was engaged in constructing that marvel of visiting the Great Canal of Languedoc. masonry and architecture-the Eddystone Lighthouse.

James Brindley was much the same to canal that George Stephenson became afterwards to railway engineering. Like Stephenson he was a genius

"No, no," was his reply, "I will have no journies to other countries, unless for the purpose of being employed to surpass all that has already been done." Although he himself did not live to repay the debt which his country owed to continental nations for the engineering skill with which they assisted us in former times, his successors have dis

engines have drained the lake of Haarlem ; English bridges have been erected over the Danube at Pesth, over the Yssel in Holland, and over the Isere in Savoy; English engineers supplied the dock gates for Sebastopol; the principal towns and cities of the continent are lit by gas manufactured by English machinery; English steamboats ply in every sea and navigable river of the continent; and English locomotives run upon railways designed and constructed by English engineers in almost every country in Europe.

"Of mother wit, and wise without the schools." His scheme for carrying a navigable waterroad over the Irwell upon a viaduct thirty-charged it with interest. English pumpingnine feet above the surface of the river, was received with the same hoot of incredulity as Stephenson's proposal to form a line of railway across Chat Moss. The practical men of the day spoke of it as a "castle in the air," and the duke, who was considered as mad as Brindley, could not even get his bill discounted for £500. But he had full confidence in his engineer. He cut down his personal expenses to £400 a year, that he might be enabled to provide the requisite capital to carry on the works; and Brindley, at the same time that he laid for his employer the foundations of one of the most princely fortunes in England, initiated a series of national works which exercised a most important influence upon its industrial progress.

The success of the Duke's canal was so decided, that numerous similar schemes were projected, and a canal mania set in, of which the railway mania of subsequeut times was but a counterpart. The remainder of Brindley's life was employed in excavating his great arterial lines, by means of which an internal water-communication was opened up between the Thames, the Humber, the Severn, and the Mersey. The ports of London, Hull, Bristol, and Liverpool, were thus united by canals passing through the richest and most industrial districts of England. Brindley's conceptions were of the boldest kind. He carried his canals over rivers, across valleys, and along formidable viaducts; and he hewed out long tunnels for them through hills where locks were impracticable. It was said of him, when cutting the Grand Trunk Canal in 1767, "Brindley handles rocks as easily as you would plum pies; yet he is as plain a looking man as one of the boors of the Peak."

At an early period of his career, whilst the belief in the superiority of foreign engineering still prevailed, some of Brindley's friends urged him to go to France for the purpose of

Brindley and Smeaton were followed by a number of able engineers in rapid succession. From a cattle and corn farm, England by the end of last century, had also become a magazine of trade and commerce. Then the engine invented by James Watt, and first brought into operation about the year 1773, shortly rendered this country a great workshop of steam-power. From a land of bridle-tracks it had advanced to one of wheel-roads and navigable canals. Time had become more precious, and to econmize time new high-roads and bridges, superior to all which had preceded them, were constructed by Telford, whose suspension-bridge over the Menai Straits was regarded as a world's wonder. Shipping crowded the English ports, and docks now became necessary. The London Docks, by Rennie, completed in 1805, was the first great work of this kind; and was succeeded by others constructed by Telford, Walker, and Palmer. Several noble bridges were thrown across the Thames to facilitate the communication between the two sides of the river. The Waterloo Bridge, characterized by Dupin as "a colossal monument worthy of Sesostris and the Caesars "— and the Southwark Bridge, and the New London Bridge-all by Rennie-were built within period of twenty years, at an expenditure of about four millions sterling.

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Engineers had now acquired importance

as a profession; and as the number of those | was found not to be feasible, then a viaduct who followed it increased, and the demand was adopted, and even where an arm of the for their services extended, they gradually sea, such as the Menai Strait, had to be overformed themselves into an association. Mr. Palmer brought together a few young men who were the nucleus of the Institution of Civil Engineers. This Society struggled on for several years, and when Mr. Telford accepted the office of President in 1818, it entered upon a career of distinguished usefulness and prosperity. It was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1828.

leaped, the work was accomplished by means of iron tubes suspended in mid-air. Of the 8635 miles of railway now constructed in Britain, about 70 miles pass through tunnels, and more than 50 miles over viaducts; whilst of railway bridges there have been built some 30,000, or far more than all the bridges previously existing in England.

