28 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



IMPROVEMENTS IN SHIPS AND STEAMERS. 



During the past year a steam-vessel, involving some new principles of 

 construction, has been built in Scotland, to be used in deep-sea fishing. 

 The vessel is 100 feet long, with engines of thirty-horse power. Externally 

 there is nothing to distinguish it from a sailing vessel, except the presence, 

 on each side of the hull, of a curved pipe 10 inches in diameter, termed a 

 "nozzle," communicating with a water-tight iron case inside. In the 

 bottom of the vessel are apertures admitting the water into the water- tight 

 case with a horizontal wheel fixed on a crank-shaft attached by piston- 

 rods to the engine, and on the steam being applied, the water-wheel 

 revolves with velocity, and the water is discharged by the nozzles on 

 each side of the vessel. These form the only propelling power, and the 

 invention is remarkable for its simplicity and effect. These nozzles also 

 are of service in navigating the vessel, which, according to the angle of 

 depression or elevation, turns in any direction, or stops altogether, even 

 with the engines working at full power. Although capacity rather than 

 speed was studied in the construction of the vessel, it easily attained 

 1 1 knots an hour. Economy of fuel, freedom, from vibration, light draught, 

 and a high rate of speed, are among the advantages of the invention. The 

 vessel is being schooner-rigged, and when fitted with boats and fishing 

 gear, it will proceed to the fishing-ground in the Firth of Forth, and by 

 lowering the boats and crews, will be able to conduct the fishing operations 

 with safety and celerity. 



A new propeller, called the "Brandon," has recently been built at 

 Glasgow, Scotland, which is fitted with engines of a somewhat novel and 

 peculiar construction. The Brandon has four engines, all double-acting, 

 and standing in a vertical position at considerable distances apart in a 

 massive framing of cast-iron. In the forward pair the port engine receives 

 the fresh steam from the boiler and discharges it into the starboard and 

 larger one, while in the after pair this arrangement is reversed, and the 

 starboard is the smaller or high-pressure cylinder. The two starboard 

 engines are connected to cranks keyed at right angles on the ends of a 

 stout shaft lying horizontally fore and aft overhead. The port engines are 

 connected to a similar shaft, and each of these shafts carry large wheels 

 nearly opposite each other with wooden cogs, which mesh into a smaller 

 pinion on the propeller shaft below. The steam is admitted into the smaller 

 cylinders at a pressure of about 20 pounds above that of the atmosphere, 

 and expanding by the lap of the valve merely diminishes its pressure to 

 about 15 when the stroke is completed, at which time the valve opens, 

 admitting the steam to the same end of the corresponding low-pressure 

 engine, then on the opposite centre. This second engine is designed to 

 expand the steam to as low a pressure as is economically practicable, the 

 stroke of piston in all the engines being three feet and the diameter of the 

 high-pressure 41, while that of the low-pressure is 64 inches. The ratio 



