2891. W. CLARK. "Improvements in submarine | from behind, or from the front, and is adjusted or
electric telegraph cables or conductors." (A commu- tightened up when necessary by an adjusting tube
nication.) Dated Dec. 16, 1858.
or nut, tapped into the base of the cylinder. The
lever rod has no working fulcrum of its own, but it
is curved at the heel, and such curved portion works
between two fixed stud pins so that a moving axis is
obtained, which axis is the point of junction with the
plunger; by this arrangement no pins or slots are re-
quired in the lever. Patent completed.
2897. J. CLEGG. "Improvements in lubricating
the valves and pistons of steam-engines." Dated

Round a cord of elastic material, which may be either a conductor or non-conductor, the inventor winds a copper wire, for example, in contiguous spirals, as in covered springs for musical instruments, &c.; over this he again winds another wire of about the same diameter, so that this second helix falls in the furrows of the first. He obtains thus a conductor composed of an elastic cord placed in the centre of two spiral superposed coils in which the spirals are wound so as to insure contact whatever may be the extension they suffer; for in proportion as the elastic core stretches, the exterior pressure causes the external spirals to bear on the spirals of the inner helix and forces them in the intervals of the spirals of the inner helix. Patent completed.

2892. J. J. ASTON. "Improvements in machinery or propellers applicable for the propulsion of ships, boats and other vessels on and through the water, and in the propelling of all such vessels on and through the water by means of such propellers."

Dated Dec. 17, 1858.

This relates, 1, to a method of cutting the rails so as to obtain correct lengths. For this purpose the inventor employs a portable apparatus constructed with a cutting tool to which a reciprocating motion is imparted. This tool is caused to reciprocate by an eccentric, and the traverse for the cut is gained by suspending the tool upon a centre, in which it is caused to swing. It relates, 2, to apparatus for making fish joints, and consists in combining the above described cutting apparatus with a drill or drills, so that the two operations may proceed simultaneously. It also consists in using a combination of two or more drills without the cutting tool, so that the like number of holes may be drilled at the same time. Patent completed.

2894. J. and J. INSHAW. "An improvement or improvements in locomotive engines." Dated Dec. 17, 1858.

Here the inventors place a friction wheel between the driving and leading wheels, and another friction wheel between the driving and trailing wheels, the said friction wheels being so situated that by a slight motion of their bearings they may be brought upon the peripheries of the driving and leading wheels and the driving and trailing wheels respectively of the locomotive. The leading wheels or trailing wheels or both are thus geared to the driving wheel, and receiving motion therefrom, facilitate the advance of the locomotive by their adhesion to the rails. The friction wheels may be brought into contact with the driving and leading wheels and trailing wheels, either by the action of a piston rod that is worked by a steam cylinder or otherwise. Patent abandoned.

2895. A. HINDE. Improvements in treating or preparing the cinder or slag from puddling furnaces for the purpose of facilitating the manufacture of iron therefrom." Dated December 17, 1858.

This consists, 1, in calcining puddling furnace cinder, or slag, when used for the smelting of pig or cast-iron by performing the process in kilns built with flues, or external fire-places, similar in construction to those now used for the production of what is technically known in iron forges as "bull-dog," and in using the puddling furnace cinder or slag when so calcined in the blast furnace for the production of pig or cast-iron. It consists, 2, in mixing with paddling furnace cinder or slag previously to calcination, lime or limestone, and calcining the same in admixture with the cinder for purifying the said cinder, or assisting the subsequent process of smelting

in the blast furnace. Patent abandoned.

2806. J. KEER. Improvements in the construction of revolving fire-arins." Dated December 17,

1858.

Here the inventor is enabled to apply the ordinary gun-lock and cock with the usual safety bolt to revolving fire-arms. The lock is pulled off by the trigger blade in the usual manner, but by having an extra" bent" in the tumbler the lock can be snapped and cocked by simply pulling the trigger, for which purpose the inventor uses in conjunction with the extra bent above referred to a short lever in the trigger, which is kept in the proper position by a hook formed on its edge, and a stud on the top of the tumbler. The chamber is rotated in the ordinary way. It revolves on a rod or spindle inserted into its place

December 17, 1858.

