The Sun.
London, England, 1848-10-24 00:00:00

PRICES OF SHARES

IN BANKS, ASSURANCE, AND OTHER COM.
I'ANIES' STOCK.
From the Official List,

PUBLISHED 'EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY EVENING.

LONDON. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24.
JOINT-STOCK BANKS.

Dividend Amount
Name of Company. per of Paid. Price
Annum. Share.
____---- -,--
X e. d. £ a. d.
lastralasla -••-• • •• - 40 0 0 40 0 0 -
Britshlsorth American 51. per cent. 50 0 0 50 0 0 -2eylon •• • ... •••• • • • • 71. par cent. 25 0 0 25 0 0 -
21ommercial of London 61. per cent. 100 0 0 20 0 0 -
lolonial.. ••••- . • • •• 51. per cent. 100 0 0 25 0 0 -
Gloucestershire ••• • • • 151 per cent. - -
lonian .... • • .... •• • • 61. per cent. 25 0 0 25 0 0 -
Londn and IVestminstr 61. per cent. 100 0 0 20 0 0 20%
- - 13 0 0 -
4ndon Joint-Stock .• • 61. per cent. s 0 0 0 10 0 0 -
Z'rovincial of Ireland • • 81. per cent. 100 0 0 25 0 0 -
Ditto, New.. •••• • • • 8/. per cent. 10 0 0 10 0 0 -
-
National of Ireland •• bl. per cent. 50 0 0 22 10 0 -
Nat. Provncial of Eng. 6/. per cent. 100 0 0 35 0 0 -
Ditto, New.•• •••• •• 51. per cent. 20 0 0 10 0 8
iouth Australia ••• • • • 51. per cent. - 22 10 0 -
Union of Australia •• • • 61. per cent. 25 0 0 25 0 0 -
Ditto
- - 2 10 0 -
Union of London. •• • • 61. per cent. 50 8 0 10 0 0 10%
Union of Madrid ... . . - 40 0 0 40 0 0 -
•
BRIDGES
_
Dividend Amount
Name of Company. per of Paid. ' Price.
Annum. Share.
X. a. d. £. a. d.
Charing-cress •••• • • •• - - 25 0 0 -
Southwrk, Nw Sub.Ay. - 632 12 a - 3
Ditto Nw of 7% p.c. 355. per cent. 50 0 0 - 15
Waterloo •.•••• • • •• • • - 100 0 0 - 4
Ditto Old Ann. of 81. 11. ss. 4d. - 60 0 0 28
Ditto Nw ditto of 71. 11. 2s. 2d. - 40 0 8 26
Vauxhall .... ... Av. 11. 173. 70 10 2 - 26
WATER-WORKS.
Dividend Amount
Name of Company per of raid. Price.
Annum. Share.
. - -- --
.£ a. d. £ a. d.
Birmingham. •••• • • • • 18s. 25 0 0 25 0 0 -
East London..• •••• • • • 81. 100 0 0 - 172
Grand Junction ••• • •• 2/. 10s. 41 13 4 - $1
Kent.......••• •• •• •• 31. lOC 100 0 0
. 61.0 e. pr cnt. - - 75
New Rivr Lndn Brdge 71. 10s. - - 55
Vauxhall .. .. •••• • • • • 51. per cnt. 100 0 0 - -
West Middlesex • • - 116%

116 M

Price

41%

41 Os.
1$
13

Price.

Price.

THE GREAT CLOCK FOR THE

NEW PALACE OF WESTMINSTER.

The construction of the great clock for the Victoria
Tower in the New Palace of 'Westminster has been
entrusted to Mr. Dent, the celebrated chronometer
maker, who has undertaken to complete, :for 1,6001.,
" as good a clock as in the present state of the art can
be obtained, which is to strike the hours on a bell of
from eight to ten tons; to chime the quarters upon
eight bells ; and to show the time upon four dials
about thirty feet in diameter."

The mechanicians selected to compete for the
honour of constructing the great clock were Mr.
Dent, of 82, Strand, Mr. VuDimly, of Yall.mall, and
Mr. Whiteside, of Derby ; but, after the plans had
been sent in, Mr. Vulliamy, finding the Astronomer
Royal, Professor Airy, was to be the judge, withdrew
from the competition ; and of the two remaining Mr.
Dent was selected.