It is difficult to form an adequate idea of English engineering had now arrived at the immense quantity of earth, rock, and the commencement of its grandest era. clay, that has been picked, blasted, shovelled Trade, commerce, and manufactures had and wheeled into' embankments by English rapidly expanded all directions, and the navvies during the last thirty years. On the public requirements had outgrown the ac- South-Western Railway alone the earth recommodation provided by turnpike-roads and moved amounted to sixteen millions of cubic canals. Raw cotton lay upon the canal yards-a mass of material sufficient to form wharves at Liverpool, and manufactured cot- a pyramid a thousand feet high with a base ton upon those at Manchester, for weeks to- of one hundred and fifty thousand square gether, while operatives and mills were yards. Mr. Robert Stephenson has estistanding idle for want of the material to mated the total amount on all the railways work up. As at Balaclava, the few miles of England as at least five hundred and fifty of inland transport were more difficult to millions of cubic yards! And what does this overcome than the thousands of miles of ocean. represent? "We are accustomed," he says, The contrivance of the railway solved the "to regard St. Paul's as a test for height and difficulty. The chief object of the railway space; but by the side of the pyramid of engineer was to reduce his roads as nearly as earth these works would rear, St. Paul's possible to a level. The Romans, formerly the would be but as a pigmy to a giant. Imaggreat roadmakers of the world, disregarded ine a mountain half a mile in diameter at its levels; in undulating countries their high-base, and soaring into the clouds one mile ways stretched from hill-top to hill-top, and and a half in height, that would be the size on these hills their watch-towers were placed. of the mountain of earth which these earthTheir principal object was necessarily to keep works would form; while St. James' Park, to a straight line, for they do not seem to from the Horse Guards to Buckingham Palhave discovered the moveable joint by which ace, would scarcely afford space for its base.” the two first wheels of a four-wheeled vehicle All this vast mass has been removed by are enabled to turn a corner. When Tel- English navvies-perhaps the hardest workford and Macadam took up the work, they ers in the world. Many of the best men cut down the roads and metalled them; and originally came from Lincolnshire, where they had almost reached perfection, when they had been accustomed to the cutting of they were superseded by the new invention drains and the construction of embankments of the iron highway. In the construction of for the recovery of overflowed land, as well canals, where a continuous level could not as in the excavation of canals for the purbe secured, the lock was adopted, and thus a poses of inland navigation; hence the name series of levels, with sudden drops, was ob- of "Lincolnshire Bobs" and "Navigators," tained. In a railway no such contrivance by which they were first known. Mr. Robert was applicable. High grounds had to be cut Stephenson supposes the original navvies to down and embankments formed across the have been the descendents of Dutch laborlower lands. When a ridge of country in- ers, numbers of whom were employed by tervened, in which an open cutting through- Dutch" Adventurers" in embanking lands out was impracticable, the expedient of a from the sea, and afterwards settled in the tunnel was adopted. When a deep valley country. The remarkable Dutch build" lay in the way, and an earth embankment of many of the laboring people in some

parts of Lincolnshire and Cambridge-es- was on their platters. The men of small pecially between the South Holland drain of appetites were discharged. the one county and the great Vermuyden Navvies in ordinary times, with an average drain of the other-certainly tends to con- good contract, could earn as much as eight firm the supposition. These old practitioners shillings a-day. The "butty" men had formed the nucleus of a skilled manipulation | modes of saving labor, which, however, often and aptitude, which rendered them of indispensable utility in the immense undertakings of the period. Their expertness in all sorts of earthwork, in embanking, boring, and well-sinking their practical knowledge of the nature of soils and rocks, the tenacity of clays, the porosity of certain stratifications-" benches," by which the ground was so unwas very great; and rough-looking as they were, many of them were as important in their own department as the contractor or the engineer.

involved them in great peril, and led to frequent fatal accidents; but they recoiled from no difficulty, and were ready to undertake the most dangerous tasks without hesitation. In excavating a deep cutting, they would work it as much as possible in "lifts" or

