The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-30 00:00:00

CRYSTAL PALACE DISTRICT GAS.

Yesterday the half yearly meeting was held at the Albion
Hotel, Aldersgate-street ; Mr E. Wilson in the uhair,
The report stated that the works and plant were in good
order, and that the new gasholder was progressing satisfac-
torily. A further reduction would be made in the price of
gas from the Ist of January next. The balance-sheet for
the half year to the 30th of June last showed the profits for
the half year to be £3,710, which with £216, balance from
preceding half year, made £3,926, out of which the direc-
tors recommended a dividend of 6 per cent, per annum on
the preference capital, and of 10 per cent. per annum on
the ordinary shares. The total paid-up capital was L 126,714,
leaving, after expenditure, £6,261.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the report,
congratulated the proprietors on the progress and prospects
of the undertaking. After alluding to the perfection of the
company's apparatus, the superior quality of the gas manu-
factured, and the constantly-increasing supplies required,
he said that from the Ist January the price of gas would be
4s 91. per 1,000 cubic feet.

Mr HOWELL seconded the adoption of the report, which
was unanimously carried.

The dividend was declared payable forthwith, and the
thanks of the meeting were given to the chairman and direc-
tors for their able management.

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TlMES.—There is no country in Europe that can
boast of a higher literary culture than Prussia. Her
thinkers have asserted an influence over modern
literature with which no other country of Europe
can compare ; she is in fact emphatically the land of
order and method, of a people drilled and docile, of
a soldiery at, well disciplined that they are accused
of looking as if they had swallowed the cudgel with
which they have been beaten. It has been the hap-
piness of Prussia to emancipate herself from the
chains of Romish superstition, and in no country in
the world has more attention been given to the
general education of the people. It was natural to
expect that such a nation would embark in war
with the very greatest reluctance and only under
tha most clearly demonstrated necessity, and that
if unhappily she found herself engaged in unavoid-
able hostilities she would conduct them with a
mildness and respect for the feelings of others, and
a deference to the principles of equity and justice
which would set a brilliant example to all future
belligerents, and found a brilliant epoch in the
gloomy history of human misfortune. Apparently
the Prime Minister of Prussia is of opinion that
his country has entirely comp up to this imaginary
standard, for he has challenged the appro-
bation of the English Cabinet, and received an
answer which he is not likely very speedily to forget.
But he is perpetually improving upon himself, and
has, during the last week or two, shown that he is
capable not only of adding fresh horrors to war and
imparting a hitherto unknown bitterness to defeat,
but of giving to an armistice a turn and a signi-
ficance never dreamt of before. The nature of an
armistice is, as the Germans exprees it, standing
still, a suspending all acts of hostility in order to
give time for the negotiation of peace. The very
essence of the agreement is that the position of
both parties shall remain, as far as possible, ex-
actly the same as at the time when it was con-
cluded ; that as the armistice was agreed on for
the purpose of making peace, it shall be abused
for no other ptupose, and that neither open nor
covert hostilities shall be allowed to go on during
the period for which it is in force. Any such
proceeding as we have mentioned would as between
equals operate at once as a determination of the
armistice; but Prussia knows well that she is not
dealing with an equal, and as she measures her acts
now entirely with reference to her own power and
the weakness of her adversary, she has no objection
whatever to converting the armistice itself int) a
fresh instrument of torture. Prussia, through her
semi-tfficial organ, openly avows that the delays in
the peace negociationa, which has been entirely the
fault of the Danes, has compelled the Allies to adopt
every means to cause Denmark to hasten the work
of pacification, especially by substituting more severe
action for the forbearing manner in which the con-
ditions of the armistice have hitherto been carried
out. The commander in Jutland has already taken
some measures to arouse Denmark to the conscious-
ness of the country being occupied by an enemy.
We certainly should have thought that considering
the unheard-of exactions, the wholesale plunder of
which jutlaed has been the victim, Denmark, how-
ever lethargic she may be, did not require any new
outrage to convince her that Jutland is not only in
the occupation of an enemy, but of one of the meanest
and most merciless tyrants that ever discharged the
