inconvenient contrivance that can be. My experience is considerable in the matter. It is a thing that has to be done when you clear for action. Boats at the present day at sea are kept inboard in most vessels, and I can assure you, with all the advantages of hundreds of men in ships of war, it is a most inconvenient and disagreeable operation to swing out the davits. All the guys have to be let go, the thing turns round, and if it has got a twist in it there is a very good chance of its coming on your head. If I might throw out a suggestion to the inventor it is this: what we want to come to is something of this sort, but I should like to cut the davit off here, and to hinge it here [illustrating]. I merely throw that out as a suggestion, which the able inventor will probably think of. If he could cut his davit off here and hinge it on here, and by some simple contrivance ease it over when the boat has to be lowered, it would meet what we want in the Navy better than anything else that I have seen suggested.

Mr. E. C. WARREN: I think great praise is due to Mr. Allardyce for his very ingenious suggestion. I think anything that gives rise to a discussion connected with boats' davits and the raising or lowering of boats must be interesting to all those who have to do with ships. There are certain difficulties in the way which I should like to speak about. According to this arrangement I apprehend there would be about 22 feet overhang for a large boat. You need not have them solid, because we make davits in different ways now. We have lately got into the habit of making tubular davits. I have made some with 13 feet 6 inches overhang out of 3-inch ordinary plate turned to 8-inch diameter, which will take a very heavy boat with the advantage of being much lighter than solid davits. There is another form of davit that I have made; it is made simply with two Tirons. You bend the T irons to your shape, and then weld them up afterwards by a process that is well known to mechanical men; and by making the inner bow of increased dimensions as compared with the other, so as to make up the difference between the compression and extension of the iron, you get the strongest form of davit with a given quantity of iron. I do not think either of these forms would remedy the great defect of having that large overhang. The last gentleman who spoke pointed out what was to my mind a very sensible thinghinging them on the gunwale. I have had the pleasure of fitting boats' davits in that way. There are two pairs of davits fitted on board Her Majesty's ship Raleigh in that way at this time with a hinged joint; we turn the thing back so that it is either lowered out or brought in with very little trouble. I would point out to Mr. Liggins that it is not easy to turn boats in and out for various reasons, and he must also bear in mind that there are many positions in a ship where it is impossible to turn a boat in. The question of the rigging would be got over by this method, but I am afraid it is too heavy and too expensive and not easy to work. I think the suggestion of Admiral De Horsey would meet the difficulty, the boats would be always in position, and easily stowed inboard.

Rear-Admiral J. H. SELWYN: I am also happy to be able to offer some little crumbs of comfort from an old seaman who has lately supplemented his naval experience with a good deal of passenger work between England and New York. I can tell the author of the Paper nearly what is wanted—what we do now, and what we ought to do. I think that this is a very great improvement. I quite agree with Admiral De Horsey that there ought to be hinged davits. I quite agree also with the last speaker that there also ought to be much better-formed davits than we now have, and that the worst use you can put a piece of round iron to is to curve it, and then expect that it will keep that exact curvature under the heavy strain brought to bear upon it, not as is supposed by lowering the boat, or by the boat when in position, but by the sudden strain and jerk of taking her out of the water. The boats on board

the Inman line of steam ships and most others—(I have been on board of them all-the White Star, the National, the Inman, and the Cunard, although I do not believe in the latter)—are carried not only inboard, but on fixed stanchions so placed that it would be almost impossible to lift them in any useful time. The experience on board these steamers was (and that was the principal objection) that when the boats were wanted there was a disorderly rush of passengers to the boats, preventing anything being done; but if the passengers understood how these boats were to be got out, how to place themselves in them, and were perfectly aware that they could be quickly and easily lowered in them, I think a great deal of that disorder would probably vanish. There is one thing more which I think Mr. Allardyce has not paid sufficient attention to, and that is that in the pitch and roll of a ship a boat merely hung in that way by the tackles is liable to a motion fore and aft and sideways, which results in chafing and straining the boat; but with that form of davit worked on hinges, as it should be most undoubtedly, there is no difficulty in putting proper chocks on the davits to receive the boat which the circular motion of sending off from the ship's side would relieve the boat from. With those chocks, which can be made by leverage to press on the bottom and take the weight of the boat, there would be no difficulty in lashing or securing a boat so that it should not chafe. The next thing is, that in those davits with their great curvature there is the important difference that the boat is much further from the ship's side than she would otherwise be when being lowered. One of the great difficulties in lowering a boat in a rolling ship is that she is liable by the rolling of the ship to be forced suddenly against the ship's side and staved in. If you can carry the davits well in when in their ordinary place so as not to offer much obstacle, but when you are lowering a boat to be very far out, then you have an enormous advantage, and therefore I say that hinges are the right things to apply. Now as to the employment of iron at all. I would suggest whether it is not better to use steel in such a position, which certainly would give in the form of double T, already spoken of, an ample strength with less than one-third of the weight. I think that with those modifications the improvement suggested to us here is one very well worthy of being entertained, and I hope to see it succeed still better by the improvements which it may receive from our discussion.

