diately put a handspike under it to heave it up. | ends of the tube slowly descended to their respec“That man will be killed," said Mr. Stephenson |tive shelf or ledge on each tower; and the disvery quietly. Captain Claxton vociferously as- carded power, that had successfully transported the sailed him through his trumpet, but the crew were vast gallery across the water, then floating away Welsh-could not understand English-and ac- with the stream-gently transferred from one cordingly the man, as if he had been applauded, element to another-it was thus left in the aëriexerting himself in all attitudes, made every pos- form position it had been planned to occupy. sible exertion not only to kill himself but his comrades astern, who most certainly would also have been nearly severed by the hawser had it been liberated; but a tiny bump or ornament of iron on the boat's head providentially made it impossi-historically to record a single sample. ble, and the hawser having been veered out from ashore, the tube instantly righted. During the operations we have detailed there were, of course, made by the spectators of both sexes a variety of observations of more or less wisdom, of which our limits will only allow us "Dear me!" said an old gentleman, as the tube when it first swung across the Straits was in perspective seen approaching the platform on which he sat, and which was immediately in front of the awful chasm between Britannia and Anglesey Towers," they have surely been and made it too SHORT; they must put a bit on!" As soon, however, as, veering round, it approached him broadside foremost, he whispered, "I'm quite sure it's too LONG; they'll have to cut a piece off!" A lady said to her companion, "Mr. Stephenson appeared dreadfully excited during the passage! The seventh movement brought the foremost end of the tube about 12 feet past the Anglesey Tower, and the rear end being now close to its destination, the hook of an immense crab or pulleyblock, passing through a hole purposely left in the masonry of the Britannia Tower, was no sooner affixed to it than the workmen at the capstan on piles, whom we described as asleep, instantly ran round, until the tube was by main strength dragged -like the head of a bullock in the shambles-to a ring from which it could not possibly retreat. | Did n't you observe how he kept continually stretchBy a combination of capstan-power on the north shore, the foremost or opposite end was now drawn backwards until it came to the edge of the Anglesey Tower; and although we were aware that the measurements had of course been accurately predetermined, yet it was really a beautiful triumph of science to behold the immense tube pass into its place by a windage or clear space amounting, as nearly as we could judge it, to rather less than three quarters of an inch. The tube having now evidently at both ends attained its position over the stone ledge in the ing out his arms, raising them up, and then sinking them down in this way?" (suiting her words to the actions by which the speed of the voyage had calmly been regulated.) "But no wonder he was so agitated!" The company's servants were engaged until long after sunset in securing and placing in safety the various materials, &c., that had been in requisition during the day, and it was not till past midnight that, over-tired, they managed one after another to retire to rest. On the following morning, after we had bidden excavation that had been purposely constructed | adieu to the hospitable inmates of a small wooden for it, a deafening-and, to us, a deeply-affecting habitation, beneath the Anglesey Tower, in which -cheer suddenly and simultaneously burst out we had been very kindly received, we had occainto a continuous roar of applause from the multitudes congregated in all directions, whose attention had been so riveted to the series of operations they had been witnessing, that not a sound had previously escaped from them; nor had they, in any place, been seen to move from the spots at which they either stood or sat. sion to pass near to a stand which had purposely been constructed in a peculiarly advantageous position, to enable the directors of the Chester and Holyhead Railway to witness the operation. Upon the centre bench of this platform-the ground far around which was partially covered with bits of orange-peel, greasy papers that had Mr. Stephenson took no notice whatever of this contained sandwiches, and other scraps, indicative salute; indeed, we much question if he even heard of an intellectual feast that was over-we obit, for his attention was intently occupied in giv- served, reclining entirely by himself, a person in ing to his able and confidential assistant, Mr. the easy garb of a gentleman, who appeared to Wild, directions respecting the final adjustment be in the exquisite enjoyment of a cigar, whose of the temporary fastenings by which the tube white smoke in long expirations was periodically was to be retained; but the crowd of spectators exuding