Here the lubricating apparatus is so formed that
the oil, &c., is placed in a cup or vessel fixed above
the steam-pipe leading from the steam boiler to the
cylinder of the engine. Below the cup or vessel into
which the oil, &c., is placed there is a cock, when
the plug of which is turned the oil, &c., will pass
downwards towards a vessel of a spherical or other
form, at the upper part of which vessel a valve is
applied which closes the passage into the vessel when
pressed upwards by steam in the vessel. At the lower
part of the vessel a valve is applied which opens up
wards when pressed on by the steam below. The
spherical or other formed vessel is connected to the
steam-pipe by a tube on which there is a cock, so that
when the plug thereof is turned the oil, &c., will
flow out of the spherical vessel into the steam-pipe,
and be carried onward by the steam to the valve or
the steam-cylinder. Patent completed.
valves of the engine, and to the piston working on

2898. J. KETCHUM.

'Improvements in the
method of roasting meat, poultry, game, by basting
the same, and in the method of manufacturing the
necessary apparatus for so doing." Dated December
18, 1858.

suspended below the bottle-jack, or other roasting
This consists of a perforated vessel which is to be
contrivance by hook, eye, or spindle. which hook, eye,
or spindle projects above the said vessel so that it
may hang steady, and the vessel being supplied with
grease it will pass through the perforations and fall on
cludes an arrangement for raising the fat, &c., from a
the joint, &c., being roasted. The invention also in-
lower level into the aforesaid baster. Patent com-
pleted.

2899. J. AITKEN and J. BROOKS. "Improve-
ments in looms." Dated December 18, 1858.

vented, and all parts of the ceiling will be equally
lighted. Patent completed.
2901. A. MITCHELL. 66
Improved apparatus for
registering the speed of engines and other machinery."
Dated Dec. 18, 1858.

The object proposed to be effected here, in the case
of an engine, for example, is the noting with a style or
other marking instrument, upon suitably prepared
paper, the number of strokes which it has made in a
given time, using for this purpose the motive power
derived from a clock or time-keeper, in combination
with motive power derived from the engine whose
performance it is desired to record.
The way in
which this combination of motive agency is to be ap-
plied may be varied that is to say, the prepared
paper may be carried under the style or marker by
power derived from the engine, and the style or
marker operated by the time-keeper, or vice versa.
Patent completed.

2902. J. TAYLOR. 66

Improvements in the construction of pumps or engines for lifting and discharging water."

Dated Dec. 18, 1858.

being combined within the same valve chest by two intersecting divisions or partitions through which the openings or passages are made between the suction and the discharge; these openings are covered by preference with flap valves which lie at a suitable angle, or are held against the respective faces of the partitional or divisional plates within the valve chest. The pumps may be single or double-acting barrels, and if two are used one should be placed on each side of the valve chest, and the suction and discharge openings or ways are common to both sets of valves; and the top and bottom parts of each barrel, in a double-action pump, would be connected with the same side of the suction chamber in the valve chest, chest, and may be so cast as to form the standard of and the air vessel should be placed above the valve the pump, or it may be attached to the valve chest. Patent completed.

This consists in the suction and discharge valves

2903. A. P. How. "Improvements in cocks or stop valves." Dated Dec. 18, 1858.

This consists in substituting for the ordinary plug. cock and the single station valve, a double bottom spindle valve (somewhat similar to the double beat valve) and in so constructing the shell of the cock or valve case as to form the two valve seats therein, and the inlet and outlet passages by covering the shell casting. Patent abandoned.

2904. E. Weber. "Improvements in dyeing or colouring textile fabrics and materials, and in the machinery or apparatus connected therewith." Dated Dec. 18, 1858.

2905. J. SOUTTER. "Improvements in apparatus for drying or airing linen, or other articles of wearing apparel.' Dated Dec. 18, 1858.

Here the inventors employ a moving "back bearing rail" and give it motion by attaching to it one or more arms, each furnished with a block of wood, which blocks are in a line with one or both of the connecting links from the cranks to the swordarms, so that as the links move up and down in their This relates to a former patent, and consists in conto and fro movement either one or both come in constructing the vessel into which the materials to be tact at certain intervals with the block or blocks, thus dyed are contained of a larger diameter as compared causing the rail to vibrate so as to maintain an equal to its depth than that described in the specification of tension of the yarn beam and consequent strain upon the former patent, by which means the height of the the yarn. Or they produce the same effect by plac layer or column of material contained between the ing on the crank shaft an irregularly-shaped cam or disc and false bottom through which the dye liquid is tappet which comes in contact with an arm or arms to be forced is greatly reduced, and consequently a fixed to the "back bearing rail," thereby causing the more uniform tint is obtained, whilst a considerable latter to vibrate at the exact time required. In con- reduction in the power required to work the force nection with the aforesaid movements they employ a pumps is effected. Patent completed. stationary rod fixed across the loom for holding the yarn in the same relative position with respect to the moving "back bearing rail" and yarn beam. They employ at the back of each shuttle box a coiled spring to which is attached a strap, so placed as to receive the picker gently when throwing the shuttle. Each strap may be readily adjusted as required, and in connection with the spring forms a yielding check of great efficiency. They employ an elastic break by attaching leather, &c., to an arm or lever of sufficient strength, but capable of slightly yielding so as to temper the shock when the break acts, and also its mode of adaptation. For working the stop rod they employ an elastic swell, consisting of a spring of the same form as the present swell, thus lessening the difficulty of communicating motion to the top rod, and preventing the excessive strain upon the fingers and chisel in the event of trapping the shuttle and also diminishing the wear of the shuttles. Patent completed.