dermined at the bottom as to produce a large fall of earth. The last operation was called "knocking the legs from under it ;" and if the earth did not readily fall, sharpDuring the railway-making period the ened iron piles and bars were driven in from navvy wandered about from one public work above to force down the ground. From ten to another, apparently belonging to no coun- to fifty tons would thus be brought away at a try and having no home. He usually wore time; but not unfrequently with one or more a white felt-hat, the brim turned up all men buried under the mass. The English round—a head-dress since become fashiona- navvy would continuously run out a barrow able-a velveteen or jean squaretailed coat, containing from three to four hundredweight a scarlet plush waistcoat with little black of stuff, whereas a French laborer was conspots, and a bright-colored handkerchief tent with half the load. When an English round his Herculean neck, when, as gener- contractor undertook the works of the Paris ally happened, it was not left entirely bare. and Rouen Railway, he sent over the requiHis corduroy breeches were retained in posi- site plant, amongst which were a quantity of tion by a leather strap round the waist, and the usual English navvy wheelbarrows. The tied and buttoned at the knee, displaying be- French laborers tried them, and struck work. neath a solid calf and a foot firmly encased The result was a dangerous émeute, which in strong high-laced boots. Joining to- rendered it necessary call in the aid of the gether in a "butty gang," some ten or military; and eventually the only workmen twelve of them would take a contract to cut who used the big barrows were the English out and remove so much "dirt"-so they denominated earthcutting-fixing their price according to the character of the "stuff," and the distance to which it had to be wheeled and tipped. The contract taken every man put himself to his mettle. If any one was found skulking, or not exerting his Such was the valuab.e class of laborers full-working power, he was ejected from the who constructed the great works of the Enggang. In times of emergency they would lish Railway Era. The contractors-many work for twelve and even sixteen hours, with of them sprung from the navvy ranks, and only short intervals for meals. The quantity passing through the stages of under-ganger of flesh-meat which they consumed was and ganger to that of contractor-were the something enormous: it was to their bones men who employed, organized, and directed and muscles what coke is to the locomotive them. In the great engineering works of -the means of keeping up the steam. former days, the functions of engineer and Contractors were well aware of this fact. A contractor were usually united, and the engishrewd Yorkshireman, when work became neer, as we have stated, was called an "Adslack and a portion of his laborers had to be venturer." Now the functions are distinct, "sacked," went round amongst the men and the contractor alone undertakes the risk whilst at their dinners, and observed what of the "adventure." He binds himself to

navvies. The consequence was, that the English laborer received five francs a-day, while the wages of the ordinary French laborer was only about two francs and a half; and even then the English workman was considered the cheapest of the two.

In

do certain works at a certain price, upon a | about twelve square miles in extent. specification carefully prepared by the engi- most places it is so soft that it is incapable neer. He brings together the plant-the of supporting a man or a horse, and if an horses, waggons, and steam-engines-and iron rod be placed perpendicularly on its arranges the labor. Like the engineer he surface, it sinks by its own weight to a depth must be prepared for all manner of difficul- of some thirty feet. Unlike the swamps of ties for irruptions of water in tunnels, for Cambridge and Lincolnshire, which consist surface floodings, for slips of treacherous principally of soft mud or silt, Chat Moss is soil, for advances of wages and strikes of a mass of spongy vegetable pulp, the growth workmen; and not unfrequently he is and decay of ages. The Sphagni, or bogbroken up" by one or other of these con- mosses, cover the entire area. One year's tingencies; but never till he has ventured growth rises over another, the older growths his last penny in the struggle to maintain his not entirely decaying, but remaining partially character. When the Barentin Viaduct fell, preserved by the antiseptic properties pecuon the Rouen and Havre line, and it was liar to peat. Hence the remarkable fact doubtful whether the law would compel the that although a semifluid mass, the surface contractor to rebuild it, he stoutly declared, of Chat Moss rises above the level of the "he had undertaken to make and maintain surrounding country. Like a turtle's back, the road, and no law should prevent Thomas it declines from the summit in every direcBrassey from being as good as his word." tion, having from thirty to forty feet gradual The sum required for the purpose was £30,- slope to the solid land around. From the 000 and Thomas Brassey paid it. remains of trees, chiefly alder and birch, which have been dug out, and which must have previously flourished upon the soil below, it is probable that the sand and clay base on which the bog rests, is saucershaped, and by this means retains the entire mass in its position. In rainy weather it sensibly swells with the water, and rises in those parts where the moss is the deepest,—the capillary attraction of the fibres of the submerged mass, which is from twenty to thirty feet in depth, causing the retention of the moisture, whilst the growing plants effectually check evaporation from the surface. This peculiar character of the moss has presented an insuperable difficulty to any system of wholesale drainage—such as by sinking shafts in its substance, and pumping up the water by steam-power. A shaft of thirty feet deep, Mr. Dixon has calculated, would only be effectual for draining a circle of one hundred yards-the water running down an incline of about five to one. It was found that a ditch three feet in depth only served to drain five yards on either side, and two ditches of this depth, ten feet apart, left a portion of the moss between them scarcely affected by the outlet.

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The railway engineer, it is needless to say, must be no ordinary man. First of all, he must act as a surveyor in laying out a practicable road, exercising his judgment as geologist in determining the lie of the strata and the materials to be penetrated, testing them by careful borings with a view to the preliminary estimates, and the letting of the works. After standing the test of the parliamentary crucible, and satisfying Committees in the face of cross-questionings by learned counsel, he must then enter upon the most anxious part of his labors-the actual construction of the railway.

