DEc. 11, 1868.

friction-wheel is suspended by a hanger H, turnable about centre. A shallow cylinder A is fixed underneath tho carriage, and is con­nected with the vacuun1 tubo by the pipe E. A piston moves in this cylinder, and when a. Jlartial vacuum is formed in it is drawn back, pulling t.be friction-wheel 0 away from the axle D, and t.bua stopping ita motion and tho ringing. 'rho gong is sounded by the light rod I , Fig. 2.

FIC,3.

It is obvious that this system is capable of v1ry v::uious modifica­tions. By employing tho motion of tho tr:lin as the source of power, there is, practically, no limit to the energy 'vith which the signal_ may be given. The employment of a gong, M 1u-ranged expenmentally upon t~~ Lond?n• Chatham and Dover Railway hM the advantage of g1vmg a stgnal of a nature totally different from any of the other sounds produced by the engine or train. It JB also found that a small independently-working cylinder under­neath the tender and guard's van gives a sharp and int~rtuittont whistle. 'l'bo employment of a fog horn gives a still more J>Ow~r­ful sound. Bu~, whichever is the meaus of ~ignal chosen, it is clear that tho au forms a safe and chea 1> medium of communica­tion, nod tho apparatus which it requires is little liable to dis· rangement from accidental causes.

HERRING'S WARMING APPARATUS. THE object of this apparatus, iUu.strated in our eogravin~, and

manufactured by 1\Iessrs. Ilcrring and Son, of Chert~ey, is to utilise a portion of the bent of waste steam in warming buildings and at the same timo to conuense the steam for the boiler feed. The

I NTE RN Al.. CI..CV/\TION

SHOWINC C OI L £.c.

I NTCRN"'L PLA N

A

wute steam comes from tho engine by the pipe A, passes through the coil, becomes condensed, and passes out at B. The water in the cistern is thus much heated, and passing od by the pipe C. which is part of an ordinary system of hot water pipes, ciroul~tes round the building, and returns to the tank by D.

Tru: DEPOT\' blAsTERSBJP OF THE .ROYAL 1\IINT. - 'Ve under stand that one of tho last nota of 1\lr. Disracli's official lifo was the appointment of 1\Ir. C. N. Freemantle, son of Sir T. H. Free­mantle of tho Customs, as Deputy !\laster of the Mint. This post hn:s been vacant since the death of Mr. B:uton1 in August last. If report speaks tho truth Mr. Frcemantle w1ll not bo a. sinecuriat.

