Page:The Building News and Engineering Journal, Volume 22, 1872.djvu/508

 486 THE BUILDING NEWS. Jonn 14, 1872. and on meeting the work advancing from the next shaft the junction length is accomplished. If there is no water to be got rid of, the small heading is best driven at the top of the tunnel, for it gives better ventilation, and the further excavation of the tunnel is more easily proceeded with, but where there is much water the heading is better at the bottom, in order to draw it off towards the shafts and to one or both ends of the tunnel. When it is necessary to pump water out of a shaft a sump hole is made below the proper level of the bottom of the tunnel, into which the water is collected and from which it is pumped up. This sump is temporarily covered with timber. Whether the heading be at the top or bottom of the tunnel the first thing to be done in advancing the excavation is to prise forward the crow-bars, and if there be no heading already driven at the top, one must be made, long enough to receive the top bar. A hole having been made in the floor of the heading at the proper distance, anda foot-block placed in it, a prop is set up, and the top bar ad- vanced and rested upon it. Widening out the heading, other bars are similarly advanced, poling-boards being inserted across each couple of bars to support the roof, and, pro- ceeding with the excavation downwards and outwards, other bars are successively got in and poled in a similar manner. ‘The bars are either of whole balks of timber or round trees of large size. Round larch is very good for the purpose, but squared oak is sometimes used. Indeed, great strength is required, even for such short lengths as 9ft. or 1Oft., espe- cially in that kind of clay which swells on exposure to the atmosphere. It has happened in this kind of ground that double balks have been broken ; and, indeed, the work abandoned for a time because of the impossibility of pre- venting the excavation closing up, from the swelling of the ground. Tt is necessary to excavate the ground ahead of the leading length of brickwork to a height of nearly 2ft. higher than the top of the brickwork will be, although the crown bars may be only 12in. or 14in. square, to allow for the bending down by the weight of earth, and if this bending be not allowed for there will not be room for a sufficient thickness of brickwork in the arch, and the bars will be bound in and must be left there. All spaces above the brickwork must be packed solid with earth, or with brickwork. Fig. 11 shows a longitudinal section of a tunnel being excavated, and Fig. 12 a cross section of the timbering. A, Fig. 11, is the small heading; B, the brickwork, advanced as far as the line BB; CC, the sills, which are scarped in the middle to enable them to be lowered down the shaft and fixed; D, the crown bars, with the poling boards E; F F, the raking struts; GG, the props. The scarfs of the sills are about 5ft. long, and the weight of iron straps, bolts, nuts, and washers is about 1} ewt. to each scarf. ' Experiments on the strength of winding ropes show that the breaking weight of good rope is about 24 tons per square inch of sec- tion. For temporary purposes half this strain, or 1} tons per square inch, may be put on; but permanently not more than one- third should be trusted, or (say) three-fourths of a ton; and making allowance for the rough usage winding ropes in tunnel shafts are subject to, 10 cwt. per square inch of sectional area is a fair calculation for regular work, acid THE GREAT BUILDING TRADE DISPUTE IN LONDON. HE great wrestling match between the masters and the men employed in the building trades in London still continues. We call ita wrestling match in contradis- tinction to the great fight in 1859. Then fair blows and foul blows were given and taken without care or calculation; and injuries were given and received which left rankling memories for many months. Now it is more a trial of strength and skill than an exhi- bition of endurance. If the masters and men may be said to fight now, they fight with gloves on. They understand each other a little better than in past years, and, as a consequence, they respect each other a little more. Negotiation is, therefore, now de- pended on more, and open warfare less. The men, as we have stated before, taking advan- tage of the general rise in the price of labour, and the breeze of commercial prosperity passing over the country, ask ninepence an hour for nine hours’ daily work. The masters in the first place would not listen to such a thing, and we must say it looked somewhat exacting to demand more wages and less work at the same time. The masters, in the first place, refused to see the representatives of the men for conference, an unwise step, as we pointed out at the time. The unwisdom of the step was, however, soon seen and soon retraced. The next important step on the part of the masters was meeting together and expressing a desire to submit the matter to arbitration. It is satisfactory to know that the public faith in arbitration is not diminishing, even in the face of the probable temporary failure of the arbitration between England and America. The men unhesitat- ingly accepted the proposal to arbitrate, but refused the arbitrators named by the masters. It is astonishing that large employers of labour in London should be so utterly igno- rant of the opinions and feelings of the men as to imagine for a moment that Lords Salis- bury and Derby would be accepted by the men as satisfactory arbitrators to settle a trade dispute. We need scarcely say that the notion was put under foot and _ literally stamped out at once ; and it is not likely that a similar proposal will be made for this century. Disraeli, in his ‘‘ Sybil,” speaks of England as two nations. He shows that the rich and the poor are separated by an immense chasm. But we see in London, in one great industry, two distinct classes of men. How little the masters understand the daily life and ordinary feelings of the men to seriously suggest such arbitrators! Possibly, when this struggle is over, both masters and men will