318 Scientific Intelligence, ^"c. 



not professed robbers, but would not stop much to consider the pro- 

 priety or impropriety of robbing you. The town, which had been 

 suggested as the point of departure, was Birr, 1200 miles from the 

 mouth of the river; now, this river was one which presented many 

 circumstances extremely questionable for the application of steam 

 navigation. The average speed of the current of the river was no 

 greater than three miles an hour, at certain points, however, it rose 

 to seven miles an hour. The magnitude of this river they might 

 form a notion of, when he told them, that at Birr, the breadth was 

 something like the Thames at Lambeth, and down as low as Babylon, 

 it flowed like the Thames at Deptford. The depth of the river was 

 quite sufficient for safe and speedy navigation; but this river is 

 subject to a low season, during which, there were some difficulties^ — 

 it existed only in part of the river. Passing Babylon and Bagdad, 

 you come to a village called Elkain, a distance of about 170 miles, 

 and in these 170 were included all the physical difficulties. There 

 were 15 or 16 shallows and rapids, which, in the low season, were 

 diflScult ; but it did so happen, that the low season of the Euphrates 

 was the very season during which the north-east monsoon blew ; the 

 impracticable season of the one was during the practicable season of 

 the other. It was proposed to navigate by iron vessels, and coal 

 might be obtained from Wales, at a cost of about £2 a ton. 



In ancient times the communication between England and India 

 was by the Euphrates, and step by step the very route they were 

 now thinking of resuming, and it was a remarkable circumstance, 

 for the progress of civilization seemed to sport with our endeavours ; 

 before the discovery of the Cape, our merchants found their way to 

 India by the Euphrates, and a Portuguese was immortalized for the 

 discovery ; but another discovery was made by means of the steam 

 engine, and that sent us down the Euphrates again in the old way 

 to India. The voyage by either route, from Falmouth to Bombay, 

 might be done in seven weeks. The Section then adjourned. 



\\ ednesday, 24th August. — The Chair was taken by Davics 

 Gilbert, Esq., at eleven o'clock. 



1. The Chairman read a paper on Naval Architecture, sent by 

 Mr. Henwood, of Portsmouth Dockyard. 



2. 3Ir. Price exhibited a model of a new construction of paddle 

 wheels ; he had them placed on his vessel, and could now do 108 

 miles in eight hours and a half. The paddle rose vertically and the 

 water ran off", and it was also a saving of one-third in fuel and time. 

 These paddle wheels were adopted by the Ordnance. 



3Ir. Russell would state that in Scotland they had had great 

 experience in steam vessels, and he would state some circumstances 

 which were within his knowledge, and he would address himself par- 

 ticularly to the encrustation on the boiler, produced by the salt 

 water ; he had found out, when on board a steam vessel, a simple and 

 beautiful expedient for remedying this, and it had been kept a perfect 

 secret. He would take a boiler of a cylindrical shape ; that which 

 was most dense in the water would of course fall to the bottom, and 

 therefore, as the cold water came in at the top the salt would 

 descend to the bottom below the furnace, and then came the secret, 



