The Sun.
London, England, 1869-09-07 00:00:00

THAMES.

THE Two DISPUTANTS.—IIeury Ward, a sawyer, aged
35 years, was charged with assaulting William Thurston,
a mason, whose face was marked.
The complainant said a debate was going on in a public
house when ho was having his pint of beer, and the de-
fendant struck him several times and knocked him down.
The Prisoner—Now, 1 will tell you how all this oc-
curred, your worship. That min asked me if I know what
a sagor was. I said, yes, a matt who assists in navigat-
ing a ship, a mariner who goes to sea. Now, sus he,
you know nothing about it ; I mean a sailer, not a sailor.
Well, says I, a sailer is a man who makes and repairs th.)
sails of a windmill, or a. good sailor, a bad sailor, or a ILNt
sailer, which we apply to ships. Yon know a goc 1 ,loal
bays he, but you dJu't know thii—What is th, right end
of a ship ? VVhy, says I, there this bows, thtt's
of the ship, and the stern, tirit tho right on lof a ship
any way. No, says lie, vo:t a all wrous, right cud
of a ship is when she sinks in deep water, for tit .re is an
end of her. Wan, your worship, I did not Pk., to be caught
up in that manner, and all the chaps laughing at me, so I
gives him a back bander.
Mr. Benson—Your kick handers must be seven*, for
his face is contused and his eyes are blackened. Yon aro
fined 10s., and in default of payment 10 days imprison-
ment.

The priscner—Very well, sir, I submit to your decision,
but I think when a ship sinks it is the wrong end of her,
most decidedly; not the right end.
ATTEMPTED SUICIDE.—EIIen Tyumen, aged 26 years,
was brought up on remand before Mr. Benson charged
with attempted self destruction in the River Thames.
The defendant threw herself off the Tower-wharf into
the stream a few days ago, and she would have been
drowned if a boatman had not exerted himself, and saved
her. She bad conducted herself well in the Clerkenwell
House of Detention during the week she had been under
remand. _ . - _

The sister of the prisoner now offered to take charge of
her, and said her sister was not very drunk when she
threw herself into of the water•

Mr. Benson said a groat many females had been
brought before him and his colleague for attempting to
drown ox hang themselves when intoxicated, and ho had
occasion to commit one woman named San Bunter for at-
tempted suicide in a police cell. He did not think ho
ought to discharge the prisoner. On the first examination
ho was told she lived with a man to whom she was not
married, and now it was urged on her behalf she was not
very drunk when she attempted to commit a very serious
crime, self-murder.
The sister—She was out of her mind when she made
the attempt.
Mr. Benson—Yes; out of her mind through the abo-
minable habit of drunkenness.

The prisoner was ultimately discharged, after a sever()
admonitory lecture from the magistrate.

HARVEY'S MOVING 7ORPEDO.

...-__ -T

On the principle that, when the means of de-
struction are rendered so complete as to make the
annihilation of the majority of any given number
of combatants a matter of certainty, war may
cease altogether, we may perhaps be permitted to
welcome the appearance of another invention de-
signed to supersede the old slow process of riddling
a ship of war with shot and shell and cutting up
her crew in detail, by the wholesale plan of blowing
ship and crew into " smithereens" altogether.
Many years ago, when the now almost forgotten
Capt.. Warner so mysteriously destroyed an old brig
off Brighton, to the admiration and astonishment of
innumerable spectators, a young officer of the Navy,
now Captain John Harvey, R.N., took up the idea
of making naval warfare sudden death by means
of torpedoes. For the last quarter of a century
he has associated with him in his labours his
nephew, Commander Harvey, R.N., and after
many experiments, and looking at the matter from
all points of view, they have reduced their ideas to
a practical variety of torpedo. These villainous
contrivances have come to occupy a prominent
place in the defensive armoury of nations in the
form of mines sunk to the bottom of navigable
channels or rivers, and the best and most efficient
of them are it.tended to be fired by electricity.
In this form it is an arm of merely nega-
tive value, because the chances are wry much
against its producing any ill-effect upon a hos-
tile vessel. The torpedo has to be exploded at
the very moment the ship is over them, or no
damage is done. The smalletterror in determining
the bearings of the approaching ship, or in the com-
munications between the distant stations necessary
for that purpcs), and the explosion is harmless.
The object of Captain Harvey has been to make
the torpedo as controllable a weapon of offence as a
gun or a rocket, and to exert over it a continuous
power of direction until the very moment when its
destructive effects are to be produced. Twenty
specimens of the new weapon, manufactured by
Mr. Nunn, of St. George's-street, London Docks,
the maker of Colomb and Bolton's floating signals,
are now about to be shipped to St. Petersburg for
_the Russian Govepwent, Instead of sinking