THE INt;TITOTION OF C1 VI L ENOINl?.ERS.·-At tbelastmeetingof this Society on Tuesday, the Jst inat., 1\Ir. Cbtulcs Hutton Gregory, president, in tho chair, tho first ballot for tho session took place, when thit·ty-ono members were d~:clared to have been duly elected, including ten members, viz. , Mr. Charles Graham Blatchley. Salt­ub; Mr. George Broadrick, district engineer on the Eut I ndian Railway· 1\lr. Thomu F orster Brown, Cardiff; 1\!r. Aloxnnder Cato, chief engineer of the Coquimbo Extension Rru.Iwt\Y1 c;Jh:ilo; Mr. John Henry Hartwright, lato of Chester; 1\Ir. J ohn Wt!ham J ames Stratford, Cnnada 'Vest; 1\Ir. Alfred Roberts, restdont engine'er on tho Great Indian Peninsula Railway; 1\Ir. R~bert ltoberta, engineer to the River Dee Company, Chester; 1\Ir. Robert W atson, resident engineer, Victorian Unilways; and Mr. qeorge W oodbridge, chief resident engineer ofthe Ens tern Bengal Railway; and twenty-one associates, viz., 1\Ir. Samuel Parker Bidder, ju_n., as­aistant manager of the Victoria Graving Docks Company; 1\Ir . .RJch~d Shaw Brundell East Indian Rwway, Allahabad; Mr. Fredenck Charles Bullm~re, resident engineer on tho Madras Railway; Mr. ThomM P roctor Campbell. usistant engineer on the Jubbulpore line of the E t18t Indian Railway; 1\Ir. Elliott Scarlett Curr(ly, .l~te resident engineer at tho P ortishead Pier; Mr. John Gomes V1eua D antu, Rio de Janeiro; 1\fr. Francis Gordon Davis, Gonnesa, Lead Mining Company, Eglesio.s, Sardinia; Cap~ W~ter 1\lardon D ucat, R.E., executive engineer for Reclamatious m Bo~1bay; 1\Ir. John Stinson Farmer, Kilburn; 1\Ir. H enry A.uguatu.s Ftaher, aurveyor to the Plumstead Bon.rd of ' Vorks; 1llr. Thomas P enn Gaskell, 'Vestminster ; 1llr. George llarrison, late G<>vernment Stalf Ceylon Railway; .M.r. John Thomas Holgate, late of tho Rio I mprovement 'Vorks, l~io do J aneiro; lil t·. Edmund Lane, district engineer at tho London end of the Great Western Railway; 1\lr. H enry Ch~ristopher Digges La Touche, Labore aud P csbawur Rail­way, India; Mr. Edward Antoine Sacrc, Westminster; 1\Ir. John Nidd Smith, surveyor to tho Greenwich District Boanl of W orks; 1\lr. Edwyn Joseph Statham, <..:reat Southern ltnilway, New South W alea; .Mr. Thomas Selby Toncred, Canterbury, N.Z.; 1\11-. llenry Andrew Vivian, engineer and supelintendcmt of the Coquimbo Railway, Chil6; and l'llr. William Webster, St. Martin's-place. The council, acting under tho provisions of section four of the bye-laws, have recently admitted the following candidates atutl~nts of the Institution :- Charlea Toler Burke, George Ernest Ftuth­fuU, Richard Harrison, Killingwort.h William Hedg~s,, Francisco de Salis Torres Homem, Josoph Pr1me Maxwell, William Henry Read, H enry James Samson, H erbert de Symons Skipper, and Charlee Robert Weatem.

THE ENGIN E ER. 439 -STREET SIGNALS, BRIDGE STREET, WESTMINSTER.

NOVEllrY hu been for some time, is now, and will be for some time to come, the order of tho day at St. Stephen's, Westminster, and its purlieus. In the H ouse itself some new moo, and probablyo.good many new measures, may be looked for; and new private bills, anew u nderground railway, new Government offices, and. what we have to do with specially at present, a new method of street signalling for tho regulation of the traffic.

I I

Yesterday a handaome sema­phore signal post, which hu been in process of erection at 'Vestminster for sevoml days past, wu uncovered after the manner of an inaugurated statue, and from to-day the attempt is to be made in that localityt to regulate t he street traffic oy the description of signals now universally used on railroads. A few words may not be inappropriate on the history of this experiment, and descriptive of thoaituation, character, ancl intended pur­poses of this apparatus.

SECTIONAL ELE VATION FRONT I:::LCVI\1 101.

I n 18G6 a select committee of the H ouse of Commons, Sir William Joliffe chairman, took evidence upon the London Oity Traffic Regulation Bill, and re­ported. The inquiry resulted m the Metropolitan S treets Act, which came into force lut year. Among the witnesses examined by the committee waa Mr. Knight, superintendent of the South-Eastflrn Railway, who recommended the adoption for the regulat ion of street tmffic, in so far aa vehicles and horses are concerned, of the system adopted on railways, viz., by semaphore arms during the day, and by coloured lights at ni~ht. The principal recommendations he made were that principal streets should be dealt with u main lines of railway, and side streets M branch linea or junctions, and that the system should be adopted in all CMOS of streets wholly or partially closed for repairs for the guid­IIDCe of the diverted traffic. With respect to the main strc~ts he proposed that the intersec­tions of thorou~ares, and other appointed p es, should be protected by mgnale, a.s foot­crossings, the only signals em­ployed to be the normal sloped arm of the semaphore by day, or green light by night, to indi­cate caution or slow pnce over the crossing; and the horizontal arm, with corresponding red light, for danger or atop. The narrow side streets, it was proposed, should have sig­nals at onoh end, indicating that the traffic WM only allowed to pass in one direction. The advantages of applying the system to streets closed for repair, and to the routes to which the traffic is to be diver ted, are sufficiently ob­vious. Since tho adoption of th6 Metropolitan ·S treets Act the subject of street s~ale hM received further constderation from Mr. Gathorne Hardy and Sir J ames Fergusson, lately of the Home-office, and Sir Richard llia.yne, Chief Commissioner of the 1\l etropolitan Police. Mr. Knight addressecl a letter to Sir James Fergusson in Febrnary last, stating his views more ela­borately with respect to the signals recommended, and offer­ing also a number of valuable practical suggestions for the improved regulation, in other respects, of the street traffic. We have only to do at present with tho portion of the subject relating to tho signals. Messrs. Saxby and Farmer, railway signal engineers, were taken into counsel, and tho result of tho deliberations wM an order by Sir Richard Mayne, with tho sanction and under tho authority of the Home-office, to that firm to erect an experimental semaphore signal-post at the junction of Parliament-street with Great George-street and Bridge· street, ' Vestminster. This order has been executed, and the novelty is to-day in operation for the first time. I n the event of the trial station working successfully - and there is no reason why i t should not-a great and rapid extousion of tho system may be looked for.

