454 



NATURE 



[February i8, 1909 



THE COXSTRICTION OF SHIPS. 

 The Design an'd Constniction of Ships. By Prof. 

 J. H. Biles. Vol. i. Calculations and Strength. 

 Pp. viii + 423; 280 illustrations. (London: 

 C. Griffin and Co., Ltd., 1908.) Price 25.?. 

 net. 



' I ''HIS is the first, of two voknnes dealing- with 

 -*- modern methods of procedure used in connection 

 with the design and construction of ships. It em- 

 bodies details of courses of instruction given to 

 students of naval architecture during the seventeen 

 years the author has occupied the chair of naval archi- 

 tecture in the L'niversity of Gla.sgow. That professor- 

 ship was founded about twenty-five vears ago by the 

 generosity of Mrs. John Elder, widow of a celebrated 

 marine engineer, and was the first attempt made 

 in any British university to provide instruction in the 

 science and practice of shipbuilding. The Admiraltv 

 had previously established schools of naval architec- 

 ture, mainly for the purpose of training their own 

 shipbuilding officers, and it is noteworthy that all 

 the men who have held the Glasgow professorship, the 

 late Dr. Elgar, .Mr. Jenkins, and Prof. Biles, were 

 originally trained for the .\dmiralty service, but quitted 

 it for appointments in private establishments. All of 

 them had attained eminence in the practice of their 

 profession before becoming teachers; they continued 

 their practice in the design and construction of ships 

 during the period of their professorships. Students at 

 Glasgow consequently have had the good fortune to 

 be taught by men who themselves received a thorough 

 scientific training at the outset of their careers, had 

 maintained close touch with current practice, and were 

 familiar with the latest advances and improvements 

 in shipbuilding and marine engineering. That fact 

 is apparent throughout the volume under review, and 

 adds much to its value. 



The book is described in the preface as primarily 

 intended for young students, and this intention has 

 been admirably fulfilled. The author also ventures to 

 hope that " many who have been students and some 

 who in their daily work are interested in the problems 

 dealt with may find some assistance " from the 

 perusal of its pages. This hope will undoubtedly be 

 realised. The arrangement of the book is excellent, 

 its style concise and clear. Detailed e.xplnnations are 

 given of processes of calculation and methods of pro- 

 cedure, in a form which should suffice for the guid- 

 ance of those desirous of making work of that nature 

 the principal occupation of their lives. Many of the 

 sections— including those contaiin'ng illustrations of 

 types of ships, details of tonnage laws, rules for free- 

 board, and other subjects— should prove of interest to 

 all persons connected with shipping. The plates, 

 diagrams, and other illustrations are numerous, and 

 the book as a whole is well produced. The volume has 

 its own index. 



The author does not lay claim to much originalitv, 

 although not a little original work done bv himself 

 has been embodied. The book is valuable also for its 

 tabulated data, much of which is drawn from profes- 

 sional work done by the author, or placed at his dis- 

 posal by other authorities. 



XO. 2051, VOL. 79] 



Growing as it has done out of courses of instruc- 

 tion given to students at Glasgow, the book has natur- 

 ally taken a form which adapts it for use as a text- 

 book for students generally. Consequently it should 

 greatly assist teachers as well as students of naval 

 architecture, and particularly those in Great Britain 

 and the L'nited States. For a long time there has 

 been a need for such a book ; and m saying so, no 

 discredit is cast upon smaller and less expensive text- 

 books previously produced, largely with a view to use 

 by less advanced students than those who follow com- 

 plete university courses in naval architecture. 



This volume is subdivided into three sections. In 

 the first, methods of calculating areas, volumes, and 

 positions of centres of gravity are dealt with. A full 

 account is given of applications of descriptive 

 geometry to the delineation of the forms of ships and 

 of various parts of ship-structures. Descriptions of 

 various tvpes of ships employed for war and com- 

 merce are also given, and abundantly illustrated. The 

 information is elaborate and up to date, as is indi- 

 cated by the fact that it includes drawings of the 

 Dreadnought and Invincible classes in the Royal 

 Navy; particulars of the latest ocean-going destroyers 

 and submarines ; descriptions of many types of cargo 

 and passenger steamers; and details of steam and 

 sailing yachts. 



The second section of the volume is devoted to ship 

 calculations, and its scheme is comprehensive. It 

 includes details of numerical methods, as well as in- 

 teresting descriptions of mechanical integrators and 

 integraph's which have been devised in recent years 

 for measuring areas, moments, and moments of 

 inertia of plane curves. Naval architects have been 

 largely assisted by these instruments, and the 

 drudgery of numerical calculation has been greatly 

 reduced. .Ml classes of engineers, as well as manv 

 scientific men, will be interested in the descriptions 

 given of the applications of these mechanical inte- 

 grators to calculations for the displacements, positions 

 of centres of buoyancy and metacentres of ships, and 

 work connected with determining the conditions of 

 stability. 



The important subject of the strength of ships is 

 one with which Prof. Biles has been much concerned, 

 and it is treated exhaustively in the third section of 

 the book. Investigations and experiments of a special 

 character were carried out by a committee (of which 

 he was a member) appointed by the Admiralty about 

 six years ago after the loss of the torpedo-boat- 

 destroyer Cobra in the North Sea. Prof. Biles and his 

 'assistants and students at Glasgow undertook a great 

 mass of calculations for representative vessels on 

 behalf of that committee, and also analysed the results 

 of experiments made on a typical torpedo-boat- 

 destroyer in order to determine her behaviour when 

 subjected to exceptional longitudinal bending moments 

 which produced sensible changes of form. Much of 

 the information in regard to these experiments had 

 been published by Prof. Biles in the Transactions of 

 the Institution of Naval .Architects, but it is brought 

 together in the volume under review in a form which 

 ivill be useful for reference, and which adds to the 