2900. J. MACKENZIE. "Improvements in those gas burners known as ventilating sun burners." Dated Dec. 18, 1858.

Here the linen airer consists, under one modification, of two plain or turned bars of wood disposed horizontally and connected by two horizontal bars, cut to the length the linen airer is desired. The two end bars are raised from the floor by knobs or feet. In each of the end bars two uprights are arranged parallel to each other; these uprights are connected longitudinally by cross rails made either plain or ornamentalthese longitudinal rails serve as supports by placing linen thereon. Other supporting rails are obtained by securing to each pair of uprights a horizontal bar which extends outwards. Beyond the upper longitudinal rails short vertical pieces are connected to the extremities of the horizontal bars. These vertical pieces have fitted to them cross rails which form supporting bars, parallel with, but lower than, the upper longitudinal rails before described. Patent completed.

2906. J. H. JOHNSON. Improvements in apparatus for re-working the waste steam of steamengines." (A communication.) Dated Dec. 18, 1858. This relates to an improvement in ventilating gas The steam having operated in the cylinders is burners, known as "sun" burners. These burners conducted by a pipe to a close vessel, in which it is onsist of a number of jets placed horizontally under allowed to expand and lose a great portion of its funnels, or inverted cones, or chimneys of sheet iron, original pressure. From this vessel it passes to a &c., and this invention consists in perforating or surface condenser, which may be composed of a forming apertures in part of the inner funnel, pipe, or number of tubes surrounded with cold water tubes, chimney, and also in part of the outer one, in order to and within which tubes the steam passes and is conallow the light to pass, and in filling up the openings densed, when it is removed by a lift and force pump, with tale, mica, or other suitable transparent ma- and supplied through a coil of pipes in one of the fur terial. The shadow on the walls will thereby be pre-nace fluss to the boiler. By this means the steam is

1658. A. Cooper. Improvements in the manufacture of the grips of swords, and sword boyonets. 1659. J. S. Thomson. Improvements in steam-chines. engines. A communication.

1660. W. Cotton. Improvements in means or apparatus for connecting together or uniting looped fabrics.

1661. J. Combe. Improvements in machinery for hackling flax and other fibrous substances.

1662. J. Taylor. Improvements in stoves and fire places, and in the arrangement of flues connected therewith.

THE

MECHANICS' MAGAZINE.

LONDON, FRIDAY, AUGUST 12, 1859,

THE GREATEST SHIP. HAVING twice in one week visited the greatest ship that ever swam-having wondered at her from without and wearied over her within -having examined, once more, her structure, gone over her ponderous engines, seen their massive forms in motion, marked their wondrous ease of working-having exhausted, in short, all our powers both of inquiry and admiration upon this last and greatest wonder of the world, we really feel it difficult to address our readers worthily upon so great a subject.

66

66

standing in the way of the prosperity of steam | novelty in the construction of the ship. In
navigation for long distances, was absolutely building her he had thought it the best and
and entirely Mr. Brunel's, and not his in the safest course to make the lines the exact shape
smallest degree. It was true that very soon of those of his previous vessels which had proved
after the thought struck Mr. Brunel, he came to most successful-to make the mechanical struc-
him and said, “Now, I am not a shipbuilder, ture an exact copy, so far as circumstances
"and I am not an engine-builder, and I come to would allow, of those vessels which he had con-
'you to see if you will devote your mind and structed, and which had been successful; and
"attention to the carrying out of this problem also to make the engines exact copies of those
"to a successful issue. You and I will go engines which he had built for similar purposes,
together through the whole undertaking, pari but not upon the same scale. "There is not,
passu, you shall design the ship according to "therefore, so far as I am concerned, a single
your own lines, make the engines upon your "untried experiment in the whole of the struc-
own plan, and construct the ship according to "ture which the company see before them.'
"the best of your experience and knowledge, There is sound wisdom displayed here. Mr
"but we shall always agree in this-that I ani Russell is neither slow to invent himself, nor
"the father of the undertaking, and that I had opposed to invention in others. But he has had
"the original conception." To this Mr. Russell the good sense to run no needless risks in carry-
agreed, and to this he on Monday last grace- ing out the great work committed to him, and
fully and warmly bore testimony, "for nothing even to avoid the very appearance of what,
had," he said, "tended more to his unhappi- though sure enough to his own judgment, might
ness than upon many occasions to have re- seem tentative or speculative to others.
"ceived compliments for the invention, or ori-
ginal idea, when he could assure the company
"he was totally innocent of it."

