The Sun.
London, England, 1845-07-07 00:00:00

ing remarks on the " Battle of the Gauges," and are
glad to find that the writer pays a just compliment to
Mr. F. Shaw for the excellent speech he made in the
House of Commons on the subject :
The ' Battle of the Gauges,' as the contest between the
London and Birmingham, and the Great Western interests,
is called, terminated on Friday, the 20th of June, in the way
every man of reason and common sense must have antici-
pated, namely, in favour of the latter. Not to put the case
offensively to either party, it must be remarked that the
question whether the Great Western, in conjunction with the
Grand Junction, should be allowed to open up a line of traffic
to the north, independent altogether of the London and Bir-
mingham old trunk line, was a question which directly
affected the pecuniary interests of the two parties, whilst it
still more essentially involved the paramount interests of the
public. This new line introduces a principle of wholesome
competition, which, if it had been rejected, would have been
hopelessly and for ever lost to the public ; for it cannot be
doubted that whichever of these great interests had first
possessed themselves of the vast tract of country through
which this, as we may term it, interloping line passes, would
have retained it fur ever. In a word, if the Birmingham
and Midland interests had once obtained possession of the
Oxford and Birmingham district, they would eventually have
obtained a direct bold upon the southern- and western parts
of the country, which would have, to. a great extent, para-
lysed the energies of the Great Western Railway ; and thus,
whilst the existing traffic of the latter would have been con-
siderably affected, the power of the Birmingham Company
would have amounted almost to a monopoly.
"It was upon considerations such as these, more than
upon the abstract question of the superiority of a broad or
narrow gauge, that the decision of the Committee was come
to. Indeed, this abstract question of breadth of gauge is
one which the best engineers are as vet as far from being
agreed upon, as in the very infancy of railway enterprise.
The practical and scientific evidence which was adduced upon
the subject before the Committee, we have given a careful
analysis of in another part of our present number. In this
paper we speak simply of the general merits of the question,
as they appear to have affected the decision of the Com-
' mitte."

HUN GERF ORD SUSPENSION
BRIDGE.
(From the Railway Register.)

The Hungerford Bridge is ilow the ninth structure
connecting the two parts of the metropolis on either
bank of the Thames—the Vauxhall-bridge being the
extreme western, and the Thames Tunnel the extreme
eastern of this noble range of public works, unparalleled
for their magnificence throughout the world. The fol-
lowing account is extracted from a paper read by Mr.
Cowper before the Royal Institution:—
" This bridge is for foot passengers only: it consists of
four broad chains, viz., two chains, one above the other,
on each side of the platform; each chain consists of ten
and eleven links alternately, and near the piers of eleven
and twelve. This increased strength is to meet the in-
creased strain which takes place near the piers. The
chain of the Menai bridge is only five links wide, and
the chain of the Hammersmith only six links wide ; but
the great breadth of the Hungerford chain (viz. eleven
links, or about two feet) gives them great power to re-
sist the effects of the wind, and thus prevent vibration.
Two brick towers, or campaniles, in the Italian style, are
built in the river, over which the chains are carried,
firming thus a central and two side spans.
The two piers are in height ...
The central span between the piers (being
110 feet wider than the Menai Bridge).
The length between the abutments
Deflection of the chain

80 feet.
6761 feet.
1,3521 feet.
50 feet.

Length of each link (7in. wide, lin. thick) 24 feet.
Weight of each link ... cwt.
(The connecting pins are 411 inches diameter.)
The whole number of links ... 2,600

Their weight ... ... ... ...
The number of links in the centre span...

Their weight ... ...
Width of the platform ...
Height above high water at the centre of
centre span .. ... ...
-- near the piers ...
(Giving a rise of four feet in the centre.
This gives additional height for the
river traffic, and produces a graceful
curve, and prevents any appearance of
swagging.)
The section of the chains at the ceatre of
centre span is ... ...

.--L- near the piers

715 tons.
352

352 tons,
14 feet.

32 feet.
28i feet.

296 .q. in,
312 sq. in.

" A square inch of iron breaks with 27 or 29 tons,
but 17f tons is taken as the impairing weight, i. e. the
weight at which it begins to stretch; we have therefore,
for the weight the bridge will actually sear-
-296 multiplied by 17i tons, equal to 5,180 tons, while
296 multipled by 5 tons, equal to 1,480 tons,
is the greatest load that can be put upon it. This is
taking a crowd standing close together to be 100 lbs. per
square foot. The entire weight of the chain, the plat-
form, and a full load upon it, would make a load of about
1,000 tons on each pier, being about 8f tons on each
square foot of brickwork, or not quite If cwt. on each
square inch. _ _

