The Sun.
London, England, 1849-01-12 00:00:00

POLAND.

Kalmar, DEC. 29.—Travellers who quitted War-
saw on the 24th state that on that day several cannons
were placed before the theatre, and that all the troops
were preparing to resist an expected insurrection.—
Posen Gazette.
___ _

- _
FROM THE Bogs OF THII VISTULA, DEC. 28.—
In the Governments of Wiatka Kasan, Simbirsk,
and Pensa, bands of armed peasants from .5,000 to
6,000 in number, are going about pillaging, burning,
assassinating, and have even set fire to several houses
in Kasan, a town containing 60,000 souls. If this in-
telligence is confirmed we may regard it as symp-
toms of an insurrection in the kingdom of Kasen., if
not in a yet more extensive circle.—Frankfort Ga-
zette des Postes. _ _ _

The Wiener Zeitung of the sth does not contain
the official army bulletin; the rumour of the sur-
render of Pesth is, therefore, most probably without
foundation.

INSTITUTION OF CIVIL
ENGINEERS.

JAN. 9.—JoshuaField, Esq., President, in the chair.
The first meeting of the session is generally devoted
to routine business, prefatory to the annual general
meeting, which immediately succeeds it, and will be
held on Tuesday, January 16, when the ballot for
the election of the president and council will take
place.
The paper read was " A Description of the
improved Forms of Water-Wheels," by Mr. William
Fairbairn, M. Inst. C.E. After noticing the
opportunity for improvement afforded by the
substitution of cast and wrought iron for timber
in the construction of hydraulic machines, the author
pointed out the disadvantages and loss of power
attending the principle and the form of the
old water - wheels. He quoted Dr Robinson's
"Mechanical Philosophy," for the numerous dis-
advantages of the old form of bucket, and the difficul-
ties arising from the attempts of the old millwrights
to design a shape which should retain the water for a
greater length of time in it, and thus give out more
power. The chief difficulty was the opposition of
the air to the entrance of the water; and numerous
contrivances, such as boring holes in the starts, making
the spout much narrower than the face of the bucket,
&c., were tried ; but still the difficulties existed, and
induced Mr. Fairbairn to adopt the construction de-
scribed in the paper, and which he termed " The
ventilating water-wheel." The general object of
these modifications was to prevent the condensation
of the air, and to permit its escape during the
filling of the bucket with water, as also its re-
admission during the discharge of the weLter
into the lower mill-race. The paper then de-
scribed minutely the principles and the construction
of the large wheels erected for the Catrine and
Deanston Works; for Mr. Brown, of Linwood, near
Paisley; for Mr. Duckworth, of Handforth ; for lvlr.
Ainsworth, of Cleator ; and for others ; and showed
that, in all cases, the system bad proved eminently
successful. These wheels were all on the
suspension principle, with wrought-iron arms,
radiating from cast-iron centres to the periphery,
and so placed that the whole structure was in
tension, the motion being communicated from
internal toothed wheels, fixed to the shrouding.
The various modifications of the forms best
adapted for different heights of fall were described;
but it will suffice. to give that for breast-wheels for
high falls, as it appeared the most complete. These
wheels were described to possess many advantages
beyond the overshot, the undershot, or the common
breast-wheels, and were best adapted for falls not
exceeding 18 or 20 feet, and where at times there
was a considerable depth of back water ; and such
was the improvement caused by this system, that the
wheel at Mr. Ainsworth's mill was frequently plunged
from five to six feet in the back water, without its
uniform speed being impeded. The wheel hnd a
close sole, the tail ends of the buckets were turned
up at a distance of two inches from the back of
the sole plate, and running parallel with it, termi-
nated within about two inches of the bend of the
bucket, immediately above it. The water in entering
the bucket drove the air out by the aperture into the
space behind, and thence into the bucket above, and
so in succession. The converse occurred when the
buckets were emptied, as the air was enabled to flow
in as fast as the wheel arrived at such a position as to
permit the water to escape. It appeared to be
allowed that this system had been very generally
successful, and that the results obtained had ap-
proached, very recently, to the stated duty of the
Turbine, whose powers had, however, been much
exaggerated, and had been allowed, recently, by
Fourneyron, not to have obtained more than about
seventy-two per cent. as a mean duty.
The business of the next meeting, of Tuesday,
January 16, was announced to be the reception of
the annual report, and the election of the president
and council for the ensuing year.