The Sun.
London, England, 1858-05-28 00:00:00

(BY SUBMARINE AND BBITISR TELEGRAPH.)

GRAVESEND, Friday Morning.
Wind N.N W. ; tide first hour's flood ; weather clou ly.
Arrived, May 27.—Middlesboro', steamer, from Konigs-
berg; Speculation, Libau ; Babthorp, St. Jago de Cuba ;
Narayane, Colombo ; Gofftedo, Geoga ; Anglo-Saxon,
Shanghae ; Jane Perdew. Mauritius; Nord Scrennin,
Gothenburg ; Cressy, Calcutta.
Arrived, May 28.—Rhine, from Boulogne ; Maize.
Savanille. ; Anna Maria, Nantes ; Concordia, Rotterdam.
Sailed.—Bella, steamer, for Bremen ; Royal Albert,
Colombo ; Albion, steamer, Boulogne.
DEAL, Friday Morning.
Wind. N. N. W. , moderate.
Arrived.—llimalaya, from London, for Adelaide.
Passed.—Nancy, for Barbadoes ; Zodiac, Capo of Good
Hope ; Janota, Lisbon ; Hantinope, Jersey ; Accra, Cape
Coast Castle ; Pandora, Swanse--all from London; Sym-
metry, from Sunderland, for Philadelphia; Peninsular,
(a), Cadiz, London ; James Holmes, London, Barbado ;
o
e
Louisa, Amsterdam, Batavia.
Sailed—All the outward bound.

ESCAPE OF THREE DESERTERS —Early on Friday
morning an occurrence of a most daring character took
plice Fermoy, resulting in the escape of three sol-
diers from the guardhouse, where they were temporarily
confined awaiting the sentence of a court-martial, before
which they had been that day tried and convicted for
desertion. At about 1 o'clock finding the entire of the
sergeant's party on guard-12 men—lying about the
room fast asleep, one of the fellows, named Smith, put
on his shako and overcoat and left the room, followed by
the other two prisoners. They attacked the sentry, who
alone was keeping watch, and beat him in a terrible
manner. The three deserters—two Englishmen and the
other an Irishman—then scaled the barrack-wall and
effected their escape so successfully that up to a late
hour on Friday evening all search had proved fruitless.
The sentinel lies in a precarious state.—Clonmel
parer.
Bank,
RELEASE OF A BRITISH BANK D
BritishlßECT9lL—Mr.
one of the directors of the Royal
M'Leod,
was yesterday released from the Queen's prison, his
having expired.
term of imprisonment (three months)

PADDLE-WHEELS AND SCREW-PRO.
FELLERS.

