of processes in the Fine and Useful Arts. 1 61 



with the lower part of the hold. The steam pipes should be 

 long enough to introduce the steam into the bottom of the 

 hold, as otherwise the steam and heat would be for a long time 

 intercepted from the lower parts of the vessel, by a stratum 

 of air. 



14. Such of the steamers as may be intended to be used for 

 steaming ships, might conveniently, and at small expence, be 

 provided with a spare boiler manhole cover. 



15. The whole apparatus for steaming could easily be trans- 

 ferred to any one of the steamers, and would then be availa- 

 ble for any ship. Independent of the manhole cover, the parts 

 would merely consist of two pipes of copper (fitted with stop- 

 cocks) of five inches diameter, together with a steam safety 

 valve pipe, and an air safety valve pipe, for the ship about to 

 undergo the process. * 



16. In steaming ships afloat, it will obviously occur to hang 

 the steamer on to the vessel to be steamed, and then so to se- 

 cure the two, as to prevent the cross motion their being sepa- 

 rately moored would cause, to the injury of the steam pipes. 

 For steaming ships in dock it will be requisite to have a boiler 



^et so near to the dock, as to admit of having pipes fitted for 

 the conveyance of the steam to the ship. 



17. It will be requisite, when the steam has been admitted 

 into a ship, whether it be afloat or in dock, to have a cauldron 

 of boiling water ready to kill insects which may try to escape; 

 and it will be requisite to have a few persons in attendance, 

 to shut up places where steam shows itself, as well as to at- 

 tend to the state of the pipes, and of the operation. 



18. We come now to the consideration of the vast import- 

 ance to shipping in tropical climates, which this successful ex- 

 priment of steaming of ships, to destroy white ants, has indi- 

 cated. The speedy riddance of rats, cockroaches, centipedes, 

 and scorpions, would alone be of importance. The waste of 

 property by the two first is very considerable, and fumigation 

 is frequently employed to get rid of them : smoking is dan- 

 gerous, inasmuch as many ships have been burned in the pro- 

 cess, but although smoking kills rats, it will not kill cock- 

 roaches nor ants ; neither has it the slightest destructive effect 



* Partial condensation, such as in the case of the Investigator, led to the 

 fracture of the upper deck pillars, would by these valves be effectually 

 guarded against. 



NEW SERIES. VOL. II. NO. I. JAN. 1830. L 



