NATURE 



241 



THURSDAY, JANUARY 10, 1889. 



THE LATE WILLIAM DENNY. 

 The Life of William Denny, Shipbuilder, Dumbarton. By 

 Alexander Balmain Bruce. With Portrait. (London : 

 H odder and Stoughton, 1888.) 



THE late William Denny was in many ways a remark- 

 able man. He was a prominent member of the 

 modern school of naval architects ; an ardent advocate 

 of scientific progress in the design and construction 

 of ships ; a strong supporter of scientific education in 

 naval architecture ; a contributor of many papers and 

 technical data to the various professional institutions 

 of which he was a member ; and an eloquent, inde- 

 fatigable, and effective exponent of his views upon all 

 subjects. He was also the managing partner of one 

 of the largest shipbuilding firms in the world, and was 

 distinguished for his intimate knowledge of the many 

 and intricate details of the business ; for his clear insight 

 into, and close grip of, the questions with which he 

 had to deal ; for his eager desire to promote good re- 

 lations among the members of the firm and the various 

 grades of workpeople in their employ ; and for what he 

 did all round towards making the business with which he 

 was connected— as he frequently said it was his ambition 

 to do — " a model of efficiency on all sides." Both by 

 practice and by precept, William Denny laboured strenu- 

 ously and effectively, at all times and seasons, for the 

 advancement of his profession, and for the good of those 

 who wished to qualify themselves for the practice of that 

 profession. 



The description of Mr. Denny's work as a naval archi- 

 tect occupies only a comparatively small portion of the 

 present book — 108 pages out of 478. The remainder 

 consists of general biographical details, and accounts of 

 Mr. Denny's views upon the many local, and the various 

 poHtical, social, moral, and religious questions in which 

 he had a strong — we may say a burning — and ever- 

 increasing interest. This general record of his acts and 

 words will be valued by those who knew the man, and 

 who admired and loved him — as none who really knew 

 him could help doing — and will give to others who may 

 read it a good idea of a life which was full of activity, 

 interest, and promise. 



It is, however, the professional work of the subject of 

 this memoir, and not his vigorous, cultured, many-sided, 

 full, and keenly sympathetic mind and life, that we have 

 to do with here. Prof. Bruce, the author, says that the 

 five chapters (VI. -X.) which deal with this branch of his 

 subject " present a popular account of Mr. Denny's tech- 

 nical work, written by one who possesses no knowledge of 

 the technic of shipbuilding." But they do much more 

 than that, as will be inferred from the fact that Prof. 

 Bruce availed himself of assistance by such competent 

 authorities as Mr. Robert Duncan, the well-known Port 

 Glasgow shipbuilder ; Mr. Martell, the Chief Surveyor of 

 Lloyd's Register Society ; and Mr. F. P. Purvis, the 

 Chief of the Scientific Department in Messrs. Denny's 

 shipyard. 



The name of Mr. Denny is inseparably associated with 

 Vol. XXXIX.— No, 1002. 



modern progress in scientific naval architecture. Prof. 

 Bruce says truly that " in naval architecture he was 

 sometimes in fact, and always in spirit, a pioneer, . , . 

 sagacious to discern quickly the value of a new sugges- 

 tion or invention, prompt to give it generous recognition, 

 energetic and enthusiastic in taking it up and developing 

 it until it had gained a secure place in general thought 

 and practice ; " and he " was of that earnest temper that 

 must and will improve where improvement is possible," 



Mr. William Denny belonged to a family of ship- 

 builders. " He was the third in succession of three 

 Williams, of whom the two first, his grandfather and his 

 uncle, had been men of genius in the art of shipbuilding." 

 His grandfather started shipbuilding on his own account 

 in Dumbarton, in 1817, when there was no shipbuilding 

 yard on the Clyde above Dumbarton. He gained renown, 

 during the infancy of steam navigation, as the builder of 

 the Thames passenger-steamer Marjory, and of the mail- 

 steamer Rob Roy, the first sea-going steamer built, which 

 was employed at first in the Glasgow and Belfast trade, 

 and afterwards as a passenger-vessel between Dover and 

 Calais. He also built the Trinidad, the first steamer 

 sent to the West Indies. This William Denny had seven 

 sons, all of whom became shipbuilders. The sole sur- 

 vivor of the seven is Mr. Peter Denny, the father of the 

 subject of this memoir, and the head of the shipbuildingfirm 

 of Messrs. William Denny and Brothers, and of other im- 

 portant commercial undertakings, whose long and honour- 

 able career and high personal qualities have obtained for 

 him, to an unusual degree, the confidence and esteem ot 

 all who know him. Mr. Peter Denny's brother William, 

 started the present firm of William Denny and Brothers 

 in 1844. He applied himself with great skill and success, 

 to the use of iron in shipbuilding, and in ten years he 

 created a prosperous business. His death occurred at 

 the same early age as that of his nephew, viz. not quite 

 forty years. 



The late Mr. William Denny's contributions to the 

 science of naval architecture relate mainly, though not 

 entirely, to the resistance, speed, and propulsion of ships, , 

 the stability of ships, the use of steel in construction, and 

 to improvements in structural details and arrangements 

 He was struck by the report of the British Association 

 Committee in 1869— and particularly by the separate 

 report of Mr. Froude— upon the subject of resistance,, 

 and the best way of determining by experiment the rela- 

 tion between speed and power in ships. Mr. Froude 

 enunciated in his separate report the law which connects 

 speed with resistance in floating bodies of varying size 

 but similar forms, and enables the resistance of a 

 full-sized ship to be calculated from that of a small 

 model. He also showed graphically, in the shape of. 

 curves, the true variation of resistance with speed, as- 

 determined by experiment, for ship-shape models of 

 various forms. Both these points were seized hold of 

 and utilized at once by Mr. Denny for practical appli- 

 cation. In January 1870, he commenced to test the 

 speeds ot steamers progressively on the measured mile, 

 i.e. to determine the relation between engine power and 

 speed at several speeds from the lowest to the highest, 

 and to plot curves, similar to those made by Mr. Froude 

 from model experiments, that showed the true variation 

 of power with speed over the whole practicable range of 



