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There are many other points, connected with the construction and working, examined by M. Mallet, to which we should have referred, did our space allow,-with respect to the crossings, for instance, which we shall give in M. Mallet's words, with a suggestion he offers:

ment, and the enormous amount of improve- invention, and their Reports contain a ment they have experienced during the last large body of valuable information and retwenty years."-Page 32. marks. In the English Report, whilst the applicability of the atmospheric principle and its advantages, in point both of economy and safety, are distinctly admitted, these admissions appear to be unwillingly extorted, and every advantage is reduced to its minimum of computation. French Reports, the importance of trying the merits of the invention is pressed upon the government, and an earnest desire is manifested to promote the investigation of a great work of national importance.

In the

The historical sketch of the invention and application of the atmospheric railway here terminates; it is no longer an experiment, but an established means of transit, tested and proved by fair and repeated trials, and by the opinions of the most eminent engineers,* English and continental, who have witnessed and watched its success, and expressed their opinions satisfactorily upon the subject. Indeed it is this testimony that has induced us to offer the present article to our readers: we waited until practical results had been obtained, and the merits of the invention had been placed beyond a doubt, before we felt it right to express an opinion. It had ceased to be a question limited to the circle of purely scientific inquiry, and now comes to be re

"They are done precisely as on the locomotive roads; for this they divide the pipe; but not to destroy the continuity of the aspiration, the two divided pipes are connected by means of another pipe sunk in the ground, which curves back at a right angle at its two ends, to branch into their lower portion. The points of junction are above the valves of entrance and exit, which the interruption of the pipes compels them to put at their extremity. When in a proper state for use, the valve at the extremity of the pipe at the side by which the train would arrive is closed, as well as the entrance-valve of the other pipe. When the leading carriage appears, the first will be opened as usual by the compressed air driven forwards by the piston, Another valve, placed in the pipe of communication, will be closed at the same time by the effect of the passage of the train. That at the entrance of the next pipe will be opened, when the piston shall have entered this pipe, by the valve-man, or, what is better still, by the train itself. Another means which might be employed consists in not dividing the pipe, but making two inclined planes at 0-05 of slope, per meter, for the garded in the results of its application; the passage of carriages. In this case three open-power being once obtained, it remains only ings are required, two for the wheels of the for enterprise to accomplish the rest, and to carriages, and the third for the piston-rod, the wheel which presses the valve and the cylinder which compresses the composition. The openings would be too large and too deep to allow of their being left uncovered. It would be easy to adapt thick planks of deal, with a counterpoise for this purpose."-Page 29.

In having occasion to consider attentively and to cite from the official reports presented to the English and French governmeuts, we regret to have a comparison forced upon us disadvantageous to the for

mer.

render it available to the service of man. The subject of the atmospheric railway has, since the opening of the Dalkey line, excited a daily growing interest, and the attention of governments and companies is drawn more and more to the adoption of the system.

In the course of a recent discussion in

Amongst the opinions expressed by the most eminent of our Engineers is that of Mr. Brunel. The prospectus of the Gravesend and Chatham The object of a government, in apCompany, which has recently appeared, contains a recommendation of the Committee,founded upon pointing competent judges to report upon the opinion of their engineer, I. K. Brunel, Esq., any scientific subject, is not merely to have to adopt the atmospheric system. The prospectus objections raised and difficulties suggested, states that "The Committee, having made a satbut to have every advantage as well as isfactory inquiry as to the decided economy with which the Dublin and Kingstown Extension Railevery defect of the system explained intelway is now being worked as an Atmospheric ligibly and impartially. This is the view Line, and their Engineer having satisfied himself which M. Teisserenc and M. Mallet have as to the advantages this plan of motive power taken of their duty; they have given pre-affords, recommend its adoption on the proposed cisely the information, fully and candidly, which might enable the French government to form thier op inion on the merits of the

ing the capital within a very moderate compass line of communication, both as a means of keepand increasing the profits by a reduced charge of working."

the House of Commons, on the appoint-] here a new and astonishing application of ment of a select committee to consider the power opened to us, and it is impossible to standing-orders relating to railways, Sir anticipate all the important results to which Robert Peel stated that he concurred in this may lead. Success has silenced the the opinion,

questionings and hostility of interested opponents to the system; and if men are wise, they will at least pause before they rush into new speculations on a system which will probably soon be superseded.

