MECHANICS AXD USEFUL ARTS. 31 



it was more easy to push a vessel with an elongated body through the 

 water, at great speed, than the short vessels which had been in use. This 

 was reduced to a regular principle, the result of which was, that it was now 

 certain that 24 feet of length in the entrance lines of a vessel would give 

 eight miles an hour easily ; to go at sixteen miles an hour, the entrance 

 lines should he nearly 96 feet long. To give twenty-four miles an hour, 

 the entrance should be 213 feet long ; so that they could not expect to get 

 twenty-four miles an hour until they had made up their minds to build 

 ships something like 400 feet long. From, all the experiments he had 

 made, and had seen made, these facts were undoubted. The clipper 

 ships and fast steamers had lengthened their bow-lines until they had 

 got the necessary length for speed ; and if those present looked at any 

 vessel which had got the reputation of going sixteen miles an hour, 

 he believed they would find that to be the fact. Indeed, he did not 

 believe there was in existence a vessel shorter than one hundred and 

 eighty feet which could go sixteen miles an hour ; and if there were 

 any such vessel forced to go more than sixteen miles, it was an expen- 

 diture of power which was perfectly preposterous. They would there- 

 fore perceive why such a large vessel as the Himalaya had such great 

 speed. The Himalaya had a length of three hundred and fifty feet, and 

 should have the greatest speed for the smallest power of any merchant 

 vessel hitherto. If, in like manner, they looked at the large clipper ships 

 of two thousand and three thousand tons burden now built, they would 

 find that the principle was taken advantage of, and that their bows were 

 elongated to a great length. But what else was being done ? The owners 

 of the clipper ships were finding out that, by the lengthening of the bow 

 and making the lines more hollow, they could reduce the sails and spars, 

 and yet preserve their speed, finding that the ships could now do in the 

 water what force of canvas could never alone accomplish. Like every 

 truth, the shape of a vessel had been long since found out and lost again. 

 The old London wherry was built as perfectly upon the lines he had 

 described as if it had been mathematically constructed upon them. In 

 India the boats were made precisely upon that form, and they were the 

 fastest boats in the world, as a class. The Turkish caiques had the same 

 shape, and they were very fine vessels. In Spain they had arrived by some 

 means at a form not very different, and throughout the whole of the last 

 war the Spanish vessels were the best vessels, and the best England took. 

 The smugglers, because they risked their necks upon the speed of their 

 ships, quickly found out what shape was best, and some of the most 

 beautiful ships that ever came into our possession in that way were built 

 in that form. The Americans had made very early an experiment of the 

 kind in steamboats. They lengthened their steamers at a very early period, 

 and they now generally built upon this plan and with the hollow lines. 

 They had done wonders in this way, and he believed in England wonders 

 were also being done. It was not easy to carry the elongating of the 

 vessels much further in wooden ships, because they could not get timber 



