The Sun.
London, England, 1866-07-09 00:00:00

The Atlantic Telegraph Cable,

A correspondent of the Skipping and Mercantile
Gazette writes as follows : In a late number
of your paper, touching the Atlantic cable
enterprise, appears the following remarks :
" The company, it is said, are so bound to cer-
tain electricians, patentees, and manufacturers,
that they cannot take up any new inventions, al-
though the existence of the scheme should be staked
on inefficient machinery." As this remark has been
incidentally connected with my name in reference to
your notice, in November last, of a cable paying-out
governor of my invention, and appears to have
given some offence, I take this opportunity of
denying that it emanated from me. I never had
an interview personally with the managing
directors upon the subject. I suppose the com-
pany rely upon the ability of " practical" men
of their own selection; and although the latter
may not be very apt in departing from practical
usages to favour novel circumstances, the adoption
of any of the great majority of the schemes of me-
chanical adventurers would probably afford no im-
provement. I take the liberty, however, to express
my opinions upon mechanical matters of public inte-
rest, and confess that I agree with you as to the in-
efficiency of the machinery hitherto used for pay-
ing out the cable. I have from the first contended,
in private discussions and through public prints,
the want of mechanism possessing differential prin-
ciples of action, working in a long range, and plans
of this description were shown to the leading engi-
neers of the company when preparing for the first
expedition in 1857. But it never occurred to me,
in giving ventilation to these views, that it was
with any disposition " to wilfully argue from wron
premises ;" and I do not believe that " all theg
assertions as to strain and injury to the cable from
the paying-out gear"—made and admitted in dis-
cussion
company's common-sense
own
cussion by the great numbers of t
peo
doipleng understood
who,
s itnowapthepears from
case best—had any
connection with " malice."

Although the want of " marine governors" for
preventing the loss of steam-power and damage to
machinery in rough seas was stoutly denied (and
these are contingencies identical with those affecting
the cable) by nearly all practical engineers, from
the chiefs of the different naval powers throughout
the profession, I don't think any one suspected
that I was disposed " to wilfully argue from wrong
premises." If they did, they have set a good
example in wholly reforming and patronising a
good thing liberally. But the signs of the times
are now changing with the " Atlantic Telegraph
Company ;" and their persistent, though mistaken,
notions as to the applicability of their " paying-out
gear" as hitherto used, are resolving themselves into
reasonable modification, and the " differential
principle" is to be applied. You will, therefore, be
pleased to learn, if you have not already done so,
that the mischievous contrivances for paying-out
the cable, notwithstanding they have been so re-
peatedly lauded for "perfection" in principle, and
" working so well," are to be essentially improved
upon ; and I think that now we should not only
have all evil imputations withdrawn from us, but,
in fair play,-the concession of a right to " crow."
_ _

I have seen a letter from Captain Anderson,
written within a few days past, in which he states
that they have introduced " a new method of ap-
pliances, whereby at no time and under no condi-
tions could a greater strain come upon the cable
than was desired."

Though the introduction of this " new method"
may conflict somewhat with the denial of any strain
on the cable by the old " paying-out gear," its
principles, if properly described—and which is what
I have always claimed to be required—may suffice
to save them. At any rate, with the advantages
of the great ship, which alone afford a chance of

success in moderate weather, we may now look for
the consummation of the great enterprise, which
capitalists have supported with unprecedented
courage, and which has taken the persevering pro-
jector (Mr. C. W. Field) across the Atlantic, with
anxiety and suspense, more than thirty times,, and
may they all be richly rewarded, both in money and
public acknowledgment.