The introduction of the atmospheric railway opens a new era in the means of transit, because, from the great reduction in the cost of construction and working, it is clear that we must enter upon an entirely new scale of economical calculations. This will operate in manifold ways: it will ena

"That the public and the government are not to be precluded from availing themselves of any suggested improvement or invention of science, which may probably affect the present railway property; as also in the remark that we are not to be called on to compensate a company for its choosing a line upon which it may have been found necessary to expend £60,000 per mile. Far from it; if you can successfully compete, by means of any invention, upon a turnpike-road with such a railway company, you are perfectly at liberty to do so. If new discoveries are made applicable to rapid ble railway companies to lower their rates, conveyances, the public will avail itself of whilst deriving even greater profits than at them, and those improvements will always be present, and thus to open means of travelthe best security and check against imposition ling to larger classes of the community. or exaction. What may be attempted by Again: one great feature in the atmosmeans of the atmospheric railroad it is diffi-pheric railway is, that it is practicable on cult to conjecture; but I know that those who lines of road where the locomotive system have witnessed its exhibition near Dublin, have returned to this country with changed is wholly inapplicable and useless. Let opinions as to its applicability to longer lines any one take a map of England and trace than one or two miles. The proprietors of the net of railroads which have come into railways must soon find out that they are de- active operation within a few years: let ceiving themselves if they neglect to provide him imagine this immense benefit, which at third-class carriages. But the true interests of society will best be protected by holding over present is restricted by the cost attending them the checks of competition, and of the im-it to traffic between large towns, extended provements that may take place in science, rather than by attempting forcibly to control these companies, by attempting to reduce their profits or take the management of their property out of their own hands."*

This is the sound and only safe course of legislation, to encourage competition, is an indirect and proper means of checking monopoly.

In consequence of the determination of the Government to continue the mail-packet station at Holyhead, a line of railroad is projected from that place to join the Chester line. With a view to ascertain the practicability of adopting the atmospheric principle on this line, (chiefly as a means of obtaining for the mails a considerable increase of speed,) Mr. Robert Stephenson has been desired to examine the works on the Dalkey railway, and to furnish a report

to the Government.

We shall, in conclusion of this article, briefly allude to some of the advantages which may be derived from the adoption of the atmospheric railway, in a social, industrial, and commercial point of view. We have

"See Debate of February 6, 1844.

over the whole country, carrying passengers and produce from one little markettown to another, bringing all this advantage to every man's door, and placing it within every man's enjoyment. The benefits to the nation, in calling out her industrial powers, assisting her commercial, manufac turing, and agricultural interests, form too large a subject for us to enter upon here, but too obvious and important a consideration to escape attention. In a moral point of view, likewise, the result would be to extend largely the advantages of social intercourse and of education in every shape, which are now only to be found in large communities,-in fact, of centralizing the power and raising the moral character of the nation.

We have uniformly urged the importance of calling into action, by multiplying facilities, all the sources of our national wealth; and we have pointed this out as one great means of substantially benefiting Ireland. To unfold the resources of a country, is to teach a people their value,― the most important lesson of national politics and national economy conveyed in the most practicable and intelligible form. It is impossible to estimate the change which a

large system of railroads intersecting Ire-¡ of the public spirit of the Hungarian noland in every direction, stimulating pro- bles-runs over the Julian Alps from Carlduction and exciting the energies of her stadt to Vienna; its length is ninety Enpopulation, would produce; and if that glish miles. The atmospheric apparatus country, whose interests we are bound to could profitably be adapted to that road, promote, not less from motives of policy whose gradients, although moderate, no lothan of justice, has a claim to share in any comotive engine could overcome. In this great work of national benefit, it has an es- manner, the energies of twenty millions of pecial claim in the present instance, where Austrian and Turkish subjects would be Irishmen have been foremost to second the made available in the markets of Europe, efforts of English skill and talent, and to and the products of some of the finest overcome the obstacles opposed to the pub- countries of this quarter of the globe would lic good by private interests and monopoly. be added to the general stock. If the atmospheric railway should prove, as we anticipate, a new source of benefit to mankind, it will be remembered, not ungratefully in this country, that to Ireland we owe its first encouragement and adop

tion.

