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promote the study of science, and to advance the general

Journal of the Society of Arts. Intelligence of the people.

FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 1857.

HONORARY LOCAL SECRETARIES.

The following gentlemen have been appointed honorary local secretaries :

T. Cooke Ainsworth, Esq., Blackburn.
Rev. Dr. Hume, Liverpool.

FOURTEENTH ORDINARY MEETING.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 1857.

No meeting of the Society was held this evening, in consequence of the sudden and severe illness of Major H. B. Sears, whose paper "On Appliances for Facilitating Submarine Engineering and Exploration," Part II., "Submarine Exploration," had been announced to be read. Major Sears was called suddenly to Paris on Friday evening, on urgent business, and it is feared that his illness was aggravated by his hurried journey back, in order to fulfil his engagement with the Society.

DEPUTATION TO LORD PALMERSTON. A deputation from the Society of Arts had an interview with Lord Palmerston on Wednesday, at Cambridge House, to present the subjoined Memorial in reference to the Society's Examinations. The deputation consisted of the following gentlemen :

Col. Sykes, F.R.S., Chairman of the Council.
The Rev. Dr. Booth, F.R.S., Treasurer.
The Right Honourable the Lord Mayor.
William Brown, M.P.
Frederick North, M.P.

Benjamin Oliveira, M.P., F.R.S.
Francis Bennoch.

C. Wentworth Dilke, Vice-President.
Rev. William Elliott.

Joseph Glynn, F.R.S.

Peter Graham.

T. Twining, jun., Vice-President.
G. Fergusson Wilson, F.R.S.

Thomas Winkworth.

P. Le Neve Foster, Secretary.

Charles Critchett, Assistant-Secretary. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD VISCOUNT PALMERSTON, FIRST LORD COM. MISSIONER of Her MAJESTY'S TREASURY. THE RESPECTFUL MEMORIAL OF THE COUNCIL OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF ARTS, MANUFACTURES, AND COMMERCE.

The Council of the Society of Arts have learned that a memorial has been presented to your Lordship by the President and Council of the Royal Society, embodying several suggestions as to the most effectual means to

Among the recommendations contained in this memorial, will be found the following:

1. The establishment of classes in Metropolitan and Provincial Schools, in which the elements of science may be taught on a systematic plan, and that such classes be promoted by government grants in aid of local funds. 2. The establishment of Provincial Lectures, in aid of the above classes.

3. The establishment of Examinations.

4. The formation of Provincial Museums.

5. The distribution and circulation of duplicate specimens from the British Museum and other similar Institutions.

6. The formation of Public Libraries.

7. The more extensive distribution of National Publications, bearing upon the cultivation and advancement of science.

8. The augmentation of the Parliamentary grant for the reward of useful discoveries in Science and attainments in Literature and the Arts, so as to admit of good

Service Pensions to men of eminent scientific merit.

to the Royal Society, whenever special reasons may be 9. The augmentation of the annual grant of £1,000 assigned for this increase.

10. The formal recognition of the President and

Council of the Royal Society as a body authorised to adto be adopted for the more general diffusion of a knowvise the government inter alia, on the measures necessary ledge of physical science among the nation at large.

11. The alternative proposed of substituting a Government Board for the President and Council of the Royal Society.

12. And lastly, that such of the above recommendations as involve an expenditure of public money, might eventually be carried out by appropriating a certain portion of the fees received from Patents; and the methe President and Council of the Royal Society, that no morial concludes with the expression of the opinion of application of these fees could be desired more appropri ate than the devotion of a portion of them to the encouragement of abstract science, to which practical art is under so many and such important obligations.

The foregoing recommendations of a body of such high scientific eminence and historical celebrity as the Royal Society of London, formally submitted to your Lordship, receive, with but one or two exceptions, the concurrence of the Society of Arts. Those measures for the improvement of national instruction and the advancement of science which the Royal Society now presses on the notice of her Majesty's government, with the full weight of its high authority, the Society of Arts has for some time past been engaged in submitting to the practical tests of a varied experience. Four years ago (Jan. 19, 1853), a Committee of this Society was appointed by the Council "to inquire and report how far and in what manner the Society of Arts may aid in the promotion of such an education of the people as shall lead to a more general and systematic cultivation of the arts, manufactures, and commerce-the chartered objects of the Society."

This Committee, in its report on Industrial Instruction (presented April 26, 1853), strongly urged on the attention of the Council the value of class teaching, and the importance of its correlative, periodical examination.

