Page:The Building News and Engineering Journal, Volume 22, 1872.djvu/36

 20 THE BUILDING NEWS. Jan. 5, 1872. SF SSS ere ee more absurd small geometrical garden; but in point of general design it has helped to keep a true spirit of landscape gardening from slumbering among us during one of the most marked periods of retrogres- sion that it has ever lived through. I mean the period of the success of those who preferred the presence of barbarous artificial things in the most important parts of our gardens to Nature’s own chil- dren, of which we shall never weary—who often spent sufficient wherewith to plant a thousand acres with the noblest trees in the world on a water-squirt- ing contrivance, who, where we wanted peace and variety, gaye us the monotony that dulls the sensi- tive spirit, and the angularity and barbarous gyra- tions that torture it—wretches so callous to every mercy of nature, and so estranged from all passion of joy in her works, that, when we asked for flowers they gave us broken bricks and slates, arranged in patterns by their miserable “art.” We could name gardens of from five to twenty acres in extent near London and in the home counties which display more merit as regards plan than all the public gardens in Britain put together. Plants and trees and flowers, no matter how disposed, fail not to charm the wearied, dust-pested citizen; but it cannot be too widely known to all interested in horticulture that there is no good design in our national botanical and horticultural gardens.—Field. nd INTEROCEANIC CANALS. INCE the successful execution of the Suez Canal numerous projects for uniting the waters of different seas separated by narrow strips of land have been brought forward, and some of them it is expected will be carried out. A canal through the Isthmus of Panama, talked about for years, is appa- rently about to be undertaken, and from the magni- tude of the results which would follow its successful completion it is deserving of being mentioned first. Connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, it would, amongst other advantages, materially shorten the route to New Zealand and avoid the dangerous rounding of Cape Horn. There are, however, great natural obstacles in the way which will require the application of much engineering skill for their re- moval if the canalis to be made passable for ships of large tonnage. Another American inland canal on a large scale is also proposed. A convention of the governors of the New England and North- Western states was held at Detroit on the 27th Nov.. for the purpose of promoting the construction of a continuous navigation route from the Mississippi to the Atlantic Ocean. It is proposed to excavate a ship canal round the falls of Niagara, and the route would then proceed by way of Lake Ontario, the river S. Lawrence, Lake Champlain, and the Hud- son river, to the harbour of New York. Congress is to be petitioned to make appropriations for this great work. and to regulate the rates of toll and transportation. It is also proposed to cut a channel through the Isthmus of Corinth, a narrow strip of land about six miles in width, joining the Morea to Livadia. This would shorten the passage between Brindisi and Alexandria or the Suez Canal, and make a considerable difference in the length of the voyage from the Italian ports to Constantinople. It is said that Julius Cxsar, Caligula, and Nero in vain attempted to cut a canal through this isthmus, The construction of a ship canal through the southern part of France, from Rochfort in the Bay of Biscay to the Gulf of Lyon has also been mooted, a passage already existing for ordinary river boats. The union of the Baltic and the North Sea by a ship canal has been proposed, and will probably be undertaken now that Prussia is becoming a naval power. It would pass through the narrowest part of Schleswig, and so save the long passage through the Cattegat. Lastly, there is a project for a creat canal to connect the Black Sea with the Caspian, which has been attracting much attention in S. Petersburg. It has been for several years a subject of discussion among Russian engineers. Recently, however, Captain Blum, of the Russian topographi- cal engineers, having made some extensive explora- tions, has presented a report to his government, in which he advocates the construction of the work. All the necessary calculations have been made, and it is proposed to carry the canal through the valley of Manitch, supposed by geologists to have formerly united the two seas. The canal, which would pass through several lakes, and run for fifty miles by the side of the River Don, would be 450 miles in length, and its cost is estimated at £11,000,000, its comple- tion occupying six years. These are a few of the