This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1851 Excerpt: …buttresses to the north and south are solid; the west buttress is recessed inwardly for the clock, and the doorway is in the east. A stone (supposed to be the same that bore Lacailles quadrant, which was given to me by Mr. Seawright, the present proprietor of the house in Strand Street, Cape Town) is built in the recess to support the clock. The wall-plate is fastened by iron bolts, 10 inches in length and I inch in diameter, to upright pieces built in the wall and buttresses. The plate is of teak-wood, 9 inches broad and 3 inches thick, formed of two laminae in segments, held together by screws; all the joints are broken. To this plate the lower channel-way curb is fastened by screws. The curb is of deal, 6 inches broad and nearly 5 inches in depth, composed in like manner of two horizontal lamina? in segments, all joints being broken by overlapping. The lower cast-iron channel-way is screwed to this curb; also three iron crowbills, which will be mentioned presently. The Dome.–The frame-work of the hemispherical dome, the curbs, and cast-iron channel-way, were made in England, under the able superintendence of the Rev. W. R. Dawes, to whom I feel much indebted for the great attention he devoted to the details of their construction. The diameter of the channel-way, from middle to middle, is 14 feet 6 inches; the frame of the dome is of deal, and consists of twenty-eight equidistant vertical ribs, fixed to the cheeks and to the curb (which, like the lower curb, is in two laminae) by side-wedges. The covering is J-inch deal scantling laid in horizontal segments, of such length that while each extends over a certain number of ribs, the vertical joinings are alternate. The horizontal joinings of the lower strata are ploughed and tongued; towards th…