Note 131 — Chapter XVI · OBSTRUCTIONS IN STREETS.

Vide 10 & 11 Vic. c. 34, s. 67.

[132] Vide Fitzgerald’s ‘Public Health and Local Government Act 1875,’ 3rd edition, p. 166.

[133] Vide 10 & 11 Vic. c. 34, s. 68.

[134] Ibid. ss. 69 and 70.

[135] Or Owners, see s. 160, 38 & 39 Vic. c. 55.

[136] Vide Fitzgerald’s ‘Public Health and Local Government Act 1875,’ 3rd edition, p. 174.

[137] Or owner, see 38 & 39 Vic. c. 55, s. 160.

[138] Towns Improvement Clauses Act 1847, s. 70.

[139] Or owner.

[140] Vide ‘Fitzgerald’s Public Health and Local Government Act 1875,’ 3rd edition, p. 175.

[141] Care must be taken that the mode of construction “directed by the commissioners” authorises this part of the notice.

[142] In the City of London these patent lights have been fixed in the pavement round the whole of the frontage of Mansion House Buildings, at the corner of Queen Victoria Street, and also over the whole of the pavements in Draper’s Gardens, besides many other equally crowded thoroughfares, without the least inconvenience being experienced.

[143] In the Act the words used are “shoot” and “trough.”

[144] These words must be omitted if there is no special Improvement Act.

[145] Vide p. 176.

[146] Sir Fred. Parnell in his celebrated work upon roads has the following paragraph upon this subject:—

The great advantage of having a road perfectly exposed to the action of the sun and wind will be more accurately conceived by referring to writers of science on evaporation. Dr. Hailey states that one-tenth of an inch of the surface of the sea is raised per diem in vapour. He also says that the winds lick up the water somewhat faster than it exhales by the heat of the sun. Other writers say the dissipation of moisture is much accelerated by the agency of sweeping winds, the effects being sometimes augmented five to ten times.

Trees are particularly injurious by not allowing the sun and wind to have free action on the surface of roads producing evaporation. Besides the benefit which a road receives from its drying rapidly by an open exposure to the atmosphere, there is another of great importance, namely, that of affording to horses the advantage of free respiration; for it is well known that the powers of a horse to perform work with ease, particularly when moving rapidly, depends upon the quantity of cool and fresh air that he can pass through his lungs. If the cause of horses tiring or becoming ill under their work be carefully examined into, it will often be found that it is not their muscles or limbs that fail them, but their wind; and therefore, it is particularly important to have a road so circumstanced that a horse may on all parts of it have the benefit of a free current of air.

[147] No person can put up hoards or scaffolds in the streets without first obtaining the consent of the urban authority, vide sections 144 and 149 of the Public Health Act 1875. Many towns also have private improvement Acts with very binding clauses on this subject, empowering the surveyor to demand a fee for a licence to erect a hoarding, and empowering him to remove these after notice, &c.

[148] This is scarcely ever feasible, or of the slightest use if done.

[149] Mr. Cooper states that “a tall chimney will rock 1 inch in a moderate wind, and even to an extent of ¹⁄₈th of an inch at a distance of only 16 feet up from its base, and yet be safe.” (Vide ‘Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers,’ vol. xxvii. p. 100.)

[150] Whilst this work was in the press the terrible disaster arising from the falling of an immense chimney shaft at Bradford took place, the result of which was the death of upwards of forty persons and great destruction of property.