THE NEW HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT. (From the Times)

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XVI, Issue 1243, 12 August 1859, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE NEW HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT. (From the Times)

Our readers, we are sure, will be glad to learn-that the great clock at Westminster is at least progressing towards completion. In saying this we by no means intend to convey the impression that the clock will soon be going, or that a considerable interval may not yet elapse before it is completed, or even that it will ever be completed at all. In speaking of a subject which has given rise to such endless^disputes as this clock we must guard ourselves, we suppose, against expressing any opinion at all. We only, therefore, announce the fact that Mr. Dent's workmen have at last begun to do that which should have been done long ago, and that the mechanism of the clock is being put together very slowly in the clock chamber behind the dials. Unquestionably, for a clock whose history now extends over 15 years, and which has been going fcr nearly three years in Mr. Dent's factory, it is no great matter to say that after all this time it is at length in course of being sent to the very place for which it was constructed. But, little us this may be in the way of progress, it, at all

events, is progress, which is more than we have been able to say ofthe whole affair any time these two years past. Before the clock will be really in going and striking order many little difficulties, we believe, have yet to be overcome. One is a contrivance which shall catch the hammer of the great bell the instant it has struck, in order to prevent the rebound again dropping it upon ths bell, and lift it clear from the side, that the vibration may not be interfered with. This is, of course, a difficulty which can be overcome, though devising and perfecting the means will require time, especially with a clock of suth accurate construction that its striking is guaranteed to be true to a single second. Another difficulty is connected with the arrangements for its being regularl)' wound. To wind it by hand labour is almost out of the question." This monstrous clock will lequire winding once in three lays, and take 11,500 i evolutions of the handle to wind it eompletaly. Supposing two men to be able it such labour to work continuously, and make 800 revolutions of the han lie per hour, it would require 14§ hours of such exertion every third day. If "to this is added the delay caused by the men having to make up the difference caused by the descent of the weights when the clock struck (in striking 12 they I descend six feet), it is not too much to estimate the labour at neaily 18 hours, instead of 14j ; or, to speak generally, about four months of every year would be spent in windiug it up. Of course, Mr. Denison will devise some contrivance which will obviate this difficulty, and he can scarcely find a better one than has already been worked out by Mr.James and the indefatigable clerk of the works at the New Houses, Mr. Quarm. By the plan of these gentlemen the clock is made self-winding. When the weights have descended a certain length they open a valve communicating with a column of water from the top ot the tower. This water is let into a cylinder with a piston of six feet stroke, which by the weight of the water is forced up with the clock weights to its full height. As often as the clock strikes this hydraulic winder acts with the expenditure of a very small quantity of water. Of course, when the piston is out to irs full stroke the valve communicating with the column of water is shut off and the piston descends till the weights again reach the level at which they require winding. The number of gas jets to illuminate each dial has been reduced to 38, making 152 burners for all. These, as we have before stated, are so connected with the mechanism of the clock as to be gradually burnt down with the approach of dawn each morning and burnt in full again as the sun sinks. All the additional supports which were required tor the bell framewoik have been adjusted, and the frame of Big Ben and his satellites is now as rigid as the tower itself. A light ironwork staircase is being put up to lead above the bell chamber into the upper lantern of the tower. As we are upon the subject of the Houses of Parliament, we may take this opportunity of referring to the decay of some parts of the stonework already, and the effectual method which has been adopted to arrest this slow, but sure destruction of one of the noblest edifices in Europe. Notwithstanding the great care that was taken in the selection of the stone used in the New Palaces, it has undoubtedly yielded to atmospheric influences in many places to a much greater than could have been anticipated from the evidences of its durability, as shown in ancient buildings, and the results of the chymical experiments to which it was subjected be--lore being employed. The commissioners appointed in 1839 to select the stone to be employed, after having visited 103 quarries, in all parts of the United Kingdom, and tested 36 varieties of stone, and after having examined the state of many such specimens of stone in upwards of 100 ancient edifices, recommended the stone which has been used for its crystalline character, with its close approach to