VOL. LXX.

I T is so simple and easy a thing to start an architectural journal that we have had a natural hesitancy in transforming "Topical Architecture" from an occasional publication into a monthly periodical, lest its name should be added to the long list of architectural publications that have started but have never progressed beyond the speedily reached graveyard of mistaken ventures. Starts are so easy to make that we could start a new architectural journal with every month in the year, each distinctly different from the American Architect, and from all others, and each offering the prospect that at last the longed for and perfect thing had been born. Topical Architecture" will be simply and purely an architectural publication, appealing to the eye and senses more than to the brain; it will not seek its income in the advertising field, and will not be a vehicle for the outpourings of architectural writers. We believe it will deserve the support of the profession, else it would not be allowed to start, and we also believe the profession should feel they ought to give it the modest support it seeks.

66

O NE hardly realizes the growth of cities except by an effort of memory, and a little reflection is necessary to appreciate the changes which have taken place in Boston within a comparatively short period. Fifteen or sixteen years ago Boylston Street was lined with dwelling-houses, and was traversed by a few horse-cars, one every quarter of an hour, if we remember rightly, some on their way to Brookline, through Huntington Avenue, and others, by way of Dartmouth Street, to the South End. The Harvard Bridge had not then been opened to street-car traffic; the Beacon-Street Boulevard was incomplete, and the beautiful and populous Brighton quarter of the present day was a quiet and rather despised suburban village. Now, although no violent revolution in conditions has taken place, the same Boylston Street is encumbered with what is almost a continuous double string of electric-cars, and the newspapers publish plan after plan for relieving the "congestion "of traffic in it. The diversion of a portion of the Cambridge travel through it, on the opening of the Harvard Bridge, was the first important change, and the completion of

the Beacon Boulevard made another considerable addition to the Boylston Street traffic, but, as usually happens in such cases, these two additions brought with them others, still more important. The owners of the dwelling-houses on Boylston Street, finding that it was becoming a great thoroughfare, converted their houses into handsome stores. These attracted customers from other places than Brighton and Cambridge, and cars now run through Boylston Street to Dorchester, South Boston and other quarters, to accommodate them. Meanwhile, people in search of houses, finding Brighton and Brookline conveniently connected with the best part of the city, settled there in great numbers; so that, from all these causes, the street-car business has grown until it has become unmanageable. Now, to add to the congestion, the new Symphony Hall, the largest and most beautiful concert-hall in the city, accommodating about four thousand persons, has just been opened, and Horticultural Hall and Chickering Hall, accommodating, probably, as many more, will soon be completed. When

these are done, there will be, nearly every evening and Saturday afternoons, for at least eight months in the year, six to eight thousand persons to be transported to and from these halls through Huntington Avenue and Boylston Street or Massachusetts Avenue. This number will more than comfortably fill two hundred electric-cars, and, as no one will be willing to wait more than half an hour for a car, an addition to the present traffic of something like two hundred cars in each direction, in the space of half an hour, or at the rate of about seven cars a minute, must be looked for at the most crowded time of the day. It is not surprising that architects and realestate agents, who are accustomed to study such conditions, view the prospect with some alarm, and make frequent suggestions for meeting the inevitable difficulty. Our readers will remember Mr. Atkinson's well-studied and thoroughly architectural scheme for a new street southward from Copley Square. This, although probably the most carefully-matured plan yet proposed, is unlikely to be adopted, on account of its cost, and the changes, which can hardly be long delayed, are likely to take the form of widening the present streets, particularly Providence, Eliot and Kneeland Streets, which would give a route from Copley Square to the Summer Street Terminal nearly parallel to Boylston Street, and relieve the latter of

some of its traffic.