Mr. WILLIAM POOLE KING, F.G.S.: A great objection to the use of boats hanging on davits is that in case of the loss of a boat it is not allowed to be charged to the underwriters-that is if it is on davits on the quarter, but if it happens to be in the body of the ship then the underwriters are considered liable for the cost of it. That is one of the reasons which militate in merchant ships against carrying boats on the quarter on davits. We will suppose that objection got over. I think Mr. Lamport might mention that to the underwriters, and get that rather absurd rule altered for us. Then an objection that has been urged against this improved davit is that it has an immense overhang, and therefore would require to be of very heavy iron indeed. The mechanical force of the weight of the boat only acts upon the overhang when you are getting the boat inboard again. We can modify that by having a guy rope to the tops at the end of the davit, and then the mechanical strain would not be so great upon that point. It might not be convenient always to have a guy to the tops, for in lowering the boats there is a strain for a very short time. While the boat is between the deck and the water it would be certainly hanging upon the points, but if your guys were made from the middle point of the davit (I do not know what it is technically called) by using them and lowering at the same time, I think that we need not have the davit very strong because it is not always in use. Of course the boat would be hanging not from the extreme point but from the middle in ordinary times. There is another point which I wish to refer to, that is that the lowering ought to be always from the inside of the boat, and not as it is in that arrangement

from the outside of the boat. I think if you put the end of a fall round one of the thwarts it might be easily lowered down by a few hands who would be inside, and could at the same time manage the guys; so that in fact it need not be so heavy and strong an affair as has been urged here. The overhang would be employed for a short time only while the boat was lowering. I consider it altogether a most useful invention.

The PRESIDENT: I recollect that at many (I was going to say at most) of our Annual Meetings we have had suggestions offered with regard to this interesting question-the best mode of carrying and launching sea-boats; and I must say I think we are always under an obligation to any gentleman who applies his ability and his experience to any improvement on a matter so important to the comfort and safety of all who travel on the sea. I must say as far as I can form an opinion I think this is no exception. I am glad to hear from my two gallant friends, Admiral Selwyn and Admiral De Horsey, that they take a favourable view on the whole of this invention. I think it must have been very gratifying to Mr. Allardyce to have heard the degree of approbation expressed, and I would venture to suggest whether it is not worth his while to consider the practical suggestions which have been thrown out by Admiral Selwyn and Admiral De Horsey for the improvement of the apparatus.

Mr. LIGGINS: Might I ask the favour of being allowed to lower the boat and show according to my views what would happen. My idea is this. Under the circumstances of saving life at sea we always find that something goes wrong with a boat. We know perfectly well there is nothing more common. I will illustrate the fact from the circumstances that occurred on the occasion of that most pitiable and lamentable of all disasters at sea, the burning of the Amazon some years ago, in which I lost a good many valued friends. The boat lowering is the fatal cause of nearly all these accidents. Aboard the Amazon the poor stewardess who was lost (a very worthy woman) was in one of the boats, the fall of which being lowered at one end before the other, it went down into the water in that way, pitching everybody out. Then there is the case of the Schiller at Scilly, where the boats could not be lowered although fitted in a most primitive manner, which I contend is the best for practical purposes on a dark night. Then there was only the other day the case of the Deutschland. I listened to every word of that trial to see if anything could be gleaned from it. There was a difficulty then in lowering the boats, some being swamped in the operation, and although it was done by Germans who are supposed to be careful and cool under the most difficult circumstances the result was the boats went entirely into the sea. Now we must suppose that in saving life there would not be the coolness there is in this room while we are trying experiments, but that the sailors would let go the ropes unevenly in lowering the boat into the water. In my opinion the probability would be that many persons would be thrown out, and that the boat would be stove in and receive considerable injury. That is the reason why I expressed the opinion I did.