the equivalent proportions of lime and magnesia. It was found to absorb 182-1000 of its bulk of water, while the least absorbent from Chilmark was 053-1000, and the most absorbent from Bath 312-1000. This power of absorbing, of course, indicated the amount of space between the molecules of the stone, as the tests were all conducted under the exhausted receiver of an airpump. The decay in this stone which has already- taken place seems to be confined principally to the parapets where the stone is exposed on two faces, in the water-tables, cills, bases enppings, and plinths, and the stonework above and below them within the influence of the drippings and splashings of showers, and more especially where these parts are exposed to the south and southwest winds. Sir Charles Barry considers that a most fruitful source of decay is due to the unusual and extensive use of water externally for purposes of ventilation, by which a considerable portion of the masomy is rendered alternately wet and dry, the most severe test to which the durability of any stone can be subjected. The first symptoms of decay in the stone are manifested by a blackish discolouration, which appears to be caused by absorption of the moisture and dirt of the atmosphere. The next stage is an eruption of a coating of this discoloured material, under which the natural colour of the stone appears, but in a slate of powder, which continues from time to time to be removed, and so occasions a rapid and constant disruption of the surface. During the last four yeis no less than six inventors have applied their compositions to various parts of the building, for the purpose of discovering by actual test the best means of defending the stone from atmospheric influences. With one exception, all these inventions have failed more or less totally to effect their object. '1 he one composition which has succeeded beyond all expectation is an invention or discovery of Mr. Szerelmey's, a Polish gentleman. - What this composition is is unknown to all except the inventor, but ths effect produced by the application of the almost colourless liquid is perfectly marvellous. It at once renders the stone unabsorbent of moisture, thereby removing the primary cause ot all decomposition due to atmospheric influences. It seems to fill completely the interstices between the molecules of the stone with an intensely hard finty substance, which Mr Szerelmey declares will literally last for ever against the action of air. The secret, whatever it is, was obtained from analysis and examination of the flinty coating which has protected the bricks of the Pyramids and the statues of of Egypt for thousands of years. As it is now applied in some parts of the new Palace, it endures without change any amount of heat and cold, and resists the action even of the strongest acids. The colour of the composition is that ot the stone when newly worked, and neither the granulated appearance of the surface nor the tool marks upon it are obliterated by its application, which is effected npidly by means of a common brush, is in painting. Many attempts have been made to remove the composition or impair its effects by long- continued scrubbing with wire brushes and water, but without making the least impression on it. In reporting on the merits of this composition to the Board of Works, Sir Charles Barry strongly recommends its application to all the external masonry of the new • Palace as a specific against further decay, and in a great degtee against all discolouration arising from the impurities of the atmosphere. The cost of applying this composition to the stonework is only Is. per square yard, and it is an operation which is done as quicklj as whitewashing. Some of the river front (though only very small portions), the Speaker's Court, and one side of St. Stephens-hall have been coated ; the latter place for about two year 3 and a half, yet the composition is as clean, as flinty, and as unchanged as the day it was first applied. Another composition of Mr. Szerelmey's, which has also been extensively uted in the roof of the New Houses, is a very cheap solution, called a granite composition, for the preservation of iron from rust. This has been applied over the roofs of the Clock and Victoria Towers, and the ironwork, both wrought and cast, has thus been preservod as bright and even shining as the day it left the foundry. Both compositions, as we have said, have proved themselves eminently successful, but of the two that which prevents all chance of rust in iron is thought to be the most valuable, as being, perhaps, the more generally required. Iron when thus coated seems utterly indestructible by the action of the elements, an! even if immersed in sulphuric acid no effect is produced. Its adhesion to the surface is so tenacious that when small porcions are removed with chisels a part of the surface of the iron is generally removed with it. The process of covering the iron and stone woik of the new Houses with these compositions is gradually going forward, though almost too slowly when the undoubted efficacy of the means for preventing decay have been so long tried, and proved so eminently successful. ,

" Have you decided whether to make your sou a soldier or a lawyer }" " No ; but I will as soon, as I can settle in my own mind whether it is best for him to live upon the blood and misery or upon the ces and follies of hit species. "