COMMITTEES ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT 215 
6 months, bears witness to the fact that so far no satisfactory ship’s bottom 
paint has been produced ; those in general use represent the best available, but all 
leave much to be desired.” 1° 
The foregoing comments on the subject of ships’ paint, which 
are from an authoritative source, and of very recent date, serve 
to make it clear why the committee of the Academy was unable 
to recommend definite compositions, or mixtures, and to justify 
it in proposing that experiments be made to determine the rel- 
ative effectiveness of different substances. If the subject of 
ships’ paints is still open to investigation, it is obvious that its 
condition a half century ago must have been much more unsatis- 
factory. 
COMMITTEE ON MAGNETIC DEVIATION IN IRON SHIPS. 1863 
The committee known as Committee No. 3, or “ the Compass 
Committee,” was appointed on May 20, 1863, at the request of 
the Navy Department, communicated by Rear-Admiral Davis 
on May 8, 1863, and had a direct bearing on the operations of the 
Navy during the Civil War. It grew out of a commission 
appointed by the Secretary of the Navy in accordance with an 
Act of Congress “‘ to make experiments for the correction of local 
attraction in vessels built wholly or partly of iron,’ approved 
March 3, 1863, the same day as that on which the Act of Incor- 
poration of the Academy was approved. When the Academy 
had been organized, the Secretary of the Navy turned the matter 
over to it, requesting that it would “ investigate and report upon 
the subject of magnetic deviation in iron ships.” ‘The similarity 
of the personnel of the two bodies—the commission and the com- 
mittee—is of strong interest in connection with the present his- 
tory. We learn from Professor Bache that the Commission of 
the Navy Department consisted of himself as chairman, Joseph 
Henry, Wolcott Gibbs, Benjamin Peirce, and W. P. Trowbridge. 
The committee of the Academy was the same, with the addition 
of Charles H. Davis and Fairman Rogers. This transformation 
* Engineering News, vol. 66, no. 5, August 3, 1911, p. 136. 
