The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-27 00:00:00

The Select Ordnance Comnaittere recently appointed by
the Admiralty and the War Department to inspect and
report upon the improved systems of day and night tele-
graphing in military and naval operations, combined or in-
dependently of each other, have returned to town from the
Isle of Wight. They have completed their labours, with
the exception of the oflieial presentation of their report. The
committee arrived at Portsmouth on Tuesday last from
London, and, embarking on board her Majesty's paddle
steamer Pigmy, Master Commander Vine, left the same
afternoon for Ventnor, Isle of Wight, where they landed,
accompanied ty Capt. Bolton and Commander Oolomb.
They proceeded thence to the signal station on St. Cathe-
rine's Down, near Blackgang Chine. It was to be made
the head-quarters of the committee during their stay in the
inland, and become also the signalling head-quarters during
the intended exposition of the results of Capt. Bolton's and
Commander Colomb's labours for the information of the
committee. The signal station on St. Catherine's Down was
under the command of Capt. Bolton, and was furnished
with the Holmes magneto-electrio light and Captain Bole
ton's field lime light,
dB supplied to the telegraphic corps
of the Royal Engineers for night signalling, and a Vene-
tian blind shutter apparatus and a set of naval code flags
for day signalling. Two men of the Royal Engineer
telegraphic corps formed Captain Bolton's staff. Ashy
Do sn, 71 miles inland fr St. Catherine's Down, was
another appointed station'. Oa ei island, and one of the field
limo lights for night signalling, with a double collapsing
cone for day signalling, was stationed there in charge of
two men of the Royal Engineers. At the semaphore
tower in Portsmouth dockyard, 144 miles from St. Cathe-
rine's Down, was placed a non-commissioned officer of the
Royal Engineers with two signalmen, in charge of a
field limelight for night signalling. Her Majesty's steamer
Pigmy was in charge of Commander Colomb, in posi-
tions oat seaward as required, and was fitted with one
of the magneto-electric lights (of the same description and
power as the one on St. Catherine's Down), a field lime light
and a flashing apparatus for night signalling ;
a double col-
lapsing cone and a steam jet for day signalling. In The Sun
of August 23 we gave a general description of the magneto
electric and lime lights, and the means of day signalling by
the cone, shutters, and steam jot. It is therefore only ne-
cessary on this occasion to draw attention to the fact that
Capt. Bolton and Commander Colomb'a system of signal-
ling may be said to be based on the " Morse" systems of
telegraphy, the long and short dashes in the printing of the
" Morse" message being efficiently and simply represented
in the Colomb-Bolton system by the length of time in
, Venetian shutters, or any
day, or by the length of
owthhiecrh
dark
d oobject
ciosl leaxphs
iibn
igt
ecdo nb ey
time in which the magueto-electrie and field lime lights on
shore, or the plain flashed lamp at sea, are exhibited by
night. Colours are totally discarded in these signals, for the
by
night will transmit its
time that the apparatus is
rmessagepossibly
h tacota
ana
much
na
greater
wrt
ehhaeit tesera
ml
egh
distancet
than any coloured light
simplified by the use of one kind of light only to a minimum
shutterpaia apparatus,tandadark are
' opaque,such as the collapsing cone or
preferable, for the same reasons, to
coloured flags by day. The steam jet signals remain to be
noticed. The efficiency of this mode of communication from
a vessel at sea to a headland on the coast was discovered in
a curious manner. One day during the recent experiments
which have been carried out between Captain Bolton, on St.
Catherine's Down, and Commander Colomb, on board the
Pigmy out at sea, communication from the Pigmy became
very difficult owing to the distance from the land and the
peculiar state of the atmosphere. The hull of the Pigmy
could just be discovered at sea from the Down; but it was
quite impossible to distinguish masts or yards, and there-
fore equally impossible to read any signal by the cone.
While she was being watched as she lay thus by Captain
Bolton and his party on the Down, three or four white
dashes (thrown off steam) of different lengths, stood out
most prominently over the steamer's hull, against the dark
horizon in the background. These white dashes, or escaped
lengths of steam, furnished the hint for the steamjet signal.
