The Sun.
London, England, 1850-03-06 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6, 1850.
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..eeterday witnessed the completion of one of those
great works of human ingenuity which attest in im-
perishable characters the glory of science and the
grandeur of civilization. Sihnce upon an occasion
like this would ill befitja journalist, whose peculiar
province it is to be the annalist of contemporary
occurrences, and the commemorator of every con-
temporary achievement. Happily, for ourselves, we
have anything but reluctance to add our expres-
sions of panegyric to those which resound from all
parts of the United Kingdom in reference to that
great effort of engineering skill which has given to
imnlortality the name of ROBERT STEPHENSON.
Among those who have already evinced an appre-
ciation of the genius of this remarkable man, we well
remember that the delightful author of " gobbles
from the Brunnen of Nassau," has good reason to be
enumerated ; for it has not yet passed our re-
collection how he has pencilled, with graphic
exactitude, the physical and intellectual toil re-
uired in the fabrication of the gigantic tubular
bridge suspended across the Menai Straits, within
view of the celebrated suspension bridge constructed
through the contrivance of TELFORD. After- re-
counting the elevation of the first of the four enor-
mous cylinders to its place of destination, the distin-
guished contributor to the Quarterly tells us of his
observing the engineer on the following morning,
alone, in the open air, quietly enjoying a cigar, and
contemplating the result of so many weary days and
nights, the effect of so many arduous labours and
profound calculations. Since then others of the re-
maining tubes have not merely been floated into their
proper positions and secured in the grooves prepared
for their reception, but the first attempt at crossing
the channel through them has been actually made,
and made too with a success the most com-
plete and triumphant. For the purpose of
properly testing the strength and general
capacity of the whole structure a variety of experi-
ments Were yesterday made, under the direction of
Mr. SeEraeoesoN himself, aesieted by several of his
most eminent contemporaries, men peculiarly inte-
rested in the triumph of his magnificent enterprise.
Than these experiments nothing could by possibility
have been more entirely satisfactory. Dead weights gra-
dually increased to an enormous magnitude, weights
in motion, and weights of a stationary character, were
successively introduced into the cylinders, and all of
them, not only without any perceptible deflection, but
without• even, in most instances, the slightest appa-
rent vibration. At daybreak the " Cambria," steam-
engine, driven by ROBERT STEPHENSON himself, and
followed by two others equally powerful, the " St.
David" and the "Pegasus," the three locomotives
harnessed together weighing altogether about ninety
tOP4,- entered the " vast iron corridor," and were
" prOpelled at a slow and stately pace" to the
Opposite extremity. Subsequently another convoy,
consisting of two dozen waggons heavily laden with
Brymbo coal-block, and weighing, inclusive of the
steam-engines, no less than three hundred tons in the
aggregate, proceeded "deliberately " through the
eeifke—emerging at the other end of the tube
in the midst of "loud acclamations, fol-
-1 owed at intervals by the rattle of artillery."
Again, a still bolder experiment was attempted, and
we need scarcely say with a result capable of in-
piring the fullest amount of satisfaction. A train of
Ivo hundred tons of coal was permitted to repose
with its full weight, for two hours, in the centre of
the Carnearthaensiaire tube, and on its ultimate re-
moval, it was found to have produced a deflection of
merely/our-tenths of an inch, an amount of deflection
equivalent to that caused by half-an-hour's sunshine !
H ere wa must refer to az interesti•:,g incident re •
o arded by the reporter who wee present on the occa-
si on, and w'ee !hided to it as follows :--
„ Durirg the trial of the dead weights a very inte-
resting ce,6,:dical proceedilg tmk place in the interior
of the earnarvonshire land tube—that of putting the
last rivet into the plates, making exactly the
2,000,000 th that have been use;!. The rivet having
been net in by Mr. Mare, was driven home and fas-
tened by Mr. Stephenson with successive strokes with
a huge hammer. This ceremony was followed by the
waving of hats and the deafening acclamations of the
-neeple."
mid-day the last and most noticeable of all
=l-.-tn differpatt experiments was adventured upon ; the
, testrog train employed on this conclusive occasion
being tbillescribed by an eve-witness :
cf the three engines, the 200 tons of
. thirty to forty railway carriages, con-
ur 600 end 700 passengers packed together
figs in a basket, all so clamorous and

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