duty, easy and delightful to certain natures and
certain characters, of making a harmless and ins
offensive people drink to the very dregs the bitter
cup of military insolence and brutal oppression.
The Prussian Government, however, think diffe-
rently. They attribute to their previous leniency,
to their delicacy, to their squeamishness, to their
unwillingness to press too harshly on a fallen enemy
the present reluctance of Denmark to subscribe the
conditions of a treaty which, beginning with her
dismemberment, may perhaps end in her destruction,
Denmark requires to be reminded that she has still
some territory which has not been conficated, still
some wealth which hes not been seized upon by
the victors. To remind her of this, first of all
communication between the Danish authorities
in Copenhagen and in Jutland is forbidden.
The attempt of the Danish Government to
issue directions to the Governor of its own pro-
vince of Jutland is denounced by M. von
Falkenstein as an arrogant pretension. The only
Government existing in Jutland is a military Go-
vernment, and from that alone the Danish officials
must receive their orders. Again, the same M. von
Falkenstein refuses to pay out of the revenues of
Jutland anything more than what is necessary to
meet the expenses of Government, and especially
refuses to pay the pensions which have been charged
upon the taxes of Jutland. The surplus, if any, of
the revenue of Jutland belongs by agreement to
Danmark, and the refusal therefore to pay the
pensions which are charged upon it seems to be an
act of the most wanton injustice. The object pro-
bablyis to distress and excite the Jutlanders, and,
by this threatening action, to gain their assistance
in impressing upon the Danish Government the
necessity of putting an end to the war. We may
add to these measures the prohibition of inter •
course between Jutland and Copenhagen, the em-
bargo laid on the exportation of cattle and provi-
sions from Jutland, and the quartering of 50,000
soldiers upon a province afflicted with a poor soil
and a tempestuous climate, and already reduced to
the last extremity of misery by ill treatment. Mo-
dern history has no blacker page than that which
describes these transactions; they are a complete
anachronism, an importation into an age of civilisa-
tion and enlightenment of maxims and proceedings
worthy of the days of Tilly and Wallenstein, but
which even the least sanguine believer in the pro-
gress of the human race never expected to see
repeated. It is reported from Vienna that Lord
Clarendon has explained to Count Rechberg the
necessity of speedily closing the negotiations for
peace ; he is said also to advocate thespeedy inaugu-
ration of the Duke of Augustenburg. It is said that
to these remonstrances Austria has reserved her re-
ply. 'We most sincerely hope that the statements
to which we have alluded are not true. There is
probably not a man in this country who does not
think that England has given a great deal too much
advice already. The country has borne with won-
derful patience the spectacle which has been pre-
sented to it of England perpetually offering advice
wench has not been taken or asked for, and perpe-
tually uttering menaces which have been disregarded
until she was obliged to retire from any farther in-
terference with a cause for which she was not pre-
pared to use the only arguments likely to influence
Austria and Prussia. It would be exceedingly dan-
gerous to begin the same game over again. We
did not think fit to interfere while Denmark had
anything to lose ; it would be simple insanity to
have recourse to measures of coercion now when
she has been despoiled of almost everything that is
worth the trouble of preserving; and if it would be
insane of us to go to war for a cause which is obvi-
ously lost, is it not even more foolish to offer advice
which we are not prepared to support by arms, and
expose ourselves to fresh mortification and humilies
t ion ? We have taken our course and must abide by
it, One of the evils of that course undoubtedly was
wile, we have felt so bitterly for the last three
months, that we must stand by and observe the out-
rages which are accumulated by the Allies Without
making the slightest attempt to redress them. The
evils of this position had been foreseen, and were
eccepted after careful consideration, and we in ust
not shrink from them now. We are also perfectly
confident that, as surely as the infraction of the
organic laws of health draws after it its appointed
penalty, so this ostentatious trampling nutter foot
of honour and justice will not be allowed, according
to the ordinary government of the world, to remain
long unpunished. There seems a very decided indi-
cation that Eastern and 'Western Europe are

strengthening themselves by new alliances, and that
the time is not very distant when the rival ambition
and covetousness of sovereigns will execute upon
their people evils quite as great as those which they
are now inflicting upon Denmark.

