Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1847-03-20
PUBLIC WORKS OF ENGLAND.

Editors u the Journal of Commerce.
is not yet twenty years since the British Parliament first
sanctioned the formation Of joint stock company TO construct
railroad from this place to Manchester which railroad was
designed counerva the canal monopoly in the ransporta
ton of freight 1t only after the of incorporation be-
the law of the land in the year 1925 that the idea of
transporting passengers upon this railway and thus compe-
ting with the stage coach monopoly, seriously
sdeed prospective and feasible item Of the scheme
George Stephenson, whose giant letters of hard iron
the length and breadth of this land the first
suggest the possibility of introducing locomotive engines
upon the railway the most economical motive power
hut he found echo amongst his professional BRETHREN who
TO opposed his evidence before Parliament when he
modesy stated his belief that such machine could be made
carry freight at the of ten tueioe miles an
hour. Even after commission Of engineers had been APP
pointed seek information this point, Stephenson still
far in the minority, and publicly laughed at by of his
most distinguished contemporaries. presume was
astonished than himself when few months afterwards
his engine, the Rocket" upon the railway at the
Of twenty miles hour And who among the vast null
ude assembled witness the opening Of the Liverpool and
Manchester railway could have oeseen in that ceremony the
first in the foundation of monopoly whose strength and
proportions already beyond the reach egis-
ave control In 1928, as have said the British ParIa-
ment authorized the construction of railway thirty and
half miles long, between this place and Manchester which,
after the invention of the locomotive engine by George
Stephenson 1922 opened for passengers and freight
traffic in 1880 In the last session they authorized the
sucion of 900 miles of railway which, added to the ex-
tent of road previously authorized and that actually ope
ration at this time makes grand total of $500 miles
Since 1880 the sage-coach system, the boast of all Eng
ishmen, and the admiration Of every foreign traveller in
this country, has been completely subverted overturned
demolished. II you wish to sagecoach you must
go to Scotland but the original type has passed away for
Formerly travellers made their the Kings
but who hears any thing Of the " Kings highway
now No one. 1t has, like the term stagecoach, become
nearly obsolete has been voluntarily surrendered by the
Parliamenone strip after another-to any joint stock
pany asking the favor until they have got the fag-end
The only highway we hear Of now is King Hudson's."
There certainly something very peculiar if not
ou in the position of this nation, claiming to be the most
free and enlightened earth, where nearly all their
highways and public of ntecommunicaion the
private property Of fraction OF the whole population
where the ougoings and mornings of twenty millions of
people be in controlled by board of railway
directors and this will not appear exaggeraton when
shown by official Of the past year. that upwards of
thirty three millions of persons travelled by railway in the
twelve months preceding through various portions of the
United Kingdom.
If there any branch business in the hands of the
British people better calculated than any other show
glance how rapidly wealth has accumulated in these islands,
it is that of railway investments. Up s45 in fifteen
years from the of the railway traffic. about
hundred millions sterling had been invested and the
average per mile had not been less than e35 O00 AL
lowing for reduction of cost in the roads yet
ed, for which has been obtained and placing the
average per mile of R3O 00O completed the
amount of private property invested in railways will be
far short of three hundred millions of pounds sterling
The construction Of such extensive lines of road has given
an astonishing impulse to the mechanic arts throughout the
kingdom, besides calling into existence such
magnitude not to be met with any other part the
world.
In entering town here, you rush in the chimney
tops, upon lofty viaduc you pass beneath through the
bowels OF mountain. Nature presents obstacles that
enlisted in the of railways has overcome and how
remarkable the future discoveries of may this
and following centuries posery look upon these
works as the labors of a of Ttans
Brunels tunnel under the Thames has been ranked
worlds WONDER and in comparison with any other
suberanean but its real merit can never be appa
rent to the multitude until the design of its originator fairly
carried out and Its thoroughare fully
established Since that work there have been
many others involving difficulties of construction of
complex nature whose solution has been talked
Of may say, although thousands of persons daily
carried these very works the of fifty miles the
hour Such many of the railway yaducts embankmens
and tunnels.
The boldest idea yet started by any living engineer is that
OF Robert Stephenson, engaged upon the construction Of
the Chester and Holyhead Railway who proposes and is
now executing tubular iron bridge the Mena Straits
Ito the shores of Caenavonshe with the island of
Angeseaa feat accomplished previously by eford but on
the old and we-tesed plan of suspension brdges) Mr..
Stephensons project is purely original, and of gigantic
proportions He proposes construct tubular bridge of
the form Of rectangular tube tunnel having cross sec
ton IA by &c feet outside measurement and extend over
the Straits in three Of $50 feet each Two lofty piers
viii be erected III the water to support the central span
sufficient height over the channel TO allow the largest class Of
shipping pass free, without striking their royal mast heads
There TO he two Of these tubes laid parallel to each
other the entire length of each being 1850 feet and thus
allowing free transit Of the trains in opposite directions at
the time The clear space left in each tube for the
passage Of train IA by II feet leaving nine feet of yer-
cal dimensions given above to be accounted for This APP
Ioprated TO the purpose of rendering the tube sufficiently
stiff to bear It's weight and that Of the tra by dividing
by Ia feet Of the upper portion of the tube eight smaller
tubes, arranged in two horizontal compression
and the lower portion roadway Of the tube by Ia feet
divided into four similar small tubes tension The two
grand tubes containing the separate roadways for each
to be boed together side by side lateral pres
from the heavy gales of wind this region.
1t not be supposed that any Board Of Directors would
have accepted such formidable project this without first
being well satisfied OF the feasibility Of executing IT, and the
ucency of the work for its intended purpose when done.
Careful and most elaborate experiments undertaken by
Messrs. Fairban Hodgkinson-men equally eminent for
their practical and scientific knowledge Of the strength Of iron
building material and upon their joint verdict of APP
prevail the tubular bridge is going on, the stone piers
Icing progress and the iron work contracted for in part
In conducting these experiments the gentlemen above named
discovered valuable facts They found that il
cessay provide much larger amount of strength in the
tubes resist compression than resist tensions that wrought
and cast iron stand directly opposite to each other IN this
tcuar that cylndIc and elliptic tubes far less able to
resist weight applied horizontally than tubes Of the square
rectangular section Hence, adopting the latter FORM and
senng by making the depth Of the tube nearly double its
width, (26 by IA feet and then adding nerory
NJ pl,es nd