A.new, large, and handsome gasholder is in course of erection at the Gas arks. The necessity for such in the means of the nightly illumination of the Settlement has long been felt, not only by the consumers whose business or pleasure made gas a necessity in the " wee sma' hours," but also by the officials and workmen who duty it was to manufacture four hours, such a quantity into the mains and pipes from holder capable of containing about 56,000 feet only, was problem the difficulty of which any one At all acquainted with gas-engineering can readily understand. No wonder th pressure became low, and that the resident engineer, Mr. Yeo, was frequently aroused ese workmen, through by reason of an extra consumption, the holder had disappeared in the wat tonk! Three times every day hud this small holder to be filled, rendering incessant work necessary, and utterly preventing storage of gas, so that if any untoward accident happened at the works, or attention thereat had been lax, the Settlement would have been plunged in darkness, and kerosine and lam have gone up. But, the atreote? When one contemplates what might have resulted from 4 night or two, oF perhaps: week, of darkness, it is exceedingly comfortable to tind the Gxs Company not only awake to ite own interests, but also repardful of the convenience and welfare of the inhabitants generally. The new holder is in active process of erection, some 250 Chinese workmen being daily employed on it, but its magnitude is such that ten weeks longer will probably elapse before it will be in thorough working order. A Uescription of its dimensions will not be out of place here. The contents of the holder when filled will be 77,000 cubic 56,000 of the original one, whi will still be retained in the public service. By an ingenious arrangement of valves, the design of Mr, Yeo, both holders can either be connected disconnected with euch other, and the supply sent into the mains either from one or both as occasion aay require. This is capital idea, and at once removes two difficulties, want of pressure and impossi-Dility of atorage—both of great to a gas consuming new holder will be 66 feet 6 inches in diameter, and, with the tank when filled, nearly 44 feet high. The namber of iron plates used in its construction is 334, requiring 49,800 rivets to bolt them together. The bottom of the water tank is made up of 198 plates, held together with 7,930 bolts. The tank will hold the enortity of 476,000 gallons of water, it of which is 212 tons; added to is the weight of the iron used in its construction, 325 tons; giving a total weight of 537 tons for both tank and holder. Despite Mra. Malaprop, we may here venture upon a comparison,—large as are these dimensions, they pale before those of the great centre telegraphic cable tank on board the Great Bastern, This monster, fixed nearly in the centre of the ship, is close upon eighty feet in diameter, by nearly 40 in depth; and there are besides tivo other tanks on, buard, both approach-in wize the new gas holder springing up on the banks of the Soochow Oreck. But enough of comparison;—it is not less wonderful that im far distant Eastern Tand of conservatist, an enormous mom gas-holder, brought out from England, 10,000 miles away, should be rivetted together by Chinese working men, the ring of whose sledge hammers sounds as loud and as merrily as any on the banks of the Thames, the Severn, or the Medway The columns for the new holder are of cast-iron—which is an innovation on the established order of things—and being of the Doric style, convey at once the idea of strength and lightness combined, Owing to the spongy nature of the soil, the foundations of these columns, and also of the water tank, were obliged to be sunk to 0 depth of 22 feet; the bottom being piled with Foochow poles, previously burnt and tarred, to preserve them; between these again are rammed in hard clinkers, and in that way a good foundation is obtained, directly upon which the iron plates forming the bottom of the tank are laid. The ire erection is from the designs furnished by Mr. Yeo, and the work is being admirably carried out by the contractors, Messrs. Boyd and Ca., under his supervision. The holder and tank were supplied by Mr. Daniel Howard, of West Broiwieh!
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.