And lastly, that as to my steam-boilers and the furnaces thereunto and therewith to be adapted and used, I do adopt and use the best means of constructing and working the same in my said improvements, according to the methods adopted and used in steam engines, and other works wherein a supply of steam is or may be required. In witness whereof, &c.

Specification of the Patent granted to WILLIAM Hawkes, of Newport, in the County of Salop, Esquire; for Improvements on musical-keyed Instruments of twelve fixed Tones. Dated July 25, 1808.

To all to whom these presents shall come, &c. NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso in the said letters patent contained, I the said William Hawkes do hereby declare, that my said improvements on musical-keyed instruments of twelve fixed tones are described as follows; that is to say: The improvements in the organ is effected by a pedal under the key-board, and an extra slide to every stop in the sound-board to correspond with the general slide. The above extra slide has a communication from the sound> board to the extra pipes, namely, sharps and flats; which by depressing the pedal with the foot brings on the sharp scale, and by elevating the pedal brings on the flat scale; and as the flats go off the sharps are brought on, and inversely as the sharps go off the flats are brought on, by the action of the pedal communicated to the additional slide with double holes adapted to the additional pipes, namely, five pipes to each

octave.

My

My improvement in the piano forte is effected by adding seven diatonic and five flat tones to our present scale of twelve fixed tones, which form two chromatic scales; the one termed a flat scale and the other a sharp scale, and is done by two sets of strings, of two unisons to each set, which are acted upon, without the addition of a key to the key-board, by a pedal, by which the keyboard is made to move forward and backward about onefourth of an inch, the same hammers striking each set of strings both in the flat and sharp scale, by depressing the pedal with the foot when the sharp scale is wanted, and elevating the pedal when the flat scale is wanted. In witness whereof, &c.

Account of the third Voyage of the Ship Economy, built according to Mr. J. W. BOSWELL'S Patent Plan,

Communicated by the Patentee in a Letter to the Editors.

GENTLEMEN,

I REQUEST you will be so good as to insert the inclosed

letter from Captain Ross, relative to the performance (on her third voyage) of the ship Economy, built according to my invention for constructing large ships of small timber so as to be stronger than those built in the common method, which method is described in the fourth volume of the present series of your work.

I have the satisfaction to find that the excellent performance of the ship, in the several voyages she has made to the West-Indies, in the very trying weather she frequently met with, has fully justified my ideas of the strength of the plan.

VOL. XIII.-SECOND SERIES.

K k

It

It must be evident to every thinking man that the mode of building, that has stood so well in a ship of 200 tons, must be perfectly adequate for those of a larger size; and that the experiment is now tried sufficiently to satisfy the most circumspect; and a very short calculation must suffice to show the saving that must arise from building with timber of half the usual price for most of the frame; as would be the case with ships built on my plan above 500 tuns burthen.

For vessels of this last size I would lay the decks, on a plan, within the limits of my patent, which has been shown to Sir William Rule above a year since; and of which, with some other matters relative to the ship, I intended to have sent you an account before this, but have been prevented by more urgent business.

I have examined the internal frame-work of the ship, and find it perfectly firm in all its joints; the sheathing I also found in an excellent state, without any appear. ance of being touched by the worm; which I attribute to the cause mentioned by Captain Ross. On her first voyage her sheathing was painted with white lead, which is reckoned to resist the worms well; nevertheless the sheathing was much cut by them, which was partly owing to her long detention in the West-Indies by the French fleet. On her second voyage she had what is called a brimstone bottom, in which voyage the sheathing was likewise much cut, On the last voyage she has had a new sheathing managed as Captain Ross describes, and returned with it in the state mentioned; which cer tainly is much in favour of the use of coal tar.

I take this opportunity to beg-leave to notice a strange assertion (made in a treasise on finding the longitude, published about two months since by a French Count),

relative

relative to my invention for ascertaining the rate of a ship's way, of which an account was inserted above a year ago in the sixty-first number of your Repertory. Although my paper on the subject was published near a year before the Count's treatise appeared, he modestly accuses me of borrowing the plan from him, through the medium of a certain noble Lord, or the Lords of the Admiralty, who, he says, betrayed his secret to me.

It is not worth while to say much in refutation of charges so palpably absurd; I shall therefore merely state two or three facts, for which I stake my veracity. First, I never heard of the existence of the Count, or that he or any one else had laid claim to the invention, before the end of May in the present year, when, to my great surprise, the above circumstances were told me. Secondly, I never saw to my knowledge the nobleman mentioned by the Count, nor had I ever any communication directly or indirectly with him, or with any of the Lords of the Admiralty, on the subject; nor did I ever receive the slightest hint of the invention from any one else. Thirdly, I had no interest whatever to serve by publishing my invention, but the pleasure of hoping to benefit the sea-service.

Every one who has had business to do at the Admiralty will smile at a charge implying a degree of accessibility on the part of their lordships, which no one yet has had the happiness to experience. For my part, my interest with them has never been sufficient to procure even the slight favour of a copy of the Report of the Navy-board on the ship Economy, and the plan on which she is built, which I think, in justice to me and to the public, should have been granted, and for which I very earnestly solicited.

On this occasion the Count must be content if he can free himself from the appearance of plagiarism with regard to my paper published so long before his treatise; for this is not a country, where the bare assertion of any man, incapable of proof, cau biass the opinion of the public.

Yours, &c.

JOHN WHITLEY BOSWELL.

Extract of a Letter from Captain Ross to Mr. Boswell.

Dear Sir,

London, Aug. 11, 1808.

I feel much pleasure in stating to you some particulars of my second voyage to Demerara in the Economy, built according to your patent. We sailed from Portsmouth the 18th of December last, under convoy of the Astrea frigate, and on the 25th the wind shifted to the S. W. and continued Westerly until the 6th of January; during which period we experienced several heavy gales, which dispersed the fleet, and several ships bore away for the ports in the Channel, with damage. But although the Economy was deep laden, having nearly a full cargo, with a large proportion of bricks and ballast, she made astonishing good weather, and shipped only one sea, which broke the spanker boom in three pieces as it lay lashed to the gangway stantions, which may give you some idea of the force of sea at the time. After the gale abated, we saw only about forty sail with the frigate, with which we proceeded, and delivered our cargo at Demerara without the least appearance of damage; and I have never been in any ship that I had so good an opinion of in point of strength. On looking over the logbook on the homeward passage, I see that almost every

day