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The following diagrama illustrate the method: L'exemplaire filmA fut reproduit gr&ca i la gin^rositi de: La Biblioth^que du Parlement et la Bibliothdque nationale du Canada. I.es imagea suivantee ont 4t signifie "A SUIVRE", le symbols V signifie "FIN". Las cartes, planches, tableaux, ate, pauvent dtre filmte i dea taux de rMuction diffirants. Lors<;ue le document est trop grand pour itrs reproduit en un seul ell chA. il est film^ i partir da Tangle supArieur gauche, de gauche ^ droite, et de haut en bas, an pr^nant le nombre d'images nteessaira. Lea diagrammes suivants iiiustrent la m^thoda. rata ) elure, a J i2X 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 Pi !| ' I J \y I*. * 7U' 1^. Engineering and jiLngineers. A PAPER READ BEFORE THE LITERARY AND HISTOlUCAt, SOCIETY OF QUEBEC, APRII, 12tH, 1871, By LiruT.-CoL. B. H. MAllTINDALB, C.B,, Deputy-Controller, ASSOCIATE INSTITUTION CIVIL ENGINEEP.8, AND MKMBEIl OF THE INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS PIUNTED BY MIDDLETON & DAWSON, A.T THE "GAZETTE" GENERAL PKINTINO ESTABLIStlMENT. 1871. t. t I Paper VII.— ENGINEERING AND ENGINEERS. w ,'< I tiY Lt.-Coi.. B. H. MARTINDALE, C.B., Deputy-Controller, Associate Institution Civil Engineers, and Member Institution Mechanical Engineers. (head before the Society AprH Uth, 1871.) " Engineerino is the art of directing the great sources of power in nature, for the use and convenience of man." 50 said Tiiomas Telford, the eminent Civil Engineer, just 51 years ago, when, as first President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, he delivered his inaugural address. So, with even greater justice and honest exultation, maj' the Engineer of the present day exclaim, looking back at the mighty strides which science has made in the last half- century, and on the amazing results which surround us. So numerous, so vast are those results, that we are fairly staggered with the magnitude of the subject as we begin to recall them. They meet us at every turn of daily life, ana fill us with ever-fresh surprise at the powers which the Divine Creator has hid in nature, and at the ability with which He has endowed man to develop those powers. In peace and in war, in our quiet homes and in the rushing travel of the day, on land and at sea, we meet the Engineer, and enjoy daily a thousand advantages and comforts from his skill and labor. The lighthouse which welcomes us as we approach the land ; the breakwater which secures the anchorage ; the quays and wharves at which the ship, itself of iron curiously wrought together, unloads ; the engines within it, so mighty as to be capable of urging the mass, weighing thousands of tons, against the storm and over the ocean to the appointed post, and yet so delicately made that a bearing scarcely heats, and that the touch t a" finger can govern the whole ; the motive-power of water so combined with beat as to create steam — a power so terrific, that uncontrolled it can shatter into fragments the vast u 160 ENGINEERING AND ENGINEERS. fabric which it is made to move, and yet so exquisitely controlled as in its use to prevent the very evils that would neutralize its power, and, as in the locomotive, to fan the flame that, fanned, creates fresh steam ; the railroad, which, diminishing distance in proportion as time is saved, bears along that ever-increasing freight, and those ever-increasing myriads which no other known means of communica.ion could have borne, carries the weary man of business and the toil-stained mechanic daily from the smoky stifling town to the clear invigorating country, or the eager traveller from the ship to his expectant home, to which his approach has already, swifily as by lightning, been made known by the "winged word" which electricity speeds over the earth and under the sea,— one and all of these reflect the Engineer; while that home itself, lighted with gas, supplied with water, and warmed, ventilated, and drained, presents ever-present proofs of what we owe to science, and speaks of labor and discoveries not less real, if less striking, than the steamer, the railroad, and the telegraph, and certainly not contributing less to our daily comfort and increasing health and power of life. Or if we turn to war : those fortresses which enable the defenders of a country to resist the attack of a superior force ; those torpedoes and submarine mines which defend its shores and rivers ; those huge guns, 35 tons in weight, carrying a missile of 700 lbs. in weight a distance of six English miles ; the improved missiles themselves ; those great plates of iron so craftily bolted together as almost to defy even such missiles ; those cunning and yet simple rifles, breech-loading, deadly at 1000 yards in skilful hands ; those adaptations of light, of signals, and of electricity, for instant communication to troops scattered over long distances; those most ingenious means of ascertaining the velocity with which the projectile leaves the gun from which it is fired, and of ascertaining the disruptive force of the powder when fired upon the gun itself; those carriages in which the very recoil ot the gun is made of use to cover the gun 1 I I ■I ENOINEERINO AND ENGINEERS. 