66

66

Our first business, however, appears to be to point out with as much exactness as is possible to whom the merit of constructing this marvellous ship is due. This is unquestionably of prime importance, because, as Lord Stanley said on Monday, if the Great Eastern succeeds, she will be a greater step-indeed, apart from the contingencies of future experience, she is already a greater step-in the art of shipbuilding than has ever before been accomplished in one generation "from the day when man first began to traverse the 66 sea." It is impossible to look upon this ship, and to think of the promise which in a mercantile sense she holds out to us-of the enormous power of military transport with which she furnishes us-and of the services which even as a ship of war she is capable of rendering us-it is impossible, we say, to think, however imperfectly, of these things, and not at the same time to see that we probably owe far more to the man or men by whom she has been produced than to the greatest soldier, or seaman, or statesman alive. A man cannot open his eyes and look abroad over the modern world without seeing that the truly great men, the veritable heroes of this age, are they who clearly conceive and laboriously execute undertakings of this kind. In old times, when as a nation we had to fight incessantly for mere life, it was right enough to value our best fighting men above all others to adorn them with titles and coronets and to cluster them about the throne of our monarch. But fighting men Thus, with this wonderful ship in all its are our greatest men no longer. The great ship-great features and complex details before us, builder, the great engineer, the great merchant, we have to separate from her first the original these are the foremost leaders of this time, al- conception of such a ship, and next the concepthough we have not yet begun to call them tion of a tubular or cellular mode of construction, dukes and earls, and to lift them to the fellow- and then all the rest is Mr. Russell's. That is ship of our sovereigns. To say the least, such to say, the ship itself, as a vast and novel men are inferior to no others. It is well worth mechanical structure, is his alone. The merit while, then, to inquire to whom we owe the of the naval architect who designed her, the Great Eastern. merit of the shipbuilder who built her, the merit of the engineer who placed her engines in her all this merit is, strange to say, concentrated in one man. The abstract conception of her is Mr. Brunel's; the actual embodiment of that conception in the noble vessel which is so soon to see blue water is solely Mr. Scott Russell's. Surely no man could wish to have a prouder thing said of him!

Fortunately for ourselves and for the future historian, the authorship, so to speak, of this Tessel is pretty accurately defined. In so far as the mechanical design and construction of her are concerned--and these are all with which we have to do-Mr. Brunel and Mr. Scott

Bussell are the only two gentlemen who make any claim to the merit of it. Nor is it difficult to define with great accuracy how much of the merit is due to each of these gentlemen respectively. The statement made by Mr. Russell in his speech on board the ship on Monday last was conceived in so fair a spirit, and agrees so exactly with statements which Mr. Brunel has on former occasions made or sanctioned, that We cannot do better than repeat it here. It as part of his (Mr. Russell's) understanding with Mr. Brunel, he tells us, that the original conption of a large steam-ship to carry her own el upon the longest voyage, so as to avoid all the waste of time and expense which was then

Those who recollect what the condition of the Great Eastern was when launched, and who have this week seen her as she now is, will not fail to recognise in her rapid and efficient completion another ground for connecting the name of Mr. Scott Russell in the closest possible manner with the history of this great ship. It has been our good fortune to have opportunities of ob serving the progress of the works on board of her during the last nine weeks, and we hold it impossible to over-estimate the fertility of resource, the promptness of action, and the skilful disposition of men and material which have been displayed by the one directing and controlling mind. Knowing something of the manner in which our public departments are at present handled, and seeing what a single inan has accomplished in this private enterprise, we do not wonder that men sometimes grow weary of the delays, the extravagancies, and the failures of the former, and sigh to see the swiftness, the economy, and the success of the latter imparted to it.

The merit of another great suggestion which has also been acted upon in the construction of the Great Eastern is due to Mr. Brunel. This is the application of the tubular or cellular system of construction-before applied by Mr. Stephenson in railway bridges to the hull of the ship. On this point, however, we must be very explicit. Mr. Brunel did not practically adapt this system to the new purpose; that is to say, the arrangement of the various parts of the ship's structure was not made by him. Nor does Mr. Russell fail to state as much. In the speech before referred to he says: My responsibility was the construction, as a naval architect, of the lines of the ship. If the ship "is slow, if she has bad qualities, the responsi"bility is mine alone; if in regard to her structure she is ill-made, ill-planned-if her "materials are ill-disposed or ill put together— "that is my fault; and if her engines do not, her paddle-wheel engine especially, work well Now the Great Eastern is all but finished, it if her boilers are not equal to their work- becomes our duty to fix our mind once more "then I am almost entirely the only man to upon the true object with which she has been "blame. Messrs. Bolton and Watt are here to constructed. Trips to America and back can speak for themselves, and will take the re-afford no kind of test whatever of the commer'sponsibility of their own engines." cial success of this ship. Only continuous voyages of several weeks' duration to India, China, or Australia, and back, for example-can give her a fair chance of proving her value. As she is to go down the river on the 21st or 23rd instant, and will make her trial trip early in September, it should be understood, as Mr. Russell said on Monday, that she never was intended for short voyages; and though she would be tested on a short voyage, she was not to be finally tried by such a trip. What the great ship must be tried by is that for which she was originally intended, viz., a voyage to Australia or India in thirty-three or thirty-six days. "is most important," said he, "to bear this in "mind, because if our distant colonies can find "themselves brought by the ship within thirty"three or thirty-six days of the mother country, they will not remain long satisfied without "having a fleet of such ships, and without making such commercial arrangements as will "admit of their being established to make re"gular voyages."