Tho streams of vehicles, aa most of our renders must know, are now controlled at the principal street crossings of the metropolis by police-constables spectally appointed for that duty. Tho new system designs, practically, to supply substi­tutes for the policeman's arm. At present he raises his siDgle right hand to a height of five or six feet above the ground level; his signal is only seen by one or two of the drivers nearest to him. By the mechanical contrivances now adopted, he is enabled, by a light pull at a. horizontal bar to raise fou1· arms at a height of 18ft. above tho ground. Each bright red blade is 4ft. long and a. foot broad, and is seen by every driver be­tween W estminster Bridge and the Birdcage-walk in two directions, nnd between Whitehall and Old Palace Yard in others. Drivers will obviously, by such display, be enabled to adjust their pace to their common advantage, and to tho convenience of foot-passen­gers.

Messrs. Saxby and Fanner may bo congratulated upon their succeSBful practical embodiment of the idea presented to them. As regards the design of tho pillar1 Mr. H odgson, their manager, does not seem to have restrained hunself by tho rigid rules of any particular "order," but he bas, nevertheless, contrived to presen t an imposing street ornament that will not bo at all out of keeping with even such ornate decorations in stone and iron as are presented in N ew Palace-yard bard by. The t>illnr bun total height above the ground level of 24ft. Tho centres of the semaphore arms are 18ft. high, and the centres of tho magnifying lenaea above each tum, which show the red and green lights

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corresponding with the positions of the arms, are 20ft. 4in. high. The lensea are 6in. in diameter , and the semaphore arms 4ft. long, 12in. broad at the outer end, reduced by a curve on each edge to Sin. broad at tho necks. Tho pillar is octagonal in form at tho bue and tho top, and the upper part of tho abaft is round, with a. spiral coil. At the bottom it 1B Ut. Sin. in diameter, diminish ­ing upwards at set stages, divided by projecting mouldings. Tho aides of tho pillara are ornamented with gothic and disper panel­ling. The crank work of the semaphore a.nns is fitted in a. cleverly designed swell, over which there is an upper neck, and above that an ornate light box, Wlth a. sloping roof crocketcd on the angles, and surmounted by a pine-apple finial. The pillar is a very good outing, and of about five tons in weight. Tho mechanism is cleverly contrived, and so nicely adjusted as to secure rapid and very smooth and euy working. 'fhe changes of position can be given, without any strain in the effort, by a lady or a youth. Tho only notable novelties in tho mechanical arrangements are those by which four arms, two of which are at right angles with tho other two, and four lamp discs are acted upon at the same time, by a single pull or vush of tho connecting bar. The arrangement for changing tho colour of the lights shown is also new and elegant. In ordinary railway practice tho red and green eyes of the spectacle disc nre seen by anyone who cares to look for them. This arrangement would have been unsightly in an ornamental street pillar, and the chango of colour is effected in a neater mode. A skeleton cylinder, working on a vertical centre, is fitted with red and green glasses that intert>ose, as may be ro­q,uircd, between the g!UI jets and tho lenses thl\t are fitted into the stdes of the light box. The lens only is seen, and the coloured effect is produced without exposure of t he modm operandi. The burners will be kept alight during the day by a small bye-pipe; an anangement that will be alike convenient for sudden fogs, and in obviating the necessity for mounting to tho top of the pillar, and for opening the lnmp-box doors. A locked door is a.lao fitted in the side of the pillar, which gives access to the bottom crank­work.

