The Sun.
London, England, 1838-05-07 00:00:00

BEAU B-- AT CAEN.

There were (says the writer in the United Service Journal,
of " A Run to the North Coast of France,") several English-
men at this table d'hote, some, like myself, birds of passage ;
some fixtures. Of this last set there was one tine old English
gentleman sitting near the head of the table, who attracted
seme attention from the English part of us, as having once
cut a conspicuous figure in the fashionable world, lint who has
been long living in France,—so long, indeed, that there is
perhaps hardly a friend of his youth in England now alive.
As this gentleman is one of those characters who stand out
from the herd, giving themselves to fame, he will, I hope,
pardon my notice of him, particularly as his name is a kind of
public property. Every body has at least heard of Mr. —;
though very likely half we have heard of him (except his
good sayings) are ingenious inventions engrafted on his repu-
tation.

I expected to see a little precise finical man, rather than the
fine manly person he really is—l should think very near six
feet, and well-built ; with fine features, and nothing remark-
able in his dress or manner, except a quiet unassuming ease,
which certainly distinguished him from some would bo very
fine persons, who were at table, of the small school of conse-
quential nobodies. He joined our oonversation, too, and told
us several anecdotes with a pleasant good nature that made me
regret seeing so little of him. Besides that, I heartily srm-
pathise with him at the very shabby treatment he has met with,
which I was told in some sort obliges him to put up with the
discomfort of this hotel—should it be his choice, why, it is so
much the better ; but no thanks to the ungenerous way he has
been treated in which is said to be this:--Having
been for sonic years our Consul here, with a Vice-Consul under
him, where, indeed, there is little or nothing to do for either,
he, unfortunately for himself, honestly wrote to the Foreign-
office to say so, with the understanding- that he might have
something else, or be sent to some other more useful consu-
late. Not at all ; they at once deprived him of his office,
giving the duty to the vice-consul, a French shopkeeper, and
left the consul to shift for himself. This is the current story
at Caen ; though, of course, it is impossible to know the exact
truth. Certain it is, however, ho is no longer consul, and is
living, it is said, on a very slender income ; though his numerous
acquaintance among the English make his continued residence
here more agreeable to him than elsewhere, I conclude.
Apart from all the escapades of his youth, and all the fun
and frolic of wittier, if not wiser days than these we live
in, one cannot look at such a man without a degree of
interest, as one of the few notable last links that yet
connect %I* with the merry times of his fat friend,"
anti with geniuses from whom each succeeding genera-
tion but give but faint and feeble copie.s of their sires. Our
Ilan has degenerated into wrenebing off people's knockers and
painting houses red at taidnight, without one redeeming spark
of wit, hurocAts, or Invention—a sheer animal brutality—no-
thing to laugh at. In those days thore was always some re-
deeming grace—some good joke, partly to excuse watchmen's
broken heads. Wits still frequented coffee-houses—genius
still astonished and delighted the world ins prose and verse.
Now we bare hundreds, nay thousands, of dull gentlemanly
dogs, who pore over newspapers in club. houses—all of the
same formal cut—and s,cribblers of countless heavy tomes in
muddy mediocrity f Character, eccentricity, frolic, are gone
--our stalking gravities cannot eve] laugh at each other.
However, houses go on banding—steam-boats, steam-en-
gines, and railroads iuorease and multiply—and the world is
very excellent good, i'faith, to vegetate in and to travel in.
This puts me in mind that lam still at table. I observed
Mr. B.'s graceful management of a handsome snuff-box, the
only thing I could fairly say was of' the old school.
NEW

QUICKSILVER -STEAM-SHIP.

