The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-01-16 00:00:00

CAPITAL CONVICTION FOR MURDER.

At the High Court of Justiciary, Edinburgh, on Mon-
day, Peter M'Lean, Christina Peters, or M'Lean, and
VT. Mansfield, were charged " with murder, as also
assault, committed by stabbing and cutting, in so far as
on the 15th or 16;h of November last, on or near the
public road leading from Bathgate to East Whitburn,
Linlithgowshire, at or near Boghead Bridge, they
attacked and assaulted the now deceased, Thos. Maxwell,
a miner, residing at Durhamtown, near Bathgate, and
did knock or throw him down on the ground, kicked
and struck him with a knife or other instrument,
stabbed or cut him on the chest and neck and other
parts of his person, by all of which he was mortally
injured, and immediately, or soon thereafter, died ; and
at the time and place above libelled, they did assault
John Maxwell, miner, striking him with a stone on the
head or face, and throwing him down and stabbing him
with a knife on the leg, and otherwise Maltreating and
abusing him, by all of which he was curand wounded,.
to the effusion of blood • and the serious injury of his
person." The prisoners pleaded " Not guilty ; ' but the
jury, after a lengthened absence, returned a verdict, by
a majority, of guilty of murder and assault a.g.ains Peter
M'Lean, but recommended him to the merciful conside-
ration of the crown ; not guilty. agait,st CtplsAna
fill‘Lean ; and guilty of assault against MAnsfiell The
Lord Justice Clerk then sentenced Peter Ni•L,2an to be
executed on Monday, the 2nd of February next, at
Linlithgow, and adjured him to banish from his mind
any hope that bis life would be prolonged. The prisoner
M•Lean exhibited violent emotion on receiving sentence.
Mansfield was sentenced by the court to two years'
imprisonment, and Christina M'Lean was dismissed front
the bar.

HISTORIC SOCIETY.

The ninth meeting of the Scientific Section of this society
was held last night in the Grand Jury Room, St. George's
Hall, J. J. Denson, Esq., vice president, in the chair.
Richard C. Naylor, Esq., late high sheriff of Cheshire,
Hooton Hall, and Captain-Mathew, were admitted members
of the society._
Aineing -the' • donations'- ackvieiredged as having been
received were—sexual—publications of the Leeds Philo-
eophical Society, including -the Transactions for l'Bso,
and the first part or- thoie for 1857 ; an Account of an
Ea7Plian Mummy presented torithe society by the late John
Biayds ; from the society, Quarterly jogrnal of the Zoological
Soeiety, Nos. 46 and 47, May and August,.lBs6; from the
author' Report from the Mersey Inquiry .Committee, by
Joseph Bdult, Esq.; .from James Boardman, Esq., copy,
annotated by himself. of 'Mr. Mayer's paper on Roscoe, and
his influence on the Fioe Arts.
Mr. Rundell exhibited a card on which he had constructed
a diagram for.ehowing the true bearing of the sun or other
heavenly body by mere inspection, for •altitudes less than
60 degrees and declinations less than 30 degrees north or
F VeryJaint horiz :ntal lines, every fifth being darker
tli rn the others, repreeented altitudes to each degree, similar
ve- tical lines represented azimuths, or the angle from the
• mori lien as measured pn the horizon, Bold curved lines
re presented the declination north or south to each degree ;
across these were dotted lines, showing the hoar angle, or
distance from the meridian to each five minutea. The card
'eras arranged for lat. 50. The following are all the instrnc-
-mons required in order to use it :—First, if the altitude, and
Aeclination are given, follow the given line of altitude un, it
it cuts the, given declination. Observe between what points
'of the compass this occurs, and the true bearing is kno
Secondly, if hour. angle, and declination are given, follow
stbe line representing the hour angle till it meets the given
declinati in : 'observe between what pints of the corn pegs
. occurs, and the required azimuth is obtained. The
whole appeared remarkably simple, while its accuracy was
said to be far beyond anythinz which is required in service.
Mr. Hartnup then read the following paper.
On the Importance of Testing Chronometers before they are
used at Sea, with Examples to show how their most
Common Faults may be Detected.
It, is well known by these who have had much•exper'ence
%Tit') chronometers, that some of the most serious defects to
weich they are liable cannot possibly be detected by an
in.pection of the works, however carefully they may be
examined by the most skilful chronometer maker. It is also
well known that the mariner, unaided, has no means what-
ever of efficiently testing the c.l'.7,ality of a chronometer.
From the first introduction s.:° marine timekeepers as an aid
to navigation, it haseheen the practice to test all those
'employed in the British navy at the Royal Observatory, at
Greenwich, previous to their being placed in the hands of
the officers appointed to use them at sea ; but the merchant
`captain has never teen able to avail himself of this:privi.
legs, an I unti!.. the Corporation of Liverpool' made the
necesl3:ll7 -orovision in this port a few yearesago, he bad no
autt"'..';ry appeal to for inkrmation as to the quality of •
61"..eonometer, notwithstanding that this instrument is need
almost exclusively for so important an object as that of finding
the longitude of a ship at sea. The subject is so novel' some
ieiolenetion appears necessary to show the merchant captain
how the chronometer can be tested for him, and what degree
of confi lence he may place in the tests when applied in an
- establishment'provided with the necessary instruments and
apparatus for making the experiment ; and, in which there
. is a proper guarantee for the records being faithfully kept
for his inspection. In giving this explanation, 'examples
will be introduced, to which we shall frequently refer, in
trdee- to explain the nature of the most common faults which
ere found to exhit in the chronometers now 'in use in the
Merchant service. These examples have been taken frorn,
the records of the Liverpool Observatory: In the following
(Nos. 1 to 4), the daily rate is given in each, for twenty'
days in succession, and we trust that this period, short as it
is, wiil be seen, to be sufficiently long to prove that the faults
in Noe. 1, 2 and 3, rendered them unfit for sea use at the
,;11.; but that confidence might have been safely placed in
No; 4:

