The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-23 00:00:00

ROYAL FREE HOSPITAL, Gray's-inn-road,
in the immediate vicinity of the Great Northern Rail-
way Terminus, King's-cross.

Patron—Her Most Gracious Majesty the QUEEN.
Vice-Patron—His Royal Highness the Prince of WALE S,K.G
President—His Grace the Duke of BUCCLEUCH,
Treasurer—Edward Masterman, Esq.
The numerous and urgent appeals of the sick poor for ad-
mission compel the Committee to entreat the bounty of the
affluent and humane, as the medical officers are daily obliged
to treat as out-patients many distressing cases which. with
more adequate funds, they would gladly admit into the wards.
The premises of the Hospital are capable of containing 500
beds.
The Hospital is not endowed, but is wholly dependent on
voluntary contributions and legacies, which are received by
the Treasurer, Edward Masierivan, Esq., Nicholas-lane; also
by Messrs. Coutts and Co. ; Drummond and Co. ; Herries and
Co. ; Ransom and co. ; Prescott, Grote, and Co.; Smith,
Payne, and Co. ; G.yn and Co. ; Jones Loyd and Co. ; Barclay
and Co. ; Denison and Co. ; W lliams, Deacon, and Co.;
Overend, Gurney, and Co. ; Nisbet and Co. Berners-street ;
Masterman and Co. ; I. Barned and Co., Liverpool ; and at
tile Hospital, from 10 till 5.
bTANTORD S. SaUTE£ Begretary.

Naval and Military Telegraphy,

An exposition of the system of telegraphy for the joint
use of the army and navy in combined military and naval
operations, which has been brought to its present state of
perfection by a series of experiments extending over some
months, by Captain Frank Bolton, of the 12th Regiment,
and Commander Colomb, of her Majesty's navy, took place
on Friday evening last, under the inspection of the Lords of
the Admiralty, and was attended with the most perfect suc-
cess. Their Lordships had left Portsmouth in the afternoon
in their yacht Enchantress, and anchored for the night in
Cowes Roads, the Pigmy paddlewheel steamer, Master
Commander Vine (fitted with sets of signalling apparatus),
following from Portsmouth and anchoring near the Admi-
ralty yacht, according to the arrangements announced in
the Naval and Military Intelligence of The Sun of Saturday.
The Pigmy thus became one point of commnsication which
may be termed the central, with the Lords of the Admiralty
on board to watch and direct the proceedings. The Pigmy
carries one of Captain Bolton's army field lime lights,_ and
is also fitted with the magneto-electric light of precisely the
same nature as the one that throws its powerful rays
nightly across the Channel from Dungeness Lighthouse.
Command Colomb was on board the Pigmy, and conducted
the signalling, under the direction of the Duke of Somerset
and his colleagues. The three outlying signal points from
the Pigmy were,—the semaphore tower, in Portsmouth
Dockyard; Ash-down, in nearly the centre of the
Isle of Wight; and St. Catherine's-hill, the high
land near Black Gang Chine, at the southern extremity
tof the island. At the semaphore tower was one of
/ Capt. Bolton's army field lime lights only, in charge of Capt.
Bolton and a corporal of Engineers. On Ashdown was a
similar instrument in charge of a couple of Engineers or
Sappers, and on St. Catherine's was a similar instrument,
with also a magneto-electric apparatus, in charge of four
Engineers.
The time appointed for the signalling to commence was 9
p.m., and the initiative was to be taken on board the Pigmy.
It was considerably past that time, however, before the
Pigmy made any sign to those in the semaphore tower at
Portsmouth, and it was evident that the Lords of the Ad-
miralty were either directing messages to St. Catherine's-
hill in the first instance, or there must be an intervening fog
between the signalling points undiscoverable from the sema-
phore at Portsmouth. The former eventually proved to be
the case. Capt. Bolton, anxious to discover the real cause,
flashed his light in the direction of Ashdown, and the call
being at once answered, Capt. Bolton flashed the question
as last as the words could have been slowly spelt, "Have
you any fog there, or is there any visible round St. Cathe-
rine's?'' The answer, flashed as quickly back, was "No-
thing that we can see." The call signal from Portsmouth
to Ashdown was made and answered and these messages
sent and received in an 30s. St. Catherine's station was
next flashed into p-.7ition out in the darkness, and told to
keep a sharp look out. At 10 p.m. the magneto-electric
light on St, Catherine's-hill burst into view over Ryde, with
all the brilliant intensity of a summer noonday's blue sun,
and " winked " out its message, " Cowes has seen us; good
night." Portsmouth, however, was anxious to know what
Cowes had said, and Captain Bolton, by a couple of flashes
from his diminutive apparatus, checked his powerful triend
and agent on St. Catherine's-hill, and put the necessary
question. Again the wonderful light winked through the
darkness, and, commencing its answer, said, " They asked
if we could."—At this point Captain Bolton had to signal,
" Wait," for Commander Colomb on board the Pigmy at
Cowes was calling attention with his magneto-electric light,
and, on being answered, sent the following passage (having
no official meaning) to Vice-Admiral Sir Michael Seymour,
at his residence in the dockyard, from the Lords of the Ad-
miralty who were on board the Pigmy, then from on board
their yacht Enchantress:—
"Semaphore tower, inquire of Sir Michael Seymour if
the Channel Fleet have coaled; ask also which boat won
the race."