161 X i I I M. out of sight of an enemy,— these and many other such- like things, among which may be mentioned the balloon, pressed into the service, present to us the Civil, the Mechanical, and the Military Engineer, combining with the Artilleryman in labors honorable to themselves and useful in the highest degree to their country. Or, returning to the wants of peace : ia the canals and locks which evade the rushing rapids, and turn the flank even of Niagara ; in the improvement generally of internal navigation; in the drainage of low lands; in the construction and maintenance of embankments to resist the encroachments of the ssa ; in the formation of roads, carried with gentle gradients over the scientifically-sought lowest summits ; in the erection of bridges over wide and rapid rivers — as, for example, the world-famed Victoria Bridge at Montreal ; in the infinitely varied machinery, which appears almost endowed with life and reason, so wonderfully does it perform the ponderous as well as the delicate tasks entrusted to it in the factory, in the mill, in the arsenal, in water, and on land, — we reoognize, once again, the skill and toil of the Mechanical and Civil Engineer. Among the labors of the Engineer, none, perhaps, possess more interest to this country, and especially at the present time, than those connected with CANALS. It appears not improbable that the earliest canals were constructed in Egypt, and had for their object the better irrigation of the Delta of the Nile. Herodotus, whose narratives, however, must generally be taken '■'■cum grano^^'* speaks of the formation of a lake called Mceris, 450 miles in circumference, which was completed about 1385 years b. c. This was connected with the Nile by three canals, and its objects were to prevent the Nile continually overflowing the country, and to maintain a supply of water for irrigation. 162 ENOmCEItlNG AND ENGINEERS. ■ Many canals are said to have been subsequently formecf in Egypt by Sesostris ; and about 610 years b. c, Necos is said to have commenced a canal to unil3 the Mediterranean and Red seas. This was continued by several monarchs, but apparently never completed, and was finally abandoned, until the Caliph Omar, about the year a. d. 644, or some 1254 years after its commencement, re-opened it, and cut another canal, which was used for upwards of 120 years., until the commerce of Alexandria was destroyed. In Greece, many attempts to cut a canal across the Isthmus of Corinth, a distance of about five rnil'-s failed. The traffic, and even the smaller craft, were, theieiore, carried across it — somewhat as our passengers and goods are conveyed overland between Carillon and Grenville, en routs to Ottawa. Spain i8 indebted to the Moors for her canals, and for her system of irrigation generally. In China, the canals •were said to have been of great antiquity ; but they are probably not older than 900 years ago, a hundred year* later than the first irrigation of Valentia. In Italy, canals were of very early date That through the Pontine marshes was cut about 162 years b. c. ; and the Etruscans had made many before this, in connection with the river Po. The Romans attached very considerable importance to such works, and, both at home and abroad, frequently executed extensive works to improve the inland water-communication. But these works fell into decay with the decline of the Empire, and it was not until the 12th century that the construction of canals recommenced in Italy and Holland. Between the 12th and 15th cnnturies many improvements in connection with canals were made in the navigation of the rivers Brenta, Mincio, Arno, Keno, Ticino, and Adda. But it was not until the year 1481 that two brothers, said to have been Dionisio and Pielro Domenico, of Viterbo, 4' t « • IP 4' t ENGINEERING AND ENGINEERS. 