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Mechanics' Magazine,

MUSEUM, REGISTER, JOURNAL, AND GAZETTE.

No. 675.

SATURDAY, JULY 16, 1836.

Price 3d.

IMPROVED MODE OF TRACTION THROUGH CANAL TUNNELS.

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258 IMPROVED NODE OF TRACTION THROUGH CANAL TUNNELS..

IMPROVED MODE OF TRACTION THROUGH

CANAL TUNNELS.

The tunnel on the summit level of the Huddersfield Canal is 34 miles in length. The method at present for passing boats through is by men laying on their backs on the boats, and acting against the top and sides of the tunnel with their feet to propel the vessels forward. In July, 1834, a premium of 100 guineas was of fered for the best plan for facilitating the passage of the boats through the tunnel, provided it was adopted; in consequence of which, the following plan was projected:

Fig. 1 is a longitudinal section of the engine, boiler, &c. Fig. 2 is a ground plan of boilers, pipes, boat, &c. Fig. is another plan, giving a top view of engine, boilers, taup, chain, trough, &c. AA, the engines, of 5 horses' power, each; BB, the boilers, with their tubes, chimneys, &c.; C C, the pipe for conveying the smoke, &c. from under the boilers to the force-pumps; DD, the forcepumps for drawing the smoke, &c. from under the boilers, and discharging it into the canal J through the pipes E E. The smoke is discharged in an opposite direction to that in which the boat K is moving, thus assisting to propel it forward. It will be perceived in fig. 2 that the smoke is forced out at either end of the boat, according to the direction she is moving, by opening and shutting the stop-valves at the junction between the two pumps. By this aforementioned arrangement I do away with the nuisance of the smoke, cause the air to pass freely through the fire to support combustion, and likewise assist to propel the vessel forward. It is necessary to state, that the steam is to be got up previous to entering the tunnel; then the damper of the chimney is shut, and the pumps become substitutes for the chimney. Fis the taup-wheel, which works in the chain for drawing the boats through the tunnel. G is the trough in the centre of boat, which conveys the chain L to and from the tap-wheel. This trough is raised in the centre to allow the water to run back into the canal that is brought up with the chain; as also for the ascending and descending of the chain to and from the taup-wheel. The trough forms round the taup-wheel, except where it is in contact with the chain, to prevent any water running into the boat. The bottom

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HISTORY OF THE FOUNDATION OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

which is driven round by the taup-wheel to prevent the chain from rising off it in case of jerks, &c. In fig 3 the chain is seen going over the taup-wheel, and extending from one end of the tunnel to the other, made fast at each end, and laying at the bottom of canal; ascending on to the taup-wheel, and falling again into the canal, as the boat moves along. The chain is of simple construction, easily manufactured and soon repaired in case of accident; it weighs 36lbs. to the yard. Fig. 4.

Fig. 4 is a side-view of the valves which
are to be opened and shut alternately, as
the boat is reversed in her direction
through the tunnel, to admit of the smoke
being forced out in the opposite direction
to that in which the boat is moving. The
speed of the taup-wheel determines the
speed of the boat, consequently any speed
can be attained that is practicable in a
close tunnel.

Your obedient servant,
EMANUEL WHARTON.

Manchester, April 26, 1836.

P.S.-It will be proper to inform you that I never had the opportunity of explaining the plan to the Canal Company, nor any one else that sent plans. The engineer, to whom the competing plans were submitted, advised the Company not to adopt any of them, but to use stationary engines.-E. W.

DUST PROTECTORS.

Sir, We have in this country contrivances to keep as from the wet and from the cold, why not from the dust? When some men go from home, it suits them to have but one coat, and it does not suit them to have it made shabby; and if he does not put on an upper coat, must be the case, which does not exactly do this hot weather. Under those circumstances, had he a thin brown Holland garb to put on, would it not be serviceable? Would not a thin light covering

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for clothes and hats find a ready sale in
the London ready-made cloth shops.

AN OCCASIONAL TRAVELLER ON
THE COACH TOP.

HISTORY OF THE FOUNDATION OF THE
BRITISH MUSEUM.

Sir,-As you have occasionally devoted some of your pages to the subject of our national Museum, with a view to its improvement and the extension of its public utility, I venture to transmit to you some particulars respecting its foundation, not generally known, and which are not to be found in the article British Museum," lately published in the Penny Cyclopedia, and which common report attributes to the pen of Sir Henry Ellis. The following sketch has been compiled with great care, principally from contemporary writers whose authenticity may be relied on.

