stood and more distinctly defined, and that, without ignoring the importance of the latter, the exhibition of the finest productions of the taste, the knowledge, and the skill of the great masters of sculpture may be allowed to take their proper position. But there can be no doubt a more judicious arrangement than the existing one would give much greater effect to the better class of works, and would add to their usefulness. It is in this spirit that the fine-art portion of the national collections should always be treated, if, as is contended, the purpose of making such collections is to endeavour to attract public attention to the beauty and value of art, and, through such works, to study and appreciate the true source of their excellence.

But galleries and museums can, after all, do but little in the way of educating the people in art if they have not some assistance to help them how to see whether and why the objects so presented to them are worthy or unworthy. For this reason it is to be regretted that some sort of lectures cannot occasionally be given, by competent persons, to point out in what the excellence of certain works, whether in painting or sculpture, consists; to explain the peculiarities of the different schools of painting; to illustrate, by reference to the particular objects, the leading characteristics of the great masters in all branches of art; and so to teach the public how to look at and appreciate Nature, as the only perfect guide and standard the real artist aspires to follow.

It is not proposed, even if it were possible, to make all people artists; but all may be taught how to judge of the leading principles of art, and thus to increase their means of enjoyment. Such power may be said to impart to its possessor a new faculty; for it is in the experience of every one, more or less, that even a slight acquaintance with the principles of any science or art is a great aid in enabling us to appreciate it. Looking at art is not always seeing it, so to speak. An uneducated eye would not distinguish, as a cultivated sense would, between a mere commonplace view of fields, trees, and sky, and the exquisite and varied rendering of the subject by a Claude, a Hobbima, or our own poetical Turner; precisely as the uncultivated and unpractised ear would fail to appreciate the difference between a common tune played on a dismal street-organ and the sweet fancy or the grand combinations of a composition by a Beethoven or a Mendelssohn.

[R. W.]

WEEKLY EVENING MEETING,

Friday, March 18, 1870.

SIR HENRY HOLLAND, Bart. M.D. D.C.L. F.R.S. President,
in the Chair.

JOHN FREDERIC BATEMAN, Esq. F.R.S. C.E. M.R.I.

On the Subway to France.

THE advantages which a Railway communication between England and France would ensure to Western Europe, are great beyond all possibility of estimate. Thirty years ago any proposition with a view to accomplish this object would have been looked upon as wholly Utopian. But we are living in an age of invention and progress which within one century has had most beneficial effects upon our race, having not only greatly increased the welfare and comfort of millions of our fellowcreatures, but also equally widened the field of inquiry. New discoveries have rapidly followed one another, enlarging our knowledge and extending our conceptions, all tending to elevate the mind of man, and to raise the standard of his moral and intellectual being. It is just one hundred years since Watt invented the steam-engine-an invention which has done more than any other to promote the commercial prosperity of all countries, and to develop their resources. is only forty years ago that the Manchester and Liverpool Railway was opened, and since then every civilized country has been covered by a network of iron ways; it is not more than sixty years since the first cast-iron pipes were used for conveying water; fifty years back none of our cities had the inestimable advantage of gas-light; it is but thirty years since the first steamer crossed the Atlantic, and in less than thirty years our globe has been girdled with a band of lightning, which unites its most distant parts with inconceivable velocity, annihilating space, and flashing from one end to the other the thoughts and ideas of men,-defying even the speed of time.

It

Looking at these facts, the speaker expressed a hope that he would not be considered a visionary schemer in proposing to cross the English Channel by a Railway. The proposition itself is not a new one. There are some who propose to construct a bridge for carrying a Railway; others, to drive a tunnel through the rocky bed of the Channel; and, again, others who propose to sink covered subways—all with a view to

unite by a direct Railway communication the shores of England and France.

The effect which such a communication would produce on the traffic between the two countries may be foreshadowed by the events of the past. Forty years ago, in the good old sailing times, the number of passengers between this country and the Continent was 80,000 per annum; the introduction of a regular steam-boat service raised this figure in twelve years to 350,000; and since the construction of Railways it has further risen to upwards of a million. Increased facilities and convenience have therefore greatly extended the traffic between the two countries. Nor should it be overlooked how much that enemy of ocean travellers-sea-sickness-is checking its further extension. We have but to look to the official return of travellers between England and the ports of Calais, Boulogne, and Dieppe, to observe, that in the year 1867, for example, the number of passengers in the fine month of August was 80,000, whilst in the stormy season of January and February it only reached 13,000 in each month; and although the season of the year may have somewhat affected the figures, apart from bad weather in the Channel, it is obvious that so great a difference will be mainly due to the dread of sea-sickness, to which most travellers are liable in rough weather.

Referring to the communication with India and the East, Captain Tylor, in a recent Report to the Board of Trade on the advantages of the various routes across Europe, observes, "the hope of the Indian traveller of the next generation, chimerical as it may appear to many at present, must be nothing less than to pass dry shod from London to Bombay, through a submarine tunnel from Dover to Calais, through Europe by Railway; over the Bosphorus by a bridge, and forward by Railway by the Euphrates Valley, and round the Persian Gulf, to Bombay."

