The Sun.
London, England, 1862-03-31 00:00:00

THE ARMY.

The experiments which have been for some time
in progress at Chatham, by direction of the Duke
of Cambridge, for testing the newly invented lime-
light telegraphic night signals, the invention of
apt. Bolton, 12th Regiment, by means of which
messages of every description can be transmitted
with the greatest rapidity fold correctness a distance
of 50 miles, have just been brought to a close. The
final official trial took place in the presence of
Major-General Eyre, commanding the forces in the
district, and about 50 officers of the garrison. The
object of the final experiments was to enable the
military authorities to ascertain the advantages of
the invention in transmitting messages to the dif-
ferent portions of an army when in active opera-
tions in the field, in order that a special report
might be made on the subject. With the view of
putting the invention to a test similar to that which
would be required in a campaign detachments of
troops were despatched from Chatham to distant
parts of the surrounding districts, to each of which
signals were to be forwarded. One party of sig-
nalists occupied an eminence, about mid-distance
between Chatham amd Gravesend, a second took up
their position on the highest point of the range of
hills at Aylesford, a short distance from Maid-
stone. Other parties were stationed at Sheer-
ness, Upchurch, and other stations. The whole
formed a circle the diameter of which was about
fifteen miles, with Chatham as the centre.
ach party was furnished with one of the lan-
terns, together with the small portable apparatus, ,
also the invention of Capt. Bolton, for generating
the oxygen and hydrogen gases by which the lime
light is produced. The plan of operations supposed
an attacking force to be concentrated nearthe banks
of the Medway, between Chatham and Rainham,
the strength of position of which being known it
would he desirable to transmit intelligence of the
c'neumstarce to distant places, in order that the
;am-as-ivy reinforcements might be immediately
despatched to the scene of action. By direction of
General Eyre, various descriptions of messages were
despatched by Capt. Bolton, and the party under
his order to the various stations, all of which were
correctly recorded and instantaneously replied to.
Unfortunately, the weather was thick and hazy, but
this did not prevent the 'lime light signals from
being diAinctly visible, the brilliant flashes pene-
trating the thick atmosphere even at the distance
of 15 miles, while most of the surrounding objects
were hid in the mist. The men employed in work-
ing the signals had been selected from the troops of
the garrison who have been placed under the in-
struction of Capt. Bolton, and they were found to
despatch and record the various messages with the
greatest facility. After a trial, which occupied
about two hours, Capt. Bolton exhibited the use to
which the lime light could be put iu lighting up
the works of a garrison in order to ascertain the
strength of position of an attacking party at night,
"sad also to enable storming parties to attack a for-
tified position under the cover of the darkness. By
at tin°,4lfleration of his lanterns Capt. Bolton was
e
.ivadrln produce a light which for a distance of
7 's'as equal to strong moonlight, enabling
ve:r3• nejeat Within that limit to be clearly dis-
cernible. Tho ,
trial was pronounced to be
exceedingly
and a highly favourable
reprwt of the iliac/Ilio - -
transmitted to his
I; oral it is understood, be
'Yal Highness the Commander-
in-Chief.
Private Stone, of the Ist •
battalion, 6th Foot, has
been sentenced to four Years,
pr a al servitude, in
accordance with the decision
o stabrecent court-
martial, for having attempted to
non-eom-
sioi2ed officer with his bayonet, besidesa being
,uji,v of otacts
her gross of insucbonirindiannaatittonnt of the.
Co!. Alexander Anderson, o
Portsmouth division of loyal Marine Light In-
fantry, is promoted to the rank of majer_gon,,raluo
tLe active list of general officers, in place of Neelor_
Gen. Wesley, retired, late Deputy AdjutaGeneral,
Ma)
g
Notwithstanding the advanced pro ress of the
arrangements in the manufacturing derrtmerts of
Woolwich Arsenal for the specimens of workman-
ship prepared for .the Industrial Exhibition, an
order from the War Department was received on
Saturday eanccling the permission formerly ;ranted,
and intimating to the heads of offices that the Royal
Arsenal will take no share in the Exhibition. The
disappointment which the announcement occasioned
throughout
the establishment was intense, as
office" and men have laboured and exerted them-
selves night and day in cheerful and incessant

