MECHANICS AXD USEFUL ARTS. 69 



stove-pipe, and the upper end approach within a few inches of the ceiling. 

 In its operation, the foul air from the top of the room rushes down and into 

 the chimney, to fill a partial vacuum occasioned by the draft from the stove- 

 pipe above. By applying a damper to the pipe, its capacity may be ad- 

 justed as desired. 







THE XEW (ENGLISH) IEOX STEA3I RA3I. 



The following article, descriptive of a new engine for maritime warfare, 

 we copy from the London Times : 



The recent battles in Italy, sanguinary as they have been, afford, after all, 

 but slight indications of the real progress which has been made in destruc- 

 tive branches of the art of war; and it is only when a naval engagement 

 takes place, that maritime powers will see, with dismay, the awful effects of 

 the weapons which science has placed in their hands. An engagement 

 between two hostile fleets, in the present day, would probably not last an 

 hour, for by that time two-thirds of all the ships engaged would be sunk or 

 blown up. The time when ships lay yard-arm to yard-arm, firing into one 

 another for a whole day, has gone by forever. It will be short and sharp 

 work now-a-days. It is a perfect knowledge of this fact, and a certainty 

 that wooden ships, after receiving one, or at most two, well-concentrated 

 broadsides, must sink immediately, that is leading maritime powers at the 

 present moment to see if science cannot devise some means for rendering 

 their ships invulnerable, at least for a time. But, while securing this object, 

 a still more awful element is introduced into the art of naval warfare, since 

 these iron-cased monsters are to be used not alone for defence, but for running 

 down and sinking by wholesale the vessels of the enemy. 



The attempts to make iron shot-proof vessels have hitherto proved down- 

 right failures, both in the French and English navies. Efforts in this direc- 

 tion have therefore been discontinued, and the French emperor has set to 

 work to see if he cannot case large vessels with sufficient iron to give a fair 

 immunity from the effects of shot, whilst their prodigious strength and 

 weight may be turned to awful account in running down opposing first-rates. 

 The idea was a good one ; but it went no further than an idea, as, instead of 

 building ships specially constructed for the puvpose, the two vessels which 

 the emperor is now, with such vain secrecy, having coated with iron plates, 

 are old sailing three-deckers, which can never carry a sufficient weight of 

 iron to answer the purpose, and which, even when fitted with machinery, 

 will never, it is said, attain a rate of more than four or five knots an hour, or 

 so. The English Government have very wisely determined to adopt a dif- 

 ferent plan, and to build a wrought-iron vessel of immense size, streng'th, 

 and steam power, specially adapted as a vessel of Avar, and for running down 

 ships of the largest kind, not even excepting the Great Eastern itself. The 

 contract for this tremendous engine of modern war has been taken by the 

 Thames Iron Ship-building Company, and sufficient progress has been made 

 with the iron work to be used in her, to make certain that she will be afloat 

 and fitting for sea by June 1800. Her dimensions will be: extreme length, 

 380 feet; breadth, 58 feet; depth, 41 feet 6 inches; and her tonnage no less 

 than G177 tons. The weight of the empty hull will be 5700 tons. The 

 engines are to be by Penn & Sons, of 1:250 horse power; and of these we 

 shall give a description on another occasion. Their weight, with boilers, 

 will be 950 tons. She will carry 950 tons of coal, and her armament, masts, 



