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likely to be set fire to by sparks. It is an order that they should be done, and they profess to be in the course of doing it; but they are not quite so quick in their movements as perhaps they ought to be, and from that cause we may have lately had a little dry grass burnt on the road-side, which any person passing along the road may have seen evidence of.

Would you, as an individual member of a railroad company, prefer being compelled by legislative enactments to use particular precautions, or would you prefer being made liable to any damage which might be proved to have occurred by the locomotive-engines to the property of individuals through whose land the railroad passes?-I should rather, certainly, have the legislative enactment, if that prescribed the sort of security that the Legislature would deem sufficient, because it would be the duty of the railway to adopt it; but that security must not be incompatible with performance of the engine. You might close every thing up so completely that no fire could come through, but the draught would be so impeded that you could not make steam.

If there were legislative enactments respecting the use of caps, or a tray under the fire, would it not be easy to evade those regulations or to neglect the precautions?— It certainly would be, just as it would be easy for a hackney coachman not to have his plate on the door, but he would be subject, I conceive, to a fine if it was omitted.

Do you not believe the most certain way to secure the public against danger would be to subject the proprietors of railways to the liability alluded to?—I think it would be an immense liability; you might ruin a whole

concern.

Do you not believe that if the law were to cast that liability upon the proprietors, that they would consult scientific men who would discover precautions that would make that liability in truth one of very little extent ?I think it might involve such very important consequences, that it would really be a serious objection to having any thing to do with property in railways.

You have stated that you believe there is but little danger to be apprehended from fire?-But that is a different thing from fixing the liability on the Railway Company by law. It is possible that such a thing might happen, and the public are not so well aware as I am of these things, because I see them every day. Many people have a great dread of a railway who never saw one, but I have not that dread who have it before my eyes every day.

But in case of accident, do you not think that it is but fair that the company who are most likely to profit by the railway, are those

persons who ought to pay for the damage which may have occurred from the use of the locomotive-engines?—I am not sure that I do. A person may carry on a very beneficial manufactory to himself which is more liable to ignition than another, and yet it would be very hard to make him pay because he happens to set all his neighbours houses on fire.

Would it not be still harder on the neighbour to have his house burnt down?-It is a contingency that the neighbourhood expects, and being in a dangerous neighbourhood he insures his property accordingly.

But then he must pay a greater premium in consequence?-So he may.

Is it not very hard and unjust to force a man to sell a portion of his land and then to burn the crops which he retains?—If he can prove they burnt his crops it would be.

With the improvements that may be made in the progress of invention in locomotiveengines, is it not more than probable that they may be made so perfect that no accidents can arise; do you not think it a just principle that if you, for instance, had your house burnt down by one of the engines, the company who employ the engines should pay for the damage done?—These are opinions which I hardly expected to be asked, and they involve questions of law and equity which I perhaps am not equal to answer on the moment; they require a good deal of consideration.

You have stated that you do not apprehend any danger?-I am not very sanguine about very great improvements being made in these engines; we have now been at work many years, and there has been no improvement in the principle, though there have been improvements in the details. The engines are more durable, but there has been no improvement in the principle as yet; and I think that with these precautions the chance of accident is very remote. At the same time that is a very different thing to fixing the liability on the Railway Company by law.

If there is no danger according to your statement, or the danger is very remote, the liability cannot be much?-I do not know that it is much.

Then, why should you feel so great a repugnancy to the liability being thrown on the Railway Company ?-Nobody likes to have more liability fixed on them than it is necessary to bear; and therefore it is but reasonable to object to it.

Do you not believe that practically it would be found if the railroad proprietors were subject to responsibility for any damage done by fire arising from the locomotiveengines, that they would exert themselves in such a manner as to provide precautions

against danger, and that in point of fact they would be subject to very little loss in consequence of damage that might arise?— That would be the strongest inducement they could possibly have to take every pains in their power.

As a practical man, do you not expect in progress of time the calls made upon them for damages will be so small that they would have no apprehension at all?—I think the chance would be very much reduced of fire; but if you make a public company of this kind liable, it might give rise, I apprehend, to very great frauds.