LIVERPOOL.—The splendid new steamer Columbus, des-
tined shortly to cross the Atlantic, which has created
mu&a interest from the novel construction of the machinery,
made after Mr. Howard's invention, for the rapid vapourisa-
tion of water on ,iron plates over heated quicksilver, lately
took a trial trip down the Mersey, and round the light-
ship, with a highly respectable party of gentlemen on board.
She excited much curiosity on the river, from the novelty
of her appearance, and the beauty of her model. In
her construction she has more of the appearance of
an elegant-made brig. She has two chimnies, both very
low, and from the peculiar coal, the anthracite, con-
sumed by her, no smoke is emitted. By the polite-
ness of Captain Daniel Green, her cowl-winder, and of
Mr. Howard, the inventor of her machinery, we have
been furnished with the following particulars :—The Colum-
bus is 330 tons builder's measurement, being 214- foot-
beam, and 145 feet keel, with 131 feet deep of hold. She
has 110-horse power, two 55-feet engines, the cylinder being
40- inches diameter, and 3:1,- foot stroke, and wheel 171 feet
diameter. Her speed through the water is 10 statute miles
per hour; the immersed section at her present load is 140
square feet. She has now on board 20 days' fuel, besides 30
tons of iron ballast. The novelty of the engines (Mr. Howard's
patent) consists in a new method of producing the steam and
condensing it, the latter part of the invention being appli-
cable to the ordinary boilers. In a boiler the heat from the
fuel is passed over very extensive surfaces, in contact
with which is a large body of water, the temperature of which
is always such as is due to the density or pressure of the steam,
and, consequently, the evaporation is limited by such circum.
stances. In the invention, the steam is formed by bringing a
small quantity of water, previously made boiling hot, in con-
tact with a comparatively small surface, heated to and
maintained at the temperature of most rapid vapourisation.
viz., about 400 degrees, to effect which a quantity of mercury
or amalgum lies between iron plates, the one near the fire
being a plain surface of only three-quarters of a foot per
horse power, and the other, or vapourising surface being
about four times as much. The steam never obtains a density
or pressure due to the temperature, but it is itself heated to
about 400 degrees, and worked in about ten pounds to the
inch, and cut off from the cylinder at half the stroke. The
fuel made use of is coke or stone-coal, or other fuel giving a
strong local heat and little flame. That employed to-day was
Kilkenny coal. The consumption of fuel is three tons per
day of twenty-four hours, and the fire-grates have a total bar
surface of only 22 feet, the air being supplied lty a small blow-
ing machine, under easy regulation. The iron plates exposed
to the fire are perfectly secured front any bad effect from
the somewhat intense heat by the close contact of th 2 mer-
cury within them, and which absorbs and give out the heat
with the utmost rapidity. The combined effect of the re-
duction in the consumption of fuel, and in the weight and
size of the vapourisers compared with boilers, is such that a
steam-vessel of any ordinary tonnage and power will be
enabled at her loaded immersion to make a voyage of five
times the length no practicable, The steamer made a de.
lightful trip round the light-ship. list speed is not great—
about ten miles an hour; but is very good, taking into consi-
deration the power of her engines compared with her tonnage.
Her paddle-wheels are also on ttfi improved principle, being
constructed after Mordan's patent, the paddles turning en an
eccentric centre with the wheel, and always turning per-
pendicularly, exposing a perfectly
.perpi,adiLlar surface to
the water. By this means thre' boatin,r of the paddles on
water and tires consequent lifting and vik-waWii oof
thevesis vosealdic4dril ; a
way
with, the paddles always descending
into, and rising out of the water porndieularly. On Fri-
day last the vessel made an evileOmental trip to Dublin, and
was seventeen hokll'F. •;:nd a half on her passage, havi,,,,;; A
Strong beAd,wind part of the way. She returned, .011 Sun-
day hi fifteen hours and a half. At Hekkbead she fell in
with the Mermaid steamer from. Waterford, and slightly
gained upon her: the ;pg.
-41) ne Ordinary steam-boiler fires,
require not half the latons to
keep them
•

,-)ENTRA 14 14pAs,TAAwskok I.IOA.D.(IRELAND.)
=On Tntesday lastlof
7ias ~seetlng of this body for the admission
anti the transaction of some other business. Among t.!?0
members admitted, and the subscriptions received,
were 131 r• -74"le;'Mr.
J. Ashton Yeats, and Mr. Joseph Hume, each of Violu inclosed a draft
for 51. Mr. Redington subscribed 101.; Mr. Archbold 25/. The Trades
Union also had a meeting on the same day for the purpose of making
,rraPienients (9. ing registry.