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Sir Hans Sloane, the founder of the British Museum, one of the most eminent physicians and naturalists of the eighteenth century, of whom an interesting memoir may be found in the Biographia Britannica, was not only distinguished as a man of science, but also He was a as a liberal and patriotic citizen. governor of most of the metropolitan hospitals, to which he was not only a constant benefactor, but also left considerable sums to them at his death. He set on foot the scheme of a dispensary for the poor, and gave to the Apothecaries' Company a piece of ground at Chelsea for a botanic garden, who," that their successors and posterity might never forget their common benefactor," caused a marble statue by the celebrated Rysbrach to be erected to his memory. Sir Hans Sloane was also instrumental in establishing the Foundling Hospital, and formed the plan for bringing up the children, which proved the best that could be devised. He was the first who introduced into England the general use of bark, which he applied successfully to the cure of many diseases. Sir Hans Sloane also gave a sanction to the practice of inoculation by inoculating two of the princesses, which more effectually established this great discovery than all the treatises that had been written on the subject. But the share he had in the foundation of the British Museum will most effectually preserve his name from oblivion. Having with great labour and expense, during the course of his

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HISTORY OF THE FOUNDATION OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

long life, collected a rich cabinet of medals, objects of natural history, &c., and a valuable library of printed books and MSS. He bequeathed the whole to the public on condition that the sum of 20,000l. should be paid to his executors for the benefit of his family, but which, according to his own declaration, in a codicil to his will, made a short time before he died, was not a fourth part of the then intrinsic value of his museum. And it should be remembered, that the sum of 80,000l. expended in the first half of the eighteenth century in the purchase of MSS., rare books, coins, gems, antiquities, and other curiosities, would produce a very different result in point of quantity and quality from the same amount devoted to similar purposes at the commencement of the nineteenth, when a single MS. was sold for 2,000l. or 3,000/. It may be safely asserted, therefore, that 200,000l. would now scarcely purchase such a collection as Sir Hans Sloane's was in the year 1753.

The following list of articles contained in Sir Hans Sloane's museum is given in the Biographia Britannica (art. Sloane), which was published in 1763, only four years after the opening of the Museum to the public; it is a curious and important record, and as it was probably communicated to the writer of Sir Hans's life by an officer of the British Museum, it may, we think, be entitled to all the credit of an official document.

Medals and coins, ancient and modern .... 22.000 Antiquities, &c., about

Seals, &c.

...........

Cameos and Intaglios. &., about

Precious stones, agates, jaspers, &c.

Crystals, spars, &c.

Fossils, flints, and stones, &c.

Metal, mineral ores, &c.

Earths, sands, salts, &c

Bitumen, sulphurs, ambes, ambergris, &c

Tales, micæ &c

Te tacea or shells..

Corals, sponges, &c.

Asteria, trochi, entrochi, &c.

Echini, echinites, &c.

Crustacea or crabs, &c. ..

Stellæ marine, &c.

Fishes and their parts

Birds and their parts, of different species..

Vipers, serpents, &c.

Quadrupeds, &c.

He died in 1753, in his 92nd year.

1,125

268 700

542 1.864

1,275 2,725 1 035

399 388

5 834

1 421

659

241 363

173

1 555 1,172 521 1,886

A remarkable instance of Sir Hans Sioane's liberality, as regarded his library, is worthy of record. If he found that he possessed duplicates of any books which related to medicine, he was accu tomed to pre-ent them to the College of Physicians, and if they reated of other subjects, to the B dleian Library. a rare, and, we are afraid, solitary examole of disinte estedness and devotion to the cause of literature and scien e.

In the Penny Cyclopedia 50,000l. is the sum named. But this is the amount mentioned by Sir Hans in his will, which was made in the year 1739, The compiler of this articl coul never have seen the codicils, or he would not have committed so gross an error.

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Another list of the objects of Sir Hans Sloane's Museum is printed in the introduction to the British Museum Synopsis for 1815 (p. 3, note), in which it is said, that the quadrupeds and their parts amounted to 8,186, and the stones, ores, bitumens, &c., to 9,942. This account is stated to have been made up from a schedule handed about at the time of the purchase; its authenticity, however, is not vouched for. But why not quote the contemporary account in the Biographia Britannica, or refer at once to the catalogue itself for information? It was surely accessible to the person who compiled this introduction!

"Besides this mass of curiosities," continues the writer in the Biographia Britannica, "his library consisted of more than 50 000 volumes (347 of which were illustrated with cuts finely engraven and coloured from nature), 3 566 MSS., and an infinite number of rare and curious books." Of the Sloanean MSS. the Penny Cyclopedia (art. British Museum,) furnishes the following, as we are told, demi-official account. "This collection principally consists of MSS on natural history, voyages, and travels, upon the arts, and especially upon medicine, It comprises the chief of the celebrated Kaempfer's MSS., with the voluminous medical collections of Sir Theodore Mayerne, and amongst them the annals of his practice in the court of England from 1611 to 1649. It also contains a collection of medical and other scientific correspondence, with numerous MSS. on history, poetry, and miscellaneous subjects.'

"

We have no objection to a demi-official account of the British Museum in the Penny or any other Cyclopedia;¶ but why do not the

Dodsley, in his Guide (1761,) enumerates some of the principal portra ts, forty-six in number, of kings of England and of numerous distinguished individuals. Some of these. we believe, are now exhibited in the Mineral Ga ley, at the Museum, but the transverse light from the double horizontal skyligh's readers it extremely difficult to choose any po ition from which they may be seen with advantage. Why are not these portraits transferred to the Na ional Gallery, where Sir George Beaumont's and the Rev. Holwell Carr's pictures, bequeathed to the Museum, are very property placed?