No. No 2. No. 3.
Ne v and Compensation Rite irregu-
Gaining on not vroperly lar In the
4ta Rate. , effected. came Temp.

No. 4.
Rate steady &
Comoensation
rood.

Dii y Rate Daily Rate Daily Rate
Gaining Losing. :Gaining

Daily Rate
nainlar.

'emp.

Temp,

Temp,

Temp,

O S. p'' 9: 0 S. ,
01 60 22 52 32 67 04 59
03 61 20 52, 59 64 0 3 60
0 4 62 2 3 34 5 8 64 0 4 6n
04 63 2 4 55 57 64 02 63
05 61 27 56 23 66 02 63
06 60 28 56 50 63 02 59
0 9 60 11 6 83 5 1 62 0 4 80
11 61 11 5 83 47 66 04 84
1 5 58 11 8 84 3 8 69 0 4 84
14 .56 11 9 84 36 63 03 63
14 55 26 55 06 69 07 65
15 54 •3 0 35 08 69 07 63
1 6 55 2 7 54, • 0 2 68 , 0.6': 62
1 7 53 2 8 55 0 3 68 08• 60
2 0 53 31- 56 1 0 69 0 8 59
20 54 32 57 22 64 07 60
1 9 52 3 2 57 2 1 63 0 7 58
2 0 53 2 9 56 2 6 63 0 6 .59
21 55 30 56 54 62 05 58
24 57 22 53 61 62 06 58

. In the choice of a chronometer, the object of the mariner
should be to select one which keeps a steady rate in those
temperatures to which he will be most frequently exposed
at sea, and the uniformity of the daily rate of No. 4, in
temperatures ranging from 58° to 8-0, would doubtless lead
him to select this for a warm climate, but without such
records to refer to, he has nothing to guide him in his
choice.