"We have received," say the Committee, "a very large amount of decisive testimony in favour of some system of examination for provincial schools in connection with a central body, which should be empowered to grant certificates of proficiency. On this subject the evidence is unanimous and decisive. Several of our correspondents, whose opinions are entitled to the gravest consideration, attach the utmost importance to a practical testing of results by means of examination. Some

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on which it has acquired a large amount of accumulated
experience. The Society has afforded aid to Institutions
and to lecturers alike, by publishing copious lists of lec-
turers, and by giving other facilities. The Council are,
however, of opinion that much success is not to be looked
for from metropolitan centralization in this matter.
As regards the establishment of public libraries, the
Council believe that Mr. Ewart's Act, slightly amended,
so as to give power of appeal to a poll, and its provisions
made more generally known, would afford all necessary
and just facilities for the purpose.

With respect to the suggestion of the President and Council of the Royal Society, to constitute the President and Council of that body "the recognised advisers of the Government as to the measures to be adopted for the general diffusion of a knowledge of physical science among the nation at large," and the proposal not only "to augment occasionally their annual parliamentary grant of £1,000," but "to place a further sum at their that a Committee of the Society of Arts (with Sir Joseph Paxton, its chairman). investigated, during the past year, the subject of the surplus received from patent fees, and came to the conclusion that it ought to be devoted to encourage and aid the progress of invention, on which so intimately depends the advancement of the arts, manufactures, and commerce of the country. The precise mode of its application the Committee did not consider it their duty to point out.

The Society of Arts has associated with it no fewer than 400 of the Mechanics' Institutions of the United Kingdom, and with all it carries on a mutually bene-disposal from the patent fees," the Council would observe, ficial correspondence. In these associated institutions, which will probably become the provincial schools of science, it has laboured to establish class teaching and systematic instruction; and the Council have much satisfaction in stating that although the Society's scheme of examinations is practically before the public for little more than twelve months, a marked improvement has already taken place in the character of the class instruction, and in the attendance on the classes at many of the Institutions in Union, while in others, for Finally, the Council of the Society of Arts, beg, with the first time, class teaching has been established ex-much deference, to place before your Lordship and her pressly with reference to the Society of Arts Examinations. Majesty's Government the following facts: That the Stimulated by the hope of obtaining distinction at these Society, incorporated as " The Society for the Encourageexaminations, young men are found to attend the classes ment of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce," has been with remarkable diligence and zeal. This system of established for more than a century; that it has, on pubperiodical examination was successfully inaugurated lic objects alone, expended upwards of £150,000 in that last June, at the Society's House in the Adelphi, when time; that it has been the originator of several societies prizes and certificates were awarded to candidates, some of great and acknowledged usefulness;* that the germ of of whom have since obtained official appointments. The the Great Exhibition was developed within its walls; Council propose to have the examinations conducted on that, for nearly a century past, it has occupied its own a more extensive scale this year in London and Hud-hired house in the Adelphi; that it has never been acdersfield. Again, this year a special prize fund, up-comodated with apartments provided by the State; that, wards of £500, has been subscribed by the promoters of during the whole long period of the Society's existence, the scheme, and this independently of local contribu- it has neither asked nor received a single shilling of pubtions. Considerably more than 500 of the most emi-lic money for any purpose whatever; and that it has nent manufacturing and commercial firms, and great employers of labour, whether material or mental, throughout the country, have signed a formal declaration of confidence in the examinations and certificates of the Society of Arts, while of the forty-five examiners who give their unpaid services, and who constitute the Society of Arts Board of Examiners, nineteen are Fellows of the Royal Society. The examinations are not restricted to physical science-they include as well mathematics, physical geography, English history, English literature, modern languages, and drawing. The Society of Arts so far as the funds at its disposal will allow, proposes to develop its scheme of examinations until, taking advantage of railway facilities, the local centres of examination shall be so far multiplied as to bring the advantages of the system easily within the reach of all.

With regard to the distribution of duplicates from the British Museum and other like Institutions, the Society of Arts is now in communication with all the Mechanics' Institutions throughout the United Kingdom, with a view to ascertain their opinions, and to consult their wishes on the subject. It is here proper to state that, at the present time, and for three years past, the Society of Arts has been engaged in eirculating works of art among the Institutions associated with the Society.

