The Sun.
London, England, 1853-02-07 00:00:00

Orr. Of/
57)
where we arrived at about 11. a.m., when the com-
mander, the doctor, Mr. Abernethy, and myself, with car-
penters' mate, boatswain, and Simpson, got into her, and
pulled on shore to Pomonack, where we landed and
found five Esquimau' huts, which we found deserted at
that time, but with every appearance of a recent vist
having been paid to them by the Esquimau', as we
found several stores of seal and walrus flesh stowed
away, and also their winter clothing. We examined
most minutely every part of their huts and stores. Mr.
Abernethy was particularly useful, from his great, inti-
macy with the habits of the Esquimau'. We also
looked into several graves, and pulled down a large
heap of stones, which was saturated with oil and blub-
ber. We had a hard job pulling it to pieces, but found
nothing in it, after the most careful digging, but bones
of different animals, and certainly not the least trace of
anything to lead us to suppose that ever Sir John
Franklin had been there. The result of our labours
was a source of great satisfaction, as it set at rest all
doubts respecting Adam Beck's statement, as no greater
pains could ever be taken than was done by Commander
Inglefield on the above occasion. Mr. Abernethy
has shown the greatest zeal in the work, as he was pre-
sent when Adam Beck made the statement to Si: John
Ross, and heard him say there was a large cairn erected,
under which the bones of the murdered crew were buried.
This having been stronly urged by Beck, made us more
determined, consequently the shovels and pickaxes were
set to work most unsparingly, and the work did not
cease until after we had got below the strata of bones,
and come to the hard frost-bound earth—then, and not
till then, aid Mr. Abernethy cease his labours, being
then fully convinced that no reliance could be placed on
Adam's statement. Beck also stated that the chain
cables of the vessel had been buried between the settle-
ment and an island laying off it, whereas there is not
an island within seven miles of it. There is a narrow
strip of land running out from it, being the only thing
bearing the least resemblance to anything like an island,
but the strip is on the north, and Mount Dundas on the
south side of the bay, at the bottom of which near a
beach the huts were situated."

ERICSSON'S CALORIC ENGINE.-MR. CRISPE'S
LECTURE AT 2HE POLYTECHNIC INSTITU-
TION.

On Saturday, Mr. Crispe delivered a lecture at the
Royal Polytechnic Institution, Regent-street, on heated
air as a motive power, now a subject of great public
interest, as being likely to supersede the use of steam as
a .means of propulsion. The announcement in the

printed programme was that Mr. Crispe would give a
lecture on Ericsson's caloric engine, illustrated by mo-
dels and diagrams ; but the' discourse delivered by that
gentleman seemed intended to question the originality
of Captain Ericsson's invention, whilst he explained and
illustrated it. The lecturer began by observing that
heated air, as a motive power, was now a subject which
was justly attracting the attention of the engineering
world. The immense benefits we had derivel from the
use of steam had led us almost to look upon it with
a degree of reverence, and to anticipate its loss as a mo-
tive power, of which there was now a probability,
with a certain amount of regret. He referred, of
course, to Ericsson's caloric engine, which was now
likely to supersede the motive power we have employed
for years. With the view, then, of enabling the au-
dience, not wholly a scientific one, the better to under-
stand his explanation of the engine in question, the
lecturer proceeded to prove by a series of experiments,
familiar enough but not the less beautiful and interesting,
the power which the agency of heat has in expanding
bodies such as iron, water, and air. This principle, he
said, lay at the very root of Captain Ericsson's inven-
tion, for the caloric entirely depended for its action on
the expansibility of air by means of the application of
heat. The first person who attempted to apply this par-
ticular agent of heated air economically was Sir George
Cayley the president of the Royal Polytechnic Institu-
tion. So far back as 1817 that gentleman made the
matter public in a paper in Nicholson's Journal, though
he had contrived an apparatus some years previously for
proving the applicability of the principle in question.
Mr. Crispe here referred to a diagram exhibiting
the properties of Sir George Cayley's invention,
the chief of which was a piston moving up and down
a cylinder by the alternate action of heated and
cooled air applied to it. In 1817 (the lecturer continued)
Mr. James Stirling, of Glasgow, contrived an air engine
somewhat different from that of Sir George Cayley,
Stirling's engine, like that of Ericsson's,idepended on the
well-known principle in pneumatics already referred to
—that air has its bulk or pressure increased when its
temperature is raised, and diminished when its tempera-
ture is lowered. Iu the engine of Stirling, of which a
model was shown, two strong air-tight vessels were con-
nected with the opposite ends of a cylinder, in which a
piston worked in the usual manner. About four-fifths
of the interior space in these vessels was occupied by two
similar air-tight vessels or plungers, suspended to the
opposite extremities of a beam, and capable of being al-
ternately moved up and down to the extent of the re-
maining fifth. By the motion of these interior vessels,
which were filled with non-conducting substances, the
air to be operated upon was moved from one end of the
exterior vessels to the other, and as one end was kept
at a high temperature, and the other as cold as possible,
when the air was brought to the hot.end it became heated
and had its pressure increased, and when brought to the
cold its heat and pressure diminished. As the interior
vessels necessarily moved in opposite directions, it fol-
lowed that the pressure of the enclosed air in the one
1 vessel was increased, while that of the other was dimi-

