The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-02-04 00:00:00

Feb. 4, 1845.

IRISH RAILWAYS.—The Board of Trade have de
mined on reporting to Parliament in favour of the C
and Bandon ; Great Southern and Western—Cork :
tension only ; Waterford and Limerick ; subject, as
gards the portion of the lines between Limerick and
junction with the Great Southern and Western Extern
line, to equitable arrangements for securing to the GI
Southern and Western Company full accommodation
the purposes of the Limerick traffic goin.. in the direct
of Dublin and Cork; and against the Great South
West (Ireland) direct; and recommending the postpo
ment, uutd a future period, of the Dublin, Carlow,
Wexford; Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, and Carlc
Dublin and Wicklow; Kilkenny Junction.
At a meeting on Wednesday of the North Kent R
way shareholders, one of the lines rejected by the rec
decisions of the Board of Trade, it was determined
pursuance of an almost unanimous vote, to go to par
ment with their plans, so strongly do the promoters
tertain the opinion of the ultimate success of their schei
All dissentients who choose to withdraw their names
subscriptions from the list are to be allowed the par va
of their shares, without anything being deducted for
penses up to the present time, and about a week is gig
them for signifying their desire on the subject. In
application to be made to parliament, the cost of si
proceedings is guaranteed not to exceed 10s. per share.
very elaborate report was read, which entered into the s
vantages of this line compared with their more for tun
rivals, and hints were thrown out that it was not imp
bable, if perseverance were continued, that the Na
Kent Company would be able to come into some arrant
ment for perfecting railway communication through tl
county with the South-Eastern Company. The meeti
was not very fully attended, but a great deal of unanim
prevailed among those who took part in the business I
fore it.

ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH ON THE SOUTH WESTERN.
The first trial of the electric telegraph on this line, cc
strutted by Messrs. Cooke and Wheatstone, the pate
tees, for the joint use of the admiralty and the Sout
Western Railway Company, between Nine Elms and Gc
port, a distance of 88 miles, took place on Friday la
The signals passed with the utmost precision, and a to
conversation Sassed with Mr. C's. London corresponds
over the intervening distance of 88 miles. Confidence
the system of insulation was thus proved ; the experime
never having been before tried until 72 miles were con
pleted, when the apparatus was applied at Bishopstol
about a fortnight back. Directions to his London assi
tant to start for Gosport by the first morning's tra
closed the correspondence for the night. Profess,
Wheatstone joined, by appointment, at Nine Elms, aho
twelve next morning, and some thousand signals toe
their flight between London and Gosport. In M
Wheatstohe's experiments, no perceptible time was ot
cu pied in transmission. Among many others, the follov
ing inquiries and answers, preceded by the ringing of ti
alarum, occupying about four minutes, were made at tl:
request of one of the company's officers :—" Q. Hat
you any mackerel for to-night's goods train ? A. Nc
they cannot catch them now.—Q. Why not? A, Br
cause the nights are moonlight, and the fish see the net.
Other communications respecting :he shipping too
place. Subseqnently the professors new magneto-elec
trio telegraph was brought into a long circuit of wire, an
worked to perfection through 288 miles. The apparatu
dispenses with the batteries altogether, a steel magnet be
ing the source of power. The admiralty are to have
pair of these machines, and a pair of Wheatstone'
pointing telegraphs, for their d:stinet use. For tailwa
purposes, Mr. Cooke prefers his "two-needle telegraph,'
and in this opinion Professor Wheatstone agrees, as it
rapid colloquial questions-and-answers character, is per
fectly adapted for railway exigencies. The results o
Friday night's exveriments were considered rather unsa
tisfactoty, as the state of the weather was most unfavou
table to insulation, the posts thoroughly wet, and the
wires strung with myriads of drops of water, sparkling
like gems. The following day was fine ; and, though tin
points of connexion were all wet, nevertheless the insula-
tion was excellent. With ihe last experiment, Mr
Cooke is prepared to accept a challenge to lay down E
telegraph from London to Falmouth, Live, pool, or Edin•
harsh, without any intermediate stages. The last prac-
teal ellfictilty is overcome by the present system of insu-
lation ; and Mr. Wheatstone need only add a letter-fold•
ing and sealing apparatus to his printing machine to pre-
pare the communications for the post-office. It would be
idle to suppose that the commercial world will long neg-
lect the power this invention is capable of conferring on
the commercial capitals of Great Britain, by lasing their
closer contieuity• as regards their commercial irotelligerice
and transar t otis ; seeing that by it may be made known on
'Change, at Liverpool, or in London, every fluctuation 01
price, and every bargain in stock or shares, within two
minutes of the transaction being closed in either place-
The entire cost of the telegraph between London and
Portsmoteh, is £24,000, to be paid in equal proportions
by the admiralty and the company; and negociations are
being entered into with government for laying down sec-
tions of it on Chester and Holyhead line now in the
course of construction. Mr. Cooke stated that the in-
vention, by a slight modifieation of the symbols, might be
adapted to an almost endlese variety of uses ; that, by
means of the galvanic process, conversations might be
sustained uninterruptedly between Liverpool and Lou-
den ; that musical compositions might be transmitted
with exactitude from one place to another; and that even
games of chess might be conducted between players in
two distant districts. In cases where express accounts 0
public events are required, the invention promises to be
invaluable, since it is calculated by the patentee that,
were a telegraph to be laid down between Liverpool and
London, accurate reports of speeches might be tronsmit-
ted from either place, and be put in type and circulated
long before any express train could possibly make ito
arrival.