Mr. Russell has frankly told us the secrets of his success in this unparalleled undertaking, With respect to the manner in which he had endeavoured to carry out his work, he had made. he said, a resolution which he was happy to say he had maintained-that he would not permit, so far as he was concerned, any new scheme, invention, or crotchet of his own to enter into the construction of the ship; and also, if possible, that no new, clever, or ingenious but untried invention of his friends should have anything whatever to do with it. He therefore confessed at once that there was no

"It

There is another consideration connected with this unexampled vessel which must not be forgotten. Without in the least degree detracting from her commercial qualities, or increasing her cost, Mr. Scott Russell has so constructed her that no less than three hundred and sixty 10-ins. guns might be placed on board of her and fought, if the Government should at any time desire to convert her into a ship of war, either temporarily

or otherwise. This is no small matter. She is | already, it should be understood, proof to ordinary round shells, and her speed will at least be fifteen knots an hour in all probability. Moreover, her bow is both fine and strong enough to secure her against material injury should she encounter a foe after the fashion of a "ram." She is likewise divided into numerous watertight compartments. We need take no pains to express what the value of such a ship, armed as we have said, would be to us, as a weapon of either offence or defence..

tions were mixed up with it from beginning to
end. It was therefore both a bad and a vulner-
able object, and it became our duty to assault
it. This we did with earnestness, but at the
same time with perfect fairness. We did not,
of course, attempt to bludgeon the vitality out
of it with mere angry speech. We intended
that our blow should be fatal, if possible, and
aimed it accordingly at a vital part. That vital
part was, we admit, in a curious place. Like
Paris, we had to drive our arrows at the heel
rather than at the head or the breast of our
Achilles. But, if our object was a just one,
our means of attaining it cannot, we think, be
questioned.

work efficiently. This was one of the most vital questions that called for the decision of the Admiralty, and this, we fearlessly assert, neither Admiral Smart, Mr. Laws, nor Mr. Bowman was in any sense competent to form a judgment upon.

Three methods of accomplishing the object have been proposed, and two of them tried. The first consisted in introducing a class of apprentices from a grade of society superior to that from which dockyard apprentices are ordinarily derived, and in affording them an excluIn many other ways this, the greatest of ships, sive training under masters and professors is suggestive to us. She is, we believe, the bespecially appointed for the purpose. The whole ginning of a new era in ocean navigation, and of the present master shipwrights of the dockthis, if we mistake not, not as a mercantile On another page we print a protest against yards (with a single exception) were trained in agency only. But further consideration of this our last week's article, from the pen of Mr. this manner. This first plan was incontinently subject must be deferred. We must not, how- Murray. The only portion of this protest which put an end to by Sir James Graham many ever, omit to notice the few sensible comments greatly concerns the public is that in which he years since. The next method consisted in offered by Mr. Russell on the launching of the disclaims the "prominence" which he considers selecting by competitive examinations from the Great Eastern. There had been a great diffi- we have given to his name. This is not ex-ordinary apprentices of the dockyard (all of culty with respect to the launching of this actly what Mr. Murray means, we presume, be- whom, be it remembered, have been under the vessel, he said. But the mode of launching had cause his " name" had not, so far as we are instruction of good schoolmasters for many nothing whatever to do with the principles on aware, any considerable prominence given to years past) a very limited number of the most which the ship was constructed. It was en- it. What is doubtless meant is not the promi- promising, and in sending these to Portsmouth tirely an afterthought. The plan tried was one nence given to his name, but the preponderance to be trained by special masters and professors which, he considered, ought never to have been attributed to his influence. The context im- in all that pertains to the shipbuilder's profesadopted. It would never, he hoped, be resorted plies that this was intended, because we are sion. This plan was put in operation about to again for the launching of any ship. "The told that we "have formed a very false estimate eleven or twelve years since, and continued in "Great Eastern might have been launched with "of the part taken by the other members of the existence only four or five years. The third a great quantity of grease and oil upon smooth Committee." In support of this view of the plan is that which the Committee before us has "oak planking-a mode which succeeded every matter Mr. Murray does not give us the slight- proposed, and this consists in entering the sons "day in practice, and with respect to which est assurance of the activity of these gentlemen of gentlemen in the dockyards, to be trained "there was no difficulty whatever. In future, in shaping the evidence received by the Com- expressly for master shipwrights and assistant "therefore, whenever any large ship like this mittee, or in penning its Report. He contents master shipwrights, all promotion to these was to be constructed it would not be at all himself with pointing out the antecedents of offices being for the future almost exclusively necessary to invent any new method of launch- Admiral Smart and Mr. Laws, and referring reserved for these young gentlemen. Now, we "ing, but simply to adhere to the good old plan vaguely to Mr. Bowman's experience. Admiral have no space here to discuss the relative merits "of the shipbuilders, of oak planking and plenty Smart, he reminds us, was Superintendent of of these three systems with any minuteness; "of oil and grease." This is precisely what we Pembroke yard-a yard from which the great suffice it for us to state one great principle said at the time, and we only quote Mr. Russell's" repairing" branch of the shipbuilder's craft is which we would lay down for our guidance in words for the sake of showing that the scheme this matter. It is this: Seeing that no known adopted by Mr. Brunel was no shipbuilder's or conceivable system of training youths can by device, but purely his own. possibility make all who are trained fit for responsible office, or can be expected to do more than turn out a small per centage of eminently able men, we ought to adopt a plan which will enable us to leave a majority of our trained men, if need be, in inferior positions without In other words, we doing them injustice. ought to adopt a system which, while it will furnish us with a goodly number of efficient officers in high positions, will saddle us with no

