1-177
Class VII.
C] VIL ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE, Ac.
IIktnke, Charles E.—Inventor and Manufacturer.Patent submarine helmet, dress, and apparatus, forxamining and repairing of sliips’ bottoms, at sea or in,, 0 °k, the recovery of property from sunken vessels, andQr making and repairing the foundations of viaducts and•'arbours. ” p :m \
[The submarine helmet, is by no means a modern ill-ation. In one of the oldest editions of Vegetius (a'ter on the military art, who lived about the year0 j, !> ' 285), there is added by the editor some illustrations,^ "'Inch no mention is made in the body of the work.^ ""tg these is represented a mode of catching fish at the°ttoin of tlie sea. The apparatus for the purpose appa-of'i co " s 'sted of a cap fitting very closely to the headp,, 10 l ^' ver » so much so that no water could find access.II 0l " the cap there ascends a leathern tube or pipe, which,*** °" tlie top of the water, and through which was^hushed the supply of air. In the “ Philosophicalh^ a !' sact '°ns” of 1717-1721, Dr. llalley is recorded as1 , , Vl "S '"vented a cap made of lead, which covered thetai *^ le 'Ever, had glass inserted in front, and eon-'"in 01 ^ i>S lnuc, h ah' "s ' wou ' c l enable the diver to exist two- VV j i J ltes under water without a further supply, which,he l rt l l""'e l l, was received from the diving-bell in whichk>i i ( ' usc ended. Connection with the bell was main-a ed by means of a flexible tube, closed with a valve.wT** Twm of apparatus for the purpose was in-) lu ** a gentleman of Devonshire: it consisted of a' lu ld ] CaSl ' leather, perfectly air-tight, which woulda ''uis ' • a ' 10 K s ' K ‘ad of air, and adapted to the legs andhivp’" ll ' 1 ff'ass the anterior part. When put on, theC ( n „“talked about with ease at the bottom of (he sea,Hie c lnto ^ lu cabin of a sunken ship, and deliver out^"'tinie^”' ' S s ^ at0, l to have acquired alike fame andto a *7 ^ more complete covering, amounting almostS "'t °1 "'inatic armour, was invented by a M. Klingut,
about the year 170S ; it was made of tin plate, and enclosedhead and body. A pair of water-tight drawers of leatherbuttoned on the metal part where they joined, and weremade tight by brass hoops; from the upper part rose twoflexible tubes, one for inhaling pure, the other for th«escape of the vitiated air. The body was kept down byweights.
Submarine dresses and helmets, by the improvementsin the material of which they may be made, are now invery general use where operations under water are beingcarried on.—W. C. A.]
105 Vignoi.es, Charles, 4 Trafalgar Square —Designer.
Model of the wrought-iron bar-chain suspension bridgeat Kief, now' erecting across the river Dnieper by cira-mand of His Imperial Majesty the Kmperor of Russia .Its length is about half an English mile, and breadth52^ English feet. The area of the roadway is 140,out)superficial feet.—(Central Avenue.)
Every part of the model is in exact proportion to theoriginal bridge. The scale is 1 inch to 8 feet, and themodel was made by Jabez James, of 28a Hroadvull, Stam-ford Street, London .
The bridge, of which this is a model, is the largestwork of the kind hitherto executed ; the chains on theright or Kief side of the Dnieper are moored in an isolatedabutment, built in the river, at a sufiicient distance fromthe shore to allow' vessels to pass. 'This is effected by adrawbridge, feet broad, spanning an opening of50 fleet. The supports are hollow beams of wrought, iron,about 130 feet long; the drawbridge revolves in one leaf,and centres like a railway turn-table; the counterpoiserequired is very small. The whole weight of the draw-bridge is about 150 tons.
The four principal suspension spans are each of 440English feet; each chain extends over the five river piersand through the two abutments, and is more than half anEnglish mile long. 'The platforms are suspended fromthe chains by wrought-iron rods of two inches diameter;the roadway is made peculiarly stiff to resist the variousstrains to w hich it is liable.
The total quantity of iron employed in constructing thebridge, including the machinery used, is 3,500 English tons (3$ millions of French kilogrammes, 78,000 Get mancentnurs). The whole was manufactured in England ;the chains by Fox and Henderson, Birmingham . Sixteenvessels were employed in transporting the iron from Liver-pool to the port of Odessa, whence it was conveyed onbullock carts to Kief, a distance of 400 English miles.
The channel of the river Dnieper at the bridge is about35 feet deep in summer; but the spring floods increasethe depth to 50 and sometimes to 55 feet.
Eight coffer-dams were required for getting in thefoundations; and ten steam-engines were employed onthe works, two being of 5(l-horse power each.
The foundations are on piling and concrete ; the piersand abutments are brick, faced with granite; about. 1,(44)tons (English ) of granite ashlar arc inserted in each abut-ment as an extra mass for the mooring-plates of the chainto bear upon.
The granite was brought across a country, destitute ofhard roads, from a distance of nearly 100 English miles.The hydraulic cement employed is prepared artificially,according to the system pointed out by the celebratedFrench engineer, Vieat.
Cost of the bridge about 400,000/. sterling. Time ofbuilding will have been about five years; but from theclimate and other circumstances not more than 100 work-ing days in each year could be calculated on for the prin-cipal and more dillicult parts of the work.
The whole of the piers and abutments were brought tothe level of the roadway in the summer of 1851 ; two ofthe river piers were also carried to their full height ; andthe bridge will be completely finished in the autumn ofthe present year (1852). I*. 321.—Plate 305.
[Suspension bridges of iron were introduced about theyear 1741, at which date one of 70 feet span was thrown