" The chains are attached to large wrought-iron
vertical plates at the summits of the piers; these plats
are firmly bolted together, and also to a strong hori-
zontal plate—the whole forming what is called a saddle.
The saddle is not fixed to the pier, but rests on fifty
friction rollers, these resting on a thick iron plate, which
is supported by a solid mass of iron and timber girders.
The pier itself, being pierced with arches, may be con-
sidered to consist of four columns of brickwork : the
-girders, therefore, are so arranged, that no weight is
thrown on the arches, the whole weight resting on the
columns. The saddle is capable of moving eighteen
inches each way, equal to three feet entire motion ; so
that if either span were crowded, the chains would ad-
just themselves, and the strain be still perpendicular
upon the piers, and have no tendency to pull the pier
over. The method of putting up the chains was thus:—
Two sets of wire ropes, each consisting of three ropes,
were hung from abutment to abutment over the piers,
in the exact situation the chains were to occupy,—these
scaffold ropes, as they may be called, being distant from
each other equal to the length of the connecting pin. A
few feet above the scaffold ropes, two other ropes were
hung in like manner; on these traversed two light
boxes, very much resembling a carpenter's bench turned
topsy-turvy. These cradles, as they are called, were
connected together, and contained two windlasses, like
those over a common well; these cradles held the work-
men. A barge containing the links was moored under
the cradles: four men in the cradles hauled up a link ;
and when they had raised it above the scaffold ropes, the
connecting pin was put through, and the pin being al-
lowed to rest en the scaffold ropes, of course supported
the link. The cradles were then moved forward, and
two links joined to the single link, then one joined to
the two; the chain consisting thus, in the first instance,
of alternately two and one links. When this two-and-
one-link was completed,' the scaffold ropes were not re-
quired, the two-and-one-link chain forming, as it were,
a scaffold for the rest of the links; and thus was this
bridge erected without any scaffolding but these few
rope?, and without the slightest impediment to the navi-
gation, and without a single accident. The cost was—
Mr. Chadwick's contract for brickwork, stone-
work, and coffer dam £63,000
Sandys, Came, and Vivian for ironwork 17,000

£BO,OOO

The money was raised by-
-3,200 Shares of 251.
By Loan

£106,000
" The engineer in chief was Mr. Brunel. The resi
dent engineer, Mr. P. Pritchard Baly."

THE WEATHER.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SIR,—You will oblige a lover of meteorological re-
search by publishing a few remarks on the weather
during the present summer.
The principle upon which my conclusions are founded
is simply one of comparison, connected with certain an-
gular distances formed by the planets and our earth,
during seasons of peculiar tendency, and upon the in-
ference that like causes will produce similar results, the
following deductions were drawn for the month of une,
and published in the Cheltenham papers in May last:—
June, to the 10th of the month, will be generally cold
for the season, from thence to the 21st the heat would
increase considerably, from the 21st to the end of the
month considerably colder, and the results are so far cor-
responding with this judgment.
July, from the 2d to the 10th, as the Sun will be in
aspect to Mars, the heat will again increase, though not
so powerfully as experienced during the interim from
the 10th to the 21st of June, from the 10th and during
the month seasonable July weather will prevail.
August, to the 7th day, will be rather cool for the
season, but from the 7th to the 21st will be the
greatest degree of sununer heat, when the heat will be of
that peculiar burning power so trying to the constitu-
tion of mankind ; the cause to which I would attribute
this intense heat will be the retrograde posture of the
planet Mars, forming an angle of 180 degrees with the
Sun, when in his nearest position to the earth. Comets
are said to increase the heat on their approach to our
system, and to produce cold on their recession, but
having experienced similar heat to the present season,
when comets have not appeared (but not so without the
concurring testimony of the planetary orbs), renders
conclusions from the former doubtful.

September, also, promises fine harvest weather; the
months of August and September, as stated in May last
in the Cheltenham papers, would be splendid for the
harvest, tending to dry and fine weather. On this com-
parative system it is correct to state the drought of four
months continuance was predicted in April, 1844, to
last till the August following, and in June, 1844, the
frost for winter 1845 was predicted to be such an one
certainly not experienced since the year 1814—the re-
sult proved these judgments to be correct.
I am, Sir, yours respectfully,
G. T. F. SMITH.

THE SALT-HILL MURDER.—CONFESSION OF JO'
TAWELL.—At a very full meeting of the Bucks county magis-
trates (upwards of 30 being present), held in the magistrates•cham-
ber, at Aylesbury, on Thursday last, for the transaction of county
business, Dr. Lee, one of the justices, inquired of the Chairman,
Sir T. D. Aubrey, Bart., if the confession signed by John Tawell,
a few hours before his execution, and placed in the hands of the
Rev. Mr. Cox, had been given up by the chaplain of the county
prison to the magistrates, especially after the general feeling which
prevailed on the subject at the late quarter sessions held for the
county? The Chairman having replied that that document was
still retained by Mr. Cox, it was then resolved, on the motion of
Dr. Lee, that a letter be addressed to the Rev. Mr. Cox, request-
ing that he would deliver up the written confession of John Tawell
to the magistrates at the next quarter sessions for the county of
Bucks.
CHILD MURDER —On Friday evening the body of
an infant, with a brick tied to its neck, was found in the canal'
opposite Pickford's.wharfs, Regent's.canal, Camden.town.
The Royal mail steam-ship Britannia Captain
Hewitt, sailed from the Mersey on Friday afternoon with upwards
of ninety passengers ; and on Saturday the Great Western, Cap.
taro Mathews, departed for New York, also carrying a large number
of passengers,