It must always be a matter of regret to at any of Sir Hns's hooks should have been sold. A considerable number, it is said, were turned out" as duplicates on y a few years since. These were the founder's books, an should never have been disposed of; but many belonging to the Royal Library of th kings of England. given by King George II.. have shared the same fate.

¶ See Mechanics' Magazine, May 23, 1836, vol. xxiv. p. 39.

HISTORY OF THE FOUNDATION OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

Trustees direct a sketch of the history of the Museum to be prefixed to the Synopsis or Guide? This was done seventeen or eighteen years ago, but has been discontinued. That this guide is susceptible of great improvement in other respects, was admitted by the officers themselves when examined before the Committee of Inquiry last session. See the Natural History Evidence, passim. In pp. 60, 61, and 65, of the Synopsis published in 1835, we are informed (mirabile dictu), that the flesh of the salmon furnishes "one of the greatest delicacies of the table;" that the "flesh of the cod is white, regularly separates into flakes, is easy of digestion, and very palatable," and that "the flesh of the sturgeon is excellent!!!" As the Synopsis is now said to be out of print, we trust that something more worthy of a national Museum will be produced. The price also should be reduced one-half, at least. See Evidence, No. 2769, 2794, and Appendix, p. 444. From the catalogue of printed books (1817), it would appear that the Museum does not possess a complete set of its own Synopsis; it is also no less strange than true, that no authorised guide to the curiosities of the place was published for nearly half a century after it was opened.

"It is easy to perceive," observes the writer in the Biographia Britannica, “ the advantage that will result to the public from this immense collection. To have access to such a cabinet as this is, in effect, to men of taste, like making the tour of the world, and having for their tutor a catalogue of thirtyeight volumes in folio, and eight in quarto, -containing a short description of each curiosity, with a reference to the authors that treat of it more at large."

From the "British Chronologist" (vol. iii. p. 130, col. 2), we learn that when the will of Sir Hans Sloane was proved, "Administration was granted to the Lord Cadogan and Dr. Sloane Elsmere, Rector of Chelsea. The will consisted of five sheets of paper, all writtea with his own hand; and there were nine codicils to it. The testator, desirous that his collection might be kept entire, directed it to be offered to his Majesty at 20,0007.; and if this offer was declined, then first to the Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburgh, and then successively to the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, Berlin, and Madrid. If the King and Parliament accepted the offer, Sir Hans' trustees* were to apply for a power

Tese were 58 in number, containing the names of some of the most distinguished persons, scho ars, and philosophers, of the day, both English and foreign. Among the foreigners who are trustees are, it is curious to remark, the names of the Rt. Hon. Henry XXVIII. Count of Reuss; the Rt. Hon. and Rev. Count Zinzendorf, the Lord Advocate, and of the Chane-ller and Agent of the United Fratrum, a sec: founded by Count Zinzendorf, and

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to enable them to preserve, maintain, and continue the collection at Chelsea, where it was to be shown, under proper regulations, for the satisfaction of the curious and the improvement of knowledge." In the second codicil Sir Hans observes," Having had from my youth a strong inclination to the study of plants, and all other productions of nature, and having through the course of many years, with great labour and expense, gathered together whatever could be procured, either in our own or foreign countries, that was rare and curious, and being fully convinced that nothing tends more to raise our ideas of the power, wisdom, goodness, providence, and other perfections of the Deity, or more to the comfort and well-being of his creatures, than the enlargement of our knowledge of the works of nature, I do will and desire that for the promoting of these noble ends, the glory of God, and the good of man, my collection, in all its branches, may be, if possible, kept and preserved together whole and entire in my manor-house at Chelsea, &c." Sir Hans afterwards appoints several persons as a Board of Visitors, "to visit, correct, and reform, from time to time, as there may be occasion, either jointly with the said trustees or separately, &c. ;" and had this valuable regulation been attended to by the Legislature in framing the Act of Incorporation for the British Museum, there would, probably, have been but little necessity for a Parliamentary inquiry.

From the respectable authority already quoted we extract the following interesting account of the proceedings which took place after the death of Sir Hans:

"1753-Jan. 27. The Lord Cadogan and the other executors of the late Sir Hans Sloane, Bart., having desired the trustees who were appointed by Sir Hans to take care and keep together his Museum, to meet at the Manor-house at Chelsea, at ten in the morning, they met there, accordingly, about forty. Lord Cadogan was there, and received them in the politest manner; and having caused the galleries, libraries, and all the other apartments, to be shown, they assembled in the great room, where his Lordship produced Sir Hans' will, and acquainted the trustees with the codicils, the nature of which has been already detailed. In case the offer was accepted as to the Museum remaining at Chelsea, he gave the Manor-house there,f with the Museum, as it is now disposed,

afterwards known by the appellation of "Moravians."-Vide British Chronologist, vol. ii. pp. 136,

137.

+ Sir Hans' trustees having afterwards consented to the removal of the Museum from Chelsea, the Government gave them the Manor-house to be disposed of, along with his other property, for the benefit of the family.-Biographia Britannica, art. Sloane.

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