pedoes used by the Paraguyans are of a very primitive description, consisting of a box filled with gunpowder, to which is attached a firepiece, which is fired by a man on shore, pulling a string attached to the lock.

A very successful trial was made at Portsmouth, on the 5th November, on board the Mersey screw frigate, of Brank's patent capstan pumps. The pumps are worked on the upper deck of the ship by a messenger chain from the capstan, running over the pitch-wheel of the pump. The advantage of this arrangement over the old plan is that it enables the crew, in the event of the ship being on fire below, to continue working the pumps without being driven away by the smoke when working them below and between decks, as was the case with the crew of H.M. late ship Bombay, on the loss of that vessel by fire off Buenos Ayres.

It appears that the Admiralty have accepted the tender of Messrs George Smith and Co. for the extension of Portsmouth Dockyard This contract, under the provisions of an Act of Parliament, involves an expeuditure of upwards of a million in the next four years. It is worthy of remark, says the Post, that hitherto the engagements of the government in works of a similar nature have been restricted to the financial year. This new system leads to great economy in the exe

cution of public works.

Mr. Sidney E. Morse, of New York, says an American paper, has just patented a philosophical instrument, which is called a bathometer. You throw it overboard, with its appendages, in the ocean where water is miles deep. It goes down like a shot, and as soon as it touches the bottom it turns and comes back to the surface. You pick it up, and the true depth of the water where it struck the bottom is seen on the scale of the bathometer, just as you see the degrees of heat on the thermometer.

We shall be curious to hear something more of this remarkable instrument.

One of the local acts passed in the late session was for making and maintaining a subway from Deptford, under the River Thames, to the Isle of Dogs. The length of the subway is to be 582 yards. The approach is to be 110 yards in Deptford. There is to be an approach road, 136 yards in length, in Poplar. The subway is to be completed in five years.

Our nautical commanders will not be sorry to learn that the railway between Calcutta and Bombay is about 1000 miles long, and is traversed by trains in about four days. The only through traffic at present consists of mails and cargo. European passengers cannot travel the whole distance on account of the heat.

The Glasgow Herald states that the Emperor of Russia has presented a gold pocket compass, set with brilliants, to Mr. Archibald Smith, jun., F.R.S., of Jordan Hill, in recognition of the value of his

mathematical researches into the deviation of the compass in iron ships. These researches had previously been acknowledged in a similar manner by the British Admiralty. We are glad to see Mr. Smith's services thus recognized by so high an authority,-services so totally apart from those of his own profession.

The following steamers were launched on the Clyde during September: The Cormorant and Heron, 109 tons each; Columbia, screw, 1,750 tons; a small screw of 150 tons, built by Messrs. Scott and Co., of Greenock; the Nestorian, a screw of 2,500 tons; the Jason, a screw of 1000 tons, built for the Royal Netherlands Steam Navigation Company; the Verdin, a screw of 200 tons; the Surprise, a small screw of 15 tons; the Malvina, a screw of 1,062 tons, built for the London and Edinburgh Shipping Company; the Pizarro, a screw of 722 tons; the Aline, screw, of 1,060 tons; and a small screw of 12 tons, intended to be used as a tender at Rio Janeiro.

Professor Agassiz says that the strip of highlands which divides the waters flowing into the St. Lawrence from those flowing into the Atlantic is the oldest land in the world. It was once a lonely sea beach, washed by the universal ocean.

An American company, including large China merchants, has obtained leave from the Emperor of China to lay a submarine cable from the North to Hongkong, connecting intermediate cities.

The Army and Navy Gazette gives the following particulars of the loss of the Griffon:- "It appears that on the evening of the 2nd of October, H.M.S. Pandora was at anchor off Little Popoe, when H.M.S, Griffon was seen beating up to relieve her on that station. As she would not to be able to fetch Little Popoe before dark, the Pandora weighed and ran down to her, and Captain Davidson, of the Griffon, came on board to report himself to Captain Stubbs, his senior officer. At 8h. p.m. the two ships in company, under sail alone, with a steady, light breeze, were heading up on the port tack for Little Popoe, distant about two miles, the Griffon being on the Pandora's weather quarter. At this time the wind veered to the northward, and both ships broke off three or four points. The Pandora hove in stays, and, as she came head to wind, the Griffon, with her helm hard up, fouled her port quarter, carrying away a boat's davit. She soon cleared her, however, when the Pandora at once anchored, and the Griffon was hailed to do the same. The order was probably not understood, or, at any rate, not until too late, for in a few moments the Griffon ran into the surf and struck. Both anchors were let go, and the cables veered to the clinch, when they either parted or were slipped, and the heavy rollers and breakers carried the ship on to the beach. The fore and main masts went by the board, and the foreyard surging about alongside, knocked a hole in the port bow; this was, however, immediately patched up. The Pandora got up steam and veered cable until her stern was among the breakers in less than three fathoms water, but owing to the darkness of the night, and to the heavy surf, no material assistance could be rendered.