HILE Boston and its suburbs have been filling up with new inhabitants, its commerce has grown in a way still more remarkable. Fourteen years ago, if we are not mistaken, after the loss of the " Oregon," the Cunard Company discontinued its line of steamers between Boston and Liverpool, and for a considerable period not a single steamer left Boston regularly for any foreign port, the reason given being that no freight could be secured in Boston for the return trip. Now there are eleven regular lines of steamships, connecting Boston with Liverpool, Glasgow, Bristol, London, Hamburg and Copenhagen. If it were not for the obstructions in the harbor, which are, however, the object of a feeble attempt at improvement, the foreign trade of the city would undoubtedly be much greater, for, although more freight is offered than the steamers can take, the largest ships are obliged to sail with only about two-thirds of their full capacity, in order to get What this great safely over the shallows in the channel. change indicates for the future of Boston it is impossible to At present, all the foreign business is done with foreign ships; but there are indications that American ship-building and sailing will soon be relieved of the legislative burdens which have oppressed it for thirty years, and as soon as these two occupations cease to be confined to favored monopolies, it may be presumed that Boston, which foreign merchants have found a desirable port, will be found equally so by the Americans who will, as soon as they are permitted to do so, make a vigorous attempt to secure their share of the world's trade.

say.

TH

market in Europe has now broken sharply. In England, HE course of prices of iron is still downward, and the a reduction of thirty per cent was made in a few days at the beginning of the month; in Belgium, where iron is made very cheaply, the demand has fallen off, so that the mills, as a rule, are operated only four days in the week; and in Germany, where economy of manufacture is studied to the utmost, and where, in consequence, prices are generally low, large concessions are made to effect sales, the manufacturers of bolts and rivets, for example, having made a reduction of twenty-five per cent from their schedule. Meanwhile, American iron, than it is at home, is finding its way everywhere. The Ameriwhich, we must remember, is still sold much cheaper abroad can Bridge Company has contracted to build shops for the North German Lloyd Steamship Company, at Bremen, and it is said that the bridges for the Uganda Railway, in Africa, are to be built by American contractors.

was the highest, and apparently, the only bid made, and the iron was sold to him. Later, a corporation, the Girard Iron and Metal Company, heard of the transaction, and protested; and, finally, the contract with Barrett was set aside, and the iron sold to the Girard Company, for about seventeen thousand dollars. Meanwhile, Samuel, who had received the four thousand dollars from Barrett, had forgotten to divide it with his partner, Blakey, and the latter sued to recover his share, but has just been defeated, on the ground that the law will not interfere in the quarrels of parties to a dishonest or improper

transaction.

THE

HE two Greeley statues in New York, one in front of the Tribune Building, and the other in Broadway, at Thirtythird Street, have been the subject of an interesting lawsuit. After the death of Mr. Greeley, Mr. Whitelaw Reid, who succeeded him as editor of the Tribune, consulted with other friends of the deceased in regard to the erection of a suitable memorial. A committee was appointed, subscriptions solicited, and a few thousand dollars raised. At this point the panic of 1873 occurred, and the committee discontinued its labors. Meanwhile, Mr. Reid had received, as a personal matter, two sums of one thousand dollars each, to be used in his discretion for the purpose of doing honor to Mr. Greeley's memory, and the Tribune had invited small subscriptions, and had received, in all, about nine hundred dollars. In 1881, when the committee had been eight years idle, Mr. Reid, without calling for the money still in the hands of its treasurer, took the two thousand dollars which had been put in his hands, to be used in his discretion, and the nine hundred dollars sent to the Tribune, and, adding nearly eleven thousand dollars out of his own pocket, contracted with Mr. J. Q. A. Ward for the statue now standing in front of the Tribune building. In 1887, when the original committee had given no sign of life for fourteen years, one of its members, Mr. Niles, attempted to get it together again. Only one other member, General Cochrane, responded to his call. Both of them, according to the evidence, approved the action taken six years before by Mr. Reid in regard to the funds in his own hands, but thought it necessary to do something with the money which the committee had collected fourteen years previously, and which, naturally, could now neither be returned to the donors, nor applied to any other purpose. Mr. J. Q. Howard was added to the committee, and two years later, in 1889, a contract was made by these three, as an "Executive Committee," with Mr. Alexander Doyle, for the erection of the statue now standing at Thirty-third Street. The work was duly carried out, but Mr. Doyle understood that he was entitled to receive, as a part of his pay, the subscriptions which had been placed in the hands of Mr. Reid, and used by him in connection with the Ward statue. Mr. Reid thought differently, and Mr. Ward brought suit for the money. The case has now been decided, after three trials, by the Court of Appeals, in favor of Mr. Reid. The questions involved are so technical that a layman could hardly venture to form an opinion about the matter, and we can only regret that Mr. Doyle should have been put to so much expense in the unsuccessful prosecution of what he undoubtedly believed to be an honest claim.

