143 

 PROVISIONAL REPORTS. 



On the Strength of Boiler Plates. By Wm, Fairbairn, F.R.S. 



On Boiler Explosions. By Wm. Fairbairn, F.R.S. 



Report of the Committee appointed by the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, to investigate and report upon the changes 

 which have taken place in the Channels of the Mersey during the 

 last fifty years, to the General Meeting at Glasgow, 1855. 



Your Committee have to report that they have been engaged in the exa- 

 mination of various documents which contain evidence upon the subject 

 confided to them ; and they have pleasure in acknowledging the courteous 

 assistance they have received from the Duchy of Lancaster, the Mayor and 

 Town Council of Liverpool, the Dock Committee of Liverpool, and James 

 Rendel, Esq., C.E., who have granted access to the various documents which 

 they severally possess, calculated to give information upon the subject. 



As, however, the charts, reports, and other papers are for the most part 

 very valuable, the several custodians naturally decline to allow them to be 

 removed from their respective places of deposit ; and it has therefore been 

 found necessary to transcribe such portions as are required for the purposes 

 of the inquiry. Should the Association consider that the inquiry should be 

 prosecuted, your Committee hope to be entrusted with a grant of £100 to be 

 applied to the purpose. 



As Sir Philip Egerton for several years past has given considerable atten- 

 tion to the changes in the Mersey, your Committee are desirous of enjoying 

 the advantage of his assistance, and hope that he may be included in their 

 reappointment. 



The inquiry into the causes of the present state of the Mersey has so 

 important a relation to harbour engineering specially, and to certain sciences 

 the knowledge of which is necessary for its operations, that your Committee 

 hope that they shall be permitted to continue that inquiry with the means 

 requisite for giving it practical efficiency. ' Harrowby, 



First Report of the Liverpool Committee on the Deviations of the 

 Compass Needle in Iron and other Vessels occasioned by Inductive 

 or Polar Magnetism. By J. B. Yates, F.A.S., Chairman to the 

 Compass Committee, and John Grantham, C.E., Hon. Sec. 



On Life Boats. By A. Henderson. 



On the Friction of Disks in Water and on Centrifugal Pumps. 

 By James Thomson, C.E. 



A Report of one Day's Dredging by the Belfast Dredging Committee 

 was read by Mr. Patterson, ivho exhibited specimens of Yirgularia. 

 mirabilis, with Drawings of the Polypes, by Professor Wyville 

 Thomson. 