from his lips, as with unaverted eyes he -like that at a theatre when the curtain of the sat indolently gazing at the aërial gallery before after-piece drops-were already seen hurrying him. It was the father looking at his new-born away in all directions, by steam, by boats, by child! He had strolled down from Llanfaircarriages, and on foot, until, in the brief course pwllgwyngyll, where, undisturbed by consonants, of an hour, both coasts were clear. The tide, he had soundly slept, to behold in sunshine and in however, during the operations we have described, solitude that which during a weary period of geshad become high. had turned, and was now be- tation had been either mysteriously moving in his ginning to be violent; the valves therefore having brain, or like a vision-sometimes of good omen been partially drawn up, the pontoons, as they and sometimes of bad-had by night as well as gradually filled, sank, until the widely-separated by day occasionally been flitting across his mind. Without, however, presuming to divine, from final resting-place. This operation, which might the rising fumes of a cigar, the various subjects be compared to lifting the Burlington Arcade to of his ruminations, we will merely confess that, the top of St. James' Church-supposing always on looking up from our boat, as it glided away, that the said church arose out of very deep, rapid at the aërial gallery he was contemplating, we water-was, as we have already stated, to be were astonished to find ourselves very much in the performed by the slow but irresistible agency of frail predicament of mind of the old gentleman hydraulic power; and as one of the presses used of yesterday whose emotions we so accurately is said not only to be the largest in the world, but delineated for when the tube was lying on the the most powerful machine that has ever been Carnarvon shore we certainly fancied that it constructed, we will venture to offer to those of looked too heavy and too high for its object, our readers who may never have reflected upon. whereas it now appeared almost too light and too the subject, a brief, homely explanation of the low in short, it had assumed the simple appear-simple hydrostatic principle upon which that most ance which, in principle, it had been designed to astonishing engine, the hydraulic press invented by bear that of a rectangular hollow beam; and Bramah, is constructed. although it had in fact annulled the awful chasm between the Anglesey and Britannia Towers, nevertheless, by exactly measuring it, it now appeared considerably to have increased it! If the whole of the fresh water behind the lockgates of a canal communicating directly with, say the German Ocean, were to be suddenly withdrawn, it is evident that the sea-side of the gates would receive water-pressure, and the other side none. Now, if a second set of gates were to be inserted in the salt-water at a short distance, say one foot, in front of the old ones-(the water between both sets of gates remaining at the same sea-level as before)-many, and perhaps most people, would believe that the pressure of the German Ocean against the new gates would of course relieve, if not entirely remove, the pressure against the old ones-just as a barrier before the entrance of a theatre most certainly relieves those between it and the door from the pressure of the mob without. Moreover, in viewing this low narrow passage -only 15 feet by 30-which, without cuneiform support, was stretching half across the Menai Straits (it has been quaintly observed by Mr. Latimer Clark, in the clever pamphlet named at the head of this article, that if this single joint of the tube could be placed on its tiny end in St. Paul's Churchyard, it would reach 107 feet higher than the cross)-it seemed surprising to us that by any arrangement of materials it could possibly be made strong enough to support even itself, much less heavily-laden trains of passengers and goods, flying through it, and actually passing each other in the air, at railway speed. And the more we called reason and reflection to our assist- This opinion, however, is fallacious; for, supance, the more incomprehensible did the mystery posing that the new gates were by machinery to practically appear; for the plate-iron of which be firmly closed, the foot of salt-water included this aërial gallery is composed is literally not so between them and the old gates would not only thick as the lid, sides, and bottom which, by heart- continue to press exactly as heavily against the less contract, are required for an elin coffin 6 feet latter as the whole German Ocean had previously long, 2 feet wide, and 2 feet deep, of strength done, but by simultaneously inflicting the same merely sufficient to carry the corpse of an emna-amount of pressure against the inside of the new ciated, friendless pauper from the workhouse to gates as the ocean was inflicting on their outside, his grave! The covering of this iron passage, 1841 feet in length, is literally not thicker than the hide of the elephant! Lastly, it is scarcely thicker than the bark of the "good old English" oak; and if this noble sovereign, notwithstanding the "heart" and interior substance of which it boasts, is, even in the well-protected park in which it has been born and bred, often prostrated by the storm, how difficult is it to conceive that an attenuated aerial hollow beam, no thicker than its mere rind, should by human science be constituted strong enough to withstand, besides the weights rushing through it, the natural gales and artificial squalls of wind to which throughout its immense length, and at its fearful height, it is permanently to be exposed! IV. RAISING THE TUBES.