POST.—It is a fortunate circumstance for the tra-
velling public that the explosion of locomotive
boilers seldom occurs e ceps when engines are
standing still. There is no mechanical law which
positively insures passengers by railway trains
against such catastrophes ; but, as a matter of fact,
explosions do not commonly happen when an engine
is actually in motion. In the case of locomotives as
of men, idleness appears to be the mother of mis-
chief. When the driver has his eye upon the steam-
guage he is able to regulate the pressure by the
amount of work to be dons; but in the interval be•
tween getting up steam and starting on a journey,
when stoker and driver are applying the polishing
rag or the oil can, a few brief seconds may raise the
pressure beyond the limit of safety, and a fearful
sacrifice of life and property may ensue. The ex-
perience of past years justifies the expectation that,
under the present system, from three to four en•
gines per annum will be destroyed by boiler explo-
sions. During a period of seven and a half years
Colonel Yolland, the Government Inspector of Rail-
ways, records that while there are five hundred
and ninety-nine accidents of all kinds, the number
of boiler explosions was twenty-five, and that the
companies' servants suffered by these casualties
in the proportion of 4.6 per cent. of the total num-
ber killed and injured during that period. Boiler
explosions, although they appear at first sight to
be scarcely of a preventible character, may in
reality be reduced to a very low minimum, pro-
vided only proper precautionary measures be taken.
It was found in the manufacturing districts that
when boilers were left to the individual inspection
of foremen and mechanics employed about them
fatal accidents were of very frequent occurrence.
Men whose lives were in instant danger from
every defect in the boilers which it was their duty
to superintend frequently failed to discover and
remedy those defects until it was too late. At last
it became evident that some means must be
adopted for providing inspection more intelligent
trustworthy, and an association was formed for the
purpose of accomplishing this end. The results
have been most satisfactory. Boiler accidents are
now of rare occurrence, and indeed have practically
ceased in the establishments embraced within the
sphere of operations of the society. It is very evi-
dent that results no less satisfactory might be at-
tained in the case of locomotive boilers wore similar
means applied. Capt. Tyler has recently presented
to the Board of Trade some reports upon the c=ircum-
stances connected with the explosion of three loco-
motive boilers, and the facts which he records de-
serve more than ordinary attention. All the engines
had been a considerable time in use. One of them
was built in 1850, and had run a distance equal to
more than ten times the circumference of the globe.
Indeed, if we suppose a belt of railroad to encompass
the planet Jupiter, the engine, if started upon it
when built, would have just returned to the point
from which it set out when it came to its untimely
end. This, however, is by no means an unusual
mileage for an engine to accomplish; and of the
7,000 locomotives at present in use as passenger
engines, many might be picked out which have
accomplished even a larger amount of work_ Of
course it must not be supposed that the engines re-
ported on by Capt. Tyler had never been under the
hands of the doctor. Admirably as such machines
are manufactured in England, constant friction and
the action of fire and water will tell upon particular
parts of them, and these must be patched or renewed
from time to time. The wonder is that all three
boilers should have exploded from the same cause
cause, remembering that the engines belonged to
different companies, and must have been under ex-
amination more or less close when undergoing re-
pairs. Yet the Board of Trade Inspector reports
that the accidents were caused by what he describes
as " channelling along the upper edge of longitu-
dinal points." And the channelling appears to be
due to a combination of mechanical and chemical
action. Differences of pressure and of temperature
cause alternate contraction and expansion ; and,
when the barrels are not perfectly cylindrical, they
are necessarily altered in shape under different
pressures, " causing new surfaces to be exposed to
the oxygen, and perhaps also to the acids in the
water near the joints and stays, and at all those
parts at which there is extra stiffnese." Galvanic
action, due to the materials commonly employed in
boilers, is frequently developed, and assists the pro-
cess of corrosion. The shell is of iron, the tubes
brass, the fire box copper. Mechanical, galvanic,
and chemical forces simultaneously at work, doom
the boiler to destruction ; and the period for send-
ing the engine to hospital depends on the quality of
the water, the mileage duty performed, the tenacity
of the material, the manner of construction, and
the average pressure maintained. It is not by any
meats a cheerful consideration that any one of the
7,090 engines used for passenger trains may, for
aught the traveller knows to the contrary, have
arrived at an extra hazardous period of its exist-