In speaking of the lial ility to which the proprietors ought to be subject, I am suppos. ing it to be clearly made out that the accident from fire did arise from the locomotiveengine?-But it is not always very easy to prove it. With all these precautions the thing may happen, and you lay it on an engine; it might have happened from a man smoking a pipe or a cigar on the train.

But is it not the duty of the proprietors and of their servants to take care that no

danger of that kind shall arise ?-Yes, it is; to do their best.

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What is the amount of damage you have paid, since the Liverpool and Manchester Railway has been opened, from fire?-I should think about 40007., of which 30007. was on one occasion. We cover up all the merchandise with oil cloth.

You consider side walls are most essential precautions?-Yes, I think so, in case of accidents. All the new railways that are making now have mounds along the embankments which answer the double purpose of preventing the engines in case of their going off the rails from going down the em bankment, and the cinders from setting fire, though they were not intended for the latter purpose.

Do you, as a gentleman of considerable experience employed in the direction of the greatest railway in the country, think there is no danger from the locomotive-engines used at present, due precaution being taken; is that your distinct opinion?-That is my distinct opinion, due precaution being taken and persevered in,

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me would be not only equally cheap, but calculated to improve the appearance of the bedstead.

Description.

a, the head-post; b, the foot ditto; c, an iron leg, firmly attached to an iron bar d, for the purpose of holding the laths of the bedstead, under which is a groove to allow the half of the side e to pass along it; and thus by turning the piece of iron f horizontally, the leg will fall on the castor g, and the side e will then slide freely along till the post b is up to the Jeg c, making the bedstead half its common size. h, side view of leg c, showing

the hole through which the side a passes. i, inner view of iron bar, showing the recesses to hold the laths. j, end view of same, with two screws passing through head-post, and secured by nuts. k, end of the bar, showing the groove in which the side e slides. The top may be made to contract by a weight attached to a cord running on a pulley behind the headpost, or a rail made fast to the head-post, and the lower one run on it by a wheel in a groove.

The lower end of the bedstead is always one inch lower than the upper. I am, Sir, yours, &c.

T. R. CROFt.

CALCULATION OF THE DISTANCE TRAVELLED BY MR. GREEN'S BALLOON ON ITS

LATE CONTINENTAL VOYAGE.

Sir, I am much obliged to Kinclaven for pointing out the error I fell into in my application of Leadbetter's solution for finding the year when our present north pole star will be south of the zenith of London. I am now perfectly satisfied; and fully agree with Kinclaven, that there can be no change in the latitudes of places so long as our earth continues to revolve upon the same axis. I here beg leave to state, that I had no intention of becoming an advocate for Mr. Mackintosh's electrical theory of the universe. I am fully aware that the greatest part of it is founded upon a bed of sand.

I observe that your correspondent, Mr. Richard Evans, or rather his friend, the Actuary of the Savings' Bank of Swansea, in No. 695, has given a calculation of the distance Mr. Green's great balloon travelled in its late Continental trip; his method of solution is perfectly false. He makes the distance between Vauxhall Gardens and the town of Nassau to be 482-86 geographical miles, which would be 559-13 English miles; whereas the distance in English miles (allowing the latitudes and longitudes to be as stated by Mr. Evans) will only be 359 miles. The true solution by spherics will be as follows:~

Solution.

Assume 90-50° 16′ 39° 44′ = a

90-51 31 38 29b
7° 57′ = C.

Then we have two sides of a spherical triangle and the included angle given to find the third side, which will be the distance required.

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C

2

10:301030

17.307589

8-653794

hence =2o 34·96′ ... C = 5o 9·92′ = 309·92 geographical miles,

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Had the question been solved upon the principles of Mercator's projection, the distance would have been the same as above.

But it was stated that the balloon descended near the town of Weilburgh, which is 23 miles north-east of Nassau, in latitude 50° 18′ N., longitude 8o 26′ E.; also, the true latitude of Vauxhall Gardens is 51° 30′ 15′′ N., long. 0° 8′ 30′′ W. In this case the distance will be somewhat more.

Solution on Mercator's Principles.