Tho message was sent from the semaphore tower • o the
residence of Sir Michael Seymour, sad an answer was sent
acros by the lime light, that—
" The Channel Fleet have not all coaled yet. Admiral
Elliot's boat won the race."

Their Lordships now quitted the Pigmy for their own
yacht, quite satisfied with the experiments, and a parting,
"Great success," again winked by the magneto-electric of
the Pigmy to the lime light on the Portsmouth semaphore
tower closed the proceedings, and the Pigmy immediately
weighed her anchor and returned to Portsmouth.
It will be understood at once from the hour at which the
signalling took place that only the night system of Captain
Bolton and Commander Colomb was put under trial by the
Lords of the Admiralty, and this course was taken for the
reason that it difficulty in transmission existed in one part
of the system over the other it must be with the night
rather than the day system, from the fact that fogs—that
great enemy to all sight signals—are in greater force about
the high lands of the Isle of Wight by night than by
day. The magneto-electric light and the lime light may
be shortly described as follows :—ln the magneto-electric
the power that produces the light is resident in 120 perma-
nent magnets, of about Slb. each, ranged on the periphery
of two large wheels, the latter driven by steam power, which
causes 160 soft iron cores surrounded by coils of wire to
rotate past the magnets. The small streams of electricity
thus generated are collected together into one stream, and
by a special piece of apparatus, termed a commutator, the
alternate positive and negative currents are all brought into
one direction and conveyed by a wire to the illuminating
apparatus and lamp" or " regulator."
The lime light is obtained from the ignition of a piece of
lime, the shape and thickness of a small cedar pencil, by
submitting it to the intense heat evolved by the compound
flame of hydrogen and oxygen gases in the proportion in
which they form water. The Erne does not burn, but simply
becomes brilliantly illuminated without undergoing any
chemical change. This light is stated to be the most intense
and pure known, with the exception of the electric light,
over which, however, it possesses the great advantages of
being steady and continuous, and its volume capable of being
increased at pleasure. The cost of the magneto-electric ap-
paratus is something like £2,000 at present, but it can be
produced more cheaply as it is brought into use, and its cost
of working is said to be comparatively trifling after it has
been established. The cost of Captain Bolton's lime light
field apparatus, complete for field service, and such as is now
supplied by the War Department to our Royal Engineers,
is about £35. The lime light will receive and transmit sig-
nals with certainty to a distance of 23 miles, The range of
the magneto-electric is greater. The lime light is now sup-
plied to every ship in the Channel Fleet for night sig-
nalling, having superseded all other signal lights, and
especially those with coloured glasses. The army and navy
have thus already adopted the light officially to a certain
extent,, and it is with the object of its complete adoption
throughout both services that Commander Colomb and
Captain Bolton have now for some months past been em-
ployed upon these experiments to perfect a set of signals
which may be introduced as the signal code for the conjoint
use of the army and navy, and upon this part of their duties
the commission to be named by the War Department and
the Admiralty will immediately be formed and make a re-
port. The entire system of transmitting the signals by day
and by night is available under all circumstances, and is
expressed by jets of steam, revolving shutters, a collapsing
cone or disc by day; by one bright light by night, and by
a fog horn or steam whistle in a fog. With these means the
following results have been already obtained :-
1. Perfect communication by day has been established
between St. Catherine's Down, Isle of Wight, and her Ma-
jesty's steamer Pigmy, with the shutters and jets of steam,
the Pigmy being 16 miles off at sea, at the rate of two sig-
nals in three minutes, including the transmission of the
signals from St. Catherine's to the semaphore tower at
Portsmouth, an additional 16 miles.
2. Perfect communication by night between the same
points, at a seaward distance of 30 miles by the electric
light, and a seaward distance of 22 miles with the lime light,
at the average rate of one signal per minute, the weather
being ordinarily clear.

3. Fog signals by sound with common ships' fog horns,
at a distance of three to four miles, at the same rate of
speed.

Messages of 12 signals have been sent from St. Catherine's
Down to the Pigmy, and vice versa, at a distance of 17 miles
seaward, in a gale of wind, and transmitted to Portsmouth
in eight minutes,including the repetition at St. Catherine's.
On the night of the 18th inst. 200 signals were sent between
Portsmouth and St. Catherine's Down in one hour.
The new code may be said to be based upon the Morse
telegraph, the short and long dashes in the printing of
which are represented by Captain Bolton and Commander
Colomb by the time the jets of steam, cone, or disc, or
shutters are exhibited by day ; the time the light is flashed
in by night, and the duration of the sound emitted by the
steam whistle or fog horn in a fog. For exhibiting the
light or cone on board ship, Commander Colomb makes
the duration of the signal dependent upon a mechanial
arrangement of his own invention, which leaves nothing to
the judgment alone of the signalman, ann makes use only
of numerals, which are thus applicable to the present naval
bigual-bookii, In the telegraphic corps of the Royal Rngi•