gigantic battles engineers are preparing to fight. How much more ennobling their victories than those gained by ‘blood and iron” posterity will judge ! A NEW SEPARATE SYSTEM FOR THE DISPOSAL OF SEWAGE. M* J. B. WARING, in a pamphlet just pub- + lished* on the collection and disposal of sewage, proposes a plan, of which the details at least are new, and which deserves attention. ‘The follow- ing is the author’s own outline of his scheme :— “The plan J propose is this. Keep the fluid and solid refuse of your houses carefully apart. In every house there should be a well-built and spacious soil shaft, with which every closet is to be connected : the seat of the closet is furnished with a pan having two separate vents, one for the liquid, the other for solid excreta. The liquid will flow off into a tank or reservoir prepared for its reception alone, and furnished with a tap, by which it can be taken off as required, and either be converted into ammonia, be used for any manufacture in which ammonia enters, or be otherwise utilised. The seat itself, when pressed on by the body, should cast a superficial layer of earth, sand, or soot on the bottom of the pan; the soot might be collected or kept in the house for the purpose; the excreta deposited, a covering layer of sand, earth, or other deodorising materia! should be discharged over it, as in the earth closet patented by Moule. The pan should be furnished with a reversible bottom, and the excreta. thus thoroughly enclosed by a deodorising coating, will fall into the soil-bin beneath, forming altogether a very powerful manure, and be taken away at stated intervals by a well-organised service of closed trains, very different to our present clumsy, open carts; by steam carriage in large towns, and by carts in small, or by hand in villages, to properly-constructed re- ceptacles in the country, and be sold (I believe, at a very great profil) for manure, either in the imme- diate neighbourhood, or wherever desired, with per- fect ease, and with freedom from danger to health to any human being. We shall thus, by the aid of a little thought and care, have transformed our demon of Death into an agent of Life.” The ash and dust bins are to be kept separate from the soil bin, the slops, drained from the house into a special slop tank. Mr. Waring suggests four plans by which this system might be carried out:—“1. By a coyered passage leading to the closet or closets, erected at the end of back court or garden. This may be found serviceable in town houses already built. 2. By a closet compartment attached by one side only to the house itself. This should be done in all new build- ings. 3. The old outhouse plan, the closet com- municating by covered way with the building, or not, as may be, with bins and tanks conveniently placed for emptying from roadway outside. ‘This is suited to isolated houses. 4. The use of fixed or moyeable ‘commodes’ in chambers, each with its bin and tank. This is suitable for invalids, &e. In each case the bins and tanks should be carefully emptied daily, or at such regular intervals as may be found necessary.” In his concluding sentences Mr. Waring expresses his opinion that most cities will for some time to come keep to their old plan of sewerage. He looks, however, to the future “in the hope of Seeing a better state of sanitary arrangements, and the com- mencement of an entirely different system of getting rid of our refuse and then turning it to account. That system consists in the careful separation of all kinds of refuse from their first formation, keeping them apart, and dealing with each separately, in con- tradistinction to the present system now common amongst us of combining all our refuse into one semi-liquid and fetid mass, causing us infinite trouble and expense in its disposal and bringing upon us diseases of a fatal nature, spreading dismay, disease, and death on all around.” Se LEUCHARS CHURCH. FPHIS church, of which the chancel and apse alone remain, was built some time during the twelfth century, probably between the years 1190 and 1219, the supposed founder being Seyer de Quinci, Earl of Winchester, son of Robert de Quinci, a Norman baron, who obtained the lordship of Leuchars by marriage with the daughter of Ness | during the reign of William the Lion. Although Dalmeny Church, in Linlithgowshire, is now the most complete example of Early Norman architecture we have in Scotland, that of Leuchars has originally been a much nobler work; in fact, there are few finer specimens of pure Norman than the fragment which remains, ‘The chancel measures inside 19ft. Gin. by 17ft. Sin., the apse 12ft. Sin. by 11ft. 7in.; height of chancel walls, 22ft. 2in.; those of apse 17ft. 10in.; thickness of walls about 3it. By