ence. The grand vice of almost every railway is
want of punctuality. If we Burps° an engine in
which the treacherous work of corrosion has been
silently progressing for three or four years to be
attached to a heavy passenger train, what guaran-
tee is there against en explosion even while the
engine is in motion ? Time has been lost in the early
stages of the journey, and the driver finds that he
must put on greater speed, The pressure is increased
and in a moment the boiler is rent and shattered,
and stoker and driver are either killed or lie writh-
ing in agony among the debris of the engine. The
consequences may readily be conceived. The fore-
most carriages plunge and rush against the tender,
and are thrown off the line, and those in the after
part of the train experience a shock only inferior to
that of a collision. The killed and scalded and
bruised are numbered by the score, and the district
surgeons will have a busy time of it for a week or
ten days. This at least is a danger from which the
public may insist that railway directors shall save
them. It is perhaps too much to expect that trains,
especially upon elms lines, where junctions are of
frequent occurrence,should arrive at allotted stations
within an hour of the time specified. The traveller
need not hope to catch the train at the junctionwhich
is advertised to leave 50 minutes after he is adver-
tised to arrive; but he may,without being termed un-
reasonable, call upon locomotive superintendents to
see that engines are not sent out which are at any
moment liable to explosion. The condition of the
boilers of locomotives cannot be satisfactorily ascer-
tained without removing the tubes; and Captain
Tyler asserts that this is not done more than once
in seven years. His recommendation is that a tho-
rough internal examination should be made at
intervals of not more than three years; and as it
appears that defective plates are not always
promptly renewed he insists that " no plate should
be allowed to remain in a boiler to wear out another
set of tubes on which distinct indications of chan-
nelling are observable." In addition to these pre+
cautions the hydraulic test which is used on the
Continent should be habitually employed. In the
present state of our knowledge it is impossible not
to agree with the Board of Trade Inspector that
some improvement is needed in a system which
allows of three explosions in a month on passenger
railways. The question occurs, in view of what
has been done in Manchester, whether the railway
companies might not adopt a modification of the
system which manufacturers have so successfully
employed. It is quite true that very competent
engineers are attached to most lines, but it is no
less true that preventible explosions have occurred.
A small staff of inspectors specially selected might
with advantage be engaged, and paid by contribu-
tions from the companies in proportion to the engine
power used and the mileage accomplished by each.
The saving of a single engine would more than
repay a company for its outlay, on careful inspec-
tion, extending over many years. Whatever
method the companies may adopt, it is clear that a
thorough periodical examination ought to be made
in the case of every passenger engine, and that the
hydraulic test ought to be more frequently, as it can
be more conveniently, applied. Ot the seven thou•
sand engines in constant work many have travelled
from 250,000 to 300,000 miles each, and are ready
to explode on the slightest provocation. It is con-
sequently the duty and the interest of boards of
directors to take immediate steps to discover and
remedy the defects which, on inspection, many of
the locomotive boilers would probably be found to
exhibit.

STORM BAROMETERS.—The people who have
lately been at the seaside must have noticed the
storm barometers ; old salts stared at them when first set up,
but now they aro highly valued. Eight fishery barometers,
specially lent under duo control and care, are now set up
round our coasts. It is scarcely possible to arrive at any
statistical results of the service they have rendered, but the
fishermen, we are told, are much influenced by them and
very thankful for the boon. Even if only one fishing boat,
deterred from putting oat in doubtful weather by consulting
an instrument, were to escape the violence of an impending
storm, few of us would grudge the expense that it cost the
country to warn the owner. Apart from all considerations
of profit and loss, over and above the interest of science, or
the future of the indictive philosophy itself, this one most
important question predominates, as we weigh the utility of
the meteorological proceedings of the Board of Trade, "Do
these warnings and these instruments save the lives of our
brave soldiers and fishermen ?" If they do, then nice calcu-
lations of expense and expediency are unworthy of the
country. It is clearly the duty of a:( od Government to
provide for the safety of all classes of its subjects ; that
money is well spent which in the remotest degree contri-
butes to this object. Let the advocates of the Meteorological
Department take this high ground, and few will be inclined
to attack their position.—Once a Wed.