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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
ment of the sword. And hence we are content to see, in the niidst of the 
peaceful gathering of the works of our industry and our art, the most 
perfect finish, the most subtle invention, and the utmost resources of our 
mechanical shill expended on the “ works of war.” 
How to arm our navy to resist the heavy projectiles of modern artillery, 
and, above all, how to keep out those frightful instruments of destruction, 
the explosive and molten iron shells, is a problem involving conditions so 
novel that, during the past year, it has raised more discussion amongst 
engineers than any other. In the pamphlet before us, Mr. Fairbairn con- 
tributes the results of his experience and research, as to the qualities of 
iron, and the mode of its application best adapted for the protection of 
ships of war. He long since expressed the opinion that the material, 
which has almost superseded wood in the mercantile marine, would 
ultimately prove most suitable for the navy ; and this, notwithstanding 
the adverse results of the partial experiments in 1827, and subsequently. 
He has lived to see his opinion universally shared, and satisfactorily 
established in actual warfare, at Kinburn in 1055, and more recently in 
America. In the new conditions in which we are thus placed, by the 
improvement of artillery on the one hand, and by the adoption, by other 
nations, of iron armour for pui’poses of defence, after satisfactory proof of 
its superiority to wood, — 
“We must look,” says Mr. Fairbairn, “to new materials, and an 
entirely new construction, if we are to retain our superiority as 
mistress of the seas. There yet remain amongst us those who contend 
for wooden walls, but they are no longer applicable to the wants of 
the State ; and I am clearly of opinion, that we cannot afford to trifle 
with so important a branch of the public service as to fall behind 
any nation, however powerful and efficient they may be, in naval con- 
struction.” 
He adds, that a revolution is in progress in the destiny of the navy, 
and then continues : — 
“ It is not for us alone that cyclopean monsters are now issuing from 
the furnaces of Vulcan ; and it behoves all those exposed to such merciless 
enemies to be upon their guard, and to have their Warriors, Merrimacs, 
and Monitors ever ready, clothed in mail from stem to stern, to encounter 
such formidable foes. It has been seen, and every experiment exemplifies 
the fact, that the iron ship, with its coat of armour, is a totally different 
construction to the wooden walls which for centuries have been the pride 
and glory of the country. Three-deckers, like the Victory and the Ville de 
Paris of the last century, would not exist an hour against the sea- 
monsters now coming into use. The days of our wooden walls are there- 
fore gone ; and, instead of the gallant bearing of a 100-gun ship, with 
every inch of canvas set, dashing the spray from her bows, and careering 
merrily across the ocean, we shall find in its place a black demon, some 
five or six hundred feet long, with a black funnel and flagstaff, stealing 
along on her mission of destruction, seen above water sufficiently only to 
exhibit a row of teeth, one on each side, as formidable as the immense 
iron carcase floating below. This may, with our present impressions, be 
considered a perspective of the future navy of England ; probably not 
encouraging, but one on which the security of the country may ultimately 
have to depend, and to the construction of which the whole power and 
skill of the nation should be directed V 