A

MERICAN and English architects are occasionally called upon to do work in France, and it may be well for them to be reminded that the statutes of France place restrictions upon them in such cases. The declared policy of the French law is "to protect French workmen against the competition of foreign workmen on French soil, in the same way that the customs laws protect the national industry against the invasion of products of foreign origin." With this view, it is now required that every foreigner who arrives in France with the intention of carrying on there any profession, commerce or industry shall, within a week after his arrival, file, at the mairie of the commune in which he resides, a declaration of his purpose, and receive a certificate of "immatriculation." This certificate must be shown when required, and if the foreigner changes his residence, he must, within two days after his arrival at his new abode, bring it to the mairie at his new residence, to be inspected and stamped. Even if he only intends to stay in France a short time, the same formalities must be gone through, and, if he makes repeated professional visits, a new certificate must be obtained at each visit. Any infraction of these laws is punished with fines, or imprisonment, according to the gravity of the offence, and any person, whether

a French citizen or not, who knowingly employs a foreigner not provided with a certificate of immatriculation, or who, employing a person known to be a foreigner, fails to ascertain whether he possesses the required certificate, is also liable to punishment.

M.

LEON GUILLET gives, in Le Génie Civil, a wellwritten account of the new "aluminothermic" processes for reducing metals from their oxides, welding rails and pipes, and so on. Every one who has experimented with flashlights knows that aluminium, in fine powder, is explosive when mixed with a highly oxidized substance, like chlorate of potash, or even when diffused in the air, but every one does not know that the temperature developed in the combustion of aluminium is extremely high. It is this circumstance which makes aluminium valuable in metallurgy. If some aluminium, in powder or small grains, is mixed with iron ore, and ignited, an active combustion takes place, and a button of iron is formed in the crucible used for the operation, covered with a scoria of alumina. The same effect is produced with chromium, and many other metals, and, as there is a commercial demand for certain of these, the process is likely to be found useful in manufacturing them. In practice, a mixture of aluminium and metallic oxide is not easily ignited, and a primer is used, consisting of aluminium powder mixed with five times its weight of pulverized binoxide of barium. A little of this priming powder, which is highly explosive, and must be handled cautiously, is scattered on top of the mixture of aluminium grains and metallic oxide which it is desired to reduce, and which is first placed in a plumbago crucible, lined with magnesia, and a lighted match is then thrown on it. The priming powder takes fire, with a slight explosion, and, in burning, kindles the less inflammable mixture under it; and the combustion goes on until the mineral is reduced. The slag obtained in the ordinary working of the aluminothermic process consists of an intensely hard corundum, or emery, so much harder than ordinary emery that even the diamond does not scratch it; but there seems to be no reason why, with pure materials, it could not be obtained in transparent crystals, colored in the same way, and with the same substances, as natural rubies and sapphires. It is said that the slag crystallizes, but in crystals so small that they are useless in jewelry; but it might not be difficult to increase their size. Meanwhile, the simple mixture of aluminium grains and ironore affords a means for producing high temperatures which is of great value. By surrounding the ends of a broken rail with a sheet-iron case, tamped with sand, bringing the ends together with clamps, and pouring in the molten contents of a crucible filled with the aluminium-iron mixture and lighted with a little priming-powder and a match, the metal can be welded together again so strongly that the rail will break again elsewhere, rather than at the joint; and, particularly in railway management, a heating material so portable and so efficient will have many applications.

