The Sun.
London, England, 1849-04-16 00:00:00

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THE ARMY AND NAVY.

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t) e d ',v.,. r'd
vlet4e) to office beeno be going
a-begging. Mr. Ward will most likely proceed to Corfu
to enter upon the duties of High Commissioner with the
next Overland Mail, via Marseilles.

UNATTACHED PAY.—Major-Generals James Shaw
Kennedy, Lord Sandys, and Sir Thomas 11. Browne
have succeeded to the unattached pay of 25i. per
diem. They are all three distinguished Peninsular
officers. Major General Kennedy was with the 43d
at Copenhagen and the battle of Keoge ; served in
the Peninsula from 1808 to 1812, and was present
at the Coe, Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz, and Salamanca.
lie was afterwards at Quatre Bras and Waterloo. Lord
Sandys accompanied the 10th Hussars to the Peninsula
in 1812, and was at the action of Morales, and the battles
of Vittoria and Pampeluna. As the Aide•de-Camp to
the Duke of Wellington, Lord Sandys was present at
Waterloo. Major-General Sir Thomas Browne served
at Copenhagen in 1807, at Martinique in 1809, where he
was wounded; afterwards in the Peninsula on the Staff
of the Duke of Wellington, and subsequently as Aide-
de-Camp to Lord Stewart, at the Head Quarters of the
allied Austrian, Russian, and Prussian Armies. Sir
Thomas was present in every action in the Peninsula.
ARMY GREAT COATS.—The subject of an improved
great coat for the use of the troops has bees long under
consideration by the authorities. The cloth is to be of
a finer texture, and much lighter than the present coat,
but of the same durable quality. Any alteration by
which the soldier may be relieved of weight should re-
ceive every attention in high places, and orders given for
its being carried into effect.
THE NEXT VESSEL FOR THE COAST OF AFRICA.—
The Heroine, 8, at Devonport, will carry the next mail,
and relieve one of her Majesty's ships now serving on the
coast of Africa; and it is reported that she will be com-
missioned by Commander John B. Marsh (1844), for-
merly of the Canopus, 84.
NAVIGATING THE ARCTIC REGIONS. Commander
Joseph West, and officer of long standing, good service,
and known skill and practical science, has proposed a
plan of fitting a steam-vessel with ice hammer and ice
saws, to be worked by the shaft of the engine, for tho
purpose of navigating the polar regions. The projection
is applicable to either screw or paddle-wheel steamers,:and
is thus explained:— A semi-circular cogged plate is fixed
on the shaft, which connects itself with an elevating bar
fixed to the end of a sway beam, the fulcrum being in a
crank on the bow of the vessel at the fore-end of the sway
beam, where the ice hammer is hung, which, by the con-
nexion of the cogs is raised eight feet at every revolu-
tion. It is thrown out of gear when they disconnect, the
hammer then falls, and is again raised when the cogs con
nett. The hammers are from 15 to 20 hundred weight-
working alterately on each side before the stem, and are
capable of breaking through ice four or five feet thick,
thus enabling a vessels° fitted to approximate much nearer
to the supposed position of Sir John Franklin's ships
than can be done by the present means, as the above ap-
plication can be fitted to any steam-vessel at a trifling ex-
pense compared with the object to be obtained. The in-
vention is as simple as it appears to us to be practicable,
and we trust that the Admiralty will appreciate the value
of the plan, and the motives which actuated the gallant
projector, by dispatching a vessel so fitted at once on the
perilous track of the almost despaired of northern navi•
gators.

Two Salonometers, invented by a Mr. Howes, are
ordered by the Admiralty to be fitted to the Basilisk
and Niger steam-sloops, at Woolwich.
HAIG'S SMOKING APPARATUS.—The Admiralty have
granted to Mr. Haig the still further indulgence of con•
tinning his experiments for consuming the smoke of
marine engines, on board the Ariel, old steam-packet,
at Woolwich, for the space of two months longer.