INSTRUMENT FOR ASCERTAINING THE DEPTHS OF RIVERS. 605 
The external appearance of the carriage is 
made exactly to resemble a stage-coach, and 
is about the same dimensions. It consists 
of a frame-work with a casing enclosing 
the boiler and engines ; the furnace, fuel- 
box, water-chamber, and condenser, all of 
which hang upon springs, supported by the 
running wheels, require no auxiliary tender. 
The casing is formed and painted like 
an ordinary stage-coach, the conductor sits 
for the purpose of steering in the place of a 
coachman on the box in front ; the engineer 
who attends the fire and the machinery, and 
has command of the steam, stands also in 
front, in an open compartment, below the 
conductor. 
There are seats for persons on the roof 
before and behind, as in other stage-coaches; 
but as this carriage is intended merely 
to be the locomotive engine for impelling 
a train of carriages connected to it, the seats 
upon this are to be considered as of an 
inferior class. 
Some of the most important features of 
the locomotive carriage as now completed, 
viz. the peculiar construction of the boiler 
and arrangement of the working parts of the 
machinery, form portions of the subject of 
a patent granted to Dr. Church, on the 16th 
March, 1835 ; the specifications of which, 
embracing other matters, is too elaborate 
for insertion in our present number, but 
will most probably appear in our next. 
As several partially successful, but, in 
our opinion, very unsatisfactory attempts 
have been made by other persons, to impel 
carriages on ordinary roads by steam-power, 
we consider it necessary to point out some 
of the peculiarities in Dr. Church's present 
carriage, which we consider to be its strik- 
ing features of advantage.— Firstly, though 
the engines wmrk at high-pressure, the 
eduction steam is so effectually condensed 
after passing from the working cylinder, 
that no visible portion of it escapes into 
the air, but the whole is converted into 
water, and re-conducted into the boiler in a 
heated state. Secondly, the flues are so 
constructed and arranged, that no smoke is 
allowed to escape from the chimney; and the 
consequences of these two novel features, as 
regards locomotive engines running on ordi- 
nary roads, are very important, viz. that 
neither is there any perceptible noise arising 
from the discharge of steam, or any offensive 
effluvia emitted from the combustion, so 
that the carriage proceeds along the road 
without, in the slightest degree, attracting 
the attention of horses which may pass it. 
We have only space to say further, that 
the Birmingham and London Steam -carriage 
Company, with whom the Doctor is con- 
nected in this invention, are perfectly satis- 
fied with the carriage as now completed ; and 
though alterations and slight improvements 
may and will necessarily be adopted in the 
future exercise of the plans, yet they deem 
the present carriage to be so fully effective 
and satisfactory, that they have advertised 
for a practical engineer to superintend 
the erection of a sufficient number of these 
carriages at their works, exactly according 
with the model produced. 
We understand it to be the intention of the 
company to establish three stations between 
London and Birmingham for their trains of 
carriages to halt at, and to supply a fresh 
locomotive engine at each station, in order 
that the engines, after running about twenty- 
six miles, may be severally examined, 
and such little matters as cleaning, oiling, 
and adjusting parts attended to : which 
arrangement will avoid subjecting passengers 
to the inconvenience of delay, and tend 
greatly to prevent accidents. 
We have only to add, that having wit- 
nessed the manner in which this carriage 
performs its duty on the public road,we have 
no hesitation in saying that we are now 
satisfied steam may be safely, and, we be . 
lieve, economically employed, in connection 
with Dr. Church’s improved machinery, as 
an effective substitute for horses, in the 
oi’dinary transit of stage-coach passengers 
on all the turnpike roads in the kingdom.—" 
Ibid. 
TO JOHN ERICSSON, OF ALBANY. 
STREET. REGENT’S-PARK, IN 
TH'E COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX, 
CIVIL ENGINEER, FOR HIS IN- 
VENTION OF AN INSTRUMENT 
FOR ASCERTAINING THE DEPTH 
OF WATER IN SEAS AND RIVERS. 
Sealed 14th November, 1835. 
The invention now before us, is what is 
commonly called a sea- gage, and one in 
which the principal difficulties that these 
gages are subject to are entirely removed. 
Some of these difficulties are, firstly, the es- 
tablishment of a correct register, to point 
out the depth to which the sounding instru- 
ment has gone ; little liable to be disar- 
ranged by accident, and which will not re- 
turn to its former position when the pres- 
sure of the water is taken away. Another, 
is the graduation of the scales, as the de- 
grees must diminish very rapidly when the 
instrument is at a considerable depth ; and 
finally, the preservation of the instrument 
entire, whilst it is subjected to the enormous 
pressure of the water at a considerable 
depth, and which always proves so destruc- 
tive to hollow instruments. The Patentee 
