The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-14 00:00:00

Revolving Ironclad Forts.

The recent gunnery experiments upon the turret
of the Royal Sovereign, and the recent engagement
with the Spanish ironclad squadron at Callao, have
proved almost beyond a doubt that the system of
revolving turrets is one which merits great atten-
tion. Such being the case, it remains yet to be de-
termined whether the system cannot be developed
on a much more extended scale than its most san-
guine supporters ever expected. A plan has been
recently submitted to the authorities of the Admi-
ralty and War Department, which, although bold in
idea to the very extreme, commends itself for its
simplicity. It is proposed by a civil engineer in
Portsmouth that revolving ironclad forts should be
erected on the foundations now in course of con-
struction on the No Man's Land Shoal and the Spit
and Horse Sands, the forts upon which are intended
to defend the roadstead known as Spithead. It is
perfectly clear that if three men can turn with ease
one of the turrets of the Royal Sovereign, although
weighing 130 tons, a revolving ironclad fort could
be turned with equal ease by powerful hydraulic
machinery, even though weighing as much as 4,000
or 5,000 tons. At all events, the scheme is worthy
the consideration of the authorities, and might fairly
be left to the Turret Committee, or to the chief en-
gineer at Portsmouth Dockyard, to report upon its
practicability. It is proposed that the diameter of the
forts should be 213 feet, being the same as that
of the top ennrse of the prezcnt foundations, having
a double curvilinear sectional form, such form being,
it is believed, preferable to that of a quadrant, or
_that of an angle of 45 degrees. The forts will have
two tiers of 600-pounders mounted on an upper and
lower tier, each containing 16 guns, or 32 in all, and
will revolve on three lines of rails with conical
wheels, the wheels themselves being connected in
the most powerful manner with the platform above,
which in reality will form the foundation upon which
the whole of the ironclad superstructure of the fort
will rest. The guns will stand immediately over the
other upon an iron gallery, each two being separated
from the others by iron divisions to avoid the possi-
bility of accidents. The approximate weights would
be as follows :

Tons.
Wrought-iron casing
Backing, framing, &c. 1,500
Thirty-two 600-pounders

Total weight to be turned by hydraulic power 4,500
Ample space will be provided within the forts for
barracks, magazines, &c., but it is intended that a
staircase should be erected in the centre, with an
ironclad look-out tower forming its roof. The time
for providing ourselves with old-fashioned batteries
is gone by. We must now avail ourselves of iron,
steel, or if there be any other harder and more dur-
able metal known to keep out the ponderous shot
and shell which are about to come into use.—Army
and Navy Gazette.

NEW ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP.—It is officially
announced that the Rev. Canon Eyre, of St. Mary's New-
castle-upon-Tyne, has been appointed Bishop of Hexham
and Newcastle. He succeeds Bishop Hogarth, who died
on the 7th of February last.

The first pocket of new hops arrived at market
this ramming. It was grown by Mr. George Austen, of
Battle, Sussex, consigned to Messrs. W. Austen and Com-
pany, Borough, and bought by Messrs. Bakers, White, and
Morgan, London-bridge, for Messrs. Squire and Tillyer,
brewers, Uxbridge, at £l6 16s. per cwt.

Yesterday afternoon a large number of English
excursionists left London by special trains from Charing-
cross, London-bridge, Victoria, and Ludgate- h ill, for Paris
via Dover and Calais, to attend the Emperor's fete s.

A TYPEFOUNDERS' FEAST.—One of the most
satisfactory assemblages that has taken place in
this trade, since the afternoon when John Guttenburg,
John Faust, and Peter Schafer, sat down to celebrate the
casting of the first fusible type—for which the first found
the brains of the inventor, the second the money and metal
of the capitalist, and the third the skill of the craftsman—
came off on Saturday at the Crystal Palace, when Messrs.
Caslon and Co., on the 150th anniversary of their ancient
firm—which originated typefounding in this country—
summoned the hands in their employ to a feast in celebra-
tion of that event and of the recent reintegration of their
business, after a disturbance by a dispute and strike that
has only been put an end to by a determined intermission
for quite throe months in supplying any orders to their
connection, so overmastering the embarassment, which the
leaders of the strike had reckoned upon as an irrefragable
means for compelling them to succumb to the terms im-
posed by the union. There was, of course, much mutual
congratulation, and Mr. Henry Caslon, who presided, men-
tioned the curious fact that matrices from punches originally
cut by William Caslon in 1725 were now taken down for
daily use after having been laid aside since 1772 as obso-
lete—nearly 50 years after their first invention—" for,"
said Mr. H. Caslon, " with the returning taste for the
beautiful in form—a necessary consequence of the greater
popularisation of art in our times—the ' old-faced type' had
come to be regarded as the most elegant letters within the
range of typography, tho call for them being so large that
the house had a difficulty in keeping up with tho require-
ments of their customers."

ANOTHER RAILWAY ACCIDENT.—Last night at
11 o'clock, an accident, fortunately unattended
with fatal results, took place at the Elephant and Castle
station, when one train ran into another with considerable
force. It appears that at the hour specified a train from
Ludgate-hill was standing at the Metropolitan Extension
platform at the Elephant and Castle station, setting down
passengers, and awaiting the signal to proceed. The
block system of telegraphic signalling is in use on this
line, and iu the ordinary course no train would be
allowed to leave the Borough-road station for the Elephant
and Castle until the metals wore signalled from the latter
place to be clear. But last night, from some cause not
clearly explained, a passenger train left the Borough-road
station and sighted the Elephant and Castle. train before
the latter had moved. When the enginervr. saw the
semaphore danger signal up he at once did his best to
slacken speed, but a collision could not be avoided. The
second train dashed into the stationary one with consider-
able force. The passengers were very much shaken, but
no lives were lost.