-Hydraulic Press.Although the tube, resting at each end upon the ledge or shelf that had been prepared for it, had been deposited high enough to allow an ordinary boat to row under it, yet the heaviest job still remained that of raising it about 100 feet to its VOL. XXIV. 24 OCCI. LIVING AGE. the pressure of this imprisoned single foot of water would so accurately counterpoise that of the whole wide, free ocean, that if the machinery which had closed the new gates were suddenly to be removed, they (the new gates) would be found, as it were, vertically to float between the two equal pressures! But anomalous as this theory may appear, it is beautifully demonstrated by the well-known fact, that if water be poured into a glass siphon, of which one leg is, say an inch in diameter, and the other, say a foot, the smaller quantity will exactly counterbalance the greater, and the water will consequently, in both legs, rise precisely to the same level; and this would be the case if one leg of the siphon were as large as the German Ocean, and the other as small as the distance between the two sets of lock gates we have just described-indeed, it is evident that, if a hole were to be bored through the bottom of the new gates, a siphon would instantly be formed, of which the ocean would be one leg and the foot of included salt water the other. Tons. 1800. 2622. Weight of one of the largest tubes The hydraulic cylinder, standing erect, like a cannon on its breach, on two stout wrought iron beams bolted to each other, is, together with its steam-boiler, securely fixed in the upper region of the Britannia Tower, 148 feet above the level of its base, and about 45 feet above that to which the bridge is to be raised. Now Bramah, on reflection, clearly perceived | is capable of exerting for the purpose of raising its that from this simple principle in nature a most tubes. In short, the power is to the weight of the important mechanical power might be obtained; tubes as follows:for if, say five ounces of water in a small tube can be made to counterbalance, say a hundred thousand ounces of water in a large one, it is evident that by the mere substitution in the bottom of the larger tube of a flat solid substance instead of the water, a pressure upon the body so inserted of very nearly a hundred thousand ounces would be inflicted by the application of only five ounces!-and-as this pressure would of course be proportionately increased by increasing the height, or in other words the weight of water in the smaller tube-Bramah therefore further reasoned that, if, instead of adding to the quantity of water in the smaller tube, the fluid therein were to be ejected downwards by a force-pump, the pressure upwards in the larger there is affixed a strong horizontal iron beam 6 tube would proportionately be most enormously increased; and ù fortiori, as, in lieu of the oldfashioned forcing-pump, the power of steam has lately been exerted, our readers will, we believe, at once perceive that, if the instrument which holds the water could but be made strong enough, the pressure which might be inflicted within it by a few gallons of water might almost be illimitable. The principle of the hydraulic press having been above faintly explained, the power and dimensions of the extraordinary engine of this nature, which has been constructed by Messrs. Easton and Amos, of Southwark, for raising the Britannia tubes, may be thus briefly described. The cylinder, or large tube, of the siphon, which is 9 feet 4 inches in length, 4 feet 10 inches in diameter, and which is made of cast iron 11 inches thick, weighs 16 tons. The piston, termed the Ram, which, pressed upwards by the water, works within it, is 20 inches in diameter. The whole machine complete weighs upwards of 40 tons. The force-pump barrel communicates with a slender tube or passage about the size of a lady's smallest finger, which, like the touch-hole of a cannon, is drilled through the metallic side of the cylinder; and thus, although the siphonic principle really exists, nothing appears to the eye but a sturdy cast iron cylinder of about the length of a 24 lb. cannon, having the thickness of metal of a 13-inch mortar. Around the neck of the iron ram or piston, which protrudes 8 inches above the top of this cylinder, feet 9 inches in