IT

T is a matter for sincere regret that the great Paris Exposition of 1900, now closed, has not been financially successful. It was not expected that the sale of entrance-tickets would cover the expenses, the indirect profit from the sale of postage stamps, railway transportation and so on being counted upon to make up the balance; but, this year, the sale of tickets has been small, and, presumably, the indirect receipts have been proportionately so. At the last Exposition, in 1889, twenty million admission tickets are said to have been sold, bringing in about four million dollars. How many have been sold this year is not yet known, but less than half of those issued have been disposed of, and, owing to the peculiar manner in which they were issued to subscribers, in blocks with a lottery-ticket attachment, the price has been regulated by competition among the subscribers, and has, we think, never gone above thirteen or fourteen cents, while the great majority of the tickets have been sold for five or six cents each. This, of itself, would affect the receipts disastrously, and the extremely hot weather in Paris in July, the alarm caused by the fall of the bridge over the Avenue de Suffren in May, and the political disturbances caused by foreign wars, seem to have combined to keep visitors away from Paris. The result will probably deter the Parisians from holding any more expositions for many years to come, but they should have the credit of having carried out this one with an energy and magnificence, and in a spirit of fairness and courtesy to all persons concerned, which deserve grateful remembrance.

unrolls itself through a length of five kilometres, over irregularities of the site which rise hillock above hillock.

The museum of Bologna is one of the most important in Italy, not only because of the number of paintings which it contains, but also and especially because it encloses the richest collection of paintings of the Bolognese school, derived from the churches and convents suppressed at the end of the last century. And finally, it possesses Raphael's "St. Cecilia," which is not only the finest painting by the master of Urbino, but one of the most beautiful paintings in the world. The University, which contains five faculties and enrolls some five hundred students, is one of the most ancient scholastic monuments; after the famous University of Salerno, it is the one which has had the longest existence, as it was founded in 1119. It was in this university that Galvani made the great discovery which opened the age of electricity. It was also at the University of Bologna that, in 1315, the first corpse was dissected by Mondini. At certain epochs the courses of this institution were attended by ten thousand students. To-day the surgical clinic of Bologna is the first in rank in the kingdom. Before and during the Renaissance, several chairs at this university were occupied by women, who taught with much success philosophy, law, anatomy and mathematics. In the fourteenth century, Novella, celebrated for her talent as much as for her beauty, succeeded to her father, and, according to the chronicles of the times, was obliged to lecture behind a curtain in order that the charm which her beauty exercised over the audience might not distract

Palazzo Malvezzi-Campeggi. Andrea and Giacomo Marchesi, Architects. distance from the city, as it presents the peculiarity that one approaches to it by a portico which, on setting out from the city,

1 Continued from No. 1295, page 21.
2See American Architect for October 20.

Door of the Two Giants: Palazzo Bargellini.

them from her discourse. In the closing years of the last century, Clotilde Tambroni taught Greek here, and it was at the same time that Gaetana Agnesi gave instruction in mathematics at Milan.

To architects Bologna offers a wide field of studies because of the unusual number of palaces which adorn it, belonging to different epochs and presenting peculiarities of the most varied and most opposed styles. The Palazzo Albergati, built after the designs of Baldassare Peruzzi, dates from the commencement of the sixteenth century. It is quite simple, and the sobriety of its lines, which do not escape a certain harshness, give it a clear and luminous air. The façade of the Palazzo Bevilacqua, a work attributed to Bramantino, is grand and imposing, with an exterior skin of hard stone, cut to a diamond face, which covers it like a cuirass. But what is most particularly deserving of remark about this building is the portico of the quadrangular court-yard, which consists of two orders of canellated Corinthian columns, supporting full-centred arches, in the style affected by Bramantino.

The architecture of the Palazzo Fava is distinguished for its originality of design, the first story being supported by arches resting on square piers crowned by short, stumpy capitals in the Byzantine style; we find also a reminiscence of this style in the ornaments which bound the arcades. The windows, also full-centred, are in perfect harmony with the portico which bears the first story. The rooms of this first story are enriched with paintings by the three Carracci, and represent the principal scenes of "The Eneid." The Palazzo Malvezzi-Campeggi, with certain differences in the ornament, is conceived in the same style as the one just mentioned, but the