The four chronometers here selected appeared equally
good to the eye, although three or them were quite unfit to
take to sea at that time, yet, a few months after the above
results were obtained, No. 1 Gin keep, and Nes. 2 and 3
were made to keep rates nearly as steady, as N0..4. The
way in which these improvements were bronght about, we
will endeavour to explain, beginning with Ne. 1: When
new, chronometers have a tendency to gain on their rates,
for periods varying from two or three, to six or eight months.
This tendency to gain appears to be 'caused by a change
which gradually takes place in ancwbalanee spring, the spring
must be made hard to insure geol performance, Wand the
harder the spring the longer the chronometer appears to
gain. Old chronometers, with new balance springs, gain'
as much as new chronometers. The effect of this tendency
to gain is shown in No. 1. Oa the first day of the twenty
the daily rate was one tenth of a second ; on the last day it
was tweeseconds and four tenths. In this case, the chrono-
meter continued to gain for upwards of four months, and,
the rate increased from one tenth of a second to upwards of
ten seconds a day. Five months subsequent to the period
at which these results were obtained, the rate became steady,
and the chronometermight then have been taken to sea,
with every probability o rgood petormance. A chronometer'
.having this fault,- might increase its gaining fate ten or'
fifteen seconds a -day, in a voyage of three or four
months, and the mariner not knowing the cause,
would become dissatisfied, and possibly part, with
it at a great sacrifice, just at the time when gaol
performance might be expected from it. Jt is quite a
common thiez for captains to bring their new chronome-
ters to the observatory after, instead of before, the first
voyage, for the purpose of having them tested, in conse-'
quence of bad performance during the voyage.' In such
cases we frequently find the fault to be this tendency to
gain; from being new, and notwithstanding the great
increase of rate which has taken place, it often happens
that the tendency to gain has then nearly. or quite ceased,
and without anything being done to the chronometer's, they
are generally found to•give satisfaction the next voyage.
We will now proceed to an explanation of the cause of
the irregularity in the, daily tatsexhibited in No. 2. This
is a case of imperfect compensation for Change of tempera.
ture. The chronometer loses nine seconds a day more in
84 degrees than it does in 55 degrees. The shipmaster in
Possession of a timekeeper with this imperfection might be
subjected to the most serious inconvenience, and possibly,
after giving it a trial fir a voyage or two, he would come
to the conclusion that it was worthless, and part with it for
a fault which could be removed for a few shilings. A
chronometer maker who understands his business, on being
showd the tabulated results here given, would instantly know
how to make the necessary alteration ; the :weight') on the
compensation balance, in this case, should be shifted a
little towards the ends of the curved armse
No. 4 it will be seen that no sensible alteration of
rate took place on changing the temperature from
below 60 degrees to above 80 degree), and there
is nothing whatever indicated in the performance
of No. 2, to lead us to suppose that it might
not be made to perform equally well. The defect is one of
very common occurrence, as may be seen by our records;:
hundreds of similar cases have been detected during the
past ten years at the Liverpool Observatoey. It sometimes
happens that chronometers are sold with both the faults
shown in Nos. 1 and 2, and the increase of gaining rate
during the first voyage is on some occasions so nearly equal
to the loss from deective compensation, that the ..ship's
longitude by chronometer is found to be sensibly' accurate.
On the next voyage, the tendency to gain having ceased,
defective compensation acts alone, and the result is great
disappointment. We have known captains in such cases to
say that the performance of the chronometer was satisfac-
tory during the first voyage, but that it had never gone
well sines. . .

In NI. 3 the irregularities cannot be attributed to either
of the faults exhibited in Nos. I and 2. The change of rate
is not so gradual, continuous, and in the same direction as
in No. I ; nor is it dependent cn temperature, as in No. 2.
The irregularity is quite as decided- as in either of the
preceding cases, but the cause is not so apparent.; precisely

similar irregularities are found to arise from a great variety
of causes. The oil may be glutinous, or it may have escaped
from one or more of the jewelled holes ; a jewel may be
loose or defective ; the escapement may he imperfectly adjust-
ed, or same other imperfection may exist which the skilful
workman will probably el, tect on taking the chronometer
to pieces. A7mther and similar trial will prove whether he
has detected ,:asele rem red cfaUlt. Sometimes the
chrenOnieter May pass through the hands of the most
experienced chronernYter maker several times before .he
detects the fault, for it requires, on Some' occasions, no
ordinary amount of shill ; but the test subsequent to the
last eamination by the maker will shew if the desired
improvement is effected.
supposing, therefore, that the mariner has access to an
establishment in which experiments similar to those exhib
ited, in the preceding examples are made for him; he can
himself, with the greatest ease, detect those. faults which
chronotrieters are so freqiently found to haete, and which
are to him of so-roncli importance. He has only to look
down the column of daily rates,' and to see that the tempe
rature, shown in the side column, has been:changed 20° or
3001 The differenCe hetweeu the,results given from day to
day will indicate at -oncelf the chronometer his a steady
rate. He must, hOivever, bear in mind, that absolute
perfection• is,impos,sible, • variations of a few tenths of a
second will take place.; Chronometers which will bear a
change of temperature of 20 or 307, and in,which the
extreme difference between any two days for thirty or forty
days in succession, does not amount to more than one second
or one second and a half, may be safely taken as first-
'rate marine tinaekeepers. If it were prmi)le to make
chronometers. perfect in all ether respects, the defect of the
ordinary compensation balance would algae proitice a change
in the daily rate, as large as that above named. This :may
he seen in the following examples, in which we have selected
three chronometers which were toned
.to have nearly the
same rates in 60° and 80°. By examining the rates about
half way intermediate between 50° and 80°, it will be seen
that each of them gained from one-second to one'second and
a half more than they did in either the high or low
temperatures. The daily rates here given are all gaining,
and the averages have been taken instead of the rate for
each day, as is the preceding examples; the errors to he
detected being very small.

