TO PIERCE THE FOG. A Proposed High Tower in London.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 415, 30 October 1889, Page 6

TO PIERCE THE FOG. A Proposed High Tower in London.

Loxdox is pretty certain soon to have a tower 2,000 feet high. The projected London toM'er is assuming definite shapeand form in the minds of the promoters. Perks, solicitor to the company, sees it an accomplished fact, so enthusiastic and confident is he over the enterprise. He anticipates no difficulty that will not be overcome by negotiations, and as a financial speculation he thinks it will be a successful venture. 'Sir Edward Watkin,' he said, 'must have sole credit of the inception of the tower. The idea of constructing a tower 2,000 feot high that shall eclipse every other tower tirst occurred to him. As a guaranty of the soundness of any project of Sir Edward's you have only to look at the brilliant enterprises he has originated. This year his project for coupling the great Manchester and Sheffield &ystems of the north ho has brought to the verge of completion. He has carried through the Paret project for piecing together into one united concern about thirty disjointed and broken-up Welsh railways. He has bridged : the Dee at Chester and brought North Wales for the first time in direct communication with the Lancashire district. 4 The whole scheme has been conceived, registered and completed in less than ten days. A. D. Pochin is associated with him in this scheme. Pochin is one of the greatest iron and coal proprietors in England. Another name is Thomas Andrew Walker, the greatest contractor in the world, and at the present moment carrying out some of the greatest enterprises of the age. The Manchester ship canal is one, and the work on Buenos Ayres harbour for the Argentine Government is another. He made the un-, derground railways through London. > An-.; other is E. H. Carbutt, who was a member! of Parliament for Newport. He is a wellknown mechanical engineer, and has been president of the Mechanical Engineers' Exhibition. The next is Francis Pavey, well known in financial circles. ' We contemplate first of all putting up a tower with all the public conveniences you find in connection with the Eiffel Tower,and improvements which have been suggested in its construction. The tower will be made by English or Scotch contractors, and of English or Scotch steel. No firm has yet been selected, though the number who can accept a contract of such magnitude is limited. The tower will not be far from the Metropolitan Railway, which carries upward of 9,000,000 people per annum. No doubt the best site the promoters could obtain, and the one they will naturally first look at, would be the place where the great Colonial and other exhibitions have been held, in South Kensington. 1 Passengers would be taken up by one elevator from the bottom to the top, with no change, as in the Eiffel Tower, though passengers could alight at different stages. We have no designs or plans yet, nor have we decided upon anything with regard, to the style of architecture.

• We should require an area of six acreu for the base. The capital is £200,000 in £1 shares. That will, we estimate, be amply sufficient to build a tower of the size we contemplate, and, ot course, we shall build for cash. We already have inquiries for shares which would swallow up every one \re have to allot. One never knows what view Parliament or the public authorities may take, but one cannot conceive it possible that a building of this sort would teceive any opposition from either the municipal authorities or from Parliament. No such scheme has been attempted in England before.' • Are you acquainted with Mr Edison's scheme for a tower in New York ?' ' Mr Edison's proposals were not known until after our company was registered. This company was registered on the 15th of this month, and the interview with Mr Edison did not appear until later. Mr Edison discreetly kept his ideas to himself.'