Lat. Vauxhall 51° 30′ 15′′ N. (Mercator's principles) 3617 1 long. 0° 8' 30" W. Weilburgh 50 18 0 N. 3502-6 long, 8 26 0 E.

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And allowing for a little traversing in the air, the whole length of the trip could not have been much under 400 miles.

Trusting, Mr. Editor, the above will be some atonement for my former mistake, I am, Mr. Editor, your humble servant,

I a

O. N.

Dec. 3, 1836.

MANIFOLD WRITERS.

Sir,-At p. 112 of vol. xxvi. you ask me to send you a description of my machine for taking several copies off a letter with expedition and secrecy. That is a thing I will most willingly do, so far as I can, without the risk of injuring my own interest; more than that, imagine you do not at present expect.

The machine, with its appurtenances, forms an elegant though small piece of furniture to stand on a library table. Any number of copies can be taken at about the rate of sixty or seventy in an hour, and the machine becomes ready for taking copies in five minutes after the letter is finished; and to finish which,

takes only the usual time for writing a letter.

Any gentleman or lady may take copies with ease, as the method requires no more attention than common writing, and is done without soiling the dress or the hands. This way of multiplying copies does not, like lithography, require dabbling in water, nor is it attended with such delay, dirt, and disappointment, as usually attend lithography.

At some future time I will send you all the particulars and a drawing of the machine.

I am, Sir, yours, &c.

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Sir,-One of the most striking features of the recent Report of the House of Commons' Committee on the Arts in connexion with Manufacture (reprinted in No. 693 of the Mechanics' Magazine), is undoubtedly its decided hostility to every thing English, not even excepting English grammar. At the very outset the Committee are anxious to state the inference they say they are obliged to draw from the testimony they have received; that, from the very highest branches of poetical design down to the lowest connexion between design and manufactures, the arts have received little encouragement in this country;" and the chief objects of all the rest of the rambling disjointed mass which they style their " Report," seems to be the maintenance of this position, especially by throwing discredit on our native artists and artisans, to the glorification of their Continental brethren. By saying that the arts have received "little encouragement" in this country, the Committee evidently mean to insinuate that they have made little progress; and in order to bear themselves out in this view of the case, which they profess to have arrived at "with regret," while they evidently gloat on it with delight, they (inadvertently, no doubt,) omit all mention of various facts detailed by some of the witnesses examined, which tend to prove the existence of the very reverse of that state of things, which caused them so much sorrow.

For instance, while the Committee state that it has too frequently, if not uniformly, occurred, that the witnesses have felt themselves compelled to draw a comparison more favourable, in the matter of design, to our foreign rivals, and especially to the French, than could have been desired," they cannot find room for even the slightest notice of the fact spoken to by one of the witnesses, that many of the most favourite French patterns are in reality executed in England; or of the other pointed fact deposed to by another (previously brought forward by a correspondent of the Mechanics' Magazine), that the most highly-prized -French china of the tasteful author of "Anastasius," the very specimens adduced by him in proof of the superiority of Gallic design-were in good truth executed at Worcester by an English artist! It is the same to the end of the chapter; the Committee seem to have lost their memory entirely as to any fact creditable to the talents of their countrymen. In the course of the evidence many other circumstances of a similar complexion are alluded to, which in the aggregate would go far towards invalidating the sweeping conclusion the Committee so readily arrived at; but it would be in vain to look for them in the impartial pages of the Report.

In one important branch of the artsengraving-however, English superiority is so manifest, that even this anti-national Committee are reluctantly compelled to devote a paragraph to the confession that "British engraving has attained a high degree of excellence." But this

little tribute of justice is paid most characteristically. How may it be supposed the Committee discovered the fact? They surely could not trust the evidence of native barbarians, or of their own eyes! Certainly not ;-but "foreigners send pupils hither for education, and the works of British engravers are admired on the Continent!" This helpless dependence on foreign judgment is indeed ridiculously apparent in every line of the Report. The Committee recommend particularly the purchase of paintings of the Raphael era for the national collection. Why? Because they have been sought for as the basis of the new National Gallery at Berlin." Portraits are to be excluded from the exhibitions of the Royal Academy, and for what reason? Because

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