It was not until the following forenoon that Captain Davidson, at great personal risk, effected a landing through the rollers, when he found that his officers and men had got safely on shore without any casualty. On the morning of the 3rd communication with the wreck was established by a 7 in. hawser, which presently parted. Afterwards the Griffon's stream chain was brought to the Pandora, but the violent motions of both ships in the surf carried it away as soon as a slight strain was brought on it. Subsequently 175 fathoms of the Pandora's bower chain were floated on board the Griffon, every available puncheon, cask, and barrel being lashed to it. This operation, of the utmost difficulty in such a surf, was so successfully carried out, that the cable floated right on to the deck of the Griffon, but on the 6th this also parted. In the meantime the Mullet and Jaseur had arrived, and were joined on the 7th by the Oberon. But by this time it was evident that the Griffon would never come off, and that she was breaking up. So at length the Pandora weighed and steamed out from the perilous position which she had taken up among the rollers from the first. During this time every exertion was made by Captain Davidson to save as much as possible of the ship's stores. The sick were safely housed at Little Popoe. Most of the Griffon's men were sent afloat, while the arduous work on the shore was carried out by Captain Davidson with the Kroomen of the ships present. The ceaseless unflagging exertions by night and by day of the officers of the Pandora and Griffon to save as much government property as possible excited the warmest admiration in the squadron. The Griffon having been but just commissioned, the loss of three years' private stores will fall heavily on the captain and officers."

NAUTICAL PATENTS.

We find in the Mechanic's Magazine the following account of nautical patents.

838 M. Henry. Improvements in mariners' compasses, in nautical clinometers or instruments for measuring the rolling and pitching of ships, in apparatus for firing ships' guns, and in other instruments or apparatus used in ships and other vessels. (A communication.) Dated March 21st, 1866.

The object of the present invention is to construct apparatus in such manner that it or a portion of it shall maintain a determined and reliable position notwithstanding the pitching or rolling of the vessel. The invention consists in constructing an apparatus as follows:-A light plate is poised, suspended, or pivoted within a hollow sphere or spherical globe completely filled with liquid, such plate being placed at the central part of the sphere so as to oscillate about its geometrical centre. The globe may be fixed, for it may be supported on trunnions, universal joints, or other like contrivances. In this apparatus the plate will not be materially affected by the motion of the vessel if the plate be constructed very light, and so as to experience great resistance, frictional or otherwise, from the liquid filling the sphere when moving independently of it. The reason of this phenomenon may be thus explained: When the apparatus

--

is on board of a vessel, any motion imparted to it can be divided or resolved into two motions, one of translation and one of rotation. The first motion has no action on the liquid mass, which is incompressible and fills the sphere entirely, so that its centre of gravity cannot be displaced. The second motion evidently produces a friction on the liquid, and the said friction, were the rotation always imparted in the same direction, would generate a corresponding rotation in the liquid mass; but this is not the case-the rotary motion is only alternative, and does not sensibly affect the immobility or inertia of the central portion of the liqnid sphere. The pivoted, poised, or suspended plate, which is placed in the middle of the sphere, must necessarily retain a corresponding immobility or state of rest. Patent completed.

843 S. Chatwood and J. and T. Sturgeon.-Improvements in indicating and recording the distance run and direction of a ship or vessel, and in apparatus employed therein. Dated March 21st. 1866.

