WEIGHT AND SUPPORT IN SHIPS. 
431 
that there is an excess of weight at both ends of the ship, it follows that if it crosses the 
axis in any other points, these additional sections of zero shearing must be either two in 
number or some multiple of two. In other words, the whole number of sections of zero 
shearing, which we have shown to be also sections of water-borne division, must be 
odd in ships having excesses of weight at the bow and stern. 
Before concluding these remarks on shearing-forces, it may be well to compare the 
condition of the ‘ Minotaur,’ ‘ Bellerophon,’ and ‘ Audacious ’ when fully laden and 
floating in still water, as they represent different classes of ironclads. At the foremost 
balanced section (R 1 in Plate XVII. fig. 8) of the ‘Minotaur’ the shearing-force is no 
less than 420 tons ; at the corresponding station (It 1 in Plate XVII. fig. 9) in the 
‘Bellerophon’ it is only 45 tons, and at that in the ‘Audacious’ (R 1 , in Plate XVII. 
fig. 10) it is 120 tons. The great difference between the ‘Minotaur’ and the other two 
ships is partly due to the fact that she is completely protected with armour, while they 
have armoured central batteries and water-line belts ; and partly to the very fine entrance 
and V-formed sections which her designers considered desirable. It has already been 
explained that the pronounced IJ-form of transverse sections, and the fall-back contour 
of stem in the ‘ Bellerophon ’ have much to do with her small excess of weight at the 
bow ; and it may here be added that in the ‘ Audacious ’ the excess of weight over 
buoyancy, though somewhat greater than in the ‘ Bellerophon,’ is still very moderate. 
At the aftermost balanced sections the shearing-forces are for the ‘ Minotaur ’ about 
450 tons, for the ‘Bellerophon’ 210 tons, and for the ‘Audacious’ 202 tons. When 
speaking of the weight and buoyancy we gave the reasons for the difference existing 
between the ‘Minotaur’ and the other ships; they are, principally, the armour plating 
of the stern and the extreme length and fineness of the run. The ‘Bellerophon’ and 
the ‘Audacious’ each have, as we have seen, two other sections of maximum shearing 
(R 2 , R 3 in figs. 9 & 10). At the foremost of these the shearing-force is, for the ‘ Belle- 
rophon’ 50 tons, and for the ‘ Audacious’ 96 tons ; while at the aftermost the shearing- 
force is 200 and 168 tons respectively. These figures show that the concentration of 
weights amidships, in ships with central batteries and armour belts, while it renders 
the conditions of strain more complicated, reduces the actual shearing-strains far below 
those experienced by completely protected ships. There is doubtless a great reserve of 
strength in all ships against shearing-strains, so that this fact has not much practical 
weight ; but, as I shall show hereafter, the severer bending- strains are similarly reduced 
when the weights are concentrated, and this is a much more important feature. 
The Bending moments resulting from the action of the vertical forces on a ship 
floating in still water next claim attention. I have already indicated the method by 
which these moments may be estimated when the distribution of the weight and buoy- 
ancy are known, and will therefore proceed at once to the graphical method of record- 
ing them. 
As before stated, it is necessary, in calculating the bending-moment at any transverse 
section of a ship, to consider the part of the ship on one side of that section as fixed, 
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