PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 235 



The lecturer took some pains to explain to the society the great 

 care which was used in the conduct of these experiments, and 

 the nature of the requisite calculations, which appear to have 

 been of a very laborious kind and which were performed by Col. 

 Beaufoy, in order to render the results of the experiments prac- 

 tically available. 



Our limits will prevent our going so fully into these valuable 

 experiments as we should desire. It appears, however, from 

 what the lecturer stated, as the general result of his researches 

 in this subject, that although experiments have been conducted 

 at different times by different individuals, and some on a very 

 large scale, yet that they can only be considered as valuable as 

 far as they go, that is, as shewing the action of the fluid upon the 

 bodies which were used in the experiments. It appears to be 

 impossible to deduce conclusions from experiments on small 

 bodies, which shall be applicable to larger similar bodies; and, 

 in endeavouring to apply these results to the construction of ships, 

 it must not be forgotten that the models which have been used 

 in these several ex])eriments have borne but a very small pro- 

 portion to the size of ships themselves. 



Naval Architecture has, consequently, gained but little from 

 the labour which has been bestowed on these experiments, and 

 the forms which have been given by different individuals to ships, 

 have depended rather upon the fancy and general experience of 

 those individuals, than upon any practical facts which this branch 

 of experimental science has furnished. 



In order to discover, therefore, that form of body of a ship 

 which shall oppose the least resistance to its passage through the 

 water, the lecturer recommended that experiments should be 

 made upon ships themselves, under all the ordinary circum- 

 stances of sailing. These experiments, however, should be con- 

 ducted, not in the mode in which experimental sqadrons have 

 hitherto been, viz., by comparing together the sailing qualities of 

 ships that have varied in every particular — but, if it be desirable 

 to discover, by experiment, which of two or more forms is best 

 calculated for velocity, it is, of course, necessary that the form 

 should be the only variable element; the ships in every other 

 respect should be exactly similar. 



Mr. Owen pointed out the mode in which these experiments 

 might be conducted, and stated several collateral advantages 

 which would be derived from them, such as, discovering how far 

 (the angle of lee- way is affected by the form, the best trim of the 



