WILL IRON FLOAT? 



90 



was built for the trade between London and Edinburgh. She was 160 feet long-, with 

 engines of 200 horse-power. "People flocked from all quarters to inspect and admire her." 



Although these two lines of regular steam communication between Liverpool and the 

 river Clyde, and between London and Edinburgh, were now successfully established and 

 proved of considerable importance in the encouragement of steam navigation elsewhere, 

 some years elapsed before those rapid strides were made in its adaptation as a propelling 

 power which have rendered it one of the wonders of the present age. Indeed, this power 

 would probably never have made such an extraordinary advance had iron not been adopted 

 instead of wood for the construction of our ships. 



Hitherto throughout all ages, timber alone had been used in ship-building. The forests 



THE ' UNITED KINGDOM." 

 (From a Drawing by E. W. Coolie, B.A.) 



of Lebanon had supplied the naval architects of Tyre with their materials; Italy cultivated 

 her woods with unusual care so t-hat sufficient trees might be grown for the timber-planking 

 r.nd masts of ships for its once powerful maritime republics ; and in our own time how often 

 have we heard fears expressed that Great Britain would not be able to continue the supply 

 of sufficient oak for her royal dockyards, much less for her merchant fleets ? Yet, when 

 shrewd, far-seeing men, no farther back than the year 1830, talked about substituting iron 

 for the " ribs " of a ship instead of " timber/' and iron plates for " planking " instead of 

 oak, what a howl of derision the public raised. 



" ' Who ever heard of iron floating ? ' they derisively inquired/' says Lindsay. " It is 

 true they might have seen old tin kettles float on every pool of water before their doors 

 almost any day of their lives nay, floating even more buoyantly than their discarded 

 wooden coal-boxes, but such common-place instructors were beneath their notice. Timber- 

 built ships had from time immemorial been in use in every nation and on every sea, and 