toil. A large number of the articles have already
been forwarded, and now lie in cases at the Exhi-
bition, and the remainder are packed for transmis-
sion. Upward!: of 500 mechanics and labourers
were on Friday dismissed from the Arsenal, hav-
ing received 14 days' previous notice, and a simi-
lar number were furnished with n lice to leave
on the 12th proximo, 245 of those who left
on Saturday consisted of carpenters, wheelwrights,
smiths, saddlers, collar and harness makers, tinmen
and zinc workers, from the Royal carriage square,
from which department about 300 of the same class
form a part of the second batch) Many of these
men are advanced in years) and have been employed
in the establishment for a long period, The machi-
nery throughout the departments was on Saturday
at a standstill in order that nothing should inter-
fere with the business of taking stock. The ser-
vices of the great majority of those usually em-
ployed were therefore dispensed with for that day.

ENGLISH AND 1' RENC.H IRON-CASED

SHIPS.

An important discussion upon the qualities of the
iron-cased frigate Warrior took place at the con-
cluding meeting of the Institution of Naval Archi-
tects on Saturday last, in which the President, Sir
J: S. Pakington, late First Lord of the Admiralty,
took part. _ _ _

A paper having been read by Mr. N. S. RUSSELL,
upon the American Stevens' Battery, which Con-
gress has just determined to complete,
Captain E. P. HALSTED, R.N., rose and entered
upon a general discussion of the merits of the
Warrior and other ships of her class, He said
that he not only took exception to some of the pro-
minent features of the Warrior's construction,
but unhesitatingly pronounced her altogether unfit
to go into action, and unworthy the name of a man-
of-war. The chief reason which he assigned for
these strong assertions was the absence of armour
from the bow and the stern of the ship, in conse-
quence of which, he alleged, the m©n at the guns
which are unprotected would be exposed to speedy
destruction, and all control of the ship would pro-
bably be lost by the steering apparatus being shot
away. He also contended that the accident which
lately befel the Defence at Spithead, when a gun-
boat got foul of her, and caused the anchor to fall
from the cathead and penetrate the bow just above
the water, proved the dangerous weakness of such
vessels at the extremities, and showed how liable
they would be to injury of the most serious nature
when subjected to the fire of an enemy in action.
On all these grounds, and also on account of the
nearness of her ports to the water, taken in conjunc-
tion with her great length, he (Captain Halsted)
strongly condemned the design of the ship, and
considered her unworthy to be called a warship at
all. He further complained, in reference to the new
shield ship which is to be built on Captain Coles's
plans, of the opposition which the Admiralty con-
structors had shown to the introduction of sloping
armour, and produced a drawing showing the re-
sults of actual experiments, in which a 51in. up-
right plate had sustained greater damage under fire
than a 4i-in. plate sloped at an angle of 50 deg. from
the upright.