16S introduced, in a canal running from Padua to Stra, the lock-chamber enclosed by a double pair of gates, instead of the arrangement called the " conch," which had been in use in Italy since the 12th century. The fame of the i:>vention of the lock spread throughout Europe, and the whole system of inland navigation benefitted by it. Among the first navigable canals commenced in France, after the Roman era, was that from the Saone to the Loire. This was begun about the middle of the 16th century ; but progress was suspended from time to time, and it was not finally completed till about the close of the 18th century. The canal is about 71 English miles long; the length of each lock is 100 feet, and breadth 16 leet ; breadth of the canal at the top, 48 feet; at bottom, 30 feet; with an average depth of 5 feet 3 inches. There are 30 locks from Dijon to the summit-level, giving a rise of about 240 feet ; from whence to the Saone there is a descent ol 400 feet, accomplished by fifty locks. The canal of Languedoc connects the Garonne, below Toulouse, with the Mediterranean, at Cette. It was commenced about the year 1666, and completed in 15 yjars. It is 64 feet broad at top, 34 feet at bottom, and 6 feet 4 inches deep. The vessels which navigate it carry about one hundred tons. Another remarkable canal is that connecting the Somme with the Scheldt, which was commenced in 1766 and completed in 1810. Its length is 32| miles, includins' wo tunnels — one of 1200 yards, and the other of 3^ miles long. It rises in its tfourse 33| feet, and falls 124 feet. There are now in France nearly 3,200 miles of canals, a vast extent, especially when we consider that such works were commenced in that country nearly 400 years after they revived in Italy, and when we reflect upon the interruptions to which they were subjected during all their earlier history. 164 ENGINEERING AfD ENGINEERS. Before quitting the subject of canals, in connection with French engineering, we must for one moment refer to the Suez canal. This canal, nearly 100 English miles in length, runs from Port Said to Suez, The mean level of the Red sea is only 6 inches higher than that of the Mediterranean, and the tides in both seas are feeble ; consequently, there are no locks. It is intended to attain a depth of 26 feet of water throughout. Its cost will probably be £20,000,000 sterling. Its execution is mainly due to the rare courage and perseverance of Mr. Ferdinand de Lesseps, who, by cutting across the sand uniting Asia and Africa, has opened a water-communication which may revolutionize the mode of conducting the traffic between the east and west, and which may never be closed while civilization exists. Late as France was in the field, England was even later ; for the first canal of any importance in England was that from Worsley to Manchester, constructed by James Brindley for the Duke of Bridgewater, who, in 1758 only, got an Act of Parliament for it in order to open out his coal-fields in South Lancashire. The construction of canals then became the rage, and prevailed du'^ing 40 years, and less ardently for nearly 30 years longer. As a result, there are about 120 canals in the United Kingdom, having an aggregate length of 3,000 miles. And as the superficial area of France to the United Kingdom is as 12 to 7, the latter possesses, in proportion to the size of her territory, very much more canal-accommodation than France. Among the canals in Britain, the Bridgewater canal, already referred to, is justly celebrated for the excellence of its works, constructed, as they were, in the infant days* of canal-making, by which, e^oept for a distance of 600 yards, at Runcorn, where the Mersey is entered by 10 locks, which are together 82 feet 6 inches, the navigation for 73 miles is on one level. The Caledonian canal, connecting the Scutch lochs, and affording, with 21 miles of canal, a navigable line 4 ' » tPf* * l> * iUi ' U ■ I ' 4 » fp r* GKUINEERtNU AND ENGINEERS. lUd Upwards of 100 miles in length, between the seas on the eastern anu western coast, will never be forgotten by any who have had the happiness of beholding the surpassing beauty of the surrounding scenery. The depth of water in the canal is 20 feet. The oanal is 122 feet broad at top, and 50 feet broad at bottom ; and there are 23 locks, 40 feet wide each, and 172 feet long. The work occupied from the year 1803 to 1329, and the total cost was nea- • €1,000,000 sterling. On the Ellesmere ana Chester canal i? a celebrated aqueduct, by which the canal is carried at f* level of 127 feet over the river Dec. The bottom and sides of the cana'. are here made of cast-iron plates, within which ths water flows. The water-way is 11.10, of whic'. ♦i»; towing-path