756 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



make with it an average speed of at least eighteen miles an 

 hour. 



Crossing the Atlantic has become so common, and sea sick 

 ness making the trip so disagreeable and dangerous to many 

 people, attention has been turned to inventing a method of 

 construction which shall destroy the cause for this malady, by 

 keeping the saloon always on a level, notwithstanding the pitch ■ 

 ing and rolling of the ship in a high sea. Mr. Bessemer, the 

 inventor of the new process for making steel, has invented a 

 boat, which he is now constructing, and which he thinks will 

 make it perfectly feasible to cross the Atlantic without thi 

 necessity of paying the usual tribute to old Neptune. The 

 general idea of his ship may be thus described: The saloor, 

 for passengers -is to be balanced upon a frame work similar m 

 principle to that by which the lamps on ship-board are sup- 

 ported. An outer circle swings upon pivots at each end of i> 

 d.ameter, and within another circle supports the lamp, which is 

 s »nmg upon pivots at right angles with those in the first. How 

 erer, then, the ship may pitch or roll, the lamp remains 

 perpendicular, the circles adjusting themselves to meet the 

 motion of the ship. This idea is to be applied in the con- 

 struction of the saloon, so that it will remain constantly on a 

 level, and as Mr. Bessemer has a plenty of money to construct 

 a dozen of ships for an experiment, the public may expect be- 

 fore long to hear of a trial. The first ship of the kind is 

 reported as on the stocks, and to be rapidly approaching com 

 pletion. Nor is this the only style of ship suggested to obviate 

 sea- sickness. A Eussian, M. Alexandroiski, proposes a new 

 form of stationary ship-saloon, which differs from that of Mr. 

 Bessemer in having the cabin float in kind of a tank placed 

 between the engines, instead of being hung on pivots. This 

 invention, it is stated, has been tested by the Russian Naval 

 Department, and is reported to have been found entirely satis 

 faefcrv, the rolling motion of the vessel being completely 



