676 SCIENTIFIC PROBLEMS OF THE FUTURE. 



our vessels which will lend itself as little as possible to the lodgment 

 of such weeds and barnacles. And it also means probably that our 

 ships must be overhauled in dry dock more frequently and regularly^ 

 which again will involve the construction of numerous docks at suit- 

 able ports along the ocean highways. But I submit that such meas- 

 ures will well repay us, if thereby we can gain a more than equivalent 

 increase in speed. 



Nevertheless I freely admit that it is very possible that no inert and 

 lifeless surface of man's design can be or ever will be devised which 

 will compete for the present puri)ose with the living skin, fur, or 

 feathers which an all-wise Creator has specially adapted to the pur- 

 pose of marine navigation according to the requirements of the various 

 aquatic forms of life. 



But we need not thereupon despair. It would be simple folly to 

 despair of this problem so long as we are so profoundly ignorant of its 

 true conditions. When we have thoroughly investigated the laws and 

 working of this fluid friction and ascertained its true nature and 

 limits, we shall then, and not till then, be justified in forming an 

 opinion as to whether it be or be not possible to meet and deal with 

 it successfully by methods which are practically applicable to ocean 

 navigation. 



Practical methods are the essence of the matter; for nobody is fool- 

 ish enough to pretend that we can coat our ironclads externally with 

 sealskin or with porpoise hide, and undoubtedly we are at a great 

 disadvantage as compared with nature and her living forms. Very 

 possibly the ultimate solution of this question may be found in the 

 application of some new material altogether to the external coating of 

 our vessels. Compressed pai^er, or compressed ramie fiber, which are 

 now increasingly employed in America for railway wheels and steam 

 pipes, would seem promising materials for the purpose. They admit of 

 being molded externally into any minute grooves or tiny overlapping 

 plates, like the scales of a fish. Little or no extra expense will thereby 

 be incurred, as an enormous hydraulic pressure, capable of forming any 

 required surface, is already employed in the regular course of manu- 

 facture; or they can just as easily be molded into a rough shagreen, 

 which in form can be made a facsimile reproduction of the skin of the 

 shark, and by their tough and strong retentive structure they would 

 effectually protect the steel or real skin of the vessel from corrosion by 

 the salt water. But all this is mere conjecture. Any such suggestions 

 which any man can propound will be nothing more than conjecture, so 

 long as we are content to remain in our present deplorable darkness and 

 ignorance of the real governing conditions of the problem. What we 

 most require is therefore light. 



I venture to think that the lords of the Admiralty could hardly 

 spend £2,000 or £3,000 a year, or whatever modest sum a systematic 

 course of experiments, undertaken by a comj)etent authority like Mr. 



