I79I' LITERARY INTELLIGENCER. II3 



I do not hear that this improvement has in any cafe been 

 adopted in Britain. But the advantages that would refult 

 from having a veflel of fmall draught of water to fail with 

 the fame fleadinefs, and to lie equally near the wind, as one 

 may do that is Iharper built, are fo obvious, that many per- 

 fons have been defirous of falling upon fome way to eficft 

 it. About London, this has been attempted by means of 

 lee boards (a contrivance now fo generally known as not to 

 require to be here particularly dcfcribed), and not without 

 cfleft. But thefe are fubjed to certain inconveniences that 

 render the ufe of them in many cafes ineligible. 



Others have attempted to efledt the purpofe by building 

 veiTels with more than one keel ; and tLis contrivance, 

 when adopted upon proper principles, promifes to be attend- 

 ed with the happiell effedts. But hitherto that feems to 

 have been fcarcely adverted to. Time will be neceilary to 

 ei'adicate common notions of very old ftanding, before this 

 can be efledlually done. 



Mr. W. Brodie, fliip-wafter in Leith, has lately adopted a 

 contrivance for this purpofe, that feems to be at the fame 

 time very fimple, and extremely efficacious. Neceffity, in 

 this cafe, as in many others, was the mother of invention. 

 He had a fmall, fiat, ill built boat, which was fo ill con- 

 ftrufted as fcarcely to admit of bearing a bit of fail on any 

 occafion, and which was at the fame time lo heavy to be 

 rowed, that he found great difficulty in uhng it for his or- 

 dinary occafions. In rctiefting on the means that might be 

 adopted for giving this ufelefs coble fuch a hold of the wa- 

 ter as to admit of his employing a fail when he found it 

 nccclTary, it readily occurred that a greater depth of 

 keel would have this tendency. But a greater depth of 

 keel, though it would have been ufeful .for this purpofe, he 

 eafily forefaw, would make his boat be extremely inconveni- 

 ent on many other occafions. To effeft both purpofes, he 

 thought of adopting a moveable keel, which would admit of 

 being let down or taken up at pleafure. This idea he im- 

 mediately carried into eiTcdl, by fixing a bar of iron of the 

 depth he wanted, along each fide of the keel, moving upon 

 hinges that admitted of being moved in one direflion, but 

 which could not be bent back in the oppofite direftion. 

 Thus by means of a frmll <\wn ^xfd to each rrvJ, ihrfc 

 Vot. I. V 



