L. HISTORICAL SKETCH OF NAVIGATION AND NAVAL ARCHITECTURE, No. V. New series. By Gen. H. A. S. Dearborn, of Missachusetts, author of "A Memoir of the Commerce and Navigation of the Black Sea, and the Trade and Maritime Geography of Turkey and Egypt," etc.......... II. THE COAL MINES AND COAL TRADE OF BELGIUM.—HISTORICAL, STATIŠTI- CAL, AND COMMERCIAL. By RICHARD COWING TAYLOR, Esq., Fellow of the Geo- logical Society of London; Member of the American Philosophical Society, &c., of Pennsyl- III. LEGISLATIVE POLICY OF MAINE, WITH REFERENCE TO THE SUBJECT OF CORPORATIONS. By Hon F. O. J. SMITH. of Maine......... IV. EFFECTS OF INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS ON COMMERCIAL CITIES, WITH V. THE SEA RESOURCES OF THE COAST: AND THE WHALE AND SHORE FISH- ERIES OF NEW LONDON. By C. F. DANIELS, Esq. of Connecticut... VI. THE UNION OF THE ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC OCEANS........ VII. LAW OF DEBTOR AND CREDITOR IN LOUISIANA: LAW ON THE SUBJECT OF RESPITE. By WHEELOCK S. UPTON, Esq., of the New Orleans (La.) Bar......... 281 Decisions in Ohio Courts.-Letter of Credit........... Bills of Exchange.-Common Carriers........ Commercial Court, Memphis, Tenn.-Commercial Guarantees.. Freight.-Delivery of Merchandise............................ EMBRACING A FINANCIAL AND COMMERCIAL REVIEW OF THE UNITED STATES, ETC., ILLUSTRATED WITH TABLES, ETC., AS FOLLOWS: Features of Commercial Affairs since our last number-Influence of Railroad Speculations in Eng- land-Consumption of Food-Bank of England-Bank of France-Condition of Ireland-Food im- ported into England for last three years-Exports of British Manufactures for last three years-State of Cotton Trade of Great Britain for five years-British exports of Calicoes, Prints, and Yarn, for five years-The Cotton Crop-Bullion in the Bank of England-Commercial Prosperity of the United States-Influence of the War on Financial Affairs-Affairs of the United States Treasury-Loans- Import of Specie-Popularity of the Warehousing System of the United States-Forms adǝpted- Letter to the Editor on the Cost of Raising Wheat in the United States, with remarks on the same, PAGE MERCANTILE MISCELLANIES. Mercantile Library Association of Montreal.-Law of Respite in Louisiana.. Custom-house and Exchange at Valparaiso.......... Public Lotteries of Lima, Peru......... .... The Praying Parsee Merchant.-Novel Commercial Speculation.... Merchants at Valparaiso.-Commercial Prospects of Singapore.-Consumption of Tea in the World... 302 JOURNAL OF BANKING, CURRENCY AND FINANCE. Belgian System of Weights, Measures, and Currency.... Condition of the Chartered and Free Banks of New York, November, 1845 and 1846.. Condition of the Incorporated Banks of New York, 1846....................... Condition of the Free Banks of New York, 1846........ Condition and Progress of the Debt of the State of New York, from 1837 to 1846....... Condition of the Savings Banks of Massachusetts in 1846. The Mint at Lima, in Peru.-United States Treasury Circular. Origin of the Dollar Mark.-Revenue of England under each Reign, from 1060 to 1826. Finances and Debt of Louisiana.-Cleveland's Exchange Tables....... COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS. 303 304 305 305 The British Corn Laws relating to the Importation of Corn.-Duties under the Corn Importation Act. 311 British Customs Duties on Timber, etc........ Articles admitted Free of Duty into Great Britain...... East Indies-Free Ports.-New Regulations of the French West India Islands.. New Commercial Regulations of Cuba.... NAUTICAL INTELLIGENCE. Light-Tower at Brusterort.-Halifax-Light-House on Beaver Island... Lantern on the Light-Tower of Thunoe... Anton Lizardo, Sacrificios, and Green Island..... Floating Lights on the Coast of Ireland.-Shipping of Five American States... COMMERCIAL STATISTICS. Ad Valorem and Specific Duties, from 1844 to 1846.......... 312 313 314 314 315 315 316 316 317 Value of Foreign and Coastwise Exports of New Orleans, in 1845 and 1846..... 317 ....... 318 ..... 318 .... 318 319 319 The American Whale Fishery, by Henry P. Havens, Esq., of Connecticut... Canal Commerce of Cleveland, Ohio, from 1843 to 1846.-The Western (Mass.) Railroad.. 324 326 Merchandise over the Columbia Railroad, from 1844 to 1846.--Success of the English Railroad System, 326 JOURNAL OF MINING AND MANUFACTURES. Taylor's Work on the Coal Mines and Coal Trade of Belgium.-Coal Mines and Trade of Penn's.... 327 French Iron and Coal Mines..... Hall's Hydrostatic Ink Fountain.-Extent of the Cotton Manufactures of England. THE BOOK TRADE. Notices of 29 New Works or New Editions, published since our last,........ 329 330 331-336 HUNT'S MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE. MARCH, 1847. Art. I.-HISTORICAL SKETCH OF NAVIGATION AND NAVAL ARCHITECTURE. NUMBER V.