EXPERIMENTS ON CURRENTS. ££ 



keep to any determinate direction. It was unfavourable to 

 this experiment, that the club was not of greater length, 

 andj perhaps, that its weight at each end was in the same 

 proportion to its size. 



We again tried with sticks loaded at one end. But the Sticks -with on* 

 most that can be said of the results of this day's experi- end loadecL 

 Bients is, that the loaded end evidently showed the most 

 tendency to be downward with the stream. The sticks veered 

 in their direction more than we had observed in the former 

 trials. This brought to recollection a circumstance, to which 

 we had not paid attention. The barges we had seen over- 

 sliding the stream in u calm were kept in the right direction 

 by their helm. Supposing a barge to be loaded at one end, 

 and light at the other; without the help of the helm, the 

 loaded end would probably not be found to keep her in the 

 same direction with the stream, any more than the head sails 

 only of a ship, being set, will, without the help of the helm, 

 keep the ship before the wind. 



This consideration leads again to trials with two or more a hogshead <fe 

 separate and unconnected bodies. An experiment which can a smai] kc 'g 

 easily be made in a ship, is with a hogshead, which can be at if ea 

 filled after it is put into the sea, and a quart keg, which if 

 the air should be quite calm i would be sufficient to half 

 fill. This would approach the proportion of a barge and her 

 small boat: but as no guidance can be given, the most regu- 

 lar shape (globular) seems the best. 



The stream in the Thames above the bridges, from the Experiments 



unevenness and shallowness of the bottom, is unfavourable shouldbemade 



. n °y 'hose who 



to experiments of the kind here recommended ; and thesu- ha-?e favoura- 

 perior convenience possessed by those whose constant occu- b , le oppcmmu,. 

 pation is on the waters, who have opportunities, without an 

 hour's expense of time, to make experiments, which to other 

 persons would cost days, have been inducements to publish 

 the inquiry in its present state, to give it the best chance of 

 being prosecuted with any effect. 



JAMES BURNEY. 

 James Street, Westminster, 

 Ausust 20th, 1808. 



The 