The speaker observed that it was not his business here to make any observations upon the schemes of others, contenting himself to submit and describe a plan designed and elaborated jointly by himself and his colleague, Mr. Révy. He considered it especially his task to suggest every possible difficulty-real or imaginary; and it was not until all these difficulties, one by one, had been successfully overcome by their joint exertions extending over more than a year, that they had published their scheme of which he now proposed to give a short description. Their plan was to build a cast-iron tube on the bottom of the Channel between Dover and Cape Grisnez in France, large enough to carry ordinary trains; the tube will be cylindrical, 13 feet clear diameter inside, and will be composed of cast-iron rings about 10 feet long and 4 inches thick; each ring again will be formed of six plates or segments, securely bolted to one another. The various parts of the tube will be put together from inside a horizontal chamber (for convenience called a Bell), which will slide on the last half-dozen completed rings of the tube over its external ribs or diaphragms, in which a water-tight joint will completely prevent the sea water from

entering. This water-tight joint will be similar to that so extensively used for hydraulic presses. In the exterior rib of the tube, closely fitting the inner surface of the chamber, a groove will be cut all round, about 1 inch deep and 1 inch wide. Into this groove a leather or india-rubber collar will be placed, so adjusted that the greater the pressure the tighter the joint.

These points will be the only points of contact, and over them the bell or chamber will slide like a telescopic tube. Four of these joints will always be in the bell, so that a slight imperfection in the watertightness of one may be corrected by another.

The dimensions of the chamber, which will be permanently closed in front by a cover, will be about 80 feet long, 18 feet diameter clear inside, and 8 inches thick; it will be bored out for about 50 feet to a true cylindrical surface, namely, for a distance within which it is in contact with and will slide over the external ribs of the tube, which will also be faced and turned for the purpose of securing accuracy of fitting.

In the foremost part of the chamber, or bell, will be placed powerful hydraulic machinery, receiving the water from accumulators on shore, upon Sir W. Armstrong's system. By the aid of this machinery the tube will be put together from inside the bell, and as the tube lengthens by the addition of another ring, the bell will be pushed forward by hydraulic presses for about 10 feet, to make room for the construction of the next following ring-always using the completed portion of the tube as a fulcrum for moving forward the bell, which in the deepest part of the Channel will meet with a hydrostatic resistance of about 1500 tons. The power of the hydraulic presses will be over 4000 tons, of which the balance of 2500 will be available to overcome any resistance with which the bell in its onward motion may meet on the bottom of the Channel.

The displacement of water by the bell and by the tube will be nearly the same as their respective weights-weight being kept slightly in excess of displacement-so that the tube and the bell will weigh but very little under water.

In the annular space between the exterior tubular ribs of the tube and the inner surface of the bell, the head of a screw pile may be introduced, or several of them, as may be required. These piles may be attached to any ring on the line of the tube. The shaft of the pile will pass through a stuffing-box in the ring, like the rod of a piston in a steam-cylinder. On the average every third ring will receive one vertical pile, and every sixth two piles 30° inclined. As soon as the bell in its onward motion has passed over the rings in which the screws of the piles were introduced, and the shafts have been attached, the piles will be driven or screwed into the ground until a firm hold or footing is obtained. By these means the tube will be permanently tied and powerfully held to the bottom of the Channel, which nothing afterwards could alter or disturb.

The ordinary construction of rings will keep the tube in a straight

line; but by using special castings and moveable joints or diaphragms in connection with the outer rib of the tube, the direction of the bell may be altered in every 40 feet about 4 inches, corresponding to a curve of about a mile radius. The tube may accordingly also be laid on a curved line in any direction; it may be made to rise or fall 36 feet in a distance of 200 yards; and it may be turned round at right angles with its former direction within one mile. It may thus either be turned away altogether from a serious obstruction-such as a sunken rock or soft ground, which a detailed survey on the line selected might bring to light or it may pass over the obstruction, or follow a sudden and extensive depression in the bed of the Channel. By reversing the operations within the bell, and by taking down the segments and rings of the tube already built, it may for a considerable distance be taken up again, in case another direction should be required at a point of the line already constructed.

The operation of building the tube on shore will be attended with more difficulty than in deep water; because during the construction of the shore-ends the whole weight of the bell, the machinery, and of part of the tube will have to be supported and carried on slips, while in deep water these weights will be counterbalanced by the floating power of the bell. These slips will be used until low-water line be reached, at which point the operations will be confined to high-water time; and the bell having by degrees advanced far enough into the sea, so that it will be wholly covered even at low water-the operation of building may be continued without intermission. A similar proceeding in the reversed order will be adopted on reaching the French shore. During the construction of the shore-ends in rough weather and a heavy sea, the bell will temporarily also be firmly held in its position by screw piling.

All the parts of the tube will be constructed and completed and will be temporarily put together on shore, before they are sent into the far-end of the tube. They will, on their arrival there, be lowered on rails, from which the segments will be picked up, placed and fixed in their final position by special hydraulic machinery, all of which has been designed in detail, and no manual labour whatever will be required for this purpose. The parts of the tube having already been put together on shore, there can be neither delay nor difficulty in repeating the operation by the aid of powerful hydraulic machinery, and accordingly the progress of building the tube from inside the bell should be rapid. Special pipes will convey from shore, by mechanical power, fresh air to the workmen, and water to the machinery to the farend of the tube. The business of the workmen will chiefly be to direct the machinery, to open and close certain valves, to insert the bolts, to caulk the lead joints, &c., all the heavy work being accomplished by special machinery. The rings of the tube having been constructed, a brick lining will be introduced between the inner flanges; and over this brick lining a wrought-iron plate will be bedded in cement, and this plate will form the inner surface of the finished tube. All the lead joints will, however, remain exposed to view, and should a drop of VOL. VI. (No. 52.)

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