QUEENSLAND 
PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 
(From the Queensland Guardian , October 18, 1864.) 
A meeting of the Queensland Philosophical 
Society was held on Monday, October 17, at the 
Municipal Chambers, Town Hall; Mr. Charles 
Coxen, Yice-President, in the chair. The follow- 
ing interesting paper was read by Mr. Wm. 
Pettigrew, and listened to with great atten- 
tion. The essayist illustrated his observations 
and his theory by the production of several 
diagrams and models, which rendered the 
lecture more interesting than it is possible to 
make a mere transcript of it. 
REMARKS ON THE WAVE-LINE PRINCIPLE IN 
SHIP BUILDING. 
This is a very extensive subject, and one 
in which a person is soon liable to find he is 
getting out of his depth in trying to fathom 
it. 
In referring to ancient history we find that 
from the time of Noah to this day people have 
been in the habit of using vessels to float 
themselves, or move about from place to place. 
For the purposes of flotation they have par- 
taken more or less of the simple forms of 
round or square ; and for moving with speed, 
they have been more or less sharp to suit cir- 
cumstances. Illustrations of these from ancient 
countries, are from Nineveh — floating stones on 
bladders — and still practised there ; and of 
swift boats pulled by many men, as seen in 
ancient pictures. In our own day there are 
the punts on the river, and the Rose, light-ship, 
at the river bar — the former of the square 
character, and the latter of the round 
character. For purposes of speed, there are 
our coasting steamers and ships from England. 
There is also another style of boat used by the 
islanders to the north of the continent, a 
model of one of which was in the School of 
Arts, but which has gone a missing since the 
fire there. It is a double boat. 
The following remarks will be confined to 
the three last mentioned forms of vessels. I 
have read all the books I have been able to lay 
my hands on, and I have not yet found a good 
theory for ship building. Mr. Scott Russell 
laid down the theory of the wave-line. This is 
a correct theory so far, but very few vessels 
have been built according to it, for the simple 
reason that it affords very little carrying capa- 
city, and they plunge very much into the water. 
In the “ Encyclopedia Britannica” are illustra- 
tions of two vessels built by this theory, viz., 
the Titania and the America. In the same 
work are drawings of several others showing 
how they have tried to modify its objectional 
feature, by making them blunter at the bov r and 
