158 MR. ALFRED FRYER : SUGGESTIONS 



IX. — Suggestions for a Nevj Form of Floating Lightship, 



and a mode of estimating the distances of Lighthouses. 



By Alfred Fryer. 



Read January loth, i860. 



The objections to the present form of floating lightships 

 are well expressed by an eminent authority in pharology 

 as follows : 



"Floating lights/' writes Alan Stevenson, C.E., "are 

 very expensive, and more or less uncertain, from their 

 liability to drift from their moorings ; they should there- 

 fore never be employed to indicate a turning point in a 

 navigation in any situation where the conjunction of lights 

 on the shore can be applied at any reasonable expense.^' 

 Objectionable as this method of lighting is, it is in many 

 cases the only one that can be adopted; and no fewer 

 than twenty-six floating lights surround the English coast. 

 As the injury to which they are liable arises from the 

 violent assaults of wind and waves during storms, the 

 problem appears to be, " What is the form of vessel that 

 shall be most secure from the action of storms?" The 

 following is offered as a solution for cases where there is 

 sufficient depth of water : The proposed lightship somewhat 

 resembles a hydrometer, the mass of which (the bulb) 

 used as dwelling and store rooms, is removed from the 

 action of wind and waves, and the stem presents the 

 smallest possible surface for their violence. The structure. 