At a recent Meeting of the Society of Arts, Mr.
Scott Russell in the chair, a paper was read by
Mr. John Macgregor, " On the Paddle-wheel and
Screw-propeller from the earliest times." After
having adverting to the supposel use of paddles
worked.by animal power for the propulsion of ves-
sels by the ancient Egyptians, the Romans, and
the Chinese, Mr. Macgregor says he first finds
authentic proof of their use in two letters, written
in A.D. 1543, by Blasco de Garay, and now,pre-
served in the national archives at Simancas, in
Spain. These give the particulars of experiments
at Malaga and Barcelona with large versels pro-
pelled by paddle-wheels, turned by 40 men. He,
however, finds no evidence of the asserted use of
seam by Garay for marine propulsion. The mus-
cular power of men, of horses, and of other ani-
mals, was often used and frequently patented, even
to the year 1848, by Miller ; and 1856, by Moses.
The Marquis of Worcester, in 1661, patented the
application of a current, to turn paddle-wheels on
a vessel which they propelled by winding up a
rope. Pepin, in 1690, proposed to work the
i wheels by gunpowder, exploded under pistons ;
Conrad (1709) used the force of the wind,
C Weights
Maillard (1733) and Goutaret (1753) applied clock-
work, ((Harriett (1797) used falling water •
were employed by Tremeere (1801),ongreve
(1827) used the capillary attraction of a wheel of
sponge or glass plates ; Dundoneld (1833) applied
the oscillaions of mercury ; and Jacobi (1838) em_
ployed an electro-magnet to work the paddle-wheels
of -a vessel on the Neva. The whole number of Eng-
lish patents relating to marine propulsion is 802,
from the earliest, grantel to Ramsey in 1618, to
those of Juno, 1857. The first patent relating to
a steam-boat is that of Jonathan Hulls, iu 1736.
He placed a paddle-wheel on beams projecting over
the stem, and it was turned by an atmospheric
steam-eneine, acting in conjunction with a counter-
poise weielit, upon a system of ropes and grooved
wheels. The first notice of a successful trial of the
sty am-boat recorded by witnesses is in a notarial
c wificate, in Pads. This asserts that in July, 1783;
the Comte de Jouffroy caused a vessel of 130 feet
in length to be propelled for a quarter of an hour by
a steam-eni ine on the Saone, near Lyons. Experi-
ments conduct-d about the same time, at Dal-
swinton, in- Scotland, by Patrick Miller,
-'re-
sulted, in 1787, in the successful use of the steam-
engine, by Miller, Taylor, and Symington, to
propel a vessel by paddle-wheels, which worked
one before the other in the centre of the boat. The
Charlotte Dlindas was built on the Clyde Canal, in
1801. Although Fulton used a steamer on the Seine
in 1803, and another in America, the Clermont, in.
1807, was the first that plied so as to be remune-
rative in that country. In 1809, the Fulton the
Fire, stzatn-frit.ate, was launched at New York.
Bell built the Comet in 1811, at Glasgow, and used
it regularly for traffic next year. In 1815, Dr.
Dodd steamed from Glasgow, by Dublin, to Lon-
don, in the Thames, which made a stormy passage
of 758 nautical miles in 121 hours. Steam navi-
gation was introduced into France in 1815. In
1818, Nepier's steam-packets ran regulat ly between
Green' ek and Belfast. It is said that, in 1819, the
Savannah steamed from New York to Liverpool,
but the assertion is very questionable. The Comet
first carried the Admiralty pennant in 1822. In
1825, the Enterprise steamed trom England to Cal
en to in 113 days. Guns were first carried by the
reamer Salamander, in 1832. The Emperor of
Japan received a steam yacht, as a present from
the Queen of England, in 1858. The Chinese now
use mock steam-boats, with paddles turned by
m n concealed inside. Having thus traced the
li;story of the paddlewheel, the paper proceeds
to describe the various positions in which it was
placed, and the various plans and inventions re-
lating to its several parts—the abaft, the wheel,
the floats, the paddle-wheels—in all of which
there have been many successive modifications
in shape and adjustment. Turning to the screw
propeller, which, Mr. Macgregor thinks,
may have been suggested by the motion of a
windmill, as that of the paddle by the action
of a waterrnill, it appears that several attempts
were made previous to the introduction of steam
to make the screw available for the propulsion
of vessels. In 1729, Duquet submerged an ap-
paratus like a smoke-jack, or windmill, and the
action of the stream turned its shaft so as to
wind up a rope. In 1746, Bonner states that
" revolving vanes, like those of a windmill,"
had been tried for the propulsion of vessels, but
it is nct clear that the axis was turned by force
inside the vessel, or ti at the mode was an ad-
vance on that of Duquet's. The use of the screw
propeller in China may be of an indefinite an-
tiquity. A model of one was brought from that
country about the year 1780. It had two sets
of blades, turning in opposite directions; but the
first distinct description of the screw-propeller to
be turned by machinery inside a vessel, seems
to have been by Dr. Bernoui!li, of Groningen,
in 1852, and it is remarkable that this, though
the airliest recorded proposal, was well enough
matured to comprise the use of oblique
vanes at the bow, sides, and stern, turned by a
steam-engine, and capable of being hoisted out
of the water. In 1768 Paw:ton proposed
the pterophore, a screw thread on a cylinder, to
by wholly or partly immersed. In 1770 James
Watt suggested to Dr. Small the trial of a steam
scew propeller. Bramab, in 1785, first patented a
rotary engine for this purpose ; Ramsay (1792) put
the screw between two mills, and Littleton (1790
used a three-threaded screw, while Fulton (1798)
tried ono with four blades. Shot tar's screw (1800),
with a jointed shaft, and worked by men, was ap-
plied in 1802 to 11. M. ships Dragon and Superb.
The first screw steamer was tiled by Stevens in
America, in 1804. In 1825 Brown used one in the
Thames. The only patent for combining the screw
propeller and the paddle wheel is that of Turck,
in 1852. The Bee, a naval steam tender at Ports-
mouth, has (tarried both paddles and screw since
1842, but they are not worke 1 t gether. The forms
of the screw propeller and the modes are as varied
as those of the paddle wheel, and the forms which
have been proposed for the Hader, both in out-
line and section, are innumerable. The more im-
portant of these are noticed in the paper. In conclu-
sion Mr. Macgregor says:—" In the m odes of propul-
sion adopted by aquatic an;mats may be found al-
most every plan which has been used by man with
machinery. Thus water is ejected for propulsion
by the cuttle fist-, and 'paper nautilus' sails are
int d by the velella and water birds; punting and.
owing by whelks and the leydosiren ;_a folding
paddle by the lobster, feathering paddles by ducks,
and oblique surfaces by fish of all kinds. A screw-
like appendage is found in the wings of an Austra-
lian fly, but it is supposed to be shaped thus only
wh-n dried after death. There is, however, one
remarkable animal which propels itself by a rotary
movement, acting on the water by means similar to
those of the paddle-wheel and screw-propeller com-
le'ned. This is the infusorial insect Paramecium.
My attention was called to this miniatute
Leviathan by Mr. Rotert Mallet, and after some
monlhe of ineffectual search, I was fortunate enough
to see its operations distinctly in one of Mr. Tom-
kin,' splendid microscopes. A sulcus or furrowed
groove runs obi-quely round the oval-shapad:body
f the animal (in one variety it is only near the
stern). A wave-like protul erance passing along
this sulcus (with or without cilia) causes the body
to ro.ate on its longer axis, and thus propels it as
by the fore-and-aft stroke of a paddle, as well as by
the screw like progress induced by the spiral groove.
The coloured diagrams around us show, without
verbal explanation, the gradual progress of marine
propulsion from the early days of
.Nineveh,tion of the lar application in the rotatory ane
Baby-
lon, and Egypt. We have traced its more particu -
paddle-
wheel and screw,
Let us hope that
one of nature's smalles
and btaveosies. these combined in
afloatw would be a great suc-
cess,the giant vessel
Englisho hearts to shores of corn-
of plenty—honest
bearing fortnhowur sturdy emigrants to lands
hands to works of industry—strong
of knowledge--brave armies to
stores h f
and t e oospe o peace to the euds
fields of glorlc—
:itierridcse—tsotrong
of the earth.

