The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-22 00:00:00

THE TIME GUN.

The success which has attended the establish.
ment of the Edinburgh time gun, which has now
been in satisfactory operation above two years, has
attracted the attention of various localities, with a
view to the introduction of a similar time signal.
Newcastle-on-Tyne in particular has been moving
in the matter, and arange meats have now been made
for firing a gun there daily at one o'clock during
the approaching meeting of the British Association,
simultaneously with the gun at Edinburgh Castle
and by means of the same electric discharge. The
time is to be taken from the chronometer in
the Royal Observatory, Calton-hill, Edinburgh,
which is regulated to Greenwich time by
dai y observations, and the current is to
'be conveyed along the wires of the Electric
Telegraph Company (other messages being for a
few moments suspended), impelled by Professor
Irehe magnetic exploder. The apparatus,
first tested n e
by sthe
ignition
of fuses, was on Monday
r ta:tto'
brought into operation by the discharge of the gun,
which told the time to the people of Newcastle at
the exact moment of the signal being heard in
Edinburgh. It is estimated that the deflection for
loss of time does not exceed the tenth part of a
second, although the distance to which the current
has to be sent exceeds 125 miles. The experiments
for the introduction of the signal were conducted,
at the request of the Tyne commission, by Professor
Smyth, Astronomer Royal for Scotland; Mr. N.
J. Holmes, of the Universal Private Telegraph
Company; Mr. F. Ritchie, Edinburgh; and Mr.
D. Reid, jun., Newcastle. It is intended to fire a
gun also at North Shields by the same electric dis-
charge during the meeting of the British Associa-
tion, and the hope has been generally expressed at
the practicability of the arrangement being proved,
the signal will be permanently established on the
Tyne us well as on the Forth. On Tuesday
last, on the gun at Newcastle being fired, the
Mayor sent a complimentary message to the Lord
l'rovost of Edinburgh, which his Lordship received
while presiding at a meeting of the Town Council,
and which he read to the meeting. The Mayor, in
his message, expressed the hope that he should have
his Lordship among his guests at the approaching
meeting of the British Association. 'The Lord
Provost, in his immediate reply, congratulated the
Mayor on the successful introduction of the signal,
returned thanks for the invitation, and expressed
the hope that the approaching meeting would be a
highly successful one.

MYSTERIOUS MURDER IN PARIS.—An event has
lately happened in Paris which peomises to give
ample work to the police of that metropolis. M. Franc-
kaert was, on Wednesday last, mysteriously murdered at his
hotel in the Faubourg du Roule. He formerly carried on busi-
ness as a perfumer in the Chauss6e d' Antin, and has retired
from his occupation with a fortune said to amount to
2,000,000 f. He was a very eccentric person, living alone,
seeing scarcely anybody, and rarely g,oiug out save at night.
He was found dead at the door of his cellar, his skull having
been beaten in with a heavy log of wood. Robbery NCtIS evi-
dent ly not the abject of the assassination, as noproperty was
abstracted from the hotel, while the murdered man's purse,
together with two watches, which it appears he was accus-
tomed to carry, were left untouched on his person. The
police are more secret in their movements in Paris than
in London ; but, as far as is known, no clue has as yet been
discovered as to the perpetrator of the crime.