This invention consists in indicating, registering, and recording by self-acting appliances the rate of progress, direction, and duration of direction, of the vessel upon suitably arranged paper, which may be attached to tables or cylinders, or otherwise carried, and receive a uniform movement, in one direction indicating duration of time by means of a chronometer or by ordinary clockwork, other movements being also imparted to the apparatus as herein described. From the combined diagrams, registers, or log thus produced, sufficient data will be obtained to enable any person of ordinary capacity to mark down upon a chart a line approximately indicating the vessel's course, and its then present position. The necessary apparatus for effecting this may be variously arranged and modified. For instance, the magnetic needle may be hung so as to support and carry with it a light cardboard cylinder to which sensitive paper may be attached, so as to be chemically acted upon by rays of light or heat obtained from a lamp, and collected by a suitable lens into a focus sufficiently acute to produce a discoloration on the sensitive paper, so as to form a continuous mark or line, either by the axial motion of the cylinder, or by the movement vertically of the lens along the cylinder, which may be effected by means of clockwork. The prepared paper being divided into equal spaces indicating time in the direction pursued by the "lamp tracer," and into divisions corresponding to the points of the compass in the direction of its axial motion given by the magnetic needle, will clearly indicate by the diagram produced upon it the direction in which the vessel has been sailing at any hour of the day, and the length of time for which that direction has been maintained, the various tacks and changes of direction. and the precise time at which such tacks and changes took place. The number of miles travelled in a given time may be indicated upon a strip of paper divided into spaces indicating divisions of time, which is wound round a barrel by clockwork at a speed corresponding to time. A pencil or other tracer is pressed against the paper so as to mark a line upon the paper as it passes beneath the tracer, in which line slight breaks or marks are made at intervals denoting distance run, these breaks or marks being produced either by electrical action or by mechanical arrangements acted upon by any suitable apparatus for recording the distance run by a vessel. The two diagrams thus obtained wlll supply all the data necessary for tracing a line indicating the ship's course upon a map or chart. Patent completed.

970 G. Allix. Improvements in reefing and furling sails and in apparatus connected therewith. Dated April 5th, 1866.

This invention relates, firstly to the reefing and furling of courses by causing the lower yard to revolve by means of ordinary topping lifts fitted as parbuekles, as hereafter described; also to the connection of the lower yard with the

masts, and to the fittings on to the ends of the yards. The patentee claims, first, reefing and furling courses and lower topsails of double topsails by causing the lower yards, in the case of courses, and the lower topsail yards, in the case of double topsails, to revolve by means of ordinary topping lifts fitted as parbuckles, as described and represented in the drawings. Second, the arrangement or combination of parts for connecting the lower yard to and suspending it from the mast, as described and represented in the drawings. Third, the arrangements or combinations of the fittings on the ends of the yards of square sails, and the booms of fore and aft sails, as described and represented in the drawings. Fourth, the employment on the bight of the parbuckle of topsail and other upper yards of a block to which one end of the tie is connected, as and for the purpose described and represented in the drawings. Fifth, forming the portions of the topsail and topgallant yards round which the parbuckles are wound of only about half the diameter of the centre of the yard, as and for the purpose described and represented in the drawings. Sixth, constructing each hoop of double-hooped parallels in two parts or halves, as and for the purpose described and represented in the drawings. Seventh, attaching the inner ends of the chafing spars to the ends of a crossbar fixed to the claw in such manner that a slight oscillating motion is allowed to the crossbar and to the claw, as described and represented in the drawings. Eighth, the employment on the claws at the centre of topsail and topgallant yards of a bracket or span having attached thereto a block, through which the tie is rove, as and for the purposes described and represented in the drawings. Patent completed.

CHARTS AND BOOKS PUBLISHED BY THE HYDROGRAPHIC OFFICE, ADMIRALTY, in November, 1866.-Sold by the Agent, J. D. Potter, 31, Poultry, and 11, King Street, Tower Hill, London.

1.-British Islands to Mediterranean Sea, 1866, (2s. 6d.)

481,-West Indies, Trinidad Island, Serpent's Mouth, with views, Commander Chimmo, R.N., 1866, (2s. 6d.)

895.-Banda Sea, Allas Strait, French and Dutch charts, to 1866, (1s.) 1,101.-North Pacific Ocean, Mariana or Ladrone Islands, with plans, (28. 6d.)

Tide Tables, 1867, John Burdwood, Staff-Commander, R.N., (1s. 6d.) EDWARD DUNSTERVILLE, Commander, R. N.

Admiralty, Hydrographic Office, 21st November, 1866.

LONDON: WALTER SPIERS, PRINTER, GREAT PRESCOT STREET.