SHIP-BUILDING.

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offering no abruptness nor interruption, either in the foreand aft, or horizontal, or in the perpendicular direction,depends, above all, the beauty of form in a ship. Thereare certain dimensions, or relations of length, breadth, anddepth, which are proper for every description of vessel, asshe is intended chiefly, to sail fast, to carry a great bur-den, or to navigate in deep or shallow waters; hut thesedimensions being observed, so as to make the vessel answerthe principal intention,—for all vessels must be able bothto sail at a certain rate and to carry a certain quantity ofstores,—the excellence of her form depends on its smooth-ness. The curves which are to constitute the water linesare determined by half breadths, marked to the right andleft of the axis or keel, on parallel lines. When thosehalf breadths are numbered for every parallel, and forevery water line, and they may be made as numerousas the builder pleases, the plan on which the ship is tobe built may be carried into execution with the greatestnicety.*

* It would be difficult to find a more striking example of the uti-lity of the application of the mathematical sciences to the practicalarts, than is to be found in the success of the French nation in ship-building. They are not a maritime people. One of their ambitioussovereigns, however, resolved to make them so, and employed menof science to build ships. He and the subsequent sovereigns ofFrance encouraged them in ascertaining mathematically the bestform for ships, and in applying the mathematical sciences to theirconstruction. The consequence has been that the French ships, par-ticularly of their royal navy, are in general equal, if not superior, asto form, to any other ships of the whole globe. We are a maritimepeople, possessing a more extensive sea-coast, and more fami-liar with the ocean than any other nation. In the practical andmerely manual part of building ships, as well as in managing them,we are superior to our neighbours. That we in general overtook andcaptured the finer-formed vessels of the French , was a consequenceof the superior skill of our sailors; but the superiority of those ves-sels, as to form, was so great, that most of the ships at present in ournavy have been modelled after captured French ships. Now thissuperiority was altogether derived from the plan of constructing theirships on mathematical principles. Such is, however, now the pro-gress of scientific instruction in this country, that there is every rea-

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