XL. NORMAN SELFE. 



"Intensifier" was introduced, and made an adjunct of the hydraulic 

 press in many wool pressing establishments. With a water supply 

 at 700 lbs. to the inch, an intensifier having a ratio of 5 to 1, and 

 a press with an eight inch ram, a bale of wool now can be put in 

 off the floor and be first set up with a pressure of about sixteen 

 tons to get it straight and fair, then it can have a heavier squeeze 

 up to about eighty tons, after that have four hoop iron bands 

 secured around it, and lastly when the pressure is released be turned 

 out to make way for its successor, and all in one minute. With 

 men working their best, sixty bales an hour can now be turned 

 out from a press, which is actually a comparatively insignificant 

 looking machine if compared with the monster quadruple presses 

 which were in favour twenty years ago. As regards the amount 

 of manual labour required, one man is now sufficient where thirty 

 would have been required in the middle of the century. 



Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. — The first vessel 

 built in Australia was in Governor Phillip's time to make the 

 journey to Parramatta. She was officially named "The Rose Hill 

 Packet," but the men who had to work the sweeps called her 

 "The Lump." Shipbuilding was early developed here, and home- 

 built sailing craft were very soon familiar on the coast. It was 

 not however until the year 1830 that the keel of the first steamer 

 was laid in Neutral Bay by Messrs. Smith Brothers. She was 

 launched in March 29th, 1831, and christened the "Surprise." 

 The machinery was imported, and on the first of June following 

 the vessel made her first trip to Parramatta. In the year 1832 

 there was a Parramatta boat built called the "Experiment," which 

 was worked by horses for a short time. The Hon. George Thornton 

 told the author some years ago, that when he was a boy, he had 

 often gone with the boat from the Sydney wharf, and helped to 

 whack up the horses until off Balmain, when he had jumped over- 

 board and swam to Miller's Point. The "Experiment" was not a 

 success with horse power, and was afterwards fitted as a steam 

 vessel and ran as such to Parramatta until the year 1841. The 

 "Surprise" was not regarded as a success either, and was sent to 