The pillar is coloured green, and relieved with gilding. Tbo semaphore arms nrc Jlaintul scntlct, and have a gilt border. Tho pillar has ona defect in its design that cannot fail to attract notice - the absence of four or mote l1andsome brackets, carrying gaa lnmps for genernllightiug. The old lamps of tho refuge look very dwarfish and seedy beRiuo their new neighbours.

It should be atnt<.d thnt the pillar will only ahow three arDJB and corresponding lights, which will all be act ed upon in the

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440

usual way simultaneously, night and day. Two of the arms, in line with each other, operate upon the traffic between Bridge· street and Great George-street, in both dimctions; the third arm, seen from Parliament-street, will regulate the trafflc between that street and Bridge-street. It is not mtended that the tnulic between Parliament-street Md Great George-street, and between Great George-street and thestreeta to the right, shall be interfered with.

When the notices that have been issued to drivers and the public by Sir Richard 1\fayne have become familiar, and the inten­tions of the signals thoroughly understood, it is expected that a single policeman will work the crossing with ease, but for a time he may probably need extra assistance. The signals will not interfere with foot passcngera crossing the road at any time at their own risk. It is expected that their use will secure to timorous pedestrians the advcmtage of certain intervals in which they may be enabled to orcsa with perfect safety.

L 0 N D 0 N R A. I L W A V T E R M I N I. No. II.-Cnanrno Cnoss (concluded.)

T HE structure known as Charing Cross Hotel is not, as every reader acquainted with the building must know, occupied exclu· sively by the hotel proper. The most valuable portion of the erection-the ground ftoor-is in the occupation of the Charing Cross-otherwisetheSouth-E88tern-Railway Company. I t is n'lt surpri/ling that the railway company should have desired to occupy the whole of the ground ftoor, as the only part of the premises available for booking offices and the other accommoda.­tion necessary for the condurt of their passenger traffic. Such occupation wouhl not have been compatible with the intere:~ts and working of the hotel, and Mr. Barry, the architect, was placed in a ciilemma between the competing exigencies of the two com­panies. It may be readily understood that the hotel company, on the other hand, would desire, not only ample space for their grand entrance, but as much additional accommodation as they could secure immediately adjacent to it, for the convenience of arrivals and departures. The railway company, on the other side, had to procure their accommodation out of a. space absolutely limited by the length and \vidth of the front block of the building. They had to anticipate increased requirements for space as their own traffic developed, and as that of other com­panies might possibly be brought into the station; but they had no reserve laud available for increased accommodation. Under t hese circumstances an entrance from the Strand front was all that could be spared for the purpose!'! of the hotel, and even that was aborn of what were ir:tended to be its fair proportions, by the exigencies of the railway company. The portion of the ground floor adjoining the hotel entrauce was originally fitted up as t he Greenwich booking-office, but this busine:,s has since been transferred to the next booking-office to the west, and the space devoted to parct>ls traffic, the office having an entrance from the Strand front at the one end, wit.h egress to t·he platform at the other. Next in order is a passage from the station to the Strand of l Oft. wide. Then follow the North Kent, Greenwich, and Mid-Kent booking-offices, with first and second-class waiting rooms; next the main line bookinl?·office and waiting rooms; then another lOft. covered way; after 1t a cloak room and left-luggage offioe about 12ft. wide and 60ft. long; then the covered carriage way, 15ft. wide, including a narrow foot-path on each side; and, lastly, a thin slice of building containing the superintendent's and the station-master's offices, which occnpy two floors, a parcels office, and the cab registrar's box, tho duty of that functionary being to enter the number of all cabs leaving the station and their destinations. For the accommodation thus briefly glanced at the Milway company r ay the hotel company £ 10,000 per annum.