RAILROAD ACROSS ACROSS THE ISTHMUS OF SUEZ•

Messrs. Blackwood have just published a short tract,
written by Sir W. C. Harris, whose travels in Southern
Abyssinia have proved so popular and interesting, intended
to show the practicability, and great superiority to all
other schemes, of a railroad across the Isthmus of Suez,
not only for ordinary conveyance, but for the transport of
laden merchant vessels. This is certainly a novel and
gantic project, and at first sight would appear altogether
Utopian; but Sir W. Harris is an able and experienced
engineer, well acquainted with the localities, and all the
difficulties of such an undertaking, and he pronounces it
one comparatively of easy execution, much preferable to
the plan of a canal, and at the same time greatly less ex-
pensive.

Our social, political, and commercial relations with In'
dia and China—the great and increasing intercourse be-
tween Europe and the East—render any project of this
kind a subject of the utmost importance, imperatively re'
quiring investigation from the public, whom it so deepli
concerns. We therefore extract such parrs of Sir W
Harris's pamphlet as explain the nature of the project'
He says,—
" I propose to construct a class of narrow steam-ves-
sels, of about 800 tons burden, suited for freight, and t°
transport them across the Isthmus of Suez upon trucks'
by means of locomotive engines of adequate power. The
vessels must be built upon the plan that will best serve to
counteract any additional strain upon the sides involved
by removal from the water, and the cradle truck uPoti
which each will be placed during the transit must be coo'
structed with the same view.

" The inaccessible character of the Mediterranean
shore lying over against the Sea of Suez, and the general
unfitness of all the ports or roadsteads on that coast Or
vessels of any considerable draught of water, clearly
cate the Nile, about Cairo, as the most eligible point t°
which the railroad could be carried, in order that the
laden steamers may be transferred from one to the
other of the divided seas, through its always navigable
channel.

" At the terminus on the Nile, and at the head of the
Sea of Suez, an inclined plane must be run out, under
suitable shelter, to a distance sufficient to admit of the
steamers being readily hauled upon the rails. It might
be carried into deep water at an inclination of one foot Pi
forty or fifty—and a truck upon wheels sent down it, 5,°,
as to be brought beneath the floating vessel. This trt
must be cradle-shaped, and so constructed as to 'Teel:
the shoulders of the vessel, and so afford her adequat"
support when she rides high and dry. By means of ast
tionary engine, both the vessel and the truck must Ore
be drawn up the incline, so that the first sinking upon tlo
second, will be raised upon the railway along which it

to travel.
" The locomotive engine required to draw a laden vesii
sel of 800 tons burden across the desert of Suez, need 11,4
possess above three times the power of those ordinari"
used upon an English railway ; and the increased dispel3i;
ble breadth for the machinery will render this power 0110
of easy acquisition. The masts of the vessel must be
ty
constructed as to fold over and lie flat during the trans'
in order to prevent any action of the wind upon theeZ;
and a moderate width between the rails will then 'it
found sufficient. A station, to admit of vessels on tb,e4
trucks passing each other midway, must be constructeeei
the centre of the line; and, as the entire distance 01.00
miles could be accomplished in six hours, communieetld
between Suez and Cairo might be daily held each W
upon a single line of rails.
.
thei
" Although constructed for steam-vessel trucks, 40,
rails could be equally employed for the transit of els:00
passengers, heavy baggage, and coals, by the adaptatleo
of locomotive engines possessing only the ordinary 0°1,,i10
with a train of carriages and trucks of the role'
breadth. 01
" The ezpense that would attend the construction
such a railroad, with inclined planes, stationary and to
..—dt

motive engines, carriages, and trucks, may be estinit'Pri
within a million sterling. This sum falls very far.
of the lowest estimate that has been framed for a sh!P".O
nal, and it may appear a small sum for so long a linear
that in contemplation ; but it should be borne in rav
that the ground has not to be purchased, that there
neither bridges nor tunnels to construct—both of whoa
are among the heaviest items of an English railwar;iol
that only one line of rails will be required. In every 400
of view the advantages are incontestable, of the Foirgef
which renders the Isthmus a commercial thoroughl,olo
without the necessity of shifting the cargoes of the ie70,0
employed. The railroad might be completed in two leo
whereas the construction of a canal, supposing it 'tell;
within the compass of human exertion, would occuPl to
and there is another highly important considerattoae
which I would direct attention, as one that is attainahlote,
no other project. It is the entire sucercession of citecalP
tine. The rapidity of the transit through Egypt "re
set aside the necessity for this precaution ; and the 00'
Bence of a single guardiano would prove a sufficiea!roOP
rantee that there had been no dangerous contact ae
the passage through Egypt."
Such is an outlir- .1 th:

ae of this stupendous, but app- of.
feasible, project. Without attempting to express ou'c s:
opinion of its works, we would recommend the tritod,
the careful consideration of practical men, and We. kola
that capitalists ought also to give the subject the

attention.