THE DOCKYARD COMMITTEE OF

ECONOMY.

ONE may write on great public topics for
a year and never have his statements ques-
tioned, provided his facts be false and his
inferences erroneous. But only let his informa-
tion be sound and his conclusions certain,
and he will inevitably be speedily and
flatly contradicted to his face.
Let no
reader of ours suppose, therefore, that we
expected our last week's article on the Dock-
yard Committee of Economy to pass unchal-
lenged. Had we taken any other than a plain
and simple course-had we turned our back
upon facts and started into the region of fancy
-had we shut our eyes and dreamed instead of
keeping them steadily open and using them
then we might have written ourselves gray, and
never elicited a sign, either of praise or dis-
praise. The great sin in all such cases is to
know where the vulnerable point is to be found,
and to aim at that. Strike there, and the
wounded creature-even although it be an Ad-
miralty Committee-must writhe and rage.

Now, had the Committee in question been properly constituted, it would have been invulnerable at all points. Had it been designed and framed for the honest purpose of ascertaining and correcting such defects as might have been found to exist in our dockyard establishments, and had that purpose been purely and faithfully carried out, any attempt to discredit its decisions-whether made by us or by others --must have brought only shame and confusion upon its authors. But it was not so. This Committee, as is well known, was not appointed in simple good faith. Mean aims and considera

almost wholly excluded, by the bye, and to
which we believe the Committee never went-
and Mr. Laws has been a clerk, a secretary, and
a store-receiver. It may suit Mr. Murray's
purpose to pretend that these circumstances are
sufficient to fit the gentlemen in question to sit
in judgment upon the whole art and mystery of
the naval architect and shipbuilder, the engi-
neer, the blacksmith, the joiner, &c. But we
address a class of readers who know much better.
Let us consider, for example, the subject to
which Mr. Murray himself alludes in his letter

bad ones.

bear this test.

that of the training of naval architects-and Any man of sense will see in a let us inquire what qualifications these gentle- moment that the Committee's system will not men have for pronouncing, we will not say a For every thoroughly good decision, but an opinion even upon this ques-officer it would in all probability give us at least tion. By all who have the slightest claim to be three bad ones, and thus largely help to ruin consulted upon such a topic, it is held essential the service which it is vainly designed to aid. that the superior shipwright officers of a dock-We may say much more on this important subyard should be well skilled in the science as ject, but we cannot say it now. well as the art of ship-construction. But this science cannot be at all thoroughly studied without a preliminary mastery of many of the higher branches of mathematics. We have lately seen in our own columns that the rules by which the most elementary calculations of the naval architect are made cannot be conveniently investigated without recourse both to the differential and to the integral calculus. Every mathematician knows that many subjects must be gone through before even these are reached, and every educated naval architect is aware that these are by no means the limit of that which he has had to master. The difficulty is, then, to provide generation after generation of men trained in all the science of the naval architect, and fit also in other respects to become mechanical officers of the highest class, while, at the same time, they shall have had sufficient practical acquaintance with the work of the dockyard to enable them to conduct that

