The Sun.
London, England, 1862-08-02 00:00:00

7HE A Rllll%

Yesterday morning the troops in garrison at
Dover, comprising six batteries of Royal Artillery,
under the command of Col. Fisher,
-
the 59th
an Regi-
ment y
ment of Infantry, under command of
Col.
urme C. 13.,
and the 83d, commanded by Col. B ster,
were assembled upon the drill-ground for the par-
pose of conferring the Victoria Cross on Lieut.
Edward Talbot Thackeray, of the Royal
Bengal
Engineers, now on duty at that garrison. A letter
from the llrar-office, dated July 17,
expressing her
Majesty's regret that she was
linable to decorate
the recipient herself: and an extract from the
Gazette, were read. I, he latter stated that Lieut.
Edward Talbot Thackeray Was
recommended to
the Victoria Cross "for cool intrepidity and char-
acteristic daring in extinguishing a fire in the
Delhi magazine enclosure, under a close and heavy
fire from the enemy, at the imminent risk of his life
from the explosion of combustible stores in the
,
shed in which the fire occurred., General Garvock
in presenting the medal, remarked, that although
there were older officers in the garrison, Lieut.
Thackeray was the only one possoss.og
1 the honour
affixed.
of the decoration. The decoration Wiis then
At the same time good conduct medals
and gratui-
ties £lO were presented
tics to Quartermaster
Sergeant Rees and Colour-Sergeant James Simpson
for long service, and a medal and
.E 5 to private
King (all of the same regiment). After the pre-
sentations the troops went through the movements
of a field-dt..........._____

CAPTURE OF A SLAVER.—Her Majesty's ship
Antelope arrived at St. Helena on the 17th of June, having
captured a schooner (name and nation unknown) with 403
male and 144 female slaves On board. The negroes have
been placed under the care of the proper government officer
at Rupert's Valley,

The Ascot meeting has been fertile in novelties,
but perhaps the most valuable of these is the new
mode of sheltering markers. Ordinarily they are
cooped up in narrow, not over secure mantlets,
where, if the weather be unfavourable, they must
sit and be rained on all the day long, as protection
of any kind overhead would interfere with the free
working of the signals. On this studiously uncom-
fortable system Sir Paul Hunter's plan is a great
improvement. He has caused pits to be dug in the
ground to a depth of seven feet, throwing up the
clay excavated as a shelter at the back of the holes.
The pits are then covered in with umbrella-shaped
roofs of timber almost level with the ground, over
which clay is likewise spread, rendering them per-
fectly bullet-proof. In the direction of the target
the soil is cut away in order to give a clear view to
the marker, who thus, removed from danger and
protected from the weather, can walk about in the
pit, and indicate the hits made on the adjacent sig-
nal-cross. The cost of these pits is each, but
they are decidedly superior in construction to any
of those in ordinary use ; and at long range firing
they are invaluable, as they present no perceptible
obstacle to the line of sight. The Berkshire Asso-
ciation, in the interest of the Volunteer movement,
have made all their arrangements admirably hut in
doing so they have necessarily incurred considerable
expense. The outlay upon the meeting at Ascot
will be at least £6OO. To render permanent the
advantages of such a gathering, it is therefore in-
dispensable that those whose time, more precious
than money, does not admit of their taking part in
the encampment, should co-operate with the asso-
ciation by the only effectual means in their power.
Asaproof of the solid advantages derivable from
meetings of this nature, it may be mentioned that
on Thursday evening, after the duties of the day
were completed, a match was improvised between
11 of the 20 best Berkshire shots and 11 sergeants
of the Guards on duty at the camp, many of whom
bear the marksman's badge. The contest tei uri-
nated, though by a narrow majority, in favour of
the Berkshire Volunteers.

SCIENTIFIC BALLOON ASCENT.

MR. GLAISHER'S OBSERVATIONS.