That a large passenger traffic would be done at the Charing Cross station, and that a largo demand would necessarily be made for space for its proper accommodation, might reasonably have been anticipated from the numerous localities to and .from which it serves as the principal point for arrival and departure, and from the favourite residential localities opened up suc­cessively in recent ye~rs upon the South-Eastern system, to such suburban quarters, for instance, nearer or more distant, as are served by the North Kent, Mid-Kent, and main lines, including the Dartford loop and the Tunbridge direct line, via Chiselhurst and Sevenoa.ks. These districts embrace New Cross, Blackhenth, Lewisham, Croydon, Caterbam, Chiselhurst, Bickley, Beckenham, Bexley, T unbridge, and Tunbridge Wells; and to the more remote locamies which yield a regular business as well as pleasure traffic in the season, such as Da.rtford, Gravesend, Maidstone, St. Leonard's, H88tings, Fol.kestone, Dover, Canter­bury, Ramsgnte, Margnte, Deal, &c. As might have been expected, the extension ha<J also proved a great convenience to, and accordingly is extensively u&ed by, travellers to and from the Continent. And yet again, it. is the centre of a population of above 350,000 soul.a living within a mile radius of Charing Cross, and is in close proximity to the Houses of Parliament, the Government and other public offices, the clubs, opera houses, West-end t heatres, exhibition rooms, and other institutions involving much locomotion. The expectations formed that a large traffic would be done at the Cha.riog Cross station have not been disappointed, although a majority of the season ticket­holders stop short at London Bridge and Cannon-street. This, however, does not affect the company's receipts, as travellers have the option, without distinction of ticket, of using either Cannon-street or Charing Cross stations.

The passenger traffic at Charing Cross is in its quality a remarkable contrast with the.t at, say, London Bridge station. The one is cha.r~teristically " west-end," the other often savours strongly of Whitechapel and the Borough, the denizens of which are not to be despiseu, although they are not all to be adm.ired for the noisy activity they often manifest at railway sta.tioll.ll. Even at holiday times, when the trains for short diatances in the suburbs are crowded to the utmost capability of standing-room, Charing Cross station remains comparatively unruffled, e.nd trains and passengers arrive, are despatched, and dispersed with the ordinary quiet celerity of other days. The station has its pretty distinctly marked daily traffic tides, the ebh during certain parts of t he de.y and the flow at others. I t has also its season tides, but these are not coincident with the springs which rise so high at some other stations at Easter and Whit week. Charing Cross station sends few, if any, of t he roysterers who at those seasons impart 110 much animation to the sylvan nooks, knolls, and avenues of Greenwich Park; or of the graceful equestrians who distinguish tht>rnselves on the airy plateau of Hla.ckheath. The p88iienger traffic from some of these London station11 at these recognised holiday times is of the weaver's shuttle order-ebort and rapid movement of men, women, and children, "there and baclr," for their one day out. T he spring tides which rise and fall at Charing Cross are of a. different order; they are affected by London going out vf town, and London coming back again. They are influenced not by single day or half-day holidays, so much as by long vacations, recesses, and the annual leave of absence allowed to officials and employu of the higher orders. These passengers go farther a. field t han the day trippers, and many of those who depart from and return to Charing Cross station reach aa far as Paris,

THE :RNGINEElt

Brussels, Homburg, and Baden. . They can afford to ~it Madrid, to see how Serrano and Pnm and the Junta. are gett10g along; are adventurous enough to scale the Alps o~. explore ~~e excavations at Budrum, Herculaneum, or Pompeu, or to VIBtt one or other of a hundred places or localities, known or unknown, between Antwerp and Naples, St. Petersburg and Constantinople.

Of the seasou tickets issued by the South.Eastern Company only a comparatively small proportion are held by gentlemen who habitually use the Charin~ Cross station, but there are a number of Government officers, Somerset H ouse officials, and others, who present their familiar faces at the station daily. A majority of the season ticket-holders on the South-Eastern are Borough or City men. The active business of the day at Charing Cross commences about 6 o'clock a.m., when a dividing parliamentary train is marshalled and despatched from the station, with curiages for all quarters to whirh the South­Eastern system penetl·ates, from Rending, in the west. to Dover, in the east; nnd from St .. Leonard's and Hastings, on the south, to 1\fa.rgate, on tho north, with Maidstone, Canttrbury, and other towns between. An express mail from the Continent soon after arrives, and causos brisk activity on the western side of the station. At 7.25 n.m. one of the most important trains of the day-tbo express mail- for the Continent is despatched. A wunderfully short space elapses between tho timo that the train is laid on and that in which the hotel aod raihvay porters­under tho direction, in one case, of a nervously-anxious lady, in another of an active, fussy, old gentleman, and in others of cow-iers and confidential servants-have labelled and duly stowed away the piles of luggage that a fow minutes before lay about stack~d in cubes and pyramids, more or less geometrically accurate in form, or in heaps of no describable shape.