covers 4.8. The total cost of the aqueduct was about £47,000, sterling. The Grand Junction canal, which connects the iron and coal fields of the Midland Counties with London, falling into the Thames at Brentford, 's 90 miles long, 42 feet wide at the water-surface, 2 at buitom, and 4 feet il inches deep ; lock-chambers, 80 I'eet long; breadth, 14 feet 6 inches. Steam-power is required to raise the water for the supply of the canal from one reservoir to another. The canal, in its course, first rises 37 feet, then falls 60, and then 112 feet ; rises again 192 feet, and falls again, first 127, and then 268 feet. lis total cost was about i;2,000,000 sterling. In the Huddersfield canal, there is a rise of no less than 436 feet, made by 42 locks, and a subsequent descent of 334 feet, divided by 33 locks. The Leeds and Liverpool canal is 127 miles long, with a rise to summit-level of 411 feet, and a fall of 433 feet. The locks will receive boats 70 feet long and 14 feet beam, and the least depth of water is 4 feet 6 inches. 166 PNGINERRING AM) ENGINEERS. The Shr()psh..e canal presented a very curious feature in its inclined planes. It passed tlirongh a rugged country with a great scarcity of water. On the banks of the Severn on an inclined plane 1050 feet long, with 207 feet of perpendicular height, was a strong double railway, up which the boats, with their loads of five tons each, were drawn. They then passed along a level canal, descended by another inclined plane, and so on. These works were compleled in 1792. The canal tunnelled through the chalk between the Thames and Med way is in all 7 miles long, of which 2h miles form the tunnel. It occasioned considerable anxiety and inconvenience by affecting the wells in the neighbourhood ; but it saves the passage round the Nore and up the Medway, and nearly fifty miles in navigation. A curious tunnel was one constructed by Brindley, only 9 feet wide and 12 feet high. It was nearly 3000 yards long, and boats could only be propelled through it by men called « leggers," who, lying on their backs, pushed against the sides and top of the roof with their feet. A boat occupied two hours in passing through. It has been replaced by more convenient works. On the Great-We?tern canal were made lifts 46 feet high, up and down which boats weighing about eight tons ascended and descended in cradles, in about three minutes, with an expenditure of about two tons of water only. Holland. Holland, the level of a great portion of which is beneath the sea, is a country covered with embankments and canals. The very rivers are maintained within their course by artificial banks. Where the canals do not unite, vessels are transported from one to the other by mechanical contrivances. As a modem work may be mentioned a new "«i. . EN(;iNEERINO AND ENGINEERS. 167 r^». > ship-canal, to be finished in five or six years, now in course of construe! ion, to connect Annsterdam with the ocean. The distance by the present canal is fifty -two miles ; that by the new canal will be 15^ milos only, navigable for larger vessels than can now come up. This canal will be 197 feet wide at top, and 88 feet at bottom; minimum depth, 23 feet ; locks, 59 feet wide. It will connect with a magnificent new harbour, which is being formed on the coast, by three locks or entrances. At the other extremity, below the city and wharves of Amsterdam, will be a vast dyke to shut out the Zuyder Zee, with three locks and sluices. The surface-water of this canal has to be kept twenty inches under low-water-mark ; and the locks at each end are required for locking down. Besides the locks and sluices, three centrifugal pumps have been provided, which, together, will lift 440,000 gallons of water per minute. The shallow lakes through which the canal runs have to be re-drained to admit of this. •\r Tlie United States. It would be useless for me to enter here into any description of the canals existing in the United States. They are probably better known to most present, practically, than they are by me, even theoretically. It may be sufficient to say that in this, as in other Engineering works, the people of the United States have shewn themselves worthy descendants of the mother-country. No labor has been spared to render iniand-water-communication complete. One of the peculiar features has been jhe admirable use made of timber in the construction of viaducts. Another is the vast length of the conjoined canal and river lines. Thus^ the Ohio cai.al, between Portsmouth and Cleveland, is 307 miles in lentgh ; the canal between Albany and Buffalo, on LaJ