The first, and even to this day, one of the most remarkable works was the making the road over Chat Moss-an enterprise which the engineers of the old school treated with derision and declared to be impossible. George Stephenson himself published no account of the manner in which he executed this or any other of his celebrated works; but we are enabled, with the aid of Mr. John Dixon, Civil Engineer, who superintended the formation of that part of the Liverpool and Manchester line which crossed Chat Moss, to furnish a more complete history of this remarkable achievement than has yet been published.

Chat Moss is an immense peat bog

of

The only remarks which he published on the subject of the works on Chat Moss appeared in The Companion to the Almanac for 1829-30."

It was doubtless a bold thing for George Stephenson to entertain the idea of carrying a railway over such a dismal swamp. One experienced civil engineer declared before the Parliamentary Committee, that no road could possibly he formed across the

moss on which a carriage could stand "short | ted the weight over a greater surface-a conof the bottom," except by taking out all the trivance adopted by themselves when taking soft stuff and filling in the cavity with solid the levels, and by the workmen when ensoil; and a Manchester builder, who was gaged in making drains in the softest parts examined, could not imagine the feat possible, of the moss. But the puzzling problem reunless by arching over the moss in the man-mained how a road was to be constructed for ner of a viaduct from one side to the other. a heavy locomotive with a train of passengers It was the old story of "nothing like leather." or goods, upon a bog which was incapable When the survey of the line was made, only of supporting the weight of a solitary indithe edges of the moss could be entered upon, vidual. and that with difficulty. One gentleman, of considerable weight and rotundity, when endeavoring to obtain a stand for his theodolite, found himself suddenly sinking. He immediately threw himself down, and rolled over and over until he reached the firm ground, in a sorry mess. Other attempts which where subsequently made to enter upon the moss for the same purpose, were abandoned for the same reason-the want of a sufficiently solid stand for the theodolite.

Mr. Stephenson's idea was, that such a road might be made to float upon the bog, simply by means of a sufficient extension of the bearing surface. As a ship capable of sustaining heavy loads, floated in water, so, in his opinion, might a light road be floated upon a bog which was of considerably greater consistency than water. Long before the railway was thought of, Mr. Roscoe, of Liverpool, had adopted the expedient of fitting his plough-horses with flat wooden soles, to enable them to walk upon the moss-land which he had brought into cultivation. The foot of an ordinary farm-horse presents a base of about five inches diameter; but if this be enlarged to seven inches, the slight extension of the base, since the circles are to each other, as the squares of the diameters, will furnish a footing of nearly double the area, and consequently the pressure of the foot upon every unit of ground upon which the horse stands will be reduced one-half. In fact, this contrivance has an effect tantamount to setting the horse upon eight feet instead of four.

The act authorizing the construction of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway was no sooner obtained, than Mr. Stephenson began to do the "impossible" thing. The three resident engineers selected by Mr. Stephenson to superintend the construction of the line were, Mr. Locke (now M.P.), Mr. Alleard, and Mr. Dixon. The last was appointed to that portion which included the proposed road across the moss, and the other two were by no means desirous of exchanging posts with him. On Mr. Dixon's arrival, Mr. Locke proceeded to show him over the length he was to take charge of, and to instal him in office. The line had already been staked out and the levels taken in detail by the aid of planks laid upon the bog. The drains along each side of the proposed road had also been commenced; but the soft pulpy stuff had up to this time flowed into the drains and filled them up as fast as they were cut. Proceeding across the moss, on the first day's inspection, the new resident slipped off the plank on which he walked, and sank to his knees. Struggling sent him deeper, and there was a probability of his disappearing altogether, when some workmen, upon planks, hastened to his assistance and rescued The first thing done was, to form a foothim from his perilous position. His brother path of ling or heather along the proposed residents endeavored to comfort him by the road, on which a man might walk across assurance that he might in future avoid without risk of sinking. A single line of similar perils, by walking with boards fas- temporary railway was then laid down. tened to the soles of his feet, which distribu- Along this way ran the waggons in which

Apply the same reasoning to the locomotive, and even such a pondorous machine may be made to stand upon a bog by means of a similar extension of the bearing surface. Suppose the engine to be twenty feet long and five feet wide, thus covering a surface of a hundred square feet. Then, by extending the bearing by means of cross-sleepers, supported upon a matting of heath and branches of trees strewed with a few inches of gravel, the pressure of an engine of twenty tons will be diminished to about three pounds per inch over the whole surface on which it stands. Such was George Stephenson's idea in contriving his floating road.