EXAMPLES,
No. 5 No. 6. No. 7.
Mean Daily , M-an
Tern^•Mean Daily ,„.,„„
Rate Gaining. "`"P* Rate Gaining ,Rate Galeing "'
s.o S p S.
02 50 0.2 50 00 s°o
1.9 • 65 1.9 65 1.7 65
0 8 80 0.3 80 0.8 80
These rates were obtained from chronometers having the
ordinary compensation balances. This balance is in use in
the merchant service almost without exception. It does not,
perfectly compensate for the change of elasticity in the
balance spring. With it the chronometer can be
made to go the same in any two temperatures,
but it cannot be made to go precisely
the same in' any three temperatures. All chronometers with
this description of balance go faster in .some particular
temperature than they do in any other temperature, and the
chronometer maker has the -power of fixing this maximum
gaining rate, either in a high, low, or medium temperature.
at pleasure, by so adjusting the weights on the compensation
balance as to give the chronometer the same rate in two
temperatures at equal distances from that in which the
maximum gaining rate is required. In example N.). 6, the
maximum gaining rate is fixed at 65°, as near as possible, and
the loses at 500 is one second and seven tenths, and at 80°
one second and six tenths. The temperature at which the
maximum gaining rate is fixed le a matter of the highest
impo-tance in chronometers with this description of balance,
bee euie we find that the further this point is•departed from,
the greater will be the variation of rate for a given change of
temperature. At the distance of 15°, as we have seen, the
change of rate is abotft one second anti a half, but at 30°
distance it is found to be much more than twice that amount.
Ships at sea are for the most part exposed to temperatures
ranging from 50° to 80°, and captains should therefore take
care that their chronameters have as nearly as possible the
sarne`rate in these two temperatures. [This circumstance is
either not known by chronometer makers, or it is not
sufficiently attended to : the records .of the Liverpool
Observatory clearly prave this]. Suppose a chronometer
with the ordinary compensation balance to go mean time in
50° and 80°, thene as we have seen, it may be expected to
gain about one second and a half in.6s°; in 90° it would
probably lose abont two seconds, and iu 40° it would
probably lose from two to four seconds a day. In
temperatures below 40' there is less certainty ; the thicken-
ing of the oil, and the consequent decrease in the
are of vibration appear to .be .the cause of this. By
winding up or let'ing down the mainspring, and thereby
increasing or diminishing its power, the maker can cause
the chronometer balance to vibrate in a large or small arc ;
'and there is, a certain length of the balance spring at which
the daily rate of the chronometer is found to be the same,
whether the arc of vibration be large or small. Now, it is
very probable that some makers adjust the bal ince spring as
to cause the chronometer to have the same rate in the large as
in the small arcs; and that others so adjust it as to' make
the chronometer *.aitt more or less in the small arcs. In the
former case, the loss from additional friction, caused by the_
thickening of the oil, together with that from the defect
of the balance might be excessive,' while in the latter
case, it would be . more or less compensated for
by the gain consequent on, the diminished are of
vibration. Mariners who have chronometeas compensated
for high temperatures, should, if possible, when in high
latitudes, keep their time keepers in a room with the tempe-
rature not much lower than 509, es it is by no means
unusual for us to meet with chronometers having rates nearly
as steady as can be desired between 60° and 85°, but which
will, nevertheless, in temperatures between 30° and 40°,
change their rates 10, and even 20 seconds a day. Chrono-
meters intended for constant use in low temperatures, should
be compensated exclusively for low temperatures, for with
the balance in common use, • they cannot be made to go
with any degree of satisfaction through so long a range of
temperature as 60° or 80°. There cannot be a doubt as to
the practicability of removing this defect in the ordinary
balance, but two things above all others are necessary for its
accomplishment. Oar. means of testing must be such as to
satisfy the makers tha,t we can detect at' once and without
delay any improvement which they may make ; and
mariners, who are generally the customers of the makers,
must make themselves so far acquainted with the defects of
chronometers as to, show that they can understand and
appreciate improvements. The Corporation of Liverpool
made the necassary —provision. for testing chronometers in
this port some years ago, and 'arrangements are now being
made in London, under- the-direction of_the Board of Trade,
forteetirit clironometeri In a ;m:innei precisely similar, to
that which we have_ practised for the past ten years.
The testing app tratus for London has been , made in
thit town under:our immediate superintendence, and an
officer has, by' permissidn of 'the corporation, been taught
our method, in order that the same plan may be adopted in
London. • No chronometer maker, therefore, either in
Liverpool or London, need now he in 'doubt for more than
a few days as to the efficiency of any improvement which
he may attempt in the compensation baktuce of ,a chrono-
meter, for the result of our experieuce, is' that extreme
cold is not necessary for the defection Of- this fault, and the
higher temperatures -are always under our control. Tem-
peratures below 40'degrees are not 'favourable for this
experiment, unless the fluidity of the oil can' be depended on,
as a la ge change in the arc of vil,rationnuy render the
result uncertain. In testing chronometers for this
particular fault, it is, however, desirable 'to elevate
the temperature to 100 degrees and upwards, and the•oil
by being subjected to very high temperatures, even for a
few days, may become deteriorated. In the method which
we are about to describe, it must therefore be nnderstood
that it is 'only practised at the special request of the maker,
who supposes that he has effected some improvement in the
balance, and who intends to clean the chronometer again
after the experiment. Unless this special ropest be made,
85 or 90 `degrees is the extreme beat to which we expose
chronometers. This temperature is not greater than
chronometers must occasionally be exposed to at sea, and
we have found from long experience that no injury whatever
is done to the oil by such exposure.
The following is the method of testing for improvements
in the compensation balanco, which we have always found
both expeditious and successful. The maker is first requested
to adjust the chronometer with the supposed improvement,
to go to the same in 50‘.'. and 80°, • The experiment should
,he repeated several times to inure this being successfully
done, and when it is found that changes from 80° to 50° and
front 50° to 80° eon be made without altering the rate more
than a few tenths of a second, the temperature is increased
from 80° to 90°, from 90° to 100°, and from
100° to 110° in succession, and the change through
these • temperatures repeated two or three times. In
chronometers wi:h the ordinary balance, the losing rate
increases. from 80° upwards, till at 110° it is found
to amount to several seconds a day ; but if the chronometer
which is being tested cannot be made to lose more in 90°,
100°, and 110° than it does in 50° and 80°, the balance
will be found to be, for all practical purposes, sensibly
perfect. [We do not here allude to auxiliary compensations,
the adjustments of which depend on the sk•11 of the maker
in each individual chronometer. If ever the balance now
in tse be superseded, it will be by an improvement
of such a nature that if the balance compensates
at all, the defect which we have attempted to describe
will be removed without any additional trouble 'to the
springer. Several chronometers which stood this
test at the Liverpool Observatory, were afterwards
tested by Professor Bonn at the Cambridge Observatory
in North America, (hiring a very severe 'winter. The
result was such as to show that when the oil did not become
hard or glutinous, the rates of the chronometers remained
as steady at several degrees belowzeroo
alteringfFa
hrenhmeiotraestthhaeny
did in the higher temperatures, scarcely
one second a day in a range of temperature exceeding 100 j