Mr. WARREN: I think Mr. Liggins has lost sight of the fact that there is a possibility of marrying the falls.

Mr. LIGGINS: They are married in many cases, but there are still great objections to any apparatus of that sort. There is a special apparatus in some vessels for marrying the falls, and to some extent the risk is lessened by one man being required instead of two. The falls are married and passed over a sheave in some of the boat-lowering apparatus which is now in use, but I think that under the circumstances of hurry and confusion which are usually attendant upon the sudden lowering of a boat the plan is too complicated to be practicable.

Admiral SELWYN: Just allow me to say to Mr. Liggins that there is a class of fools at sea whom we call lubbers, and nobody has ever yet discovered a remedy for them.

Mr. W. W. RUNDELL: Would you allow me to ask a question? My object is to ask my naval friends here what they think of the practice of hanging two boats from three davits. We have recently seen in the newspapers the particulars of an accident on our southern coast, when great delay was occasioned in getting out the boats by two boats being hung from three davits. As this was a passenger steamer, I presume the arrangement must have been made with the approval of the Board of Trade Surveyor, but I should like to know whether it would meet with the approval of our friends here?

Mr. R. A. ALLARDYCE: There was one objection raised as to the boats being covered up with canvas. I do not allude to that at all; I think it is necessary to have them covered up, but to carry them inboard on chocks is I think a very bad practice. The canvas cover is necessary to keep the sun off and the boats free of water. There are many kinds of hinged davits, but there is one thing in connection with them, that they do not hang outboard, and before you can lower a boat from any of the hinged davits that I have seen you must get the davits out by some means, either by screws, machinery, cog wheels, steam or hydraulic power. I have gone through all of them. Here I have tried to do away with that sort of thing, and to make the davit in as nearly as possible a perfect form. Instead of having to swing it out or to turn the davits out, she launches herself. The overhang is not more than is the case in the ordinary davit. In conclusion, allow me to say that I am very much obliged to Lord Hampton and you, Gentlemen, for the kind way in which you have noticed my attempt to reduce a great evil, and I tender you my sincere thanks.

ON THE COMPOUND SURFACE CONDENSING ENGINES OF THE PADDLE STEAMER "HIRONDELLE."*

By Monsieur J. A. NORMAND, Naval Architect and Marine Engineer, Havre, France.

[Read at the Seventeenth Session of the Institution of Naval Architects, 8th April, 1876; the Right Hon. LORD HAMPTON, G.C.B., D.C.L., President, in the Chair.]

As

may be seen by the accompanying engravings, these engines, which I designed and built last year, are of an entirely new type.

The small cylinder is placed above the large one, both converging towards the axis of the paddle-shaft. Each cylinder acts upon one crank, and the cranks are connected by a drag link. The irregular space between the two cylinders, which are placed obliquely to one another, serves as an intermediate reservoir. The axes of the cylinders are not situated exactly in the same vertical plane. The distance between these axes being less than that of the two crank pins, the connecting rods have a slight lateral deviation, as in Randolph and Elder's paddle engines.

The following advantages seem to belong to this new type of engines:

1.-Lightness.

2. Great stability of the whole mechanism, provided the box beam on which the ends of the framings rest be properly secured.

3.-Strength: there being no intermediate shaft, and the working of the engines being nearly independent of the slight strainings of the hull.

4.-Small encumbrance of the engine room.

The condenser, which is entirely independent of the cylinder, is provided with one cluster of tubes only instead of two or three as in ordinary engines. The circulation of water is effected by the speed of the vessel.

The following improvements have been introduced in the condenser:-In order to increase the quantity of water, which is generally insufficient when no mechanical *Received 28th February, 1876.