As to the establishment of provincial lectures, it is one of those educational questions with which the Society of Arts has had to deal for several years past; and it is one

* Report on Industrial Instruction, p. 69.

secured, continues to retain, and will labour to deserve, the confidence frankly and freely reposed in it by the Mechanics' Institutions, as also by the commercial and manufacturing classes of the country. They therefore respectfully submit to your Lordship, that the Society of Arts, whether tested by its antecedent, or estimated by its present labours, is the proper body in whose hands it should be left to carry out the work in which it is now actually engaged, embracing those measures so ably indicated by the Royal Society, for the promotion of the scientific and industrial instruction of the country; and they earnestly pray, should it be in the contemplation of her Majesty's Government to make any grant in aid of this desirable object, that assistance may be afforded, commensurate with local contributions, to the classes for systematic instruction in Mechanics' Institutions, but so as not in any way to fetter the free action, or to compromise the independence of those bodies. As the sphere of the Society's operations is now rapidly expanding, since applications to hold periodical examinations, and to award Certificates, have already been received from York, Birmingham, Huddersfield, Leeds, Nottingham, Salisbury, and other provincial centres, they further pray that the Society of Arts may so far be recognised by the government, and placed in such a position as will enable its Council to

kingdom in various sub-divisions of art and science, have
*That many of the Scientific and Literary Institutions of our
emanated from the said Society."
"-Charter of Incorporation
of the Society of Arts.

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make satisfactory arrangements to develop its plan for the advancement of systematic instruction, by the help of periodical examination, so as to realise the expressed hope of a large majorityof the Institutions of the kingdom, that the Society of Arts shall be authorised and empowered to carry out, for their benefit, to a national success, the great work of industrial instruction it has deliberately undertaken.

W. H. SYKES, Chairman.

P. LE NEVE FOSTER, Secretary.

NEW LIFE BOAT.,

The result of the competition for a prize offered, in the year 1851, by his Grace the Duke of Northumberland, for the best model of a life-boat, was a boat by Mr. Beeching, of Great Yarmouth, which, more than any of the 280 competitors, combined the essential qualities of a life-boat. The Committee of the National Life-boat Institution were, however, not quite satisfied that further efficiency might not be attained, and believing that a boat of a safer and more efficient character might be produced, requested Mr. Peake, Assistant-Master-Shipwright in H.M. Dockyard at Woolwich, who had been a member of the committee appointed by the Duke of Northumberland to decide on the relative merits of the models and drawings competing for his prize, to furnish a design for a life-boat, which might combine as many as possible of the advantages, and have as few as possible of the defects, of the best of the models examined by them. A boat was accordingly designed by Mr. Peake, and, by the authority of the Lords of the Admiralty, was built at the expense of the Government, at Woolwich Dockyard. Some modifications were from time to time made in her, resulting from various experiments, and a trial of her in a gale of wind at Brighton. This boat, together with others on the same design, built at the cost of the Duke of Northumberland, the President of the Institution, was placed on the Northumberland coast in the autumn of 1852. The result of the trials was considered highly satisfactory. The Committee thereupon decided to proceed with the building of other boats on the same plan; and at the present time no less than 23 of these boats are in the possession of the Institution, and stationed on the coasts of the United Kingdom, in addition to 3 which have gone to other countries, and to 10 which have been built for harbour trusts and other bodies

on our own coasts.

These boats have, for the most part, been of two sizes, viz., 27 feet and 30 feet in length, with 7 to 8 feet beam, and rowing from 8 to 12 oars, double-banked, their weight averaging two tons. As, however, boats of this class and size have been found too heavy to be managed in some localities where but few boatmen are to be obtained to launch and man them, some of less beam and weight, rowing 6 oars single-banked, but on the same design in other respects, have been built under the denomination of second-class life-boats, to meet the necessities of such localities.

that, as rowing boats, they are superior to all others. Of their properties as sailing boats they cannot yet speak so positively, as nearly the whole of them are stationed on those parts of the coast where sails are not required. At the same time they have every reason to believe them equally efficient as sailing boats. The Committee say, The qualities necessary in a life-boat may be thus summed up:1. Extra buoyancy.