degrees; bat that, if the oil became glutinous or hard, the
chronometers, even with this balance, would lose consider-
ably in temperatures below 30 degrees.
Unti,l-,chronometers used in the merchant service are
ar9Aekrerally subjected to a test previous to their being
purchased,than they now are, the makers will for the most
part confine their improvements
.to the chronometers which,
are sent'la the Royal Observatory at Greenwich for trial
previous to purchase _by_ the Admiralty. A chronometer
sold to the Admiralty gives the maker a nape, and this
namelas till recently been the only guarantee, afforded to,
the merchant captain;' hence'we often find him in posses-
sion ,of chroaometer, the rate of which is quite as
irregular as either of those exhibited is the first three.
examples. • • ,
The makers will exert themselves to' the Utmost, to
Supply _the astronomer with a good chronometer,
because they know that he can test its qualities, aad
appreciate its value-;;; pod that he will not be unreasonable
in Ma expoctations. Not that the astronomer is often'perfectly
satisfied: with the performanne of his instrunients, but le
generally makes himself too, well acquainted with the failings
to wl:ich they are liable to elle e, himself to be deceived by
such,imperfections. Now, this is precisely what we wish to
see in the mariner. He is called upon almost daily to esetc:se
his indguieut as tothe degree of confidence which he is justified
in ;placing in hii instruments; and a knowledge of the imper-
fections to which they are liable is the only thing that can
guide him to correct conclusions in these, to him, very im-
portant matters.