The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-16 00:00:00

MIDLAND AND CHESTER CIRCUIT.

Judge, the Hon Sir Cresswell Cresswell, Knt., one of
the judges of the Common Pleas. Cheshire, Saturday,
1)30. 1, at the Castle of Chester ; City of Chester, the same
day, at the Guildhall of tne City, Derbyshire, Thursday,
Dee. 6, at Derby. Nottinghamshire, Monday, Dec. 10,
at Nottingham ; Town of Nottingham, the same day, at
the same place. Warwickshire, Thursday, Dec. 13, at the
Castle at Warwick.

OXFORD ♦ND SOUTH WALES CIRCUIT.
Judge, the T-lon. Sir Ed. Vaughan Williams, ono of the
judges of the Common Pleas. Staffordshire, Saturday,
Dec. 1, at the Castle at Stafford. Worcestershire, Thurs-
day, Doc. 6, at Worcester ; City of Worcester the same
day, at the Guildhall of the city. Gloucestershire, Mon-
day, Dec. 10, at Gl,)ucester ; City of Gloucester, the same
day, at the same place. Herefordshire, Friday, Dec. 14,
at Monmouth, South Wales ; Glamorgausbire, Tuesday,
Dec. 18, at Cardiff.
The days and places on the Western and Home Circuits,
as also Liverpool, are not yet finally fixed.

The Messager de Gand states that since the arrest o
Madame Van Thielen on suspicion of being connected
with the murder of the Marquise d'Ennetires at Somer-
gen, she has undergone several interrogatories by the
examining magistrate. - She _firenly.porsists in the decla-
rations which she had previously made of her complete
ignorance of everything connected with the crime.
EASTERN ARCHIPELAGO COMPANY.—At a meeting of
this company held on Wednesday—Mr. H. H. Lindsay
presiding—the report and accounts were unanimously
adopted. The progress of operations is stated to be
satisfactory, but, although the amount of revenue has
nearly reached the expenditure, three calls are to be
made between January asd July to meet the liabilities
incurred in building the screw-steamer Labuan, and
supplying other requisite means for developing the under-
taking. It appears that Mr. Radford, the superintend-
ent,_
has entered into an arrangement with the Sultan of
Borneo, by which, instead of paying a duty of one di
per ton on the produce of the Moarro mines, an .
allow-
ance of 3,000 dols. per annum is settled as a royalty,ina I.n
.
addition to an immediate payment of 3,500 dole. in e ''-'
havethe
The coal is described to be good, and the works
of
steadily advanced. The reports on the
coal supplied to the Peninsular and Orientaluscipi Serteatom
qCuoems-
pany continued to be favourable.
tions, it was mentioned that the subject t and an
still under the consideration of the ti
vae
ronf
rat been charter.,
—he
Nrveesultfast
adjournment was agreed to for ascoer:ainFiltlat.
BROADSTAIRS.—TH z WREcic
week alluded to delay in the
rival of the Ramsgate
1) o
engine when the brig H
A i oee' oenPortemouth, took fire off
this place. W
d that after it got to Broad-
stairs, and waseraera-dynfrwfor working, a large number of
boatmen, calling themselves the salvors of the vessel,
who had the charge of the engine,
rushed upon those
itth over
vfie flames.
ehse
and threatened to wout the hosteo aenxdtiotghoroiswh
pier if any attempt was
possession of the hose;
They subsequently from the vessel to the •
which they hauled pier, and
forcibly presented the use of proper means to put out
the fire for more
than an hour, while, as the tide was
ebbing,
the fire was extending from stem to stern. At
last Lieutenant Wells, of the Coast Guard ser-
vice,
boarded the brig and induced the miscalled
“salvors" to permit the working of the engine, when tke
dames were speedily and effectually extirguiehed. The
reason assigned by the boatmen for their disgraceful con-
(luet was, that in cane the flames should be put out by
'the engine the superintendent would have a claim with
them for salvage. Had the engine been allowed to work
at first the vessel would have been worth at least 2001.
!Gore ; and if it had not been got into play at all the
hull would have been burned to the water's edge, and
iFr spars totally lost. The 'circumstances of this case
have been submitted to J. Cutler, Esq., Lord Warden's
' deputy, and through hiwito the Board of Trado.—Scou-
(MA 4.00744
, .
_ _ -

