The Express.
London, England, 1851-01-01 00:00:00

In cousequesce of invitations which had been sent by
Messrs. Fox sad Henderson, the opetneston ef the Crewel
Pahee, to the S:ciety of Arts, to inspect the new building,
now rapidly approaching its completion, a large flambee of
members belonging to the moiety assembled on the ocesaila.
It was soul tired, no doubt, that a eumpilmeat of this head
—Masao appropriate sad gratieful—wea ass to that body la '
eonsideration of its services to eoseketioa with the exhild.
tics sad the wimps of seta is this envery. The slut was
made nitre rll3l ordinarily attractive from the (sot that
Professor Cowper, of King's College, kid eons' rated to give
• lecture explanatory of some of the mime prominent features
el the baling, sad the modem operemeli in regard to them.
In coder that redact galetude sheald prevail throughout the
vast leafleting daring the delivery of the lecture, and that
sot a aim& steam* of the now valuable time of the work.
men should be lost, lb, lecture was delivend betweea 12
sad 1 o'clock, during which period the men ordinarily go to
their diem,. The " room "is whist the lecture wee
delivered was formed for the nonce by **spending • MINN
of gamete, which had twee trot for the occasion by blesses
Jacksaa and Graham, on poles, which gave en air of comfort
to the place.
At twelve o'clock Professor Cowper contateseed his
teeter*. He said—Oa the occasion of the visit of the
Soziety of Arts to that very splendid building be had been
requested by IL* andieil to point oat to the members the
scientific principles of its °protraction. It woo not his
business to give a history of the building, but to pniat Cu'
those port{of it which aosr deserved attengon. They all
kadw that Joy were indebted kw the origin of the
talaffigg te Kr Psalm, who bad shady kid it
Whin the Society of Arts, without going into
derails of the eoo,otruction. There were some persons who
felt certaia that in anything which the government or great
people had to do with there moat be a job. In this
ease, on, part of the terms let forth was, that the con.
tractor who might tender for the buildieg, should be
allowed to maks any suegestiuns for aittratiaa that he
pleated. Mr. Paxton laid his plan before Meson. Fox sod
Handerron, and u those gentlemen at once perceived that
that was the building which ought to be greeted, they
wisely ad boldly mid, " This is the alteration that we sus;-
gat." It was arroompanied with the detailed plans and
estimates, sad, with the energy which had chareeter:sed
the whole affair, within one week all the drawings
sad estimates were laid before the ementissi Jen.
Therefore there was no tri leery; everything ea' open
and abovelriard ; and Meson. Fox end Henderson,
bike the only contractors who tendered, they had
in last only themselves to compete with. Now, he must
oborts*, is the Slot place, that the building was not an
architectural strutter* ; it was not built of wood, or stone,
or brick, but of iron—a material whiA architects almost

rid. The architect had very seldom to mn oto cakuls
for hie assistance. Brick was hid urn brick and stone
epos stows, without the slightest idea of risk; whirrs', in
&alio' with iron—a material which was susceptible, as it
were, of many forme—every part of that building, every
pillar and area bar, everything, in short, that was used, Ives
seinsitted by the engineer to rigid celen'etion, and the
misisnum material employed. You could not there see, as at
the British Museum, columns of seven feet diameter,_ which
tarried nothing, howover they might conduce to beauty of
effect ; everything was matter of calculation. The
critics had said that this building was very slight.
It mu, he admitted, very light; but the letter
ts a " should sot be profited. (A laugh.) He wanted the
critics to leers a lesson of diffidence. He would like any
who might be present to judge mentally what weight could
be bores by two quills one inch Welt. (The professor here
trabibi•ed two bits of the tubular part of a quill, each
about an inch lone, and placed them endwise.) He had a
little apparalui there for the purpose of testing the point.
There mu so trick of any kind, though there was, of
course, something to keep the quills in their proper Doeition,
yet the weight would rest entirely upon them. (He then
placed weights on bits of wood which rated on the
spills, first a half cwt., and then gradually increasing the
ormeure, until it reached to two cwt., when the quills
broke.) The columns around them, by which the building
was supported, wart hollow, end the olsreet of the Werra:ion
was to show the &drastic* of wing hollow tubes for such •
purpose. A columa of thirty feet high, and having a diame-
ter of twelve inches outside and ten inside, so that it was
one inch thick, sad a solid column 6.63, were of equal area;
and of these the fint woted bear 110 and the last 410. The
columns were fisted in sockets on has, resting upon
what was technically Wined concrete. The material for

