STABILITY, PKOPULSION, AND SEA-GOING QUALITIES OF SHIPS. 47 



to urge upon the Admiralty the importance, both practical and theoretical, 

 of instituting such a set of experiments, of providing suitable instruments 

 for recording exact observations, and of publishing the results. We also 

 recommend the appointment by the Council of the Association of a Com- 

 mittee of three members to confer with the officers of the Admiralty as to 

 the drawing up of detailed instructions for conducting these experiments ; 

 and that the Lords of the Admiralty, in the event of their assenting to the 

 proposals, be requested to nominate a committee to confer with the Committee 

 named by the Association." 



4. As regards the proposal in the printed Report, that the Council of the 

 British Association should appoint a committee of three members of the 

 Association to confer with the officers of the Admiralty, your Committee re- 

 commend that the Council of the Institution of Engineers in Scotland should 

 also appoint a Committee of three members of this Institution for the same 

 purpose ; and that, in appointing that Committee, in order to avoid making 

 the combined committees inconveniently numerous, they should endeavour, 

 by communication with the Councils of the British Association and of the 

 other Scientific Societies concurring in the application to Government, to fix 

 upon members of committee who maj'^ represent two or more societies 

 jointly. 



5. Your Committee recommend to the consideration of those who may 

 arrange the experiments a method of experimenting on the resistance of the 

 water to the motion of ships lately practised by the French Government, 

 viz. to set a ship in motion at a considerable speed, and then allow her to 

 be gradually retarded and brought to rest by the resistance of the water, 

 making observations of the rates at which the retardation goes on, and de?» 

 ducing the resistance from the results of those observations. 



Your Committee recommend this method not as a substitute for, but as au 

 addition to, the methods mentioned in the printed Report ; for they consider 

 that important conclusions may be deduced from a comparison of the values 

 of the resistance of a ship as ascertained by towing and by retardation 

 respectively. 



Extract of Minutes relating to -Communication from British Association 

 respecting the Qualities of Ships. 



Council Meeting of 15th October, 1869. 



" A letter from C. W. Merrifield, in reference to a Eeport of the British 

 Association on the Stability, Propulsion, and Sea-going qualities of Ships, 

 was read, and Report laid before the Meeting. 



" The following Committee was appointed to consider this Report, and 

 report to a future Meeting : — Professor Rankine, Messrs. M. R. CosteUoe, 

 R. Duncan, John Ferguson, J. G. Lavrrie, and David Rowan." 



Council Meeting of 18th January, 1870. 

 " The Report of the Committee appointed to consider communication from 

 the British Association respecting the Qualities of Ships was read and 

 agreed to." 



General Meeting of 18th January, 1870. See Special General Meeting. 

 Special General Meeting of 25th January, 1870. 



'•' The Secretary read the Report of the Council on communication from 

 British Association in reference to experiments on the Stability, Propulsion, 

 and Sea-going Qualities of Ships. The Report was unanimously adopted," 



