The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-12-30 00:00:00

THE CHAPTER OP ACCIDENTS.

§ERIOUB ACCIDENT IN A LIVERPOOL CHICON. —Mr.
Henry Delevanti, the trapeze performer in Bell's Hippo
demos, Liverpool, had one of his ribs and thighs broken
durifig his aerial display on Monday night. Delevanti
was going through the feats of Olmar when the knot of
one of the ropes slipped, and he dropped heavily from
the top of the circus to the bottom. A wire rope upon
vihiCh Mrs. De/evanti performed broke his fall, or he
'druid have suffered even more severally than he did.
No time was lost in conveying the unfortunate fellow
to the Nortlibru Mospital, where be now lies in as
favourable a condition as might be expected. Delevanti
we believe, tied the rope himself, and as he considered
it sufficiently secure to risk his life upon it, there is
every probability that the knot was good when he com-
menced his performance. Later on, however, the
strain, together with the effect of the atmosphere,
must have caused it to slip, and hence the accident.
MALL OP A RAILWAY TUNNEL —Twelve or fifteen
yards of the end of a tunnel at Oakenahaw, on the
Chelfheaten 'branch of the Lancashire and Yorkshire
Railway, fell early on Tuesday morning, and completely
blocked no the passage. A small train from Mirfield,'
which should have reached Bradford at a quarter before
six in the morning, ran into the inidet of the rubbish.
The engine was firmly embedded, but the passenger
carriages were soon backed out. There was no lofts of
life nor other serious persemd injury. Betweee seventy
and eighty men were set to work to alear away the
earth and rubbish, and it was expected that the line
would be freed from obstruction on Tuesday night. A
common road crossed the portion of the tunnel which
fell in. .

RAILWAY ACCIDENT IN IBELAND.—On Wednesday
night an accident occurred at the Newgate-road cros-
sing, on the Maven branch of the Dublin and Drogheda
Railway. On the day in question the New Meath
Railway Company commenced running trains over this
branch; but it seems that the gatekeeper at the
crossing, either not informed or misunderstanding what
he was told about the new trains, put out his signals,
closed up the gates across the line so AB to leave the
crossing open, and went to bed. Soon after, two drays
were on the Crossing, the driver suspecting nothing of
an advancing train, when an engine of the New Meath
Company came mailing through the gate, driving
himself, the two horses, carts, barrels, and all to a
distance of 40 yards, smashing the poor fellow's leg and
jaw, tearing open the first horse, which was a valuable
animal, and breaking the harness and the two drays to
pieces. Neither the train nor its occupants were more
than slightly injured.

DESTRUCTION Or IRON SHIPS DT GALVANIC ACTION
INDUCED EV A PREPARATION-OP COPPER.—The French
floating battery la Glorie has lately been examined
and found to be seriously injured by the action of
copper on her iron plates, the whole of which, halo*
water-linc, will have to be removed, being oonverted
into a kind of plumage by galvanic action. We had
occasion some time since to call attention to the extre-
ordinaty state of her Majesty's ships Triton and Sharp-
shooter. On their being docked for examination the
iron plates were in some places reduced to the thick-
ness of writing paper, and in the Triton the scrapers
actually went through the plates when removing the
tons of oysters, barnacles, &c., attached to the bottom.
It appears that this ship had been coated with a prepa-
ration of copper, and the destruction of the plates and
rivets arose from galvanic action on the exposed
surfaces of the iron, where the undercoating has
become rubbed off under the bow and forefoot and
along the light-load waterline. The salvation of this
ship from foundering was no doubt occasioned by the
adhesion of the shell-84h. She has just been thoroughly
repaired at Devonport Dockyard, and is now coated
with Messrs. Peacock and Buchan 's preparation, which
is superseding the copper preparation hitherto used in
her Majesty's dockyards. We understand that Captain
Peacock, formerly a master in her Majesty's navy, who
published a pamphlet on this subject scone years
since, actually warned the late Ministre de Marine in
Paris against what has now taken place two years ago;
lie also waited on the Minister of Marine in Madrid on
the same subject, and has been for several years in com-
munication with our own Admiralty authorities on
the importance of preventing galvanic action upon the
iron ships of the British navy, and we are glad to see
that their lordships and our dockyard officials are at
length alive to this important subject.