The withdrawal of Mr. Vulliamy having occa-
sioned some dissatiafaction, Lord Brougham, in his
place in Parliament, moved for the production of all
the pipers and correspondence on the subject of the
great clock which had passed between the parties and
the Commissioners of Woods and Forests. The
following letters, besides putting our readers in pos
session of the very singular facts of the case, contain
many interesting particulars with regard to public
clocks, and we therefore extract them from the
blue book published by command of the House of
Lords :

MR. YULLIA/iIY TO THE COMMISSIONERS OP WOODS AND

FORESTS.

Pall-mall,'March 16, 1847.
My Lord and Gentlemen,-1 beg to acknowledge
the receipt of your letter of the 15th February, and
its enclosure, dated the 11th of the same month,
signed by Mr. Airy.
The Astronomer Royal has officially reported to
the Royal Exchange and Gresham Trusts Committee
the clock at the Royal Exchange to be, in his opinion,
the " best in the world." Now, Mr. Airy himself
very recently told me he had not seen the public
clocks at Paris, which are the moat deserving of
notice of any I am acquainted with.
Subsequently to my letter to Mr. Barry, dated 22d
July, 1826, wherein I declined to enter into the com-
petition for making the clock for the New Palace at
Westminster, a copy of a letter from the Astronomer
Royal to the maker of the clock of the Royal Ex-
change, together with some other papers connected
therewith, have been put into my hands. This
letter can lead to no other conclusion than that ex-
pressed in my answer to Mr. Barry before referred to.
The maker of the clock at the Royal Exchange, in
a memorial to the Office of Woods, dated the 14th
December, 1844, in which he solicits to be em-
ployed to make the clock for the New Palace at
Westminster, proposes the Astronomer Royal as the
referee under whom he shall execute the work, and
forwards with his memorial a copy of the letter be-
fore referred to, dated 22d July, 1445, from Mr. Airy,
addressed to himself, in which that gentleman, after
repeating the assertion that the clock at the Royal
Exchange "is the best in the world," concludes by
saying, if he should be consulted, " I shall state,
without hesitation, that I consider you as the most
proper person to be entrusted with the construction of
another clock of similar pretensions." As this letter
is a most important document, I have added a copy of
it in the form of a postscript to this communication.
It appears from the above statement—first, that
the maker of the Royal Exchange clock proposes the
Astronomer Royal as his referee; second, that the
Astronomer Royal has prejudged the question, and
decided that the maker of that clock is the only fit
person to be employed on the present occasion. These
circumstances fully justify my declining to enter into
a competition with the maker of the Royal Exchange
clock in a case in which the Astronomer Royal is to
be the sole referee.

The experience of thirty years constantly em-
ployed in the improvement of public clocks, as well
in principle as construction (during which time I
have examined some of the most celebrated
machines of the kind on the Continent as well as
in England), has led me to the conclusion that the
Flan laid down by the Astronomer Royal will not
answer his expectations. The maker of the Royal
Exchange clock has had but three or four years'
experience in the construction of public clocks, and
the performance of his principal work has not, in re-
ference either to the going or striking, been what was
expected after the eulogium that had been passed
upon it by the Astronomer Royal.
I still adhere to my objections (stated in my letter
of the 22d of July, 1846,) to certain conditions spa-
eified by the Astronomer Royal, with reference both
to the material and execution of the clock. But I
beg to be understood not to make any objection what-
ever to that part of his last specification which refers
to the application of magnetic mechanism ; what
he requires may, I apprehend, be done without
difficulty, or without in any way deranging the
general plan of the clock as laid down in my plan and.
specification. Also, I repeat that I am willing to com-
pete and furnish an estimate for the clock, provided
the referees who are to decide on the merits of the
different plans be chosen in the same manner as has
been done on similar previous occasions, and that the
determination be not left to any single individual.
I take this opportunity to forward you a state-
ment of my labcurs in the improvement of public
clocks, from which it will be seen that thirty years
of my life have been devoted to that object; I may
add that all the more recent improvements (including
some of the conditions imposed by the Astronomer
Royal in his specifications for the Royal Exchange
clock, and the clock required for the New Palace at
Westminster) originated with me, and have been in use
for many years past; and that I have constructed
many clocks of considerable importance, as well for
Government as for sundry public buildings, to which
reference may be made by all who are interested in
the question. It is on these grounds that I put
forward my claims to be employed on the present
occasion --I have, &c.,
(Signed) B. L. VULLIAMY.
Royal Observatory, Greenwich, July 22,1846.
P.S. Sir—ln the event of my being consulted by
the Commissioners of Woods and Forests in regard to
the erection of a first-rate clock in the New Houses of
Parliament, I shall state without hesitation, that I
believe the clock which you have constructed for the
Royal Exchange to be the best in the world as regards
accuracy of going and striking, and that I consider
you the most proper person to be intrusted with the
construction of another clock of similar pretensions.
I have, &C.,
(Signed) G. B. AIRY.
Mr. E. J. Dent.

