The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-12-18 00:00:00

SCIENCE AND ART.

VENTILATION OF THEATRES.—Eventually all the air
comes from the street : if then we can convert the
passages leading to the pit into a series of locks, the
same as applied to rivers and canals, by the proper
position of doors, and by closing the door leading to
the pit, we open that communicating with the street,
we shall have our air-lock charnd with a fresh and
tolerably pure atmosphere. fiaving charged the
passage, let us close the outer street-door, and open
the pit-door ; the enclosed air will flow forward to
supply the interior demand, while it may have been
warmed by a stove placed in the passage. We shall
of course have leekage by this as by any other plan,
but we stand a much better chance of getting what
we want comfortably by taking advantage of necessary
passages in this way, and by warming our passages,
than leaving everything to chance and draughts.—The
Builder.

JOHN NASH, THE ARCHITECT.—Of the biography
of this noted architect, as in the case of James Wyatt,
few particulars have been given.. That he was born
in 1752, of Welsh parents, and that for some time he
practised as a miniature painter ; that he died at East
Cowes, in the Isle of Wight, in 1835, at the age of 83,
—thus adding another to the number of octogenarian
architects,—and that after all his gains by his profes-
sion, and speculations in connection with it, he left
little property, forms about the whole of the informa-
tion that is 'supplied to us in print. Some persons have
viewed him as a speculative builder rather than an
architect ; whilst others do not hesitate to attribute to
what they call his sycophancy of character all the
opportunities which he had. But those who were his
pupils at his house in Regent-street, speak feelingly of
him for his constant gentlemanly and considerate
demeanour, in a kind of relation which most of all
brings out the dispositions of men. What remains of

his gallery, and of other pieces of internal distribution
—which was that in which he succeeded better than
in his exteriors—together with some of the character-
istics of his work in other respects, go to justify what
is said by Mr. Gwilt,—that " the late Mr. Nash was
beyond doubt a person of great taste." The fitting
up of his °Rice, where each assistant or pupil had his
private desk and compartment, we have heard praised
for commodiousness and comfort, by those who had
experience of it. Still, that Nash failed in some of the
essentials of good architecture, is unquestionable,—
indeed obvious.
THE USE OF IRON IN PUBLIC WORKS AND ARCHI-
TECTURE.-It is difficult, says Mr. Skidmore, to
know where to begin in citing its use. Do we look
down on the map of England,—what vast and compli-
cated network threads its surface ! unlike the great
Roman roads of old, it is of iron, and not of stone.
Do we wish to span the thundering falls of Niagara ?
it is with iron, and not timber, the trial is made. Yet,
on the other hand, do we wish to span the roof of a
cathedral ? wood is used, though the forest which
originally supplied the ancient ones has disappeared,
and we traverse the broad Atlantic to make up the
deficiency, metallic materials in abundance lying around
us. Or, again. Look at the vast covering to the ter-
minus at Birmingham ; the Crystal Palaces ; the great
girdle of iron and glass to encircle London, which has
just been recommended to the consideration of Parlia-
ment ; the roof of the British Museum ; the Menai
Bridge ;—and let us ask ourselves if the world is not
outstepping us [the architects] in the appreciation of
its wondrously constructive powers. It is perhaps in
our great works of national improvement, termini of
railways, large central stations, and other improve-
ments, where thousands are dealt with as- units would
be in private efforts, that we may expect to see some
first—some manly struggle in a direction at present
but too slightly attended to. It may be replied- to all
this,—iron is not capable of beautiful expression.
Have we tried its artistic powers with the same energy
as other materials P What is a piece of burnt clay, a
lump of stone, without architectural construction and.
artistic skill Nothing more than a bar of iron. A
wall of rubble has little of interest ; yet a cathedral,
with its clerestory and flying buttresses, is but a wall
supported and enriched. All these raw materials are
alike unpromising : it is genius which rears them into
forms of utility, of grandeur, and of beauty.

YIELD OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA AND VICTORIA.—
At a meeting of the Institution of Civil. Engineers,
held on Tuesday evening, a paper by Mr. Evan Hop-
kinson, "On the vertical structure of the primary
rocks, and the general character of their gold-bearing
varieties," was read. The. paper abounded with
curious and interesting geological details. At the
conclusion of the paper the following statement was
given, to show the value of gold obtained since 1851,
chiefly by ordinary digging and washing, from two of
the most productive gold regions iu the world—Cali-
fornia and the colony of Victoria :