PORT OF BLUFF HARBOR.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 252, 4 May 1866, Page 2

PORT OF BLUFF HARBOR.

ABEIVALS. May 2 and 3.— Nil. ..'..' • DEPAHTTOES. May 2-YN.Z.S.N. Co.'s Taranaki, s.b., 500 tons, H. B. Francis, for Northern Ports, -with mails, &c. S. Niehol, agent. - : "expobts. , Per s.s. Taranaki, for Otago— l trunk, Sargood, King & Sargood ; 1 parcel, Perkins ; 1 box,. Sur■mariY For Manukau— l box, 3. Coll. PASSEN&EB LIST. Per s.s7 Taranaki, for Otago — Cabin : Mr Stoboj and two in steerage. For Lyttelton^-Cabin : Mrs ExalT arid three children ; and two in steerage. For Wellington — two in steerage.

Some very interesting experiments took place on the sth, on board" the Mersey screw-frigate at Portsmouth, with West's electrical apparatus fitted on board as a warning indicator of possible danger to tlie ship from fire or water. A 10-cell battery fitten in the captain's cabin, with an indicator dial-plate and an alarm bell, is placed in connection with 20 isolated copper wires, each of ■which communicates with a numbered section of the ship's hold, the latter being set off in 20 sections. "Calorimerers connected with each wire are sett at a given temperature, say 50 degrees abovo the normal' temperature of that part of the ship, and the ever-watchful sentinel for fire is then placed dn permanent duty. If the temperature becomes- increased from spontaneous combustion, or from a smouldering fire raised by other causes, the temperature has no sooner reached the heat at which the calorimeter has been.set than the circuit is completed, the alarm bell violently and incessantly rung in the captain's cabin, and a number displayed on tlje dial showing the section of the ship in wnMl tke dangerous heat is being generated. r fhe rise of water in a ship's tilge beyond a fixed height is also indicated by the ringing of the alarm bed anil the display of the section number. The calorimeter is a small metal vessel, some three inches inlength, three-fourths filled with mercury. The outside of the vessel is in contact with one part of the copper wires of 'the section, the other part being suspended through the boxwood stopper in the heck of the vessel, the distance between the. point of the latter part of the copper -wire and the mercury being regulated accoruing to the temperature considered dangerous. Should this latter event ever occur the mercury necessarily expands, and, bringing the end of the wire in contact, the circuit is completed. The water signal is a piston enclosed in a chamber with a signal wire fixed at a certain distance — say 2 feet — above it. If water finds its ■way,from any cause in the said hold the piston rises with the water, and on coming in contact with the wire the circuit is here completed aud the signal transmitted to the indicator dial and alarm belL The signals on the sth were sent ■from all part 3of the ship wiih unerring certainty and with calorimeters set at various degrees of temperature, and with the water signal at varying heights. As the use of lire to raise the temperature of the ship below was out of the question, hot "water at the required temperatures was. used in testing the system, and the manner in which it had- been applied on board the Mersey. Her Majesty's ship Valiant is already fitted on the same principle, which is also to be applied on board .ah of her Majesty's troop-ships. — English Paper.