The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-06-16 00:00:00

LOCAL, NRWN

ST. THOMAS'S CHURCH, TOXTETH-PARK.—A license
has been granted for the celebration of marriages at this
church.
- - -

MERCHANT SEAMEN'S ACT.—We are glad to learn that
a petition in favour of an amendment of the Merchant Sea-
men's Act, and to which nearly seven thousand signatures
are attached, has been forwarded to our representative Lord
Sandon for presentation to the House of Commons.
- -

SUMMER Assn Es.—The following are the days and places
appointed for holding the Summer Assizes for the Northern
Circuit, before Mr. Justice Wightman and Mr. Justice
Cresswell :—York, Wednesday, July 12; Durham, Wed-
nesday, July 2G; Newcastle, Wednesday, August 2; Carlisle,
Monday, August 7 ; Appleby, Thursday, August 10 ; Lan-
caster, Saturday, August 12 ; Liverpool, August 17.

- -
LIVERPOOL PROTESTANT BENEVOLENT SOCIETY'-It
will he seen by an advertisement in our paper of this day,
that the Annual Dinner of the above excellent and praise-
worthy institution will take place on Monday the 19th inst.
We understand that several of the honorary members have
signified their intention of attending, and that Mr. Joseph
Cooper, one of the oldest among them, has, with his wonted
kindness, consented to take the chair on that occasion. We
are glad to hear that the funds and its numbers are on the
increase.

CHARGE OF ASSAULT AGAINST A SCHOOLMASTEI;i

Evan Claytor, a schoolmaster at Liscard

was charged, at

the petty sessions there, with cruelly beating one of his pu--
pils, a little boy, son of Mr. Leicester, butcher, at Seacombe.
From the statement of Mr. Ellis, surgeon, and the appear-
ance of the boy, it appeared that he had been very severely
beaten with a cane, and had had a narrow escape of being
lamed for life. The magistrates, after expressing their opi-
nion that the conviction of the defendant would materially
the defendant in his profession, and therefore it was
cessary to inflict a heavy penalty, ordered him to pay
of 10s., the expenses of the medical attendant 155.,
and the costs of the case.

injure
not ne
a fine

THE WEATHER.—The weather has now undergone a most
beneficial change, and we entertain the hope that it is at length
decidedly settled. Altho' up to Tuesday fires had been used
by most persons in their sitting rooms, we are glad to say
that they are now generally discontinued; indeed yesterday

and on Wednesday the sun shone brilliantly, and the two

days possessed all the characteristics of midsummer. We
perceive, however, that the weather is very different in the

south ; in London, on Tuesday the rain .poured. down in tor-
rents the whole day, and Wednesday according to the me-
tropolitan papers was a cold,. damp, " sloppy" day. The

weather hqs., however, undergone generally throughout the

country a " bleFsed and seasonable

(:ban=e

ST. PETER'S WARD —The election of a representative for
this ward in the Town Council took place; orxTuesday,before
the alderman (Mr. Turner) and the two assessors of the ward,
at the Horse and Jockey Tavern, Seel-street. The polling •
booth opened exactly at 9 o'clock, and a few minutes after-
wards, Mr. John Smith (the late member for West Derby
•

Ward) tendered the first 'vote for Mr. John Stewart, the

gentleman put in nomination by the Conservative

Several

other votes were afterwards received, but no other candidate

was proposed. At twenty minutes past ten o'clock, no vote
having been tendered for an hour, the alderman declared the
election closed, and that Mr. Stewart had been duly returned.
A worthy substitute has thus been found for Mr. Samuel
Holme

.nd " Gibraltar" bas been taken without the enemy

having dared to show the bright-ness of his countenance

MR. .
TUTION

ADDAMS'S LECTURES AT THE COLLEGIATE INSTI-
r.—On Tuesday evening, Mr. Addams delivered, at

the theatre of the institution, the concluding lecture of his
series of seven, on voltaic and pagnetic electricity, before a

highly-gratified audience, amongst which were many ladies.
He commenced by stating, that he had now to submit an

interesting portion of his subject, namely, Thermo-magnetic
Electricity, which implied that heat had an influence in pro-

clueing electric currents; and thence he would deduce the
fact that currents of electricity must be passing over the
earth itself from east to west—the sun being a primary cause,

