530 



manding presence, and the extent over which his utter- 

 ances were heard, marking him out as the Arago and 

 Brewster of Germany. Germany showered on him in 

 profusion those honours and offices which it gracefully 

 and gratefully bestows on learning and science ; and 

 perhaps there is no learned or scientific society of any 

 note that has not the name of Dove enrolled among its 

 honorary members. After a protracted and hopeless 

 illness he died on Sunday last, April 6, in the seventy- 

 sixth year of his age. 



In the Royal Society's Catalogue of scientific papers, 

 the lists under Dove specify 234 memoirs written between 

 the years 1827-73. These show him to have been a 

 successful worker and investigator in electricity, optics, 

 crystallography, and in such practical matters as measures 

 and the art of measuring, or the metric system of civilised 

 nations. But it was to meteorological inquiries he 

 devoted his full strength and all the powers of his mind, 

 and, by his herculean but well-directed labours he has 

 written his name in large imperishable characters on the 

 records of science. 



His fame rests on the successful inquiries he carried 

 out with a view to the discovery of the laws regulating 

 atmospheric phenomena which apparently are under no 

 law w hatever. The work he will be long best known by 

 is his isothermals and isabnormals of temperature for the 

 globe, in which work one cannot sufficiently admire the 

 breadth of view which sustained and animated him as an 

 explorer during the long toilsome years spent in its 

 preparation. Equally characterised by breadth of view, 

 and what really seemed a love for the drudgery of detail 

 even to profuseness when such drudgery appeared neces- 

 sary or desirable in attaining his object, are his various 

 works on winds, the manner of their veering and their rela- 

 tions to atmospheric pressure, temperature, humidity, and 

 rainfall, and the important bearings of the results on the 

 climatologies of the globe ; on storms and their connec- 

 tions with the general circulation of the atmosphere ; the 

 influence of the variations of temperature on the develop- 

 ment of plants ; and the cold weather of May — to which 

 may be added the valuable system of meteorological 

 observations he gradually organised for Germany, and the 

 many full discussions of these which he published from 

 year to year. 



It is no small praise to pass on his work to say that 

 those views he propounded, which subsequent researches 

 are likely to modify materially, are those he arrived at by 

 ■methods of investigation necessarily defective at the 

 time. Thus, for instance, in inquiring into the law of 

 storms, it was not in his power to work from isobaric 

 charts, seeing that the errors of the barometer and their 

 heights above the sea were known in but few cases. When 

 we consider the condition in which he found man's know- 

 ledge of weather and the large accessions and develop- 

 ments it received from his hand, the breadth of his views 

 on all matters connected with the science and the well- 

 directed patience, rising into high genius, with which his 

 meteorological researches were pursued, there can be 

 only one opinion, that these give Dove claims, which no 

 other meteorologist can compete with, to be styled " the 

 Father of Meteorology." 



THE INSTITUTION OF NA VAL ARCHITECTS 



THE twentieth session of the Institution of Naval 

 Architects has now been brought to a close. The 

 meeting, with Lord Hampton in the chair, was held at 

 the house of the Society of Arts, John Street, Adelphi, 

 and was well attended throughout. One of the latest 

 developments in ship-building is shown in the paper on 

 " The Structural Arrangements and Proportions of H.M.S. 

 Iris," by W. H. White, Assistant-Constructor of. the 

 Navy. The construction of the Iris marks a new era in 



NA TURE [April lo, 1879 



the British Navy, being the first vessel built wholly of 

 steel ; she is an unarmoured dispatch vessel, specially 

 designed for high speed and great coal endurance. Her 

 principal dimensions are : length between perpendiculars, 

 300 feet, breadth, extreme, 46 feet, mean load draught, 

 19 feet 9 inches, displacement, 3,735 tons. 



Special attention has been paid to resistance to torpedo 

 attack by constructing the hold in twenty-one separate 

 compartments and the double bottom and bunkers in 

 forty ; with the additional weight thus introduced, it is 

 still found that there is a saving of weight in the hull by 

 the use throughout of steel amounting to 12 per cent., or 

 175 tons. The engines take 28 per cent of the displace- 

 ment, and 20 per cent, is available for coal, which is esti- 

 mated to be sufficient for steaming 7,000 knots at a speed 

 of 10 knots per hour. The speed attained by the Iris on 

 the measured mile was 18 "6 knots, with an expenditure of 

 2*3 indicated horse-power per ton of displacement as 

 compared with 14 indicated horse-power, required by a 

 torpedo vessel. 



In striking contrast with the Iris we have the monster 

 proposed by Rear-Admiral J. H. Selwyn in his paper " On 

 the most Powerful Ironclad." The author of the paper 

 has long advocated some modification of the circular iron- 

 clad first proposed by Mr. Elder some years ago, and 

 carried out with some alterations by Admiral Popoff. The 

 vessel here proposed is 370 feet in length 220 feet in 

 breadth, with a draught forward of 18 feet and aft 

 13 feet. Her armament is to consist of twenty 80- 

 ton guns, or eight 100-ton and eight 80-ton ; these 

 are to be mounted in two gun-pits on the Moncriefl 

 hydro-pneumatic principle. The guns are carried on a 

 turn-table of the full size of each gun-pit, the floors of 

 which are composed of steel bars set on edge to provide 

 for ventilation, but to keep out shell fragments; the 

 breast-work round each will consist of 30 inches of 

 armour-plating. The guns would be raised by hydraulic 

 power to fire over the breast-work, recoiling automatically 

 under cover for re-loading. The vessel would be protected 

 with a belt of 30-inch armour round the water-line, and a 

 thickness of 25 feet of coals stowed inside it. There 

 would be two Perkins hydraulic engines of 21,000 horse- 

 power for propulsion and steering, and these would be at 

 once available for keeping the vessel afloat in case of a 

 leak. The author estimates that if a hole 10 feet square 

 were made by a torpedo, the engines would be able to 

 keep the water under, while danger of sinking by such 

 damage is much lessened, if the engines are partially 

 disabled, by the large number of water-tight compart- 

 ments. It cannot be denied that the Russian Popoffkas 

 have been far from successful, especially in facility of 

 steerage, which was one of the main advantages claimed 

 for them, but it can only be determined by an actual 

 experiment whether our naval authorities can overcome 

 the difficulties in speed and steering which have baffled 

 the Russian Admiralty. Even if a vessel as here pro- 

 posed could not be made sea-going, or to attain a i6-knots 

 speed as claimed, she would at least be more valuable as a 

 harbour defence than a Spithead or Plymouth breakwater 

 fort, and could be adapted to some sites at a less cost m 

 proportion to the weight of armament. 



" Armour for ships " by Mr. Barnaby, C.B , Director of 

 Naval Construction, consists of a general review of the 

 progress of armour- plating from its introduction in 1854 

 down to the present time. The description of the steel 

 turret-plates manufactured by Messrs. Schneider at 

 Creuzot, 32 inches thick, and weighing 65 tons, is not 

 without' significance in the present state of depression 

 in the iron trade of this country, but some consolation is 

 to be obtained from the account given of the steel-faced 

 plates of Messrs. Brown and Cammell which shows that 

 some progress is still being made nearer home. The 

 paper by Admiral Sir R. Spencer Robinson, K.C.B., 



