PROVISIONAL REPORTS AND NOTICES. 325 



It remains now to the Committee to apply the indicator to some of the 

 engines whose work is registered by other means, and to compare the results 

 of the two registrations. They are induced to hope that at the next meeting 

 of the Association they shall be enabled to lay before it a considerable ac- 

 cumulation of results obtained by trials of the instrument under a variety 

 of different circumstances, and, in the confidence of the principles on which 

 its construction is founded and of these results, to present it to the Associa- 

 tion as a permanent indicator registering with certainty the work done upon 

 the piston of a steam-engine under every circumstance of motion and effort. 



PROVISIONAL REPORTS, AND NOTICES OF PROGRESS IN 

 SPECIAL RESEARCHES ENTRUSTED TO COMMITTEES 

 AND INDIVIDUALS.. 



Report of the Committee on the Forms of Vessels. By J. S. Russell. 



Mr. Scott Russell reported the progress made by "the Committee on Forms 

 of Vessels" during the past year. The object of the experiments is twofold ; 

 to advance our knowledge of the laws of resistance of fluids, and to obtain 

 data for the practical improvement of the art of naval construction. 



Many and expensive are the experiments formerly made on this subject. 

 Unfortunately these experiments have been made with imperfect apparatus, 

 or under circumstances different from the conditions of bodies moving on the 

 surface of the water, or on solids of a form unsuitable to the formation of 

 ships, or on so small a scale as to render them unworthy of the confidence of 

 the practical constructor. In the present series of experiments a more simple 

 apparatus was employed than on any foi'mer occasion. The forms of body 

 experimented upon were those of actual ships, or bodies analogous to those 

 in use ; it being the object of the experiments to supply the actual desi- 

 derata of hydrodynamics and of practical ship-building. The experiments 

 were made on vessels of every size, from models of 30 inches in length to 

 vessels of 1300 tons. The experiments were also made upon vessels in water 

 of variable depth, and in channels of various dimensions, so as, if possible, to 

 embrace all the elements of the resistance. A minute description of some of 

 the apparatus was then given along with some general illustrations ; but as the 

 experiments were still in progress, and to be continued during the following 

 year, no general statement of results was entered into. It was expected that 

 by next meeting the whole would be concluded. 



Report of the Committee on Waves. By J. S. Russell. 



At the last meeting some discussions had taken place, tending to show the 

 value of an accurate determination of the velocity of the great wave of trans- 



