430 Impi'ovements in Naval Architecture^ &^c, 



support to each other; and nenco the f'acihly with which 

 the ship breaks in two, when by any accident the middle is 

 grounded, while the«>tem ann stern are in deep water. The 

 reason is obvious i in such a ease there is nothing to bear 

 the strain bnt the kt'tl, the planks, and lining, in fact, the 

 ship receives a disposition to break from the moment she is 

 launched; for the middle oF the ship displaces a greater 

 <^uanlilv of water, loot tor toot of the keel, than either of 

 the ends, and, of course, performs the office of a floating 

 iuiervuTi, acted upon by the gravity of the ends. This evil 

 cannot be removed while the present form is retained ; but 

 the ship mav be strengthened in her structure, to enable 

 her the better to resist that tendency. 



" A sh^^), as at present constructed, consists of the ribs, 

 and of the inside and outside planks, the planks crossing 

 the ribs nearly at rii>;!)t angles, it is a threefold structure, 

 iti which, using round numbers, the out^iclc planks occupy 

 Jth, tbeTiijs f, and the inside planks jthof the thickness. 

 " Now it might he den)o>isiraied, were that necessary, 

 that if the space now occupied by the ribs was supplied by 

 a double row of planks, bent into the required curves, 

 placed in the same order as the ribs, and so disposed that 

 the joinings of each row respectively should be covered by 

 the solid parls of the other, that then a stronger structure 

 wovdd be obtained than results from the present method of 

 a single row of ribs, jn adopting the method just men- 

 tioned, straight-grained jdanks of the greatest lengths might 

 be used, and consequently the numerous si-arvings and 

 joinings of the present system be ah^nost entirely done away. 

 Tiie advantages to be hence derived, in point of strength, 

 and facility of obtaining proper materials, are obvious. 



" But tliough the above would he a great improvementj 

 it falls inlhiitely short of the perfection to be obtained by 

 emploving the very same materials in a still more scientilic 

 manner. ' 



" We have already prop<ised to substitute two rows of 

 bent planks for the present ribs; but there is no necessity 

 that these should, as in the present system, be at right 

 angles to the outside planks and the lining. To obtain the 

 greatest possible degree of stren<rth from the same quantity 

 of materials, the bent planks, employed as suDstitutes for 

 ribs, should cross each other at the keel, and consequently 

 up the sides of the ship, al-such an angle as to form with 

 each other, at the points of intersection, a kind of lo- 

 zenge. By such an arrangement, each row crossing the 

 other at an angle — the one as it rises from the keel taking 



an 