Mr. E. J. REED said that as the Admiralty were
always deterred, by official considerations, from re-
plying to such remarks as those of Capt. Halsted, he
would venture to submit an observation or two by
' way of rejoinder to the gallant officer's statements,
not because he could presume to be in any sense the
representative of the Admiralty or their designers,
but because he was intimately acquainted with the
circumstances that led to the Warrior's design. He
would say at once that he thought the kind of criti-
cism in which Capt. Halsted indulged was most un-
fair, for, while he pointed out strongly the admitted
imperfections of the vessel, he omitted altogether to
mention those facts and circumstances to which,
from the very nature of the case, the designers were
subjected. In order to show how one-sided the
statements of the gallant officer were he would refer
to the question of partial protection. On hearing
Captain Halsted's statements any one would suppose
that the Admiralty could have plated the entire
length of the Warrior just as easily as a portion of
it, and without encountering any new difficulties.
Yet what were the facts ? Every shipbuilder knew,
and Captain Halsted ought to know, that it was
impossible to plate the Warrior throughout without
greatly increasing her size or greatly reducing her
speed ; and beside this there was another considera-
tion which a seaman should especially consider. He
(Mr. Reed) might state that the Warrior had one
important defect. Owing to her great length and
fineness of form she did not lift readily to a sea, and
consequently in rough weather if she steamed head
to it she ran the risk of carrying away her bowsprit
and head gear, on which account her bowsprit, as
announced in the Sun, was about to be shortened.
But how would it have been with her if she had
been plated, as Captain Halsted wished, from end
to end ? Evidently this defect would have been
increased tenfold, for her fine ends would then have
been encumbered with several hundreds of tons of
additional iron. In fact, there was very great rea-
son to fear that the Minotaur and her sister ships,
which were to be so plated, would pitch tremen-
dously in a seaway, and probably be unable to carry
any head sail at all. As to the sloping armour, he
protested against the experiments which Captain
Halsted had mentioned being taken as in any way
satisfactory. No experiments on this subject were
of value, as Sir John Hay had stated on a previous
1 day, unless the weights of the upright and sloping
iron were the same. in order to compare 51in.
upright iron fairly with iron at a slope the latter
ought to be loss than 4in. thick, even when inclined
at 45 deg., but Capt. Halsted's was inclined at 50
deg., and was increased in thickness to 41in., so that
a doubly unfair advantage was given to it. We
were bound to accept the statement of the Govern-
! meet Iron Plate Committee, who said that when
the two a erefairly compared the inclined plate had
no superiority whatever to the upright. It was at
the same time manifest that a thin sloping plate
might always be pierced by depressed fire. In con-
clusion, ho recommended Captain Halsted and
other critical gentlemen to abandon the vague ge- 1
neralities in which they indulged, and to design if
they could a better ship than the Warrior. It was
in the highest degree unjust that the Admiralty
constructors should be exposed to the extravagant
hostility of persons who were wholly incapable of
improving upon their work, and who fell foul of im-
perfections which were absolutely unavoidable.
With respect to Captain Coles' shield-ship, he would
add that the Admiralty designers had taken great
pains to produce as good a vessel as poasiblo, in ac-
cordance with the inventor's views, and this, he was
blare, C,iptain Cole:.' would acknowledge. At the
same time, they had, after all, been unable to adopt
all the proposals of that officer, owing to considera-
tions which the It aval architect was bound to regard,
but which other people often found it extremely
convenient to ignore. He (Mr. Reed) had no doubt
whatever that if Captain Halsted would submit the
design of an iron-cased ship which should embody
all kinda:of excellences and no defects, the Right
Hon. President and the Council of the Institution,
no less than himself (the secretary), would receive it
with delight, and use their best efforts to get it
adopted.
Captain lIALSTED submitted that Mr. Reed was
not justified in imputing unfairness to him as ho had
done.

Mr. REED explained that he imputed no bad in-
tentions to Capt. Halstead—far from that; but he
maintained that the gallant officer's criticism was
prejudiced and unjust.

Mr. SCOTT RUSSELL rose to speak briefly upon
the two questions—viz., the use of inclined armour
and the partial protection of the ships. He thought
it could not be doubt:A that sloping plates would
resist round shot hatter than upright plates; hut
the use of rifled shot had raised great doubts con-
cerning the value of the inclined principle, for he
in a szonstautexhtreahotapinnanrych the sloping plate through
all deflected,o •tmanner without being at

Capt. llALsub--w
' ' (OA not the rifled shot a flat-
fron ted shot ?
Mr. SCOTT
RUSsELL— o; spherical fronted
shot, which astobished him all the more. They
would allow him (Mr. Russell) to say that 'he had
been fur the last 15 years an advocate of sloping