We have thus far dealt with Mr. Murray's letter in its general aspect. There remain, however, a few words of another kind to be said. We have inserted that letter, not because the writer has any just claim upon us for the publication of a single line of it--for he in no way helps the public to form an altered judgment upon the merits of the Committee-we have given it a place simply because we see no reason whatever for refusing to comply with Mr. Murray's request that it might be inserted. What Mr. Murray's object is in the last half of it we cannot divine. One thing, however, we hasten to say respecting it, and that is, that he need not speak so bitterly as he does about our insinuations against his "cha'racter." Mr. Murray's character is not a legitimate object for our criticism, and we have not, we think, ventured to criticis it. If Mr. Murray will take the pains to calmly re-peruse what we said, he will find

for his weapon what a Hyde-park orator lately | evidence on this point, for our columns have
called "the bright and cutting intellect." If been the vehicle for conveying to the public a
he can then show us that his weapon is well-knowledge of all the disadvantages attending
tempered, and wielded nervously, we will not the present coinage, and earnest appeals to the
ask him on whose milk he was suckled, or Ministry for their correction. Reference, in-
where his sword was forged.-E. J. R.
deed, to a file of the MECHANICS' MAGAZINE for
the past six or eight months might have saved
the Chancellor of the Exchequer from some
statistical errors into which he inadvertently
and therefore pardonably fell. Instead, for
example, of there being in circulation as the
daily press makes Mr. Gladstone assert-only

THE NEW MIXED METAL COINAGE.

that it amounts only to this, viz., that he
appears to have, perhaps, a somewhat over-
Weening consciousness of ability; that he was
thought by some to have been too pliant to the
desires of Mr. Corry; that he has no claim to be
esteemed as a naval architect by the public; that
as an engineer even he has not distinguished
himself in any remarkable manner; and that he
is guilty, perhaps, of a peccadillo or two in re-
Ir will have been observed by the public that
gard to the re-distribution of official responsibility the Chancellor of the Exchequer asked the
in our dockyards. Now, to call statements like House of Commons on the 4th instant for
these a “personal attack," when they are simply £10,000 only on account of the new coinage of
directed against a member of a Committee, or to bronze, instead of £50,000, which was the sum
call them insinuations against a man's" charac-originally set down in the estimates. This wide
ter" when they are merely adduced as reasons
departure from the original intention of the
for thinking lightly of an official report, is, we
Government is puzzling, and we regret to say
submit, to wrest language from its daily uses.
Against Mr. Murray, as Chief Engineer of Ports-that the subsequent remarks of the right. hon.
mouth Dockyard, we have not a word here to gentleman afford no satisfactory explanation of
say, much less have we a syllable to breathe the change. Mr. Gladstone is reported-and
no doubt accurately reported-to have said that,
against his character. All that we contend for,
and all that we say is, that the Report in ques-"metal was first contemplated, it was supposed
"when the operation of coining money of mixed
tion is mainly Mr. Murray's, and that we have
"that in order to carry it on with sufficient
good reason for refusing to accept Mr. Murray's
manifesto as a basis for great and sweeping.
"rapidity Government would have to purchase
presses and supply them to the contractors;
changes in our dockyard establishments. We
"but on inquiry it was found unnecessary to do
distinctly assert that we have made no attempt this." Hence, by inference, the reduction of
whatever to filch from Mr. Murray or from his the sum asked for. Now, there is something so
colleagues such good names as they have."
All we ask is, that if he or they have any special completely contrary to the practice of the Go-
vernment in the purchasing of machinery for
claims to public esteem or homage, they will tell Government contractors, and, it must be added,
us so. We will gladly make them known. contrary also to common sense, that we are quite
at a loss to know who could have "supposed"
such a course necessary in the first instance, or
how a gentleman of Mr. Gladstone's sagacity
could with gravity mention it in the House of
Commons. Evidently there is another reason
than this for the alteration, and in time possibly
it may ooze out.

:

There is one thing which, for Mr. Murray's own sake, we most sincerely hope it is that his remarks about one of ourselves were not put forward with any paltry or vain desire to detract from the influence of our present labours by a reference to our mode of starting life. This part of Mr. Murray's letter is written in such peculiar English that we cannot discern exactly what he means. His statement amounts apparently to this that he does not consider it necessary to reply to what we said last week,

because we studied naval architecture under a

system of which he disapproves! That appears to us a curious kind of announcement, and we doubt not it will appear so to others. On a question of this kind we shall, we trust, be pardoned for a remark that may appear somewhat egotistical; and we venture to say that the training which Mr. Murray seems disposed to put a slight upon, is precisely that which the Times litely put forward in repeated leading articles, as the ground upon which it based its confidence in our statements, and claimed for them the highest authority.