A. steam vessel lying so far off from the land that, like the
Pigmy, her ordinary mode of day signalling would be use-
less, can, by throwing off jets of steam, print if her mes-
sage iu long and short dashes against the darker background
over the horizon as certainly and as legibly as the electrio
instrument on shore prints off its dots and dashes on its
paper riband or tape. On Wednesday morning, the day
succeeding the arrival of the committee at St. Catherine's,
they were employed in discussing the reports handed in by
Captain Bolton and Commander Colomb, with which they
expressed the greatest satisfaction. On the afternoon of the
same day her Majesty's ship Pigmy proceeded to sea, and
when four miles off St. Catherine's commenced steaming
out slowly from off the land and signalling to the committee
on St. Catherine's-down with ordinary naval digs. At 6i
miles' distance the flags failed altogether, being then at too
great a distance to be distinguishable from the Down, and
signalling was then commenced with the flashing system,
the shutter apparatus, the double collapsing cone, and steam
jets. It was kept up for some time at an average distance
of seven miles,
and always. at a greater speed than that
gained by naval flags at one-third the distance. On Wed-
nesday evening night
signalling was commenced between
the down and the Pigmy,
12 miles at sea, with the lime
light, and was continued at a great speed up to the 14
miles' distance, when the magneto-electric light was
brought into play, and continued the signalling up to 17
miles, Messages were also forwarded direct to Portsmouth
dockyard, and answers received in return, and also to the
station on Ash-down ; but the most interesting portion of
the signalling was between the bold headland of St.
Catherine's and the Pigmy, out in the Channel. On
Thursday the committee were
out experiments in field signals with Captains Bolton and
ColotnYs apparatus, and rapid communication was kept up
at will, by day and by night, employed in carrying
between two moving parties
two miles distant from each other. This concluded the ex-
periments, and the committee expressed their warm approval
with all that had been submitted to them for examination.
It is understood that immediate measures will now be taken,
on the recommendation of the committee, to introduce per-
manently the combined Colomb-Bolton system into the
army and navy as the
bothh eth e r singly services
in
or ialln future operations by landg
or signal 1
y codes
e whether
conjunction with each other.
In the article on Naval and Military Telegraphy which
appeared in The Sun of Aug. 23 it was stated that " the
Lime light is now supplied to every ship in the Channel fleet
for night signalling." It should have read, "the lime
b
light flashing apparatus is now supplied to every ship, &c.
The light now used on board the Channel fleet is a plain
white light, shown at intervals in long or short flashes, to
represent the numerals in the naval signal book, by the
flashing apparatus invented by Commander Colomb.
The Wolverine, 21, screw corvette, Capt. A. F. R. de
Horsey, having completed her repairs, went out of Ports-
mouth harbour yesterday and anchored at Spithead, where
she"awaits her sailing orders.
The Himalaya troopship, Capt. E. Lacey, has completed
coaling. To-morrow she will embark the 6th Regiment and
proceed to Plymouth, returning with the 31st Regiment for
Aldershott.
The sailing ship Clarendon, Captain Barclay, yesterday
hauled alongside the Woolwich pier and shipped shot, shell,
and other stores for St Helena.
The War Department cutter Alma, Capt. Spriddell, yes-
terday arrived at Woolwich from Carrickfergus and Dublin,
conveying a complete battery of Armstrong 9 pounder guns,
belonging to a battery of Royal Artillery embarked for
Ind;a. C.B. Aide-
Col, W. J. Hopkins, de-Camp to her Ma-
jesty, and newly-appointed Commandant of the Royal
Marine Division of Light Infantry at Woolwich, assumed
the duties of his post yesterday morning, and afterwards
proceeded to the Admiralty. The inauguration, it is stated,
will be celebrated in a few days by a banquet to be given
by the officers of the division in their mess quarters, at
which Gen. Wards, C. 8., commanding the garrison, and
the whole of the officers will be invited.
The following appointments and promotions were made
yester day at the Admiralty Lieut. A, T. J. Bullock, to
the Euryalus—H. R. J. Peafeh, master additional, to the
Pembroke, for the Coastguard—Sub-Lieut. D. C, Stuart,
t) the Princess Royal—A. M. S. G. male, midshipman, to
the Black Prince—John Hancock (a) and William Crow
promoted to be engineers, and William C. Grahem, pro
meted to the Ist class assist—engineer.
as'

AN EXTRAORDINARY BEGGING LETTER.—The
Messager du Midi states that Baron de Rothschild
possesses the most voluminous collection of begging letters
that any financier ever received. They form a complete i
series. Among the number is one latly addressed to the
baron, containing the very tempting proposition that for the
bagatelle of 50,003 f the writer would engage to show how
couldhfoollei in is the g
prolong thage of 150 years. The
" Sir,— It has frequently
happened to me to be threatened with death if I did not
give a sum of money. You are certainly the field that has
ever asked me for it in proposing to prolong my life. Your
b baron's
on his,s life
replyto
proposition is, without doubt far better, and more humane.
But my religion teaches me that wo are all under the hand
of God, and I will not do anything to withdraw myself
from His decrees. My refusal, moreover, does not in any
way attack your discovery, from which you will not fail, I
hope, to profit yourself, Regretting that I cannot accede
to your proposal, I sincerely congratulate you on the 150
years which you are called on to live in this world.—
Accept, Stc., J, DE ROTHSCHILD."