minion the comet. was found on the spot, end the foot of
the socket was fastened firmly with cement. The question
might be asked, bow did the contractors manage to
put all the pillars in their respective places? That
had been dome with great skill with the aid of •
theodolite; which he need scarcely tell them was •
telencepe with an sal., by means of which the eye
veld test the accuracy of the placing, sad in order that
there might be so mistake, a foot rule or yard nt sours
was also emplued. 24 feet was the distance between
two columns. The architect set out from the very point
where • stake was driven, so that the enact spot was fixed
upon by the person who laid the while out. But it was
evident that when the socket had to be put in its place, the
stake most be taken away; and the* acme the question hew
to ascertain where the pillar was to eland. 1 rat difficulty
also was solved very 'loved,. The leeterer here referred to
models and diagrams is illustration of the nodes operandi
The rows of villeins, as would be perceived, covered each
other with the most beautiful exactitude, and if that had not
been the ease, the girders would not have stood. Now those
eolurans were fastened one upon the other. Here was
ann•her Illustration of the strength of a hollow column. He
need so' tell them how offensive it would be to the eye it
they did not stand true. In order to attain this ohjeet, it
was decided by Misers Fox and Henderson to turn
the ends of the pillars in • lathe, and in each
case to put one upon the other. There were 2,500 columns
end ab nit 12,000 facings to be done. Very few engineers
would have ventured upon so apparently expensive a pro.
WS as the turning of these ends. Bat Messrs. Fox and
Henderson saw, frets their experience in such extensive
work.. that that was the way to proceed. By this means
they had obtained this scientific resule, that there was not
• crooked eslumn in the whole building. He defied any
body to find one. The next point they had to consider was
the girders. The whole structure was composed of lines,
and thus limes were chiefly to be found on the columns and
girder.. Many person, on looking at those girders, thought
that they also were alight. Now, let them see, to use an
expression which chemists and engineers were fond of em
ploying—let them wee how these girders " behaved." [The
Intuit:here illustrated the strength and action of the girders
by means of an ingenious apparatus which he had brought
with him for the purpoe^ I N.t only was there strength, but
there was alto stiffness. [Here a Model section of the building
was exhibited for the purpose of illustration.] Some penent
said that there wee no stiffness in the building, and th et
the wind would blow it all down. This was the building
of the critics. hut not the building of Melon. Fox end
Henderson. (Laughter.) The lecturer here held up the
model section, and showed how easily the wind would blow
it to pieces without the proper supports, but oe fixing to it
• plight lath bestial:, it remained perfectly round and firm,
(The illuezation elicited loud sheen.) The girders were
proved by a hydraulic press, which consisted of en iron
cylinder and a pump. Now, all the girders had been tested
by a weight of 15 tone, otherwise they were not allowed to
page. The breaking weight was 30 tons, yet 7i tons was all
the weight that they would actually have to bear. One of
the peculiarities which must strike any puma on entering
the building was the absence of scaffolding. When he
brought his scholars from King's College to view the build
ins, they asked him where the scaffolding war. That was a
question which was put to him by grown up persons
as well me by the students of the college. But in the
prune ease the various part of the building supplied the
place of sestelding, and all that was neceesszy futile' were
ropes. lie had now to direct attenti in to whet were called
the P..xton sratt.re, which ran along the building, and,
bevies been invented by Mr. Paxton, were made by hand
at Chatsworth. Some objectors said. " This building won't
do ; the condensed water will drown them all ; what is to
he done to prevent that 1" Why, Mr. Paxton bad done
what was necessary before the critics eat down to write.
(Hear, hear.) The learned professor here exhibited a seatien
of the gutters, which in its lower part contained a peon for
the reception and conveyance of the water and condensed
vapour. As be had said, these gutters bad bean made at ChaM.
worth by hand. Bat Messrs. Fox and Henderson had roe
sorted to machinery, and the application of machinery in
this instance had loan perferly encoessful. The whole
thief wee run through and cut at once. There bad
been a variety of machines used then. There had
been machines for cutting the gutters—machines fee
cashing the sash bars and marlines foe drilling. The
painting was done by a machine. The sash bar was tai lin •
trough of fluid paint surrounded by brushes, and the paint
had afterward. to be swept off instead of being put on.
(Laughter.) Now, with respect to the transept, he would
observe that it weakest intended that the building should be
uniform from ace end to the other, Hat as Misers. Fox and
Henderson thought that a transept would give an additional
stiff au to the building, and as the tree, required to be coy end
in, it was determined that there should be • transept, the roof
overtopping the tallest of the trees 20 feet. A transept of
iron would have been too heavy. Everybody would say that
en arch must have alms. Granted, if the arch had weight
upon it. But hers the arch bad no weight upon it, cad
therefore it stood. This the lecturer illuented by mesas
• model arch, and called upon his audience to observe hew
beautifully were exemplified the equality of tension and of
mint,. It was at first intended that the arches whisk
formed the transept roof should be taken up one at a time.
But one of the fumes, Mr. Wilb.e, suggested that a pals
of arches should be taken up together, and that these meld
be made to set as a traveller to the rest. Messrs. Fox and
Henderson adopted the suggestion, with this exception, that
they determined that the ar.dies should all be raised in pain,
and find at .nee is their plumy Now, during the program
of the building various tenons had given hints which might