If Mr. Murray can really be so mistaken as to suppose that we are in the least degree sensitive as to our origin, we can only invite him to change his mind. We do not scorn his supposition; we merely smile at it. In this day, when nine out of ten of our eminent engineers and shipbuilders, to say nothing of other classes, began life in some form of apprenticeship, it is too Lite for any one to attempt to produce even a blush on such a subject, especially when intellectual competitions have, from the first, been the only steps by which a man has ascended. We do not ask where Mr. Murray sprang from, because we do not feel an atom of interest in the question, and because if we did we should have no right to make the inquiry. On the contrary, we would urge him to lose sight of such frivolous questions altogether. A man is now estimated, not by the station of his father, but by his own en lowments; and Mr. Murray is perfectly welcome to the support of the few who think other

wize.

If Mr. Murray be fair and friendly he is free either to write to us in a suitable spirit or to reTosin silent. If he be hostile, and must fight, let him not babble of our boyhoods, but take

£800,000 worth of the deteriorated and un

savoury coins of copper, weighing 3,500 tons, there is about £1,250,000 worth, weighing 6,000 tons. Again, the right hon. gentleman would certainly not have told the House of Commons, had he consulted our pages, that the 1 lb. of copper is coined at present into 26 pence, and proportionate numbers of halfpence and since 1823, when the Irish coinage of such farthings, when, in fact, no copper monies coined in these realms have been so proportioned pieces ceased. Twenty-four pence, forty-eight the rates of pieces to the lb. avoirdupois from halfpence, and ninety-six farthings have been that year to this day. Apart from these trifling errors, and the very grave one of reducing the

vote to a point which makes it almost valueless in promoting the first movement towards a great reformation, there is not much to object for which we have contended are agreed to by to in the ministerial statement. The principles the Government; but about the means of reducing those principles to practice in a speedy and successful manner we as yet differ. We, for example, do not approve of putting any portion of the new coinage into the hands of contractors at all. At Calcutta, at Bombay, and at If the Government thought seriously about Madras, they are increasing the resources of the buying new coining presses, they would be respective mints so as to render them equal to most likely to erect them on their own premises, the demands likely to be made upon them. and not on those of other people; and certainly why not do the same with the Royal Mint of the cost of such machinery would soon be London? Eight coining presses were erected covered by the profits of the bronze coinage. therein in 1810, and eight are all that that esCoining presses of the most modern and im-tablishment boasts in 1859, although the proved make cost about £200 each, and the quantity of work required of them is fourfold Royal Mint itself contains only eight of these greater now than then. At Calcutta they will presently possess twenty-four, at Bombay money makers. Forty thousand poundswhich is the extent of the reduction in the essixteen, and at Madras eight presses. Why timate-represents therefore the purchase-not, with the new coinage before it, give the money of two hundred coining presses. Would English Mint double its present number-sixMr. Gladstone in seriousness invite us to believe teen? Ten thousand pounds' worth of mixed that when the sum of £50,000 was jotted down metal coins would, in such case, without the coin the Civil Service estimates, class 7, for the new operation of Birmingham, soon pass into circucoinage, he thought two hundred presses would lation, and the profits of the coinage would pay have to be paid for out of it and supplied to the for the presses. With respect to the mixture contractors? Surely not, unless he deems his of metal chosen for the new money, it may be audience much more credulous than it is. Why, said that in all respects it is a good selection. two hundred coining presses, working at their Copper, 95 parts; tin, 4; and zinc, 1, form tominimum rate, would stamp into existence gether a hard, clean, agreeable-looking, and not 12,000 coins of bronze, or any other mixed bad smelling composition, and will show off the metal, per minute; 720,000 per hour; 7,200,000 engraving and devices of the coins to great adper day; or between forty and fifty millions Vantage. Of the sizes of the various denominaper week! But really, with all deference to tions of coin something may be said, for it is a the Chancellor of the Exchequer, we must say question of importance. there is something preposterous in the whole story. Contractors would rather buy coining presses than receive them from the Government, and the Government would rest content with a fair price for the contractor's coinage rather than be "bothered" with finding machinery and complicating the bargain. There is a class of Her Majesty's servants whose duties lie partly afloat and partly on shore: to these the tale of the coining presses may be told.

As we last week gave the exact and individual weight of the copper coins circulating throughout the British dominions, so it may be as well to give as a guide now their individual diameters. The British penny of the coinage of Victoria is decimally 1335 inches in diameter; the halfpenny, 1108; the farthing (identical in size with the sovereign), 863; the half-farthing, 688; the one-third farthing, 590; the quarter farthing, 515; and the oboli, 625. Now, in The Minister's statement with regard to the all probability the circulation of the colonial deplorable condition of the existing copper small coins will remain as heretofore; but since coinage, however, was, as every person is aware, it is determined to lessen the weight of the perfectly true; and the necessity for supplant- three superior denominations, it would be right ing it was very forcibly demonstrated. It is to reduce their diameters as well as their thicknot necessary to recapitulate Mr. Gladstone'sness, maintaining a proper proportion between