2. Self-relief of water.

3. Ballasting.

4. Self-righting.

5. Stability.

6. Speed.

7. Stowage-room.

8. Strength of build."

1. The chief peculiarity of a life-boat, which distinguishes it from all ordinary boats, is its being rendered unsubmergible, by attaching to it, chiefly within board, water-tight air-cases, or fixed water-tight compartments under a deck, or empty casks. This property in one or more of the above forms is common to all life-boats, although some possess it in an inadequate degree, or badly distributed. So long as the necessary space for rowing and working the boat and for the stowage of shipwrecked persons is not interfered with, the amount of this "extra buoyancy" cannot be too great. Especially it is essential that the spare space along the sides of a life-boat, within board, should be entirely occupied by buoyant cases or compartments; as when such is the case, on her shipping a sea, the water, until got rid of, is confined to the midship parts of the boat, where it to a great extent serves as ballast, instead of falling over to the lee side and destroying her equilibrium, as is the case in an ordinary open boat. Barrels or casks, which do not conform in shape to the sides of a boat, but leave large interstices to be occupied by water, are not, therefore, suitable vehicles for providing extra buoyant power; yet, at the present moment, the Liverpool life-boats and some others are provided only with empty casks as buoyant power. The north country or Greathead class of lifeboats, of which those at Shields may be considered the type, have their extra buoyancy provided by a watertight deck at the load water-line, the space between which and the boat's floor is formed into water-tight air chambers; water tight compartments are also built along the sides of the boat, within board, sloped from the gunwale to the deck, thereby effectually excluding any water shipped from settling on one side. The life-boats of Messrs. White, of Cowes, have their buoyancy increased by similar air-compartments along the sides, extending from the gunwale to the boat's floor, but without any enclosed space under a deck. The large sailing life-boats on the Norfolk and Suffolk coast have very wide detached air-boxes or tanks strongly made, to correspond in form with the boat's sides, and extending from the thwarts to the deck. A great amount of extra buoyancy is also in these boats derived from large end air cases built across the bow and stern, and occupying from 3 feet to 4 feet in length from the stem and stern posts to gunwale height. These cases are chiefly intended to provide self-righting

Of the former class of boats those most recently built by the Institution have so far undergone a further modi-power; but in the event of the boat being stove in, and fication as to be reduced somewhat in beam, and to have less height, and greater sharpness of bow and stern, in order to enable them to be rowed with greater speed against a head gale and heavy sea. They are also built of fir, on the diagonal principle of double planking, without timbers; whereas the earlier boats were of elm, and clenched or clinker-built.

The experience of three or four winters' use enables the committee to speak confidently of their success. Several of them have already performed valuable services by saving the lives of shipwrecked persons, and the highest reports have been received respecting them generally from those who have been intrusted with their management. The Committee do not hesitate to pronounce the opinion

the space below the deck being filled with water, they alone have sufficient buoyancy to float her. The lifeboats built by Mr. Beeching, of Great Yarmouth, and which obtained the Northumberland prize of £100, are in this resqect similarly fitted to those of Mr. Peake.

2. The second peculiar characteristic of a life-boat, and which is closely allied to the preceding, although it is not possessed by all life-boats, is the capability of selfdischarging in a few seconds any water which may be shipped by the breaking over of a sea, or by a boat being suddenly thrown on her beam-ends. This power is accomplished by means of the water-tight deck at the load water-line and a sufficient number of large open tubes, having their upper orifices at the surface of the deck and

their lower ones at the boat's floor, passing through the | Water-ballast in an inclosed tank, if properly secured, space between the deck and the floor, but hermetically is, we think, better than loose water, such as we have closed to it; thus providing an open communication be- described in the Norfolk boats; but we prefer solid tween the interior of the boat and the sea, yet without ballast to either, as it can be more advantageously suffering any leakage into the air-chambers under the placed, and is more manageable, and less liable to accideck. In some life-boats these tubes are kept always dent. Mr. Peake's life-boats are ballasted with heavy open; in others, plugs, moveable by hand, and having iron keels, and with solid wood and cork ballast stowed lanyards or handles, to them, are fitted, which can be under the decks; which latter, in the event of their withdrawn on water being shipped. In Mr. Peake's being stove in and the space under the deck filling with boats the tubes are fitted with self-acting valves, which water, would then form extra buoyancy as well, thus open downwards only, so that they will allow any water serving both purposes. shipped to pass downwards, whilst none beyond a trifling leakage can pass upwards through them. It will be at once readily understood that, as the deck is placed at or above the load water-line, any water which is above it will be above the outside level of the sea, with which it has, through the tubes, free communication, and that in obedience to the common law of fluids, which binds them to a uniform level, it must instantly, by its own gravity, descend through the tubes until none remains above the surface of the deck; or, if the boat be very deeply loaded, until the level of the water outside and of that within the boat shall be the same.