and the motion of the earth another—and these currents
acted upon the needle as we found them. The magnetism of
a bar of steel was effectually destroyed by submittina it to a

red heat, as in that state it lost its power of maintaining the
order of electric currents, and this alone proved that heat
prevailed over electricity. 11.1 r. Barlow and others had com-
pared the influence of heat upon the magnetic condition of
various kinds of iron, and found this fact. The magnetic
influence of cold cast iron, and cold carburretted or malleable
iron, was very different. Cold beaten iron -possessed 30° of
magnetic power, and cast iron only 21°. A cold bar of the
former attracted the needle 40° out of its bearing, and a cast
iron one only 21° ; when heated to a white temperature they
had no effect, but when at that heat called by smiths " a red
heat," cast iron had a power of 62° and malleable of 45°.
When the bars were about to melt they had no power over

the magnetic needle, however near it was placed, but as they
began to cool magnetism became evident, and its power was
at its maximum when the iron had cooled to a blood-red
heat, scarcely visible by daylight. To show the influence of
heat in directing electricity in metals, be produced a small
quadrangle or square, resembling a picture-frame, two of the
opposite sides of which were of bismuth and the two others
of antimony, mitred together and soldered at the corners.
The electricity in either metal had no particular three-
tion.• But by heating one of the metals at one of the
corners or joints, and leaving the rest in a cold state,
the electricity began to circulate. Ile placed a small and
delicate magnetic needle within the frame, and applying
the flame of a small lamp under one of the joints, the electric
current passed from the bismuth into the copper, and moved
the needle round in one direction : but when he heated the
opposite corner (of the other metal) the effect was reversed,
and it turned in the opposite direction. So long: as the
tempreature of the joint was greater than the rest of the
metal, there would be a current of electricity. When the
frame contained a number of elements the power would be
increased, but there was a limit to this, for if they were in-
creased in proportionate size to the frame, nothing was
gained. The same effect was shown by a great number of
metals, and tables of them, in the order in which they stood
as conductors of electricity (as we understood him), had
been arranged. He called attention to these, the first of
which was in the following order:—bismuth, platinum, tin,
lead, brass, copper, zinc, iron, antimony. Electricity set
out from the -bismuth down. The copperrewas liera the
recipient from the bismoth, and the deliverer of it back. tie
then showed a very beautiful thertuo-electric'experiment, by
means of -a very small but sensitive instrument, which, on
being but breathed upon at one end, had, through two pieces
of copper wire, so great an effect upon a fine magnetic
needle within a glass case that it drew ithr a different direc-
tion, and when slightly heated in a like manner at the other
end produced a reverse motion. By thus beating a piece of
metal more in one place than another a sort of telegraph
could be made, or it might be indicated how the temperature
was going on in a stove-house, or in a furnace. This thermo-
electric machine, consisting of alternate little bars of bismuth
and antimony, each 12 inches long, and nth of an inch square,
the one metal communicating with the other at the ends by
copper wires. After showing some further experiments, he
explained voltaic electric induction, or the effects of currents
of electricity coming against each other. Metals had an
electric effect if moved to and fro, or in any direction. He
showed- that by putting a small plate of zinc and another of
copper into acid and water, and applying them to a fine magnet,
the direction of the electric current could be ascertained. One
pleasing experiment was shown by a vertical copper wheel with
a magnet placed on each side, but not touching it. If the wheel
be placed with its axis east and west, and turned round, the
earth's magnetism will act upon it, and occasion currents of
electricity to run from the circumferences into the axis, and
vice versa according as it is rotated, one way or the other, as
was manifested by the galvanotneter. This was an import-
ant experiment, for the wheel being of matter not ordinarily
magnetized it might be considered an epitome of the rotation
of the earth itself. By turning it as the earth tut ns the elec-
tricity came out of its equator, and entered its poles. By
moving it in the contrary direction, that is from east to west,
the electricity would come out of the axis of the wheel and
enter the equator. Here the current of electricity was very
great in quantity, as he would show by another similar appa-
ratus, used in a different mode. He took a circular copper-
plate, placed on a vertical axis, and which might be turned
round by a wheel connected with it. All iron was avoided in