THE ROAD MURDER.—The action for damages

brought by Mr. and Mrs. Kent against the Edinburgh Daily
Review has been withdrawn, the proprietors of the news-
paper having consented to pay the sum of £350 in name of
damages, in addition to the publication of a retraction and
apology. Tho article containing the remarks complained
of was published on the 27th of July, 1865, and contained
statements regarding Mrs. Rent's position in life before her
marriage, and her treatment of Constance Kent, and also
made reflections on Mr. Kent's proceedings during the in-
vestigations preceding the confession and trial of his
daughter. The action was sot down for trial before a jury
at Edinburgh on the 22d of May, but when the court met
that day the trial was postponed, pending negotiations for
a settlement. The Daily Review of Friday contains the fol-
lowing statement :—" In consequence of this article an
action was raised in the Court of Session in Scotland by
Mr. and Mrs. Kent against the proprietors of the Daily
Review for libel, which led the proprietors of the Review to
institute minute inquiries into the truth of the statements
contained in that article. The result of these inquiries was
to show that these statements were not true, and that the
conductors of the Daily Review had been misled by false
information. Defences were immediately lodged to the
summons, in which the statements were retracted and a

full apology made to Mr. and Mrs. Kent ; and the pro-
prietors of the Review now take the opportunity of giving
the same publicity to the apology as was given to the
article in question, and at the same time express their re-
gret that much pain must have been caused to Mr. and
Mrs. Kent by the publication of these statements."

THE GATESIIEAD MURDER.-- oti Friday Cuth-
bert Carr, a person to appearance of weak intellect,
was brought before the Gateshead borough magistrates, on
remand, charged on Ns own confession with the wilful
murder of Sarah Melvin, a child of seven years of age, at
Carr's-hill, on the 13th April. The depositions of the wit-
nesses who found the body of the child, and of the parents,
and medical gentlemen were read over and signed, the
facts spoken to being precisely those already reported in
The Sun. The prisoner said ho did not deny anything
that he had confessed to Chief-constable Elliott, and ho
was committed to take his trial at the Durham Assizes
upon a charge of wilful murder.
TEMPERATURE.--In a paper addressed to the
French Academy of Sciences, MM. Becquerel,
father and son, examine the influence of forests on the
temperature of the ambient air. They sometimes act as
frigorific causes, and sometimes in the contrary sense. In
the former case they deprive the soil of solar radiation
when composed of siliceous or calcareous sand, which
acquires great heat under the influence of that
radiation, and preserves its temperature for a length of
time. Forests are also cooled by the effect of nocturnal
radiation, and at the same time cool the atmosphere ; and
lastly, they produce cold by the cutaneous perspiration of
the leaves. On the other hand they warm the ambient air by
the great power of absorption possessed by the leaves ; and
when the trees have lost their foliage, the branches perform
the same office, though in a smaller degree, by means of
their green parts. These results have been confirmed
in America by Humboldt, Boussingault, and others ; it re-
mained to be seen whether the same was the case in the
western parts of Europe, the calorific condition of which is
different from that of the other hemisphere. For this pur-
pose MM. Becquerel instituted experiments in five stations
of the district of Montargis, in the department of the
Loiret, taking readings of the thermometer in the
midst of the forests, near and at a distance from
them ; and they have thus ascertained that, far from wood-
lands, the temperature is higher by about half
eesdegbrueet
than it is on their outskirts or under the trees;
minimum of
the difference between the maximum anaby
temperature has been found greateri
Various ot 1.68
her
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ninsjui
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elements, however, exorcise
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possesses a higher spe-
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temperature than land. Meadows, on the contrary,
favour the productionr
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and a delicate
neighbourhoodColo
article starchoct with the new preparation is completely
of the soes
coloured—dyed wo should have said, but as it washes out,
and the garment that was pink to-day may be green to-
morrow, and buff afterward, wo can hardly say " dyed."
It is intended especially for those bright but treacherously-
coloured muslins that aro costly, wash out, and perplex
their owners. If the pattern has been mauve, they only
need the mauve starch ; if green, green starch ; and they
can be rendered one even and pretty shade, thus becoming
not only wearable again, but very stylish.
A lump of gold, taken from the North Carolina
gold mines, weighing five pounds, is on exhibition at
Statesville, North Carolina. It is the largest lump found
in tho State Pince 1828.