PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 77 



we were fighting when opposed to combined squadrons, made a 

 British man of war a formidable enemy ; indeed, with the exception 

 of the theoretical construction of our ships, our navy has generally 

 been more efficient than that of our enemies. 



The avowed superiority of models of French origin once induced 

 the British legislature to determine that naval science should be 

 cultivated in this country as it has been in France, and from which 

 the French derived such signal and immediate benefit ; but through 

 we have been at the expense and have gone into the preliminaries 

 necessary for qualifying individuals to improve our habits I will 

 not say " system' 7 of construction, it seems rather to be regretted that 

 a single sixpence should have been expended with a view to promote 

 those sciences which it has now become almost inconvenient to discuss. 



For the present, we have abandoned our continental neighbours, 

 and are now taking a hint from the Americans, who build much 

 larger ships than we do to carry a given force. The power of a 

 large ship to carry a comparatively small number of guns, is so ob- 

 vious, that I mention it only as a truism : but it is equally appa- 

 rent that a large ship ought to sail much better than a small one if 

 both be constructed with equal skill. If this be true, it is self-evi- 

 dent, that if the science of the French were applied to the large 

 principal dimensions of the Americans, we ought, at the present 

 period, far to surpass any thing we have ever done before in naval 

 architecture. It would be a loss of time to say more in this hall 

 than that the scale of ship building cannot affect the principles upon 

 which the science of naval construction is based. 



DECEMBER 26TH. Mr. W. S. HARRIS, On the relations existing 

 between Electricity, Magnetism, and Heat. 



In this lecture Mr. Harris displayed to the society some new and 

 interesting facts, illustrated by apparatus constructed expressly for 

 the occasion : numerous brilliant experiments were instituted during 

 the evening. 



The lecturer, after having detailed several of the hypotheses which 

 have been advanced, from time to time, to account for the various 

 phenomena observed, gave an account of the later researches of Dr. 

 Faraday, who has succeeded in producing a spark not actually 

 from the magnet, as is commonly supposed but from a conducting 

 wire coiled round it. This experiment the lecturer detailed in the 

 following brief and clear manner : We have seen by the preceeding 

 experiments the simultaneous appearance of electricity and heat, 

 when either the one or the other is excited in bodies ; we have like- 

 VOL. in. 1834, L 