STATEMENT OT THE GROUNDS ON WHICH B. L. VUL-
LIAMY CLAIMS TO BE EMPLOYED TO MAKE THE
*SEAT CLOCK YON THE NEW PALACE AT WEST
II 'MITER.

March 13, 1847.
I do not lay any very great stress on the circum-
stance of my having been regularly appointed clock-
maker to their Majesties King George 111., King
George IV., and King William IV., and also to her
ecsitryc,uamnsdtacnocnestiasnteleyrteaminplyloydeedsearsvinsgucobf,
but on the fact of my having for many
yctphoreoneausrseisgdnh(etsriaMtnhtcii:esjna;bout the year 1810) devoted particular
attention to the construction and improvement of
public clocks. To this I was led from having the
care of all the public clocks belonging to the Crown.
From that period to the present time I have con-
stantly had in view the improvement of this branch of
the art; and that portion of time which the most
eminent of my profesional brethren have spent in the
improvement of marine chronometers, I have devoted
to the same end in reference to public clocks.
On the death of the late Mr. Thwaites, in 1826,
the Duke of Wellington appointed me clockmaker to
the Honourable Board of Ordnance. This appoint-
ment brought a very considerable number of public
clocks under my care, most of which afforded evident
proof of the little progress that had been made in their
construction -and manufacture; indeed, in some re-
spects the art might be said to have retrograded. I
was induced still further to consider the possibility
of materially improving them, both in the principle
on which they were made, and also in the execution
of the work.

In 1825 I went to Paris to see the public clocks in
that city, particularly that at the Hotel de Ville, of
which common report spoke very highly, and with
justice; it is a thirty-hour clock, made by Lepante
in 1781, and cost, including the two dials, three bells,
and fixings, 90,000 f. (1,0000
The first clock I made aftert my return was, in
1827, for the new church at Norwood. In this I
adopted an entirely new mode of construction, which
I have since followed with great success. By direc-
tion of the Honourable Board of Ordnance, it was
surveyed by the late Sir John Jones, Commanding
Royal Engineer at Woolwich, a portion of whose re-
port thereon I give in the annexed note ;* but I can-
not find terms sufficiently strong to express the gra-
tification I feel at being able to record such an
opinion coming from an individual enjoying so high
a reputation as that distinguished officer.
Some of the peculiar advantages of the new mode
of construction of which I have just spoken may be
briefly described as follows :

Ina turret clock, made upon the common or old
construction, the wheels, and in fact all parts of the
work, as well relating to the going as to the striking
part or parts,t are mounted in one frame. This
frame is composed of various pieces in the form of
flat bars and round pillars, which are connected
together by screws and nuts, and generally so
arranged that the pivots of each train of
wheels act in opposite bars; consequently, when
either of these bars is for any purpose removed, the
entire train of wheels become loose and disengaged;
so that when the clock is large, and the parts heavy,
it requires the help of two or three assistants to pre-
vent them falling, which renders the operation of
taking the clock to pieces attended with much trouble, 1
to say noting of the risk of bending or breaking the 1,