ABSTRACT
The moment the headlong course of the chalk had ceased, and the hopes of the spectators were realized, a simultaneous cry arose of "Three cheers for the engineer!" and William Cubitt was honoured with a hearty huzza from the lips of a grateful people. An era in the history of engineering had passed, and a precedent had been established, the results of which none could anticipate. It had been demonstrated that the most powerful and mysterious agency in nature was under computable regulations, and in no small degree under the control of science. The congratulations thus re-echoed were borne to the gloom of the battery house, and at once dissipated the apprehensions of the operators ; for so slight was the noise and the shock that the impression made on their minds was that the experiment had failed, for their situation prevented their witnessing the result. The ruins of the Round Down Cliff may now be observed stretching towards the sea at the mouth of the Shakespeare tunnel. "Nothing," says Sir John Herschel, "can place in a more signal light the exactness of calculation which could enable the eminent engineer by whom the whole arrangements are understood to have been made, so completely to task to its utmost every pound of power employed as to exhaust its whole effort in useful work-leaving no superfluous power to be wasted in the production of useless uproar or mischievous dispersion, and thus saving at a blow not less than £7,000 to the railway company."