length, resembling the wooden yoke used by milkmaids for carrying their pails, from the extremities of which there hang two enormous iron chains, composed of eight or nine flat links or plates, each 7 inches broad, 1 inch thick, and 6 feet in length, firmly bolted together. These chains (which, in order to lift the tube to its destination, are required to be each 145 feet long) weigh no less than 100 tons-which is more than double the weight of the equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington, lately erected in Hyde Park-commonly regarded as one of the heaviest lifts ever effected; and certainly, when from the giddy region of the Britannia Tower, in which this hydraulic machinery, like the nest of an eagle, has been deposited, the stranger, after looking down upon the enormous weight of iron not only to be supported, but to be raised, compares the whole mass with the diameter of the little touchhole immediately before him, through which the lifting power has to pass-and when he reflects that the whole process can, with the greatest ease, be regulated and controlled by a single man, it is impossible to help feeling deeply grateful to the Divine Power for an invention which, at first sight. has more the appearance of magic than of art. As soon as all adjustments were prepared, and the boiler was sufficiently heated, the great piston, under the influence of severe pressure upon the water beneath it, began slowly, like a schoolboy's From the above trifling data it will be evident" jack-in-the-box," to emerge from the cylinder, that, leaving friction and the weight of the ram out and, apparently regardless of the enormous weight of the question, the lifting power of this machine that oppressed his shoulders, he continued steadily must exceed the force applied to the force-pump in to rise, until in about thirty minutes he lifted the the same proportion that 13-inch diameter bears to tube 6 feet, and, as he could raise it no higher, the a diameter of 20 inches-which in figures amounts huge chains beneath were immediately secured by to about 354 to 1; and as the two 40-horse steam- a powerful vice or "clams" at the foot of the press. engines which are to be applied to the touch-hole By letting off the water, which of course relieved for compressing the water in the smaller tube the pressure beneath the piston, it descended, by would, it has been calculated by Mr. Latimer its own gravity, to the point from which it had Clark, be sufficient to force the fluid more than five started, where the chains being again affixed to its times as high as the top of Snowdon, or 5000 feet yoke-an operation which requires about half an higher than the summit of Mont Blanc, our readers hour-it again, by the vitality of steam, lifted its have only to increase the force in this proportion weight another six feet; and, as the other end of to become sensible of the extraordinary power the tube was simultaneously treated in a similar which the hydraulic press of the Britannia Bridge way, the whole was progressively raised nearly 30 feet, when, by the bursting of the largest of the | was saddled not only with its own natural burden hydraulic presses-a contingency which, from the but with the preternatural works we have defaithless crystalline character of cast iron, it is scribed; indeed, in order to obtain its Act of Parutterly impossible for science to prevent-the pon-liament, it was so completely at the mercy of the derous mass suddenly fell through a space of seven government, that it was obliged to submit to cerinches an awful phenomenon to witness-until it tain excruciating terms which-with the nonpaywas stopped by the brickwork and timber which had cautiously been underbuilt during its ascent— and from which it has still to be raised to a point a few feet above its final position, where, a strong iron beam being placed beneath, it will, we trust, triumphantly be lowered to its final resting-place, to be the aërial highway of the public. 66 66 ment to the company of its 30,000l. a year for the mail-service, which the members of the late administration well know was ensured to it-and1 with a competition between the government and the company's steamers most lamentably inflicting a serious loss upon both parties-have, it appears, reduced the value of its shares in the market by [Here follows a discussion as to Mr. Fairbairn's claims more than 70 per cent., and, of course, completely to a large share of the credit. The reviewer decides drained its capital of all dividend. And," it against them; and we omit that part of the article.