At 6.40 a.m. the first 1.rain for the day is despatched to Green­wich, and at 7.5 another is despatched for the North Kent line; five minutes later another to take the loop line via Bexley. The first Mid-Kent train from Charing Cross does not start till 8.65, but there aro earlier trains from Cannon-street and London Bridge. The local arrivals commence with the Greenwich trains, the first of which runs into Cha.ring Cross at about 7 a.m., others from the samo place following at intervals of twenty minutes throughout the day, the outw11rds for Greenwich being des­patched at the same intervals. The North Keot and Mid-Kent passengers now come in, one train at 8.40 from Ma.idstone, Chatham, Gravesend, Dartford, and places on the loop line, and five minutes afterwards another by the Mid-Kent line from Bickley. The stream inward is now fully on, and the outward business is by no means slack, the "shuttle train" between Charing Cross and Cannon-street stations having commenced running in the intervals between the passage of the Greenwich trains, which all call at Cannon-street, thus givu1g a ten minutes' service between the City and the West-end, exclusive of many other North and Mid-Kent trains available between the two stations at the busiest times of the day. A record of the arrival and departure of trains at Charing Cross would be a loug and bewildering catalogue. Between 9 o'clock and 11 o'clock in the morning the trains anive, and are despatched at average intervals of about three minutes, and during the "slack" time only sink to about twelve in the hour. In some single dnys about 2500 passengers are conveyed between Cha.ring Cross and Cannon­street alone. Above 450 trains, including empties, run in and out at the station daily. The average ordinary bookings exceed 7000 per day, which is, of course, exclusive of periodical tickets. The easiest times of the day at Charing Cross station are about 11.30, and again about three in the afternoon. About 12.30 a batch of trains is despatched for various localities, which causes a. spurt. The outward stream of residential and ordinary traffic sets in about four o'clock, and lasts till between six and seven, when it meets a returning wave of theatre-goet·s. The pa.ssen· gers destined to join the audiences at tho minor theatres begin to drop in at Charing Cross 6.30; the full-dress occupants of boxes at the opera arrive at about an hour and a.-half later. The rush homewards after the play lasts from 10-SO till the last trains start, at 12 for Greenwich, and 12.15 for sundry places on the North Kent line as far as Woolwich.

The Cha.ring Cross station has its specie.lties of different kinds, and notably, perhaps, in that it is the terminus most used by distinguished visitors from the Continent. Among the illus­trious personages that have arrived or departed from the station during the last two years are the King and Queen of the Belgians, the King and Queen of Denmark, the Sultan, the Viceroy of Egypt, the King of Greece, the ex-royal family of France, in­cluding the Dues d' Au male and Montpensier, and P rince Join­ville, the Prince and Princess of Oldenburg, the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Duke of Cam. bridge, &c. The Orleans family and other princely visitors are in the habit of using the Charing Cross Hot el, \Vhioh is much fr&· quented by foreigners who, on arriving at the station, tired with their journey, hand over the keys of their baggage to the hotel servants, and enter at once upon the comforts of their quarters, the servants following with the baggage when it has been cleared by her Majesty's servants at the Custom House, an unpretending wooden structure at the outer end of the arrive.l platform, which, with a. part of the station roof, was destroyed some time since, but bas since been replaced. The examination of the baggage is by no means either a vexatious or tedious process, many of the packages passed by tho officers escaping any examination what­ever. I t may be mentioned that a considerable number of copies of works by popular English authors, printed at Leipsig or elsewhere abroad, in violation of copyright, are detained for destruction, at the Charing Cross Custom House, as well as at the London Docks.

It has been noticed at Cha.ring Cross station that, since the Sultan's visit, there has been a. considerable increase in the mun­ber of Turks visiting England.

