The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-07 00:00:00

To do this, however, will require at least three
or four months of careful manufacture, so
that all chance of a resumption of the under-
taking this summer is out of the question. Up to
9 p.m. last night a telegram from Ireland reported
no alteration in the condition of the wire, and at
that time it may be safely said that none was ex-
pected.

We have received the following telegram from
he Atlantic Telegraph Company :

_
" AUG. 6.
" The following telegram was received this morn-
ng from Mr. M'Curley, at Valentia

" SATURDAY, 9 50 a.m.
" ' Cable remains the same ; earth currents re-
urning strong.'—Yours truly,
"GEO. SAWARD, Secretary and General
Superintendent."

TO THE EDITOR. OF THE SUN.
Atlantic Telegraph Company, 12, St. Helen's-place,
Bishopsgate-street Within, E.C., Aug. 5.

Sir,—Mr. Glaisher, of the Royal Observatory,
has been so kind as again to-day to be the bearer of
a communication from the Astronomer Royal re-
specting the storms of terrestrial magnetism which
have taken place during the last few days.
Mr. Glaisher again produced photographic sheets
from the Observatory showing the phenomena of a
renewed magnetic earth storm, equal in intensity to
that of Wednesday and Thursday, which manifested
itself during to-day (Saturday).
I send the letter of the Astronomer Royal for
publication if it seem to you desirable, notwithstand-
ing the more direct evidence we hare received as to
the cause of non-communication through the cable,
believing that it will be deemed to have an interest
of its own in connexion with meteorological science,
irrespective of its possible reference to the present
state of the cable. —Yours truly,

GEO. SAWARD, Secretary and General
Superintendent.

"Royal Observatory, Greenwich, Aug. 5, 12 noon.

" Dear Sir,—At the date of my letter of yester-
day the magnetic storm had somewhat subsided.
Very soon, however, there were signs of great
activity, and by 11 o'clock of last night (Friday,
August 4), the magnetic storm was sensibly as vio-
lent as before, and continued so through all the
early morning hours. It has declined a little through
the morning, but at the present time (Saturday,
August 5, at noon) it is still very active.
" The spontaneous earth currents were not quite
so strong in the last 24 hours (ending Saturday,
August 5, at noon) as in the preceding 24 hours
(ending Friday, August 4, at noon), but they are
still very active. A nearly continuous register is
made by the currents on the Dartford wire (which
at first were not very strong) to midnight of Friday,
August 4th ; but since that time the traces have
been lost, and the currents on the Croydon wire
have been very violent ; only for a short time end-
ing about Friday, Aug. 4, at 3 p.m., is the motion
sufficiently gentle to have left any record, and then
imperfectly. After that time the currents were so
violent that the trace is totally lost.
" It is scarce in possibility that a telegraph cur-
rent can have passed along the Atlantic cable in a
legible state during any part of this time.
" I am, sir, yours faithfully,
" G. B. AIRY.
" G. Saward, Esq."

"Royal Observatory, Greenwich, Aug. 6, 10 a.m.

" My dear Sir,—The magnetic disturbance men-
tioned by the Astronomer Royal in his note of yes-
terday continued very active till 4 p.m., was less
active till 10 p.m., was again very active from this
time to 3 a.m. of this day, from which time up to
the present the disturbance continues, but the ex-
cursions of the several magnets are to smaller
amounts.

" The Dartford spontaneous earth currents were
so active that no photographic trace of the move-
ments of its galvanometer needle is shown till 4
p.m., and from this time the trace is nearly perfect.
" The Croydon spontaneous earth currents are
entirely lost before 4 p.m. ; and between the hours
of August 5, 10 p.m., and this morning, August 6,
at 3 a.m., and frequently at intermediate times.
" With a continuance of such strong and active
earth currents as these on our short wires, it is
quite possible that, through the great length of
the Atlantic cable, even if perfect, the far-arranged
feeble currents to be sent would not be at all inter
ligible.

" I am, Sir, faithfully yours,
" JAMES GLAISHER.

" George Saward, Esq."

The Cigar-shaped Steamer.

This extraordinarily constructed steamship, in
the shape of a cigar, building at Millwall, which
has for so many months attracted so much attention
from the public passing up and down the Thames
in the steamboats, will be launched in a few days,
every preparation for the ceremony haviiig been
completed.
The ship, which has been built at Mr. John Hep-
worth's yard, Cubitt Town, Millwall, belongs to
Messrs. J. and W. L. Winans. The hull is in the
shape of a cigar, with the exception that both ends
are finely pointed. She measures 256 feet over all,
16 feet in breadth, and 16 feet in depth, her hull in
proportion to her beam being 16 times longer, but
as ,one-fourth of her hull at each end projects be-
yond the bulwarks, the length of her deck will be
eight times that of her beam. She is built through.
out of the finest boat plates—in some4arts of steel,
in some parts of Low-moor iron. Her displacement
will be about 500 tons, giving her little over 300
tons burden, according to builders' measurement.
She is built without any longitudinal stringers, but
throughout her entire length she is divided by no
less than 13 water-tight compartments, and in the
engine and boiler rooms is further strengthened by
inner rings of angle iron seven inches deep, which
are rivetted to the side, and placed at intervals of
three feet apart. Inside is an iron floor, which also
runs from end to end, covered with wood, and forms
the lower passenger deck of the yacht. This floor
amidships is only about six feet from the bottoth of
the cylinder, so that overhead there is a roomy
cabin much resembling in shape a small railway
tunnel. The upper deck is 130 feet long by 10i
feet broad. She has two short funnels, and these
and her little deck and a small part of the upper
curve of the cylinder are all that will be seen out of
the water. The rivets that fasten her are counter-
sunk, so that she presents outwardly a perfectly
smooth surface. The engines are three-cylinder,
driven at high pressure, turning one steel shaft,
which runs through the whole length of the vessel,
projecting from the fine points at each end, where
it carries a sere These screws are 4 feet greater

in diameter 'than the greatest diameter of the vessel,
namely, 22 feet, and each is to have eight blades,
because the two points being only a foot or so below
the water, four of the blades of each screw will
always be out, while there will be always four of
each immersed to do the work of propulsion. Under
each screw is a rudder. There are four boilers, on
the locomotive principle, and it is asserted that they
can be worked up to 10001 b. with safety.

==
"MEYER BEER'S MOTHER," Says M. Blaze de Bury,
in his " Memoir of the Good Confessor," "was a strong
woman, an antique Jewess of superb stature ! No muse,
but a genuine woman of the Bible, which, from his cradle,
looked at him from the eyes of his mother I They
say that during the last rehearsals of Robert,' Meyerbeer
received from her a letter with this address:—' To be
opened after tho first representation of "Robert." ' So
soon as he got home, on the evening of that triumph, the
son broke the envelope, and read the biblical benediction,
in the simple majesty of its text, ' The Lord bless and
keep thee,' 47c. This letter Meyerbeer thenceforward
always carried about with him, as a talisman."
NAPOLEON lII.'S SPEECHES.—The Emperor is
occupying a portion of his time at Plombieres upon
a work, shortly to be published under the title of "Impe-
rial Policy, according to the Speeches and Proclamations
of his Majesty Napoleon 111., from 1818 to 1865." In addi-
tion to a careful reprint of the original documents, there
will be explanatory footnotes, and introductions to the
several divisions, thus constituting the work a sort of
manual of French governmental policy.

"OUR THUNDER."—At Albany a Queen Anne
gun which had seen service in the Revolution and in the
war of 1812, added its voice to the general joy on the
anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.—American
Paper.