J. B, WARING, FRLB.A., HMALA., &e., &e. London: J. B, } Day. The walls of the chancel outside are divided into two stages or stories: the lower one is ornamented with four coupled pillars and a single one at each end, from the caps of which spring semicircular arches which interlace each other, forming pointed arches at their intersection. The upper arcade is Supported on an ornamental band or label; the arches in this arcade do not interlace, but the rich- ness of its effect is greatly increased by a square pier between the pillars, and a well-carved cable moulding in the arch. A bahd of corbels, carved into grotesque heads, running along above the higher arcade, is well worthy of attention. Rams’ heads with horns and muzzled bears are of frequent occurrence, and though sadly timeworn, still show that they have been carved with true artistic spirit. The walls of the chancel are pierced with three windows, two on the south side and one on the north ; they are ornamented inside with pillars, the arch moulding being the same as that outside, save that the cable moulding is double. The apse is also divided into two Stages, the arch of the lower being ornamented with the cheyron moulding, and that of the upper with the billet and cheyron ; a band of grotesque heads similar to those in the chancel, forms the wall head. There are three windows in the apse, one of which fronts the east, one the south- east, and one the north-east, and are ornamented inside with the cheyron moulding. Unfortunately, an ugly belfry, not entitled by rule to occupy such a position, has been built on top of the apse, thus damaging the appearance of the original pile both outside and inside, a rude heavy arch having been thrown across the apse to support it. Grotesque heads form the bases of the shafts that support the groin ribs. The arch opening from the chancel into the apse is beautifully ornamented with the billet and chevron mouldings. Sir John Sinclair, in his Statistical account of Scotland, says, “The iron hook on which was suspended the lever for weighing meal on the Lord’s day, is batted into the keystone of an arch in the steeple; and in the place below (that is the apse) other merchant wares were sold on that holy day.” The Bruces, of Earlshall, an old baronial castle of mixed style erected towards the close of the sixteenth century, and close by the village of Leuchars, were buried in the chancel of this church, There were anciently three chapels in this parish, one of them at Easter Tron, another near the house of Airdit, and the third on the site of the present parochial school. The celebrated champion of Presbyterianism, Alexander Henderson, was minister of Leuchars for more than twenty years. The parish is in the presbytery of S. Andrew’s and synod of Fife. JoHN RusseLL WALKER. id COMPETITIONS. Sournrorr New Town Hatt anp Markets.— The Corporation of Southport have selected, from the designs submitted in competition for the New Town Hall and Publie Markets, for the first prize a design submitted by Messrs. Maxwell & Tuke, of Bury, and for the second one sent by Messrs. Mellor & Sutton, of Southport. There were seventeen competitors. New SewerraGe Scueme ror Sovraporr.— The Southport Town Council have, by a large majority, adopted a new system of sewerage, and resolved, in accordance with the terms of their Improvement Act of 1871, to ask the Home Secre- tary to approve the same. At present the sewage flows partly to the shore and is partly carried inland to the sluice at Crossens, and thence into the estuary of the Ribble. The scheme adopted is one proposed by Messrs. Lawson & Mansergh, civil engineers, London. Its chief feature is the collection of allthe sewage of the town, doing away altogether with cess- poois, into one large main, and conveying it to the outlet at Crossens, the length of the sewer being 24,270ft. If carried out the scheme will include proper means for flushing the main with water, and screens will be provided in order to intercept solid matter. Should, as some think, the sewage prove a nuisance at Crossens, it will not be difficult to arrange for the adoption of some project for irrigation. The cost of the scheme, including contingencies, is put down at £35,000. New Synacoaue ror Lryerroot.—Some time ago the Old Hebrew congregation, whose synagogne ig at present in Seel-street, determined to erect a new building which should more fully meet its increasing requirements. A select competition was decided upon and six architects were requested to furnish designs. Two of the invited architects declined to compete, and the remaining four accepted the invitation, viz., Messrs. W. & G. Audsley, of Liverpool, Mr. Collins, of London, Mr. Grayson, of Liverpool, and Mr.
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