The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-09 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR. OF THE SUN.

Sra,—l have just returned from Paris, and when there I
succeeded in procuring from the best authority (Messrs
Le Roy and Son, watchmakers to the King of the French)
a history of the Time-Gun in the Palais Royale. The
following translation of this document may be intresting to
your readers, more particularly as Time-Guns will in ail
likelihood be ere long placed in every impotent town of the
kingdom. I was gratified to find on my recent visit to
Newcastle and Shields, the great satisfaction the inhabi•
tants of these towns have with their audible signal, and
that Sunderland is contemplating to have one, also Aber-
deen. I was glad during my visit to the continent to see
from the Times that Glasgow has established a Time-Gun.
I am informed that four are spoken of for London, one to
be placed on the Tower, another on the Regent's Park,
Hyde Park, and St. James. I may here mention that it
was from this small Time-Gun in. Paris I got the notion,
nearly 20 years ago, of an audible signal, and which has
been so happily established in our own city.—l am, &c.,
JOHN HEWAT.

Edinburgh, 12, St. Andrew-square,
7th October, 1863.

[TRANSLATION.]

The celebrated cannon of the Palais Royale was made in'
1819 by a gunsmith of the Rue Richelieu, who proposed to
the Duke of Orleans, afterwards King Louis Philippe, to
establish it in the garden of the Palais Royale. It was
placed there that same year on the site where it is to this
clay. It cost 300 f. Its form is that of a howitzer ; the
diameter of the inside is five centimetres. It is loaded with
50 grammes (the unit French weight) of powder, costing
Bf. the kilogramme (1,000 grammes), each shot therefore
costing about 20c. The noise of the firing cannot be heard
beyond the buildings of the Palais Royale. It is firmly
fixed upon a pedestal of granite, and covered with a copper
cap, which shelters it from the inclemency of the wea-
ther. That cover is removed as often as the weather allows
to make use of the cannon (i.e., when it is fine weather).
It is set facing the east, to indicate by its detonation the
passage of the sun over the meridian of Paris. A lens or
magnifying glass concentrates the rays of the sun, which
sets fire to the powder. That lens is moveable upon a gra-
duated marked semicircle ; thus it can be displaced high or
low, according to the height of the sun above the horizon,
each degree corresponding to a displacement of five days.
The administration of the palace give 150 francs a-year to
es
state of f
theil
athaeagtuonksemapitiht,iwa.hwo
aisrktihneg ianrvdeenrtaosr olafnigt,
atos
theta k
atmosphere permits. The conditions imposed upon him for
ismt rpi cat;
taanncda tthae t andeme ixnai
es
hriastisaear vdi
:end()
to s
snot stae e
o amt t ta
attach emvue cr hy
ttitude of bis duty. Amateurs who come to the garden to
await the detonation, in order to put their watches correct,
aro apt to register great variations. The majority do not
reckon the difference between the real time and the mean
time ; and we must say that the gunsmith himself does not
know or that he does not seem to trouble himself mile
about it. At the moment which we write these lines (Sep-
tember, 1863), the sun passed the meridian at Paris at llh
51m 235, and we see the gunsmith upon the point of setting
his cannon at llh b6m, that is four minutes after the pas-
sage of the sun. We hear the detonation at 12h 4m 30s
mean time, while it ought to have been heard at llh 51m
the soldiers
225. This complaisant toleration has given rise to the fol-
lowing popular saying—" The cannon of the Palais Royalee
tell
tltle the time
members to
of
the
Observatory
and
nurse-
maids." a goods i
." (1)
Irora ) to
hope t
Paris determine to take as a model the regularity and pre-
cision of the cannon at Edinburgh.

TILE Loss OF A HULL STEAMER,--Tbe loss of
the screw steamer Zealand, of Hull, with her cap-
tain (William Lewis) and six of her crew, appears now, by
the continued absence of any tidings of the ship or her
crew, to be all but certain.

THE COLOSSAL MAP OF LONDON now being
issued by the Messrs. Cassell, the eminent publishers, is on
the atagliEcent scale of Rinelohee to the wile.

r
ht..
elnubt

THE QUEEN IN SCOTLAND.

BALMORAL, Oct. 7.

The Queen, accompanied by Princess Louise, and
attended by Lady Churchill, went out yesterday
morning.

In the afternoon, the Queen, accompanied by the
Crown Prince and Princess of Prussia and Princess
Louise, drove round by the Lynn of Muich.
Prince and Princess Louis of Hesse, Princess
Helena, and Prince Arthur, rode up the Glen of
Muich and drove back from Alt-na-Guithasach.

The King of the Greeks.

His Majesty the King of the Greeks, and his
Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, attended by
Lieut. Funch and Capt. Grey, went yesterday morn-
ing to Richmond Park, and spent the day shooting,
in company with his Royal Highness the Duke of
Cambridge.

Last evening the King of the Greeks and the
Prince and Princess of Wales honoured the perform-
ance at the Haymarket Theatre with their presence.
The suite in attendance consisted of Baron Gni-
dencrone, Captain Grey, and the Hon. Mrs. W.
Grey.

M. Jean G. Cladda had an audience of the King
of the Greeks on Wednesday, at Marlborough
House.

Mr. George Papayanni, Mr. Constantine Ralli,
and Mr. A. G. Eumorfopulo have been deputed
by the members of the Greek community resident
in Liverpool to present an address to his Majesty
George King of the Greeks. The presentation will
take place at Marlborough House on Saturday
morning. The original of the address is in Greek.