its construction. He suspended a bar of iron about an inch
over the wheel, by a thread and a little stirrup- of paper, and
the wheel being rapidly turned the magnet also turned round
rapidly, in either direction, though not touching it; but a
bar of iron, not magnetized, placed in the same position, re-
mained quiescent, however quickly the wheel was turned.
He next showed a magnet revolving on its own axis, and
afterwards the extraordinary, but only momentary, electric
effect of suddenly thrusting a bar magnet into a wooden cylin-
der, wrapped round with a coil of copper wire, and communi-
cating by wires with a fine needle. The instant it was put in
with the poles in one direction the needle moved round, and
when put in on the other it moved in the opposite direction.
This rtpppeared to be caused by an instantaneous wave or
shock, which as instantly died away. The lecturer then
showed some beautiful experiments with a magneto-electric
machine, working with a wheel, the construction and action
of which he fully explained. It was, however, too complex
(in large magnets, &c.) to be described here. By this a con-
tinuity of electric sparks was kept up, similar, to those pro-
duced by an electrical machine, and capable of giving electric
shocks, sufficiently powerful even for those of rather strong
nerves. By this he ignited paper dipped in spirits of wine,
and other combustibles, and also warmed wire to a visibly
red heat. It showed, too, the influence, by means of
coils of wire one within the other, of one current of electri-
city upon another, and the wonderful effect (demonstrated by
the sparks) of making and breaking their conduction. He
also decomposed water by the apparatus. Towards the close
he adverted to the various sources from which we might ad-
duce the magnetism of the earth and its motion, one-half
heated at a time, and the other not ; the minor influence of light
upon it; its stratification and components of rocks, granite,
slate, and the water lodged in its cavities,- operating as plates
of a voltaic pile, and so producing electricity. it was be-
sides to be observed that the veins of 'Metal found in this
country run from east to west, and that was the direction in
which the currents of electricity themselves went round the
globe. These things would have a tendency to move the
earth on its axis, and there was reason therefore to believe
that electricity was one of those mighty agencies, fundamen-
tally beyond- human comprehension, by which the Divine
Architect regulated the revolving world of matter, the motion
of which being made upon its axis could be perpetuated even
though it had to pass through a resisting medium. He had
now brought the subject to a close, and included every in)
. portant illustration available within the limits of these lec-
tures, and thereby redeemed the promise he had made in the
outset. He cordially thanked his auditors for the marked
attention with which they had listened to his instructions,
and the kind feeling manifested throughout amongst
g them.,
And he could not retire without expressing thegreat
plea-
sure be bad felt in addressing so highly respectable a body in
that magnificent institution, and the gratification he should
feel, if they, on a future occasion, required his services in ex-
plaining that branch of science to which he had addressed
ethxepehroimuseenatst,tahretdciwoeses. respeeavteertalllylacdlireeseraenddfrgoennitiaelali
himself.—lle was loudly applauded in his several interesting
wards " partook" of shocks from the magneto-electric
tfsmt of
ma-
chine, the varied effect of which upon their nerves was pro-
ductive of considerable amusement. We cannot take leave
of Mr. Addams on this occasion without tendering him 'e
gour
humble meed of praise, for the general clearness
of his ex-
planations, and the beauty of his experiments, accomplished
by a large quantity of costly and superior apparatus. In en-
deavouring to give even a sketch of each lecture, we have
laboured under some difficulties, and may possibly have
fallen into some slight mistakes—first, from our own inade-
quate acquaintance with' this peculiar and extraordinary sci-
ence ; and secondly, from the impossibility of hearing dis-
tincty all that the lecturer stated, owing to the reverbera-
tion of the voice in the theatre, which, though well atteuded,
is of such capacity for an audience that it was on no one occa-
sion sufficiently fitted to counteract this, if we may so call it,
defect. We have also been necessited to pass Over many ex-
periments from not being provided with diagrams. We
know, however, of no more rational. mode of speeding an
agreeable hour or two than in attending to such expositions
and illustrations, which blend solid information with amuse.
ment, and shall be glad when in the general routine of sub-
jects, Mr. Addams is again invited to appear amongst us,
assured as we feel that he will avail himself of all the novel-
ties and improvement's iu the science which may in the inban-
while be developed.