Mr. Coxwell having planned an ascent with his
large balloon from the Crystal Palace on Wednes-
day last, I availed myself of the offer of a seat in
the car for the purpose of taking a serious of ob-
servations upon the variations of temperature, and
the several hygrometrical states of the atmosphere
at moderate elevations, and which I had failed to
do in myrecent ascent from Wolverhampton.
The instruments necessary for these investiga-
tions were in the hands of Messrs. Negretti and
Zambra, and were those which were broken and
injured in my recent ascent in the same balloon,
and confided to them for renewal and repair, and
which they had executed in a very satisfactory
manner, these gentlemen having at all times ex-
pressed an earnest desire to promote the experi-
ments required by the British Association. All
the other instruments are at Wolverhampton, ready
for the next high ascent.

The instruments used on this occasion were two
aneroid barometers, dry and wet bulb thermometers,
and a Daniell's dew-point hygrometer.
As it is of essential importance that the thermo-
meters should be so sensitive that they readily
acquire the temperature of the surrounding air,
they were of necessity very delicate.
The air was in very gentle motion, which en
abled Messrs. Negretti and Zambra carefully to fix
the instruments before starting, so that I at once
began to observe, which I was unable to do in my
recent ascent till I was nearly a mile high.
The balloon left the earth at 4h. 40m., laden
with 13 gentlemen and a large amount of sand for
ballast, and, under the influence of a moderate
breeze, bore away slowly nearly S.E., passing suc-
cessively Eltham and Dartford, to the village of
Singlewell, near Gravesend.
The heights the balloon successively attained
were as follows :
At 4h. 43m. it had attained the elevation of
1,340 ft. above the level of the sea ; at 4h. 49m.
was 3,700 ft.; increased slowly till, at sh. 17m.,
it was about 5,300 ft.; it then by sh. 20m., fell
200 ft. ; on throwing out sand it rose to 5,500 ft.,
by sh. 24m., and to G,6ooft. by sh, 43m. ; some gas
was let out, and it sank to 5,700 ft. by sh. 47m. ;
some sand was thrown out, and it rose to 7,350 ft.,
the highest point reached, at 611. lm. ; at 6h. om. it
fell to 6,700 ft. ; some sand was thrown out, and it
rose to 7,looft_ by Gh. 12w. ; at 20 minutes past G it
descended to 5,300 ft., and slowly to 2,100 ft. by Gb.
'
25w., and to the earth at a little after half-past 6.
Between 4h. 46m. and sh. lm. the altitude and
azimuth of the balloon were observed at the
Observatory, Greenwich, by E. J Royal
If any similar observations;
ato b
have beee nat
favoured
n taken
an-
other place, I should be
them, as furnishing the means
of an independent
determination of the elevations of
the balloon, and
thus checking those made by
pressure.
means of the variation
of temperature and barometric
The temperature of
(32
the Crystal Paine . at 1,000 the air was 68 degrees At
feet high it No'

Test ozone papers were not coloured at all, and
no ozone was noticed in the ascent from Wolver-
hampton. We were never in the clouds, although
rocky cumuli (which, it will be remembered, are
the fine massive clouds of day) were at a lower
elevation all around, and cumulo-strati at a higher
elevation than ourselves. The sky was free from
clouds in the zenith, and a deeper blue than as seen
from the surface of the earth. At times there was
a great mist, and generally the horizon was hazy
and obscure. The shadow of the balloon was seen
on the ground as well as on the surface of the cloud.
A horizontal magnet occupied a somewhat longer
time to perform a certain number of vibrations, in
this as well as in the previous ascent, than it did
on the surface of the earth; this is contrary to the
result obtained by Gay-Lussac in 1804.
At 5h 21m. a gun was heard with a sharp sound;
at sh. 25m. a drum was heard ; at sh. 26m. a band
was heard; at sh. 38m. a gun was heard; and at
6h. 10m. a dog was heard barking ; and the work-
ing of the engines on the Dover and Chatham Rail-
way was distinctly heard.
I have to thank Mr. W. F. Ingelow for kindly
reading one barometer for me and for rendering
considerable assistance in noticing the first appear.
ance of dew on the black bulb of the hygrometer,
enabling me thereby greatly to increase the number
of my own observations.
The gas furnished must have been of good quality
to have raised so great a weight to such an elevation.
The descent was managed by Mr. Colwell so that
no instrument was injured in the slightest degree,
and, in fact, the approach to the earth was so
gradual that there was scarcely need to steady one's
self.