The Sun.
London, England, 1839-12-19 00:00:00

THE ARCHIMEDES STEAMER.

(From the Inventors' Advocate.)
Oa Thursday, the 28th ult., the Archimedes left
London for the Texel and Amsterdam, where she was
bound to exhibit her powers to the Dutch Government
as a tug, on the North Holland Canal, for large mer-
chant vessels, &c. (which is usually done by horses),
and to show the general applicability of her plan for
canal purposes, in consequence of its not causing that
swell and disturbance in the water that paddle-wheels
do, and which at present prohibit their use on canals.
The Archimedes had reached a little below Graves-
end, when one of the feed pumps got out of order
by the plunger having collapsed, which, on exami-
nation, proved to be of much thinner metal than
is usual in their construction. This accident de-
tained the vessel till Friday morning, when she
again started with a perfect gale in her teeth, and had
not proceeded farther than Sea-Reach, when she was
doomed to undergo a more serious misfortune by the
breaking of the crank-shaft, which, being made of cast
iron instead of wrought, snapped like glass ; and before
the engines could be stopped, the piston, from being too
suddenly liberated, destroyed the cylinder-cover, and
materially injured other parts of the engine and framing.
The escape of steam from the cylinder rendered the
stopping of the engine a very difficult and dangerous
task. The sails were immediately hoisted, and the
screw disconnected, when the Archimedes had an oppor-
tunity of exhibiting one of the principal objects she was
intended to effect, by passing everything while coming
up the river, although it blew a double-reef breeze.
Really the projector of this important invention seems
destined to undergo nothing but disappointment and
delay—not from any defects in the plan of propulsion,
which is too simple to be subject to much derangement
—but from continual failures and imperfections in the
engines, which have nothing to do with the principle of
the invention. It will be recollected that, after waiting
a long time after the contract for the engines, and
within a month after the starting of the Archimedes
(which was in May last) a fatal accident occurred by
the bursting of the boilers. These have been since
replaced by new ones by a different maker ; but
from the general inefficiency of the engines, and the
many alterations thereby caused, she was not con-
sidered sufficiently perfect to undertake the trip to Hol-
landthe time above-mentioned. From the space
the recent repairdamage, much valuable
lost, and the Archimedes will not be ready
time will be . .
ly in the ensuing spri.
for sea again until ear
h.
required until t
We cannot but sympathiseiewithMr, Smith in his
cruel misfortunes, over which lie evidently has no con-
trol.
his next experiment will prove
We ore fully convinced of the value of his inven-
tion, and sincerely hope
more successful in its issue.
Smith, the maker or makers of such [We really think that in commeohninjaueshtiicneerytoouMghrt.
to make good all the losses and expense caused by their
defective engines.— Ea. SUN.]

The HAGUE, DEC. 16.—1 n the sitting of the
Second Chamber of the States' General on Saturday,
the central section brought up its report on the project
of a law for a loan to be charged in the Colonies in In-
dia. It occupies 13 full columns of the States Courant,
and is followed by a note of the Government in reply
to the observations of the sections, and making some
alterations in the project of
lnw, the debate on which
was fixed for the 18th instant.

We learn from our Irish correspondent that it is
quite certain Mr. Corbally, Lord
Fingal's brother-in-
law, wi.l be returned tor Meath, on the vacancy created
by Mr. Morgan O'Connell 's resignation. He kill be
supported, we understand, by that powerfully influential
body the Meath Independent Club.—Clironicle.
The General team Navigation
Company's
Steam ship Columbine, Captain W. Norwood, arrived off
the Custom-house, from Rotterdam, 1414 day, after
a favourable passage of twenty-four hours.