This quality of self-relief of water can, of course, only be possessed in perfection in boats with a raised water-tight deck at or above the load-water line. The Norfolk life-boats before alluded to have holes through their floors, with plugs attached, through which they will relieve themselves to the outside level of the sea, or through which their crews can let water into them until the common level is obtained, which they accordingly do whenever they go afloat in a gale of wind and heavy sea. They have then, literally, several tons of water on board, but the wide side-cases confine the greater portion of it to the midships of the boat, where it then serves as a loose ballast; the boatmen considering it safest to go off under sail with a boat deeply immersed. These boats will therefore only partially relieve themselves of water: they are splendid boats, and their crews have the utmost confidence in them; but we think in this respect they might be improved on. Other life-boats, as, for instance, those at Liverpool, have no relieving holes at all, and, if filled by a sea, their crews have no resource but the primitive, slow, and laborious process of baling with buckets; to do which the oarsmen must take in their oars, and, for a time, disable their boat.

3. A third and important property in a life-boat is ballasting. An ordinary open boat cannot with safety be taken into a heavy sea with metal, or stone, or other ballast having greater specific gravity than water, inasmuch as that if she were upset or filled with a sea she must then infallibly sink. As, however, a life-boat is provided with a large amount of extra-buoyant power, she may with impunity have a considerable amount of ballast of any description within her. It may be here observed that ballast of some kind is very contributive to the efficiency of a life-boat. Not only must it add to her stability and thereby to her safety, but in proportion to the heaviness of the sea does weight become necessary to insure speed, its momentum being requisite to withstand the blow of each succeeding breaker, and to carry the boat through it as it strikes her; in the same manner that the fly-wheel of a steam-engine, or other machine, regulates and economises the motive power, and compensates for its irregular or intermittent action. The north country, or Greathead, life-boats have generally no ballast, their great breadth of beam being relied on for stability; but some of them have water let into a tank, constructed for the purpose in the midships of the boat beneath the deck. Beeching's life-boats were also ballasted with water on the same principle; but through a difficulty in securing the filling of the tanks, and in preventing the escape of water from them, serious accidents accompained with loss of life, occurred to three of those boats.

4. A fourth property, that of self-righting if upset, is not a universal principle in life-boats, although it must be considered a most important one, it being only pos sessed by those of Mr. Peake's and Mr. Beeching's con struction. It has been objected to by some boat-builders, from the impression that other more necessary qualities, and especially that of stability, must be sacrificed to obtain it. This, however, is a fallacy; the fact being that the very means which are employed to produce self-righting add to the stability of a boat, and improve her in other respects. That the property of self-righting may be useful is proved by the fact that on the only two occasions when self-righting boats belonging to the National Life-boat Institution have upset, the crews have been enabled to get into them again, and their lives have thereby been saved.

The self-righting power is obtained by the following means:-1st. The boat is built with considerable sheer of gunwale, the bow and stern being from one foot six inches to two feet higher than the sides of the boat at her centre; and the space within the boat at either extremity, to the distance of from 3 to 4 ft. from the stem and stern posts, to gunwale height, is then enclosed by a sectional bulkhead and a ceiling, and so converted into a water-tight air-chamber, the cubical contents of which, from the thwarts upwards, are sufficient to bear the whole weight of the boat when she is placed in the water in an inverted position, or keel upwards. 2ndly. A heavy iron keel (from 4 to 8 cwt.) is attached, and a nearly equal weight of light wood or cork ballast is stowed betwixt the boat's floor and the deck. No other measures are necessary to be taken in order to effect the self-righting power. When the boat is forcibly placed in the water with her keel upwards, she is floated unsteadily on the two air-chambers at bow and stern, whilst the heavy iron keel and other ballast being then carried above the centre of gravity, an unstable equilibrium is at once effected, and the weight of the iron keel, falling over on one side, immediately restores the boat to her proper position-in other words, she selfrights.

5. A fifth property is lateral stability, commonly called stiffness, being the tendency to preserve an upright position in the water, and proportionate resistance to upsetting. This property is, of course, held in common by all boats, but is more especially essential to life-boats, they being more exposed to the risk of upsetting than any others. As explained under the head of ballasting, it is obtained in life-boats by either breadth of beam or by ballast. In Mr. Peake's boats very great stability is obtained by an iron keel and other solid ballast, and by flatness and length of floor, with moderate beam only.

6. A sixth and most essential property is speed. Without speed or capability of being propelled against a heavy sea and head wind, the safest boat in the world would be useless, as she could not be conveyed from the shore to a wreck-frequently against a series of breakers of the most formidable description. As in ordinary boats, propelled by oars, the greatest speed can be obtained by sharpness of bow, and, within certain limits, narrowness of bean. Here, however, the similarity ceases; for whereas great lightness is an advantage in perfectly smooth water and calm wea ther-as stated under the head of ballasting-weight is essential in a heavy sea, and especially a broken sea, in

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