SIR RODERICK MURCHISON's LETTER. 95 



" Assuming that, in this case, the stone took the line of 

 least resistance in water, he inferred, that the nearer he could 

 approach to such a curve in the form of ships, the greater 

 would be their speed. Following out his conviction he 

 made, as his yachting acquaintances well know, many a 

 costly experiment, and at length attained what he con- 

 sidered to be perfection. 



" Whilst, however, there can be no doubt that Mr. 

 Thomas Assheton Smith worked out this result entirely 

 by his own ingenuity and indomitable perseverance, it is 

 now admitted, I believe, by men of science that Mr. J. 

 Scott Russell is the person who, by analysing the nature, 

 forms, and movements of waves, arrived by philosophical 

 induction at the correct application of the ' wave principle ' 

 to ship-building. The peculiar form which he has applied 

 to steam and sailing vessels was, in truth, the result of 

 very extensive experimental investigations into the theory 

 of waves and the forms of ships, made during many years 

 at the cost of the British Association for the Advancement 

 of Science ; the details of these enquiries being published in 

 the Transactions of that body ; the most important reports 

 having been made in the years 1837 and 1844. Even, how- 

 ever, as early as 1834 Mr. Scott Russell read a memoir on 

 hydrodynamics before the Association, to show, that the 

 theory of the resistance opposed by fluids to the motion of 

 floating bodies was in a very imperfect state ; and in the 

 following year he brought before us an account of a new 

 form for the construction of ships, by which they should 

 experience least resistance by the water in their passage 

 through it. Again, in 1843, his views were illustrated and 

 supported by 20,000 observations made on more than one 

 hundred vessels of different shapes, accurate drawings of all 

 of which were then exhibited. 



" The principle established by these experiments led Mr. 

 Scott Russell to fix upon the wave form, or that of least 

 resistance. This form, however, is not constant, and Its 