' the torpedo, Captain Harvey tows it boldly
against the craft that is to be destroyed, the ex-
plosion taking place by the act of contact. When
wanted for use, the fulminating appliance can ba
fitted in a moment, the torpedo be thrown over-
board, and towed against the enemy. Any one
who has towed a boat along a river or canal knows
that, if the tow-rope was made fast to the stem of
the boat, she would soon stick her nose in the
bank ; but by fastening the tow rope nearly
amidships she shoots out into the stream, and
travels in a straight line parallel to the towing
path, at a greater or less distance out, accord-
ing to the length of the tow rope. This prin-
ciple is adopted in the " otter," an instrument
used by poachers to catch fish. It is nothing
more than a piece of plank loaded with lead
ou one edge, so as to make it float that edge
downwards, and the upper edge just level with the
surface of the water. One side carries a number
of baited lines, awl on the other is a side span of
rope, to which the towed rope is fastened iu the
middle. When the poacher walks along the bank,
the " otter" shoots into mid-stream and drags the
baited hooks along the bottom. This is the prin-
ciple adopted by Capt. Harvey for towing his tc,r-
pedo, which is a long, narrow box, weighted at the
lower edge, and with a towing span on one side.
The bottom is not so long as the top, so that the
szetion is something c,f a punt form, which makes it
more easy to tow. The box contains au inner
metal case to hold the powder, or other more power-
ful explosive agent, which is ignited by means of
a metal bolt inserted into a chamber on the
top of the torpedo. This bolt is hollow, and is
loaded with a fulminate, which explodes when the
bolt is pressed downwards on to a sharp pin or
anvil in the bottom of the chamber. The pressure
which forces the bolt downwards'is exerted by two
ingi.niously contrived levers, on their coming into
contact with the bottom or side of a ship. Ono
lever projects upwards from the top of the torpedo,
and the other from the side, so that no matter what
the angle of contact may be, the explosion is sur:
to follow. Even when the exploding bolt is
placed in its chamber, means are taken to prevent
accidental discharge by putting in a pin at right
angles through the bolt and across the top
of the chamber. This safety pin is attached to
a piece of log line, which is run off a reel,
as in heaving the log, when the torpedo
is being towed. The pin has a slight
lashing of twine to prevent accidental dis-
placement, but when the torpedo is to be fired, a
smart tug on the log line breaks the twine and pulls
out the pin. The torpedo i 3 then ready to explode
the moment the contact takes place. With a tow-
rope of 60 or 70 fathoms the torpedo floats off the
quarter of the towing vessel at an angle from 30-
to 40 deg., according to the speed. The torpedo is
so weighted that it sinks of itself, so that there
is a cork buoy attached by a buoy rope. When,
being towed the torpedo gradually rises to the
surface, the buoy trailing along astern. By
varying the speed of the towing vessel the depth
at which the torpedo shall strike an enemy's
ship can be very nicely regulated. Of course the
vessel towing these torpedoes would be liable to
be hit by the enemy's guns while approaching ;
but that is not a risk which would prevent sucr
sailors as aura oar fleets from undertaking the
task.

The invention was last year subtnitted to offi-
cial trial by the Floating Obstruction Committee,
at Milford Haven, when the apparatus was fouu
to act properly, and a vessel was blown to piece
on that occasion by Commander Harvey, R.N.,
with a torpedo charged with Horsley's powder. The
committee reported, that "the results obtained were
sufficiently satisfactory to warrant the committee in
recommending that further opportunity should ha
afforded Commander Harvey of experimenting
with this system in open water under conditions
identical with those which would occur in prac-
tice."

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE—This Day

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CIFY BETTING.--Tics DAY.

LEAMINGTON STAKES.
100 to 30 agst Vagabond (otfored —4 to 1 taken)
sto 1 agst Cock of the Walk (tAkcn and offered)
sto 1 ngst Kiddorminster (t;i ken)
10 to 1 agst War (tilteu)
1U io 1 agst Cap-a-Pie (taken and offered)
'...atliA V YORKBLIIRE HANDICAP.
7 to 1 agst Geant des liattailks (off —take 8 to 1)
10 to 1 agNt Wildbad (offered)
12 to 1 agst Paul Jones (taken)
100 to 8 agst Cap-a-Pie (taken and offered)
100 to 7 agst War (taken)
10,1 to 7 agst Formosa (taken and wanted)
lee to 6 agst Taraban (taken)
20 to 1 agst Lady Zetland (offered)
20 to 1 agst The Laird (taken)

ST. LEGER.
75 to 40 agst Pretender (offered)
85 to 20 agst Pero Gomez (taken and wanted)
S to 1 agst Drummer (offered)
9 to 1 agst Martyrdom (offered)
15 to 1 agst Ityshworth (offered)

CESAREWITCH.
40 to 1 on the field (offered)
50 to 1 agst Starter (takon)
50 to 1 agst Cecil (taken and offered)
50 to 1 agst Tramp (taken)
50 to 1 agst Make Haste (taken)
50 to 1 agst Rasselag (taken)
50 to .1 agst Conjutor (taken);
66 to I agst Our Mary Ann (taken)
TATTEIiSALL'zi Evening.