TUB NEW LANDINGSTAdE AT LIVERPOOL.--The
Mersey Dock Board have ordered the lifeboats to be
placed at the new landing stage, as they will thus Le
available at all stages of the tide. There is it appears,
some difficulty about making satisfactory traffic arrange.
ments fcr the stage, it being found that carts and other
heavy vehicles damage the planking very seriously. The
expediency of another and fifth bridge, entirely devoted
to carts and cattle, is at present under consideration,
together with the employment of cranes and other tackle
to be erected on the piers, so tha• heavy goods might be
thus placed upon the stage, the incline of the bridges at
low water Leing Excessive.
A YOUTHFUL TRAVELLEII.—A. good deal of curiosity
from
rnpca, was
mj
Monday
itndeogadsy:
_ear amongevening
notaghi eas
ibpelyeai
tsuttsl:
eni e
gygai passengers
lerswE
Icanaat
lratclirelnelaybtCentrallabel,
the
.4 stations t
rai n
k
following inscription :—" The child's g:raebneydaemraironstghotelhdre,'
Mrs. —, Pipewell-gate, Gateshead, wilt be on the
platform at the Central station, Newcastle, to receive it."
The child was in excellent spirits after her day's ride,
and bore the handling of the bystanders—all of whom
insisted on reading the singular label—with great good
humour and composure. Unfortunately the granddame
had been at the station on Sunday evening inquiring for
the little traveller, and on this occasion was not present.
The child, however, evinced no feeling of grief or dis-
appointment on finding herself quite alone in so strange
a place, and trotted off to the station master's office to
await the arrival of the grandmother, apparently rather
amused than otherwise.—Newcastle Chronicle.