nished. A. difference of pressure was thus produced
upon the opposite sides of the piston, which was thereby
made to move from the one end of the cylinder to the
other, and by continually reversing the motion of the
suspended bodies or plungers, the greater pressure was
successively thrown upon a different side, and a reci-
procating motion of the piston kept up. The piston
was connected with n fly-wheel in any of the usual
modes, and the plungers, by whose motion the air was
heated and cooled, were moved in the same manner and
nearly at the same relative time with the valves of a
steam-engine. Stirling, when exhibiting his machine
before the Institution of Civil Engineers in June, 1845,

aptly called it a differential engine, because the power
was produced by the difference of pressure arising from
the alternatives of temperature. It had been asked
(proceeded Mr. Crispe), how in Ericsson's engine the
air was heated and cooled sufficiently fast, for every time
the engine made a stroke the air which produced the
motion was heated and cooled I He would explain that.
Some years after Stirling invented his air machine, he
(Stirling) added to it a supplemental contrivance, which

he called a regenerator, as a means of saving the heat
employed in working the engine and enabling it repeat-
edly to expand the air before it was finally wasted or
lost. By the regenerator, when it was necessary to cool
the air, after it had been brought to its greatest heat, it
was not at once brought into contact with the coldest
parts of the vessels ; that would indeed effectually
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vessel, through a multitude of narrow passages composed
of layers of wire gauze, whose temperature was at first
nearly as great as that of the hot air, but gradually de.
dined till it became nearly as low as the coldest part of
the air vessel. As every body by contact will give out
heat to one that is colder than itself, the heated air when
it entered the narrow passages of the regenerator gave
out a portion of its heat even to the hottest part of these
passages, and continued in its progress to give out more
and more as the temperature of the passage was dimin-
ished, till at last, when it was ready to escape into the
cold part of the vessel, there was only a small portion of
the heat to be extracted in order to bring it to the lowest
temperature required. The regenerator, Mr. Crispe
contends, is a sine qua non with Ericsson's caloric en-
gine, for, without the regenerator, which was unques-
tionably a beautiful contrivance, it would be good for
nothing ; and with the regenerator they know not how
far the economy of fuel might be carried. The lecturer,
with the assistance of a diagram, gave a description of
the merits of Ercisson's engine. It consisted of a
large working cylinder, with a furnace beneath for
the purpose of heating the air. Above was placed
a supply cylinder or air-pump, for the supply of the
working cylinder, and in connection with the latter
was the regenerator of which he had been speaking.
The alternative heating and cooling of the air in the
working cylinder gave a continually rising and falling
action to a plunger or piston inside the cylinder, which
in its turn communicated the power of propulsion to the
vessel. There were, however, defects in Ericsson'a
engine. It was said in its favour that there was an
immense advantage in getting rid of the boilers incident
to a ship propelled by steam ; but it ought also to be
stated that Captain Ericsson, in lieu of the boilers, had
introduced four working cylinders, each of them 14 feet
in diameter, and four supply cylinders, each of them
between 11 and 12 feet in diameter. There was also a
great deal of wear and tear constantly going on. Then,
from the intense heat at which the air was worked, it
was almost impossible properly to lubricate the ma-
chinery. So far, however, the contrivance was perfectly
successful. The lecturer, in conclusion, stated that
Captain Ericsson is a Swede by birth ; that he was born
in 1803 ; that he had been at work at his air engine
some thirty years, a model of which he came over to
England to work in 1828 ; that he was the inventor of
the steam fire-engine ; that he competed for the prize
given for the best locomotive engine on the Manchester
and Liverpool Railway, previous to the opening of that
line ; and that the caloric engine was the latest con-
trivance he had brought before the world.
The lecture throughout was listened to with consider-
able interest, and portions of it elicited marks of appro-
bation.
(0 I

THB MADIAI AND THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT.—
The General Assembly of the Free-Church of Scotland
have lost no opportunity of bringing the case of the per-
secuted Christians in Tuscany under the notice of her
Majesty's Government. Repeated memorials have been
sent on the subject, to the latest of which the following
answer from the Earl of Aberdeen has been received
" London, Jan. 23, 1853. Sir,—lbave bad the honour
of receiving the mmorial of the ,Committee on Popery,
appointed by the General Assembly of the Free Church
of Scotland, setting forth the case of the Medial hus-
band and wife, who have been imprisoned by-the Tuscan
Government for no other apparent offence than that of
reading the Scriptures. I beg to inform you, in answer,
that representations have been repeatedly addressed to
the Government of the Grand Duke on behalf of these
Tuscan subjects, and that a strong remonstrance was
very recently made through her Majesty's Minister at
Florence. I have only to add that her Majesty's Go-
vernment will lose no opportunity of protesting agai*it
an act so much at variance with the civilisation of
modern times, and will use all justifiable means to o'o4
cure the liberation of these two unfortunate persons'
I have the honour to be, sir, your obedient humbli
servant, ,ABEBDEEN. ROY, Dr. Twoodie."