-—has been said, so much the better for the public!' Living Age.] Be it so we have no desire to relieve the proprietors of the Chester and Holyhead Railway from the terms (whatever they may be) of their contract. On the other hand, there can be no doubt that, if Parliament holds every railway company hard and fast to its bargain when it has made a bad one, it ought not, at all events, by ex post facto legislation, to let loose the public from every imprudent engagement which they, on their parts, have contracted to perform. We will exemplify our meaning by a particular case. MORAL. The sums expended by the Chester and Holyhead Railway Company to the 30th June last have been as follows:Cost of Tubular Bridge for crossing the Conway Cost of Tubular Bridge for crossing the Menai Straits Remainder of the line, &c. Total expenditure . Contribution to be paid towards the construction of the Holyhead Harbor of Refuge Present market-value of original stock Ditto of preferential stock at 5 per cent. interest issued by the Company to obtain £ s. d. 110,000 0 0 0 500,000 0 2,971,587 0 0 3,581,587 0 0 200,000 0 0 72 per ct. discount. funds to complete the works 20 per ct. discount. At the fag-end of last session Lord Monteagle introduced into the House of Lords a bill, which, though hastily approved by a vote of that house, was very properly, as we think, discountenanced" by Lord John Russell, and finally thrown out in the House of Commons, to deprive railway proprietors of the power they now enjoy of solely auditing their own accounts. It was not attempted to be shown that an auditor The above figures strikingly illustrate the con-appointed by the public could increase the number sequences of the system, or rather want of sys- of trains-improve station accommodation-or tem, which the imperial Parliament has hitherto give additional security or even comfort to any pursued in railway legislation. description of persons travelling by rail. It was not attempted to be shown that the proposed measure would confer a single additional privilege upon railway share-owners. On the contrary, it was frankly admitted that "to THEM the books of the company are by law at all times open ;” but as a highly popular doctrine, it was honestly and unscrupulously explained that the real object of the proposed audit-bill was to enable the public, by legislative "clairvoyance," accurately to ascertain the present and prospective state of every railway company, in order that the proprietorsTM thereof might be prevented from any longer selling their shares to the aforesaid "public" at prices" above their intrinsic value. If the communication between England and Ireland viû Holyhead, had—on the principle which at the time we earnestly recommended-been considered as one great arterial line, the proportionate expense of contributing to a harbor of refuge, as well as the enormous cost of raising the two bridges necessary for crossing the Conway and Menai Straits to a height sufficient for the distinctly different purposes of railway traffic and the sailing of large vessels, might, with some appearance of justice, have been thrown upon the aforesaid large company ;—although, in the day of M'Adam roads, Telford's bridges over the very same places, and the construction of harbors, were considered as national works, and were If Parliament were to force every horse-dealer accordingly executed at the cost of the public. to divulge the vices and infirmities of the sorry Very improvidently, however, the moderately animal he is at this moment chanting," there remunerating portions of the line were first estab- can be no doubt that the public, by a general lished by Parliament;—and thus the little com-illumination, would have vast reason to rejoice. pany which, with feeble means, was to continue If Parliament were to oblige the proprietors of from Chester the circulation of the royal mails all quack medicines to prepublish the exact cost -of goods of all descriptions-of first, second, of the ingredients which compose them, there can and third class passengers-and of her majesty's be no doubt that John Bull might henceforward troops and artillery between London and Dublin, repeatedly swallow a peck of pills for less money 66 ern Railway Company's affairs we observe that there was expended in six months in "audit and account 24881. 5s. 6d.")—which will satisfy men of business; and which was, no doubt, Lord Monteagle's object, when-with rather more zeal than consideration-he proposed that it should forcibly be effected by Act of Parliament. than he is now paying for "a single ounce box."ination, and that honest as well as disinterested In fact, for aught that we in our sequestered her- audit of their accounts-(in the last half-yearly mitage know, it may be very possible, that if printed statement of the London and North-westevery merchant's ledger were to-morrow morning, by legislative enactment, to be declared public property, the prices of sugar, tea, iron, hides, coals, and a hundred other articles in the market, would, in the course of a few hours be lowered. It has, however, hitherto been considered that the British merchant's counting-house is as much "his castle" as his residence; that his accounts are as sacred as his person; and that, morally speaking, nothing but a suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act can authorize the seizure of either the one or the other. The desideratum, however, we