Extending our view to the Continent, some idea may be formed of the extent to which the nations of Europe will be benefited by this invention of Mr. Clegg, from the length of the lines of railways now constructing in central Europe.*

Berlin is to be connected with Hamburg by a direct line, and with the Rhine by two lines of railways. One will pass through Minden to Düsseldorf and Cologne, and there unite with the Belgic-Rhenish net. A second will pass through Cassel to Frankfort, and join the Taunus railway. To the east, a line to Königsberg is projected. From Frankfort, Hesse Darmstadt is continuing the Taunus line to Heidelberg and Mannheim, where the Baden net will take it up, and carry the communication on to the Swiss frontier. A railway is now constructing from Basle to Zürich. The Wirtemberg net of railways will connect the Baden and Hessian nets with the lake of Constance and with Bavaria: they

In Austria the line from Trieste to Vienna is progressing. The atmospheric pressure removes the grand difficulty presented within a short distance of the capital, at the traverse of the chain of Alps which forms the boundary of Styria. With-cross the heights that separate the Rhine out such aid it would be a most costly work to carry a railroad over the Noric and Carnian Alps to the sea, even if the plan of inclined planes were resorted to. From Vienna the line passes to Olmütz, where it branches off westward through Prague to Dresden and Hamburg. From Olmütz a second line goes northward to the Riesen mountains, and through Silesia to Stettin. A third line, which runs to the salt mines of Galicia, will join the Russian railroad from Cracow to the Baltic, by the valley of the Vistula. In mountainous countries, the momentum acquired from descents is available for succeeding ascents, and the difficulties in the one system become facilities in the other.

The prosperity of Hungary is indissolubly linked with a good communication between the valley of the Save and the Adriatic Sea. A road of sufficient width, and of splendid construction-a monument

At the end of last year there were twenty-one lines of railroad open in Germany, the total length of which was 1083 miles. The railways then in progress would extend to nearly 1000 miles. Since that period many others have been projected.

and its tributaries from the Danube. One line of this net, which has been considered scarcely practicable, is that from the Rhine by the way of Pforzheim and Stuttgardt to Ulm, in which the ascent at Geisslingen is looked upon as insurmountable. By the aid of the atmospheric pressure this obstacle can be overcome, and the Rhine be connected with the Danube at the shortest interval. The Bavarian net is to consist of a central line running from the foot of the Alps to Saxony, which is to be traversed at right angles by a line from the Austrian to the Wirtemberg frontier, passing through Munich to Augsburg.

A most important decision has been made in Bavaria, to commence the line that is to connect Bamberg with Frankfort immediately. The country between these two towns is so mountainous, that it would require an immense outlay to construct a locomotive railroad. The atmospheric railroad, by availing itself of the principle of gravity, might perhaps be even more economically adapted to such a line than to a level.

Of the immense advantages which these vast countries will derive from the adep

tion of the atmospheric pressure to railway carriages, it is therefore needless to say much. The anxiety entertained in all these countries to be released from the necessity of providing coals for these lines, has been proved by the reward of 100,000 florins voted by the Germanic Diet to the inventor of a galvanic machine at Frankfort. true that the machine has not been finished, and the money is consequently not yet paid. No machine depending upon a moving principle scarcely less costly than coals, can pretend to vie with the beautiful simplicity of the atmospheric pressure.

It is

It is not merely the difficulty of providing coals that is an obstacle to railways on the continent. The cost of carriage of such a bulky article, in a country where the communications are indifferent, is a serious inconvenience, and one that, on the large net of railways we have described, would form an enormous drain upon the industrial resources of the country. A similar difficulty presents itself in central India, where railroads connecting the capitals have become almost indispensable, both in a military and in a political point of view. With the atmospheric system, the difficulty of collecting depôts of coal is obviated, and we may soon expect to see a railway connecting Bombay and Calcutta.