The number of French, Germans, and Americans, using the Charing Cross stat-ion is large, and the Spaniards are on the in­crease, but the number [of Italia.ns is small. Almost all the foreign travellers a.rriving at the station apeak French, and a large proportion of them take quarters at tho Charing Cross Hotel.

In addition to the royal personages, the friends of the Queen of England, who use the station and hotel, there is another im­portant class-the Queen's messengers-who use it frequently and regularly. These important persons may be seen sometimes as often as two or three nights in a. week, taking their departure for almm.t aU parts of the world, each messenger ia charge of his great sackful of despatches, more like Post-office mail bags than anything e!Ae. '£hey appear to start and arrive invariably by the night mail, leaving Cha.ring Cross at 8.30 on one night, and arriving at the same station some morning at about 6.30, a week, a month, or more afterwards, according to the quarter of the globe they have been visiting.

A start~g co~t~ast is frequ~ntly presented in this stirring ~cene of daily actmty by the arnval of mortal remains- by the apparition of death in the centre of this theatre of busy life. On the average about three corpses per 'veek is brought in at the Charing Cross station. This apparently large proportion is

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DEC. 11, 1~68.

probably attributable to the circumstances that the South· Eastern lioe conducts to numerous favourite resorts of invalids, and that 11ome who may repair thither, do eo too late, and only to end their days in the retreats in which they had hoped to pro­long them. In some instances, when the body is from the Conti­nent, it is in charge of a. courier. In some cases the funeral pro­cession is made up at the station, and the remains are conveyed direct to the place of interment. Special carriages are provided for this melancholy description of traffic.

In addition to its passenger traffic a large business is done at Chruing Cress in the conveyance outwards a.nd inwards of car­riages and horses. Many new carriages are sent outwards and many others are sent inwards for repair or for sale. That this class of busine~s should he done extensively might have been ex­pected from the proximity to the station of ' carriage builder's works, bazaars, job masters, and horse sale yards.

There are other matters connected with the Cha.ring Cross station and its working that invite catalogue and comment, but limitation of space forbids. Amongst these are the noble covered area itself, with its arched roof, part of glass in iron, 450ft . in length, by 170ft. wide ; the spacious arched cellars under the station, and between it and the river, which are above three acres in extent, and worth an annual rental of above £ 10,000; her Majesty's Custom House at the outer end of the station­already referred to-is also worth more special notice, as also the experiences at the cloak and left-luggage room, with divers other matters which cannot be herein referred t o.

The affairs of tho Chariog Cross station, as also of those at Cannon-street a.nd London Bridge. are under the superintend­ence of Mr. Cockburn, whose activity and intelligence have well earned his promotion. He is fortunate in having an efficient station master at Chari.Dg Cross in Mr. Richardson. The other officials at or hailing from Charing Cross station, are seventeen clerks, twenty bead guards, and thirty second guards, three through conductors to Paris, four platform inspectors, one police inspector, one police sergeant, nine policemen, one detective from the F division, six switchmen, five signalmen, seven ticket col­lectorR, seventy-three porters, three ladies' attendants, twelve Hungerford Pier men, one tim~keeper, one cab check-keeper, with about half a dozen odd men and supernumeraries.

'l'he rolling stock at Charing Cross includes an invalid's car­riage-originally a. gentleman's private chariot of the olden time and fashion- and a bath-chair. These vehicles are almost daily in requisition in moving invalids from the train to t heir own ca.rria~e, or to their deslination in or near town. There are also railway ca.rriages specially fitted for invalids which a.re attached to the trains upon requisition.

