The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1849-11-24
r.e rhame.-Bank Ba,iainx-work.

la London, houses are not built sIngly,
but by wholesale. The rapldity with which
the town is spreading into the surrounding
country appears to receive no check,
and 10 admit of no cessation. Year by
year the map Of the metropolis takes new
forms, and juts out in every direction fresh
angles. To supply this Unsuitable demand
for house room, it is not the practice-ex-
cept in rare instances-lor capitalists and
builders to construct solitary streets; such
limited speculations would, it seems. give
no adequate supply: they therefore plan
and execute, with wonderful celebrity, whole
neiehborhoods, which suddenly rise upon
acres, and even square miles, Of quondam
green fields, like the city Of Cadmus.
Msrylebone fields now bear upon them the
weight of the circular neighborhood which
surrounds the Regents Park; Paddington
fields were wholly bncked over in some five
wears with a suburb, which now makes the
village itself difficult TO find; although,
within the memory Of even young Lon
doners, it stood naked and alone, bounded
towards toe west and north with flourish
ing farms the Westboume estate hard by
was covered with streets, squares, and ter
races Of partial looking habitations, in less
time than was spent in raising the Scott
monument ia Edinburg and the celebrity
with which the city Of palaces, consisting
Of Belgrave Square, with its surrounding
crescents, squares, terraces. and streets. was
elevated upon the 'hve-felds' Of Chelses,
has become byword.
In contemplating these and hundred
other accessio ns TO an already overgrown
town, and while wondering at the quick
ness with which they are effected, the means
and systems employed are seldom thought
OF or inquired into. Ii is common sup
position, that because London houses are
run up rapidly, that they are unstable; and
although the charge cannot be gainsayed
as regards few suburban streets and villas
put together by a not high class of specu-
lators, yet all the houses we have alluded to
above are stronger and better built than any
OF an older date; because accommodating ex-
peience is not only directing architects and
their subordinates TO new materials, but
science enables them 50 10 shape and dis
pose Of those already in use, as to give them
the greatest possible strength combined
with the minimum specific weight and
economy Of materials. The strongest house
10 be conceived Gin proportion Of course
10 the quantity Of material which goes to
form it, is the cell of the bee, and it is also
the lightest.s The ponderous wooden
beams employed by cur forefathers requir-
ed nearly as much support as they gave,
and half the time to lift that a modern
builder takes to finish small house. Ii is
improved knowledge, therefore, and not
bad workmanship, TO which, in great
measure, the rapid operations of builders
are due. Indeed the mansions of 'Belgra-
Via, as well as those on the other side OF
HYDE Park, were built for the highest class
of occupants; consequently they are as well
put together as il is possible for brick.
wood, and iron to be combined.
To convey a notion Of the capital sunk
This fact 10 curiously illustrated in 'Crom-
bis's Natural TheolOgy:-'Reaumur, presum-
ing that the angles Of a honeycomb were adop-
ted Tor the purpose OF saving naterlai, proposed
TO Koenig, a mathematician of eminence, that
he should Determine what should be the angles
Of hexagonsI cell, with pyramidal base, to
require the least material. BY the inhnitesi-
NAL calculus he ascertsined that the greatest
angle should be 100 degrees 26 minutes, and the
smaller 20 degrees "a minutes; the very angles
which the insect adopts. What an astonishing
coincldsnce 10 this. A profound mathematician
ID required 70 solve very difficult problem, and
"a 10 found that his conclusion, gained by the
exercise Of considerable ingenuity and deep
thought, was practically exhibited in tho oper-
atoms Of the beer $1,000 s-ssrf
The principles here evolved have recently re-
eeived an important practical application
Those stupendous iron tubuiar spans recently
thrown across the Conway and the Msnsi
Strata are constructed On the cellular system;
hsasyesmb. . .s.'s