In this article we have endeavored to give our readers, first, an historical sketch of an invention which promises to realize such important benefits; secondly, an intelligible description of the construction and working of the apparatus; and thirdly, an examination of the merits of the system. We have consequently deemed it necessary to extract largely from all the reports and documents hitherto published, in separate and detached forms,-to cite the opinions of those eminent engineers who have instituted experiments and carefully examined the system in all its bearings, and lastly, to give the results obtained on the trials that have been made these are of a peculiar value at this stage of the invention, as affording facts upon which calculations and reasoning may be grounded. We have carefully considered what might be most. serviceable to the public to know; and in conclusion must express a hope, that the recommendation urged upon the French Government by M. Mallet, to give the system a fair and full trial, will not be thrown away upon the Government of our own country.

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CONFESSIONS OF AN ILLEGIBLE

WRITER.

BY MRS. ABDY.

From the Metropolitan.

"My good fellow," said my school-fellow George Gordon to me one morning in the play-ground of Somerton Academy, why do you not pay a little attention to your hand-writing? Your characters appear to be traced rather with a skewer than a pen; your i's are guiltless of a dot, and I only wish I may go through the world as free from a cross as your t's. Your capital M's are a decided failure, your H's are below criticism, and no one, even with the aid of a microscope, could detect the difference between your a's and your u's."

"Such opinions are not confined to little minds; Hannah More says that 'to speak so low that nobody can hear, and to write a hand which nobody can read, may be classed among the minor immoralities.'"

"Now you come to quotation, I must put an end to the conversation; it is bad enough to listen to your own wisdom, but f cannot be overwhelmed with lectures at second hand."

George Gordon, although only a schoolboy, had attained a command over himself which many men pass through life without acquiring; he could occasionally allow an antagonist to have the "last word;" he did so to me in the present instance, and the conversation dropped. I was fifteen at that time, and am now thirty, and had George Gordon possessed the power of predicting future events boasted by some of his second-sighted countrymen, he could not more correctly have prophesied the evils in store for me from my atrocious handwriting.

Now I considered this speech of George Gordon's to be rather vain-glorious, inasmuch as he had just completed that elaborate and laborious performance denominated" a school piece," which had not only gained him the prize for writing, but had I might fill a novel, containing the preelicited a sovereign from his maiden aunt, scribed allowance of a thousand pages, accompanied by an observation that "one were I to recount all my disasters;-but could hardly tell it from copperplate;" in alas! why do I talk of writing a novel of a fact, Mrs. Ronalda Gordon evidently con- thousand pages-how should I ever get it sidered it the finest work of art that had brought before the public? Even if the ever astonished the world since the comple-bookseller's "reader" were in so peculiarly tion of her own school sampler, forty years ago.

"Perhaps, Gordon," I replied, "you will remember who carried off the prizes for classics and mathematics; I am not without a few laurels to rest upon, and need not very much covet that skill in penmanship in which I may be rivalled by a charity boy."

True," he replied mildly; "I submit to your superior genius, Seyton; but remember, the elephant, which can lift a heavy weight with its trunk, does not disdain to pick up a pin. I do not want you to excel in penmanship, but only to write a legible hand; depend upon it, if you do not improve, your scrawl will involve you in serious difficulties all through your life." "What kind of difficulties ?"

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beneficent and amiable a mood as to recommend what he was unable to decipher, it could never go through the press-there would be a general strike and mutiny in the printing office! I will therefore confine myself to three leading events of my life, and as I know that every body likes love stories, especially when they have an unfortunate termination, I will relate the manner in which I thrice lost the lady of my love by the bad management, not of my suit, but of my pen.

Most young men fall foolishly in love for the first time, and I believe I might once have entertained a slight predilection for my sister's drawing mistress, but it soon passed off, and my first real love was chosen with such prudence, that admiring fathers held me up as an example to their sons, and wary uncles told their nephews to follow in my steps.

Miss Hartopp was an orphan heiress, very pretty, and twenty years of age; she lived with a guardian, and he, like the guardians in comedies and farces, had a son whom he wished her to marry; but I had engaged the affections of the lady, and purchased the good will of the Abigail; a

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