feel confident, can be obtained by milder means; and although between buyers and sellers of all descriptions contention must always exist to a certain degree, we trust that the proprietors of the rails which have gridironed the country, and those who travel on them, instead of unnecessarily snarling over the in[vention, will feel that it is alike their interest and their duty to join together hand in hand, magnanimously to develop to its utmost possible extent the greatest blessing, or at least one of the very greatest, which has ever been imparted to mankind. When Mr. Stephenson's magnificent project of a cast iron bridge of two arches, 100 feet high at the crown-which, instead of costing 600,000l. (being at the rate of 1000l. per yard,) could have been executed for 250,0001.— -was rejected by the Admiralty, that powerful board very justifiably declined to advise by what other means the stipulations they required should, or even could, be It is generally asserted by railway proprietors, effected. The doubts, the difficulties, the risks, who are of course self-interested in the question, and the uncertainties were all, with an official that the existing practice of rating their respective shrug, very prudently thrown upon the little com- companies according to their earnings-their pany; and if the expenses of the Chester and industry-or, as it is technically termed, their Holyhead Railway could thus be legitimately" profits in trade," is unjust, because the same sysforced into darkness, is it just, after the proprietors have not only peformed their bargain, but have nearly been ruined by doing so, that their accounts should, by an ex post facto law, be dragged into daylight, not merely to gratify idle disinterested curiosity, but for the open avowed object of shielding the public-or rather public stockbrokers from the very risk and pecuniary uncertainty which they (the proprietors) were forced to encounter? tem, or fiscal screw, is not equally applied to landowners, manufacturers, or shopkeepers. It is argued that, so long as our old-fashioned highways, besides levying tolls, are allowed to tax for their maintenance every parish through which they pass, it is unreasonable that the same parishes should at the very same moment, by a process diametrically opposite, be allowed to transfer a large proportion of their domestic rates for the support of their poor, &c., upon railways, which, it is affirmed, have, generally speaking, not only grievously overpaid for the land they occupy, but have materially increased the value and prosperity of every city, town, village, hamlet, and field, through which or near which they pass. But, as in all transactions, "honesty is the best policy," so we submit that the proposed interference with the rights of railway proprietors to be the sole auditors of their own accounts, is not only unjust, but impolitic. Thousands of owners of railway stock have, by a fatal experience, lately learned that it is possible for a joint- Upon this serious and important question, involvstock company, as it is possible for any of the ing some general reädjustment of assessments of individuals composing it, to encourage profuse every description, we shall abstain from offering expenditure, to act dishonestly, and, for a short any opinion, because we are convinced that, sooner time, to veil impending ruin by mystified accounts. or later, it will be duly considered by Parliament. The antidote, however, to this poisonous admix- In the mean while, however, it is with deep regret ture of indolence and fraud is already working its we observe that the innumerable direct as well as cure. The punishment of the principal transgres-indirect impositions and taxes which-rightly or sor has already become " greater than he can wrongly, legally or illegally-have been imposed bear ;" and a salutary suspicion has not only spon- upon our railways, are already producing the taneously aroused the proprietors of two hundred lamentable consequences we ventured to predict. millions of railway property, who had hitherto From want of funds, even our greatest railwayvery culpably neglected their own affairs, but has companies are openly abandoning branch-lines materially depreciated all railway stock; and there which they had almost completed; they are reduccan be no doubt that this wholesome castigatory ing the number of their trains; economizing at depression of their property below its intrinsic their stations; in fact, in various ways, in proporvalue will, to the evident benefit of the share-purchas-tion not only to the expenses imposed upon them, ing public, continue to exist, until railway proprietors have sense enough to perceive that it is their interest to remove the suspicion which created it, by the prompt establishment of that open exam but moreover to the reductions made in their original parliamentary tolls, they are-perceptibly as well as imperceptibly-curtailing the convenience and accommodation which, from a sound regard for |