DEATH OF MR. THOMAS DUNCAN, C.E. ON Thursday, the 3rd inst., the profession lost a. valued member,

and Liverpool a renlhenefa.otor, in the lamented death of lllr. Thoma.s Duncan, C.E., wbo had been for nearly t wenty-five years engineer of the Liverpool Waterworks. A talented and a thoroughly practical man, he enjoyed the esteem and friendship of all with whom he was engaged, and few engineers have left behind them a higher re· putation for sound professional judgment and thorough devotion to the business of his life. :Mr. Duncan's life is the history of a. self­made man, whose finished work is worthy to be held up as an ex­ample to our children. Commencing the world in the city of Perth, Mr. Duncan availed himself of tbe excellent education he had received in ~he Scotch school, to combine with his practical work studies of a geological and engineering character. Becoming known for the success with which he executed dtfficult contracts, he was selected by Mr. James Wll>lker to execute his plans for the construction of the lighthouse on Fern Island, which has since been made world·famoua by the gaUant rescue of p88sengers from the wreck of the Forfa.rabire steamship by Grace Darling and her f:1.ther. I n the prosecution of these Mr. Duncan had to encounter difficulties and to brave perils that would have caused less self· reliant, or less skilful men to give up the task as either hopeless or too full of danger. The lighthouse was finished; and it was the first step made by Thomn.s D11ncan towards that eminence which he subsequently attained as an engineer. His reputation in carrying out submarine works was confirmed by the skill with which ht~ executed other commissions entrusted to him by Mr. Walker. His introduction to Liverpool was as early as the year 1844, when he accepted the position, under Mr. James Simpson, C. E., of 88sistant engineer to the Liverpool and Harrington Waterworks Compe.ny, before the Corporation had taken the waterworks into their own hand.s. Mr. Duncan S<'on after coming to Liverpool made another change. He was appointed assistant to Mr. New lands, the borough engineer, and he had oontinued in the service of the Corporation from that time down to the day of his death. When the water· works were purchased by the Corporation Mr. Duncan was placed in sole charge of them ; and he had become recognised as the Liver· pool water engineer when the great scheme of Mr. Thomas Haw kesley, C. E., of Nottingham, was broached for providing for the rapidly-increasing requirements of Liverpool by impounding the surface water of the Rivington Pike district in reservoirs, passin~ the supply through filter beds, and conveying it to Liverpool. The battle of the Pike was the great local question of the day. There were two distinct parties in the town- the strenuous ad vacates of the old spring supply of the red oandstone on the spot, who predicted the most awful results to the inhabitants, in water fll.ruines and water poisonings, if the Pike supply should ever be introduced ; and the advocates of the supply from Rivington. The pro·Pikeists eventually triumphed, but the battle continued to surge hotly as t he works progressed, at first under the superintendence of lt1r. Raw kesley himself, but afterwards under that of Mr. Duncan alone, and it was chiefly by his devoted attention to what was certainly an unpopular undertaking, and to his more.l strength in living down obloquy and persistent opposition, that the later works progressed to completion. At t.he time of the impending failure of the Vartry Reservoir Mr. Duncan's assistance was urgtmtly requested by the Dublin Corporation, and he, with the ready permission of the '\Vater Committee, procel!ded to Dublin, where the critical con­dition of the embankment req11ired immediate and energetic efforts to repair the alarming injury which bad been done to it. l'l'Ir. Duncan himself worked incessantly along with the men, lin the mud nod water, until the embaukment was made secure; and the Corporation of Dublin publicly acknowledged, through the medium of Sir J obn Gray, .M:. P., the debt of gratitude which the city had been placed under by this timely service. Unfortunately, either on this occasion, or in the discharge of duties which continually subjected him to the inclemencies of severe weather, or from the anxieties incident to his responsible position, Mr. Duncan laid the fou_ndati6n of that i_llness which a ~bort time ago compelled his r~ttrement to Leamwgton, and whtch has now closed his useful life.

TUE NEw COLONUU:. DEFENCE SBIP.-The first monitor con· structed under tho auspices of our Admiralty has been built in Messrs. Palmer's yard, at J arrow-on.Tyoe. The dimensions of the Cerberus are as follows :- Length, 225ft.; breadth, 45ft.; draught of water, 15ft. 6in.; and burden in tons, 2107 (builder's measure· ment), She carries two turrets, one at each end of the breaat­work, each turret furnished with a. couple of 18-ton guns. These turrets stand about 5ft. 6in. above the breastwork, and can be t~rned .either. by manua:l or steam power. They e.~e p~oteeted wtth l Ow. sobd armour m wake of the ports, and With 9m. elae­where. Next to the armour comes the usual teak backing, and inside all are two t!llcki:!'esses ~f &in. plating. The tops of the turrets are covered mth ~m. platmg, worked upon beams,