understand each other better. ¢ The essence of the contention consists in the nine hours daily work. On this question the men, with unusual firmness, are decided, and the probabilities are they will be successful. We neither advocate one side nor the other. Our desire is to specify facts and indicate tendencies. The men are going with the stream, or rather, they are rising with the tide. Their action is co-operative with a national movement. Men in the building trades everywhere are demanding increased wages or shorter hours, and they are almost everywhere getting what they demand. Another fact which strikes the ordinary observer is that the men are firm and united. In continuing the struggle they are animated with a quiet enthusiasm for the nine hours’ movement. Their desire is not so much to get more wages for themselves, but that more men may be employed. Here, again, they are not understood by the masters. The masters cannot understand the community of feeling and interest, and, if necessary, the self-sacrificing spirit that exists amongst the men, and herein is the secret of the men’s strength. If the masters were as well organised, as united, and interlaced by a similar community of feeling, and warmed by a similar enthusiasm, as the men, they would probably successfully resist the demands of the men. But they are not. Consequently, we see a disposition to yield individually. More than one master has already yielded, and in several of the shops of London may be seen notices that such and such employers will grant the nine hours, if all the others will. It cannot be denied that there is a process of disintregation going on among the masters. There are indications that their resistance is beginning to crumble. Our advice to the masters, therefore, is to accept the proposal with a good grace. It would be waste of time to submit the question of time to arbi- tration, as the arbitrators would have to decide on a foregone conclusion as far as the men are concerned. The question of pay- ment may with propriety be decided by arbitration, if it cannot be decided by friendly negotiation, effected by an equal number of representative masters and men. ‘The com- promise indicated by us last week was cer- tainly not then an unacceptable one. We spoke after haying gauged the situation, and our opinion then was that 84d. per hour for nine hours daily would be accepted as a satis- factory solution of the contest. We are not sure that such a settlement could be so easily effected now. But whatever is done may be done by negotiation. A lock-out would in- evitably embitter the struggle without settling it. We hope, therefore, that both masters and men will adhere to negotiation, or, if necessary, arbitration, as persistently and as patiently as the English Government has ad- hered to the policy of arbitration, the taunts and sneers of disappointed politicians notwith- standing. A universal strike or a universal lock-out would be a universal injury. If the hours of labour are to be shortened and the condition of the great wage-earning class is to be ameliorated, let it be done without violence or uneconomical antagonisms ; let it be achieved with softer instrumentalities than strikes, lock-outs, or trade convulsions; let it, in fact, be done in obedience to reason and common sense. Asien te ———_—__>__— THE DUBLIN EXHIBITION OF 1872. R. WALTER EMDEN presents his compli- ments to the Editor of the Burtprne News, and will feel much obliged by the insertion of the description enclosed of the works lately executed at Dublin for the Exhibition of Arts, Industries, and Manufactures, of 1872. 8, Adam-street, Strand, W.C., June 11, 1872. (DESCRIPTION ENCLOSED.) Believing that the Irish manufacturers and arti- sans have much to gain from a fair and free compe- tition with those of other countries, Sir Arthur Guinness, Bart., and his brother, Mr. Edward Cecil Guinness, with an unexampled liberality and gene- rous patriotism, purchased the Exhibition Palace, Dublin, for the purpose of providing at their own cost and risk entirely an opportunity for their countrymen to have that ‘fair and free competi- tion” so earnestly desired for them. On Wednesday last the Exhibition of Arts, Manu- factures, and Industries of Dublin, was thrown open to the public by H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh. The building itself has undergone a thorough renovation for the opening, and Mr. Walter Emden, Architect, of 8, Adam-street, Strand, London, who has been successfully associated with some of the latest metropolitan theatres, has been entrusted with thisimportant part of thearrangement. The Grand Concert Hall, Organ, and Orchestra, have been ea- tirely decorated, and those who have hitherto re- marked its unfinished whitewashy state, now have no cause for complaint, when they see the brilliant transformation that has been effected, and the chaste and elegant aspect of this magnificent room. The walls and pillars at the side are exquisitely coloured and panelled, the prevailing tints being pale sea green, mauve, and gold,creating a brilliant and chaste contrast, the cornices are finely turned and most delicately gilt, while the railings of the galleries have all their scrolls and foliage most richly decorated. The organ and orchestra are decorated in har- moniously contrasting colours, lighter in character, and the performers’ seats are surrounded with a screen resembling most elegant drapery, presenting at once a novel and beautiful effect, and aiding the acoustic arrangement. Mr, Emden has designed the whole of these decorations, together with those of the dining- room, which vie with the concert hall decorations in beauty of design and originality of colour. The large grotto fountain which has been erected at the southern extremity of the building is most original and novel in design ; it consists of three caves, and upon the summit of the centre one is sup- ported a figure of Erin striking her harp, executed in Sicilian marble. In the cave beneath the figure of Erin are figures of naiads pouring water into the basin, with cataracts rushing around them, while a