eminence whatever in that style of architecture,
and that all that could be claimed for it was a certain
amount of pictorial picturesqueness. He did not
know whether these views were acceptable to the
meeting,—but he wished to recall the serious attention
of the profession to the beautiful architecture of Italy,
and its exceeding fitness to English religious obser-
vances;—its facility for accommodating large numbers,
and enabling them to join conveniently in the services,
and to hear the sermon. At the same time he did
not undervalue our attainments in regard to mediaeval
architecture, of which, especially in regard to decora-
tion, we had every reason to be proud.
JENNY LIND ON VOCAL MUSIC.—The following
extracts from a private letter of Jenny Lind to a young
lady, have been published in Dwight's Journal of
Boston, United States : If I might be
permitted to offer a suggestion in regard to Miss