THE TERMINATION OF THE INQUEST.
On Wednesday the adjourned inquest was resumed at
Low Walker, at the house of Mr. Stewart, the jurymsL
who, from indisposition, was unable to attend last forts.
night. During the interim he had sufficiently recovered
to hear evidence, but was still unable to leave his house,
hence the jury assembling as above, in order to finish
the inquest.
Mr. M. Dunn, Government inspector, was again in at.
tendance to assist the inquiry.
The Coroner, before calling witnesses, read over the
evidence previously tendered, in order to refresh the
minds of the jury.
Mr. M. Dunn, Government inspector of mines, then
read the following paper relative to boiler explosions :
" I have thought proper to lay before the jury assem-
bled at Walker a few extracts relative to the power of
steam, under various circumstances, as bearing upon the
inquiry now before the coroner and jury, which may
probably serve to lead to the consideration of circum-
stances by scientific purposes ; but, after duly consider-
ing these and other similar circumstances, I have come
to the conclusion that the explosion has originated, from
whatever cause, in the proper quantity of water in the
boiler having been wanting.
" Such want of water might take place from neglect of
the person in charge, or it might take place from the
priming of one boiler into the other, up the steam or
feed-pipes, by which means the boilers were intercommu-
nicated. The boilers would appear to have been well
guarded against such an accident, each boiler having
duplicate safety and feed valves, the latter being fur-
' wished with flaps, within the boiler, for the prevention of
the priming. Notwithstanding these precautions the
boiler seems to have undergone undue heat ; and
although there is no evidence to show that any new feed
had been recently admitted, yet I conceive that it is very
possible that the agitation of the steam might throw the
water within the boiler upon the plates, already so betas
to occasion an instantaneous undue expansion of steam,
and to produce the explosion.
" I am, therefore, against the opinion that hydrogen
gas has occasioned the catastrophe ; because it will not
explode at an ordinary red heat, and it could not com-
municate with the bailer fires.
" With respect to the prevention of such accidents,
and under the impression that they tt'inost always origi-
nate from want of water (unless the safety-valve either
goes wrong or is overweighted), I am greatly of opinion
that the revival of an old practice would be advantageous,
viz., to adopt a plug of lead or some alloy which would
melt or consume at a temperature approaching 350 (legs.
as explained by experiment, to red heat, such plug to be
placed in a tube boil, r, at the upper part of the tube ;
and in a common cylindrical boiler half-way between the
surface of the water and the boiler bottom. The said
plug once consumed, the steam and water would rush
out and recall immediate attention to the boiler, which
must necessarily then be k.ft to cool down, during which
the steam valves would be-oktied7
"It would be quite proper, whilst the boiler was being
cleaned, to punch out the said plug and substitute a new
one.

" The advantage of this over many other devices is its
extreme simplicity and freedom from friction or com-
plicity. Ac any rate, I trust that these remarks will
cause investigation and decision amongst practical en-
gineers, so as to diminish these appalling mischiefs.
"It is &so an excellent precaution to adopt a flap, er
hcrse.foot valve, at the foot of the feed pipe, to prevent
priming up that pipe.

" MATTHIAS DUNN,
Government Inspcctor of Mines."

" P.S. I aid to the above report some experiments
made by Mr. Ilornsley, et3gineer, &Thin, at my re-
quest, to show the rate of steam dimiLutien under dif-
ferent circumstances, the boiler beino. 27:j feet in length,
6 feet in diameter, and the safety-valve having au area of
3 inches: _ _

Steam indicator, At the end of
25 lbs. 5 min. 10 min. 15 min. -20 min.
lbs. lbs.. lbs. lbs.
1. Fire-door open 231 203 18 16
2. Fire damped 2l
181 16 14
3. Fire pulled out 221 19 16 131
The Coroner briefly summed up, after which the jury
returned a verdict cf "Accidental death."