70 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



three desirable improvements pointed out in the circular, the commit- 

 tee to whom the award of the prize was referred, indicated two other 

 essential qualifications for the prize boat, viz., smallness of cost, and 

 the capability of rowing well. 



These qualities were found combined only in the boat constructed 

 by Messrs. Beeching, of Great Yarmouth, to which the prize was 

 adjudged, and on which experiments, thoroughly testing its powers, 

 have been made during the gales of the past year. 



A curious instance of the REINVENTION which is of such frequent 

 occurrence, is, that the power of self-righting, the demand for which 

 was received with ridicule by the boat builders of 1850, was actually 

 possessed by a life-boat, for which their silver medal and twenty 

 guineas were given by the Society of Arts, in 1809, to the Rev. 

 James Bremner, of Orkney, who had then for many years had his 

 boat in use, and under severe trial, on the Scotch coast. The Society 



fave a gold medal and fifty guineas, in 1802, to Mr. Greathead, of 

 outh Shields, who designed and built for the then Duke of North- 

 umberland, a life-boat which has hardly been since surpassed. 



NEW DRILLING MACHINE. 



DURING the past season, a gigantic machine has been constructed, 

 for the purpose of cutting or boring a tunnel through the Hoosac 

 Mountain, Massachusetts, to afford a passage for the contemplated 

 Troy and Boston Railroad. This machine was planned with a view 

 of cutting a circular passage or tunnel, 24 feet in diameter. Its 

 construction is as follows : A large wheel, having a thin rim project- 

 ing forward from its outer edge, is attached to a revolving shaft. The 

 rim of the wheel is mounted with steel cutters, which are of such 

 size, and so arranged, as to cut, when in motion, a circular trench or 

 groove in the face of the rock, one foot in width, and of the diameter 

 of the tunnel. The shaft of the drill is supported on a sliding frame, 

 which rests upon a main bed, supported upon Hanged carrying wheels 

 b^ feet in diameter. The main shaft is fed forward with the sliding 

 frame, by means of a powerful screw. The distance through which 

 the shaft, with its wheel and cutters, is made to pass, is five feet for 

 each adjustment of the machine, this distance being the depth 

 of the rim upon the main wheel. Upon the end of the shaft, 

 and in the centre of the circle described bv the motion of the cutters, 







a drill of six inches diameter is attached. This drill enters with the 

 cutters, and to the same distance in the rock. On the rim of the 

 main wheel are buckets to conduct the rock cut away into an adit, or 

 receptacle. The machine is intended to operate as follows : When 

 the approaches to the tunnel are prepared, the drill will be brought 

 up to the face of the rock, upon a track laid for the purpose. The 

 shaft with its wheel and cutters will be put in motion, and fed forward 

 into the rock. The circular trench will be cut, and the small central 

 drill will enter at the same time. When the rim of the wheel has 

 entered the rock to its full depth, the machine will be drawn back, a 



