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CLASS VIII.

REPORT ON NATAL ARCHITECTURE AND .MILITARY ENGINEERING:ORDNANCE, ARMOUR, AND ACCOUTREMENTS*

[The figures after the Names (between parentheses) refer to the Exhibitors’ Numbers and to the pages in theOfficial Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue.]

Jury.

Baron Ditin, Chairman and l\c)x>rter y France ; formerly Minister of Marine, Member of Institute andPresident of the Central Jury, &c.

Major-General Sir John Blkcoynk, K.C.B. , Deputy Chairman , S7 Pall Mall; Inspector-General ofFortifications.

Lieut.-Col. Colgl'iioun, 11.A., F 1LS , Royal Arsenal, "Woolwich.

Ch. Lesoinne, Belgium ; Member of the Chamber of Representatives, late Merchant.

Major Miciiekls, France .

Sir Baldwin Walker, K.C.B., Surveyor-General of the Navy ; Admiralty, Somerset House.

A. Whitney, I’nited States ; Merchant.

Isaac Watts, Somerset House ; Assistant Surveyor-General of the Navy .

Associates.

Capt. F. W. Bef.ctiev, R.N , Naval Department, Board of Trade.

Lieut . Ckeykk, K.E., Hon. Secretary.

Col. Hall, ILK., Ordnance Survey Office, Southampton; Director of Ordnance Survey .

Capt. James, K.E., 34 Ladbrokc Square, Notting llill.

George Lovell, 12 Ely Place, Holborn; Inspector of Small Arms.

Col. Morin, France (Juror Class v.)

Capt. Yolland, 1LE., Ordnance Map Office, Southampton ; Assistant Director of Ordnance Survey .

PART I.

Naval Architecture.

It is not unworthy of remark, as being a singular fea-ture in the maritime histoiy of Great Britain, that whilst,during a period of war, vast improvements were beingmade in its military service, very little was effected forits navy until after the Treaty of Peace .

It was not until a general pacification in 1814 hadfreed Europe from a severe and terrible military strug-gle, that Sir Hubert Seppings, then Surveyor of theNavy , brought forward his improved method of navalconstruction. The lower parts of the frames of ships ofwar were then for the first time filled in, and no longerafforded interstices for the accumulation of dirt andputrid water; and the frame-timbers of the bottom pre-sented a compact mass of wood from the keel up to aboutthe light water-line. Besides this great improvement,the whole fabric was further strengthened by means ofa system of diagonal trussing, which, together with thesolid bottom, opposed such resistance to the forces dueto the weight of the hull and its contents acting down-ward, and to the forces due to the displacement or pres-sure of the water acting upward, as effectually to preventthe keel from shortening, and consequently the shipfrom hogging or breaking clown in the direction of herlength, as it was liable to do formerly, or otherwise yield-ing to the forces of pressure under sail, or those ofpitching and rolling in a tempestuous sea.

In addition to these first great steps in the progress ofship-building, the upper parts of men-of-war were muchimproved in form and strength; the stern, instead ofremaining open to the fire of an enemy, has been morestrongly built, in a semicircular or rather elliptical shape.,better fitted for defence in every direction. The upperdecks have also been enlarged, and space gained forworking the guns.

The building of ships of wav has been further improvedin many ways which cannot be explained here. Moresolidity has been obtained by greater precision in joining

* This lieport was written in English by Earen Dupin.

the various masses of wood constituting the ship. Bysuch means the working of the timbers in a heavy sea isgreatly prevented; and both solidity and greater dura-bility are obtained.

Instead of firing the great guns by the same me-chanism as old muskets, caps and hammers have beenadapted to them.

Advantages of still higher importance have been ob-tained by the introduction of guns of 'very large calibre,mainly due to General Paixhans, which were introducednearly twenty years ago, and called canons a la Pah bans.At first very few such guns were placed in each ship; butnow we find complete batteries of C8-pounders, the effectof which cannot fail to be tremendous.

The combination of large masts has been renderedmore economical, easy, and solid, by the employment ofcoaks or cylinders of bard weed, inserted one-half oftheir length into each of the pieces of the masts, broughtinto contact.

Sir \Y. Svmonds, who succeeded Sir Robert Sippingsin 18.32, as* Surveyor of the Navy , turned his attentiontoward an improved form for ships of war, and designedthem of such figure and dimensions as to require verylittle ballast; this he in great measure accomplished bya considerable increase of the breadth. This system hadmany advantages; it gave greater stability, and in shaipships more space below for stowage, besides a largerfield or deck for working the guns; and although manytalented naval constructors and officers considered thisform unfavourable to an easy motion at sea, and liable todistress the spars; we have, nevertheless, great cause tobe thankful to this talented and meritorious officer for hislaudable and unwearied endeavours to improve the con-struction of ships of war.

We are further indebted to Mr. J. Scott Russell, thedistinguished Secretary of the Koyal Commission, for aseries of valuable experiments and researches on theform of least resistance at high velocity; this formbeing determined by examining the foim of waves pro-duced by drawing vessels through a canal at differentdegrees of speed. Further experiments are being madeby this gentleman in the application of his deductions to

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