Report of the House of Commons on Stca/n-Boats. 129 



plied ; the combustion goes on entirely at the surface, and the 

 incombustible matter, such as the vitrified parts of the coal 

 and the ashes, settle down upon the bars, and protect them 

 from tlie action of the fire." Your Committee have inserted 

 in the Appendix to this Report the evidence given by Mr. Brun- 

 ton, concerning these furnaces, before tlie Select Committee 

 on steam-engines, of the session 1820. 



Mr. Oldham, of the Bank of Ireland, has invented a plan 

 of revolving paddles, to avoid the defects of the fixed paddles 

 as now used. He states, that the violent action of the paddles 

 of common wheels, in striking the water in a rough sea, is en- 

 tirely removed by tlie use of the revolving paddles, as they 

 enter and rise out of the water with a peculiarly soft and easy 

 motion. The jirecise merits of this invention will soon be as- 

 certamed, as these new paddles are now fitted to the Waterloo 

 packet, which plies regularly between Dublin and Liverpool, 

 and to the Aaron Manby iron steam-boat, lately sent from 

 England to Havre-de-Grace, to be used on the Seine. 



Mr. John Gladstone, of Castle Douglas, has invented an- 

 other plan of paddles. He employs a pair of wheels at each 

 side of the vessel, having two endless chams acting on them, 

 with paddles fixed on these chains ; and so far as the plan 

 has been tried, on a very small scale, it has been successfi.d. 

 Several attempts have been made to get rid of the use of ex- 

 ternal wheels, but hitherto without success. 



Mr. Field has invented a flexible metalhc piston, which has 

 proved of great utility. 



Your Committee have endeavoured to avoid all partiality in 

 the arrangement they have made of the evidence under sepa- 

 rate heads, and in their observations upon it ; their object has 

 been to bring as concisely as it was practicable, under the no- 

 tice of the House, all the prominent advantages and defects 

 l)elonging to the actual state of steam navigation at sea ; with 

 the opinions of the most scientific professional men upon the 

 best means of improving it. If the frequent reference to the 

 performances ol' the Post-office Holyhead packets should give 

 rise to an impression that your Committee consider them su- 

 perior to other steam-boats, your Committee desire it to be 

 understood that they do not think any comparison can be liiirly 

 made between these vessels and any hitherto built by private 

 companies. In the first place, the funds tor constructing them, 

 being the public money, admitted of a scale of expense that 

 private companies could not be expected to incur ; and, in the 

 next place, those vessels were built for voyages to be com- 

 menced at a fixed hour eveiy day in the year, across a sea ex- 

 posed to strong tides and heavy gales; that is, for a duty en- 



Vol. 60. No. 292. ^w^'. 1822. R tirely 