-NEW SERIES. A military marine is the only arm by which the power of this confederacy can be estimated, or felt, by foreign nations, and the only standing military force which can never be dangerous to our liberties at home.-JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. COLONEL BEAUFOy made frequent representations, to those in authority, of the importance of following up the investigation of "the resistance which water opposed to solids, in passing through it," by further experi ments, at the expense of the government; but his suggestions were unheeded, and no attention was paid to the subject, after his decease, until researches were commenced, in 1841, by J. Scott Russell, under the direction of the "British Association for the Promotion of Science and the Arts." He has made two reports to the Association, the first in 1842, and the second at the meeting held at Cork, in 1843; but, thus far, he seems to have confined his operations to ascertain the effect of the surface of solids in diminishing the resistance, in passing through water, without regard to dimensions, or any other element; and, to prove its influence, four boats were made, all having the same length, breadth, and depththe same area of form of midship section, and all loaded to the same weight, displacement, and draft of water; the only difference being in the character of the "water lines," as he rather indefinitely terms them-that is, the mere contour. The result was favorable to what he calls the wave line," which had been hypothetically assumed, as the most appropriate. 46 This synthetic mode of proceeding, in researches for truth, is not to be depended upon in such physical inquiries; for it is beginning at the wrong end in the establishment of principles, and has long been repudiated by the schools of philosophy, as not merely fallacious, but so utterly inef fectual, as not to be tolerated in any of the scientific societies and acade mies of the present age. It was the great resource of metaphysical and scholastic controversialists in olden time, and still is, where bewilderment and deception are the objects desired, rather than elucidation; but those who enter the career of intelligence, in search of the unknown, with such a guide, will never find it for their direction is inverted. They have taken the back track, and are rushing from the goal towards the starting point, instead of proceeding from effects to causes, and evolving therefrom principles. Still, Mr. Russell may be prosecuting other experiments analytically, and it is to be hoped such is the case; for the object to be attained is most worthy the attention of the scientific association, which has so liberally furnished the means for its accomplishment. It is but just to infer that what has been published does not include all that has been done in the progress of investigation, or that facts, causes and principles will not be ultimately ascertained, in sufficient numbers, to establish a more perfect system of naval architecture. The system at present used by the Swedish naval engineers, in the construction of ships of war, was the result of the laborious researches of Chapman. It is called the parabolic method, and is explained in a work entitled, "Forsak till en Theoretisk Afhoudling att gifhaat Dinie Shepderas ratta Storlek och Form Likaledes for Fregetten och windere Bevavade Fartyg of F. H. of Chapman." Having attempted to give a brief account of the past and present condition of naval architecture, and the various modes in which efforts have been made to increase and combine the velocity of ships with capacity, stability, strength and safety in their construction, I shall now present the results which have been obtained, by the investigations that have been instituted, in relation to the movement of solids through fluids, and such of the facts and principles which have been established in hydraulics and mechanical science as are applicable to ship-building, with suggestions of the expediency of their being made the basis of experiments, which, it is confidently believed, can then be conducted in a manner so much more simple, direct, and expeditious, than any which have hitherto been undertaken, as to render more certain the solution of the problem which has so long claimed attention, and is so important for facilitating the intercommunication between all nations, and the various portions of each, by improvements in vessels of every denomination, which are either employed in navigating the ocean and our extensive bays, sounds, rivers, and lakes, for the transportation of merchandise and passengers, or are destined for the fleets of war. Colonel Barclay ascertained the following facts : 1. A cone will move through the water with less resistance having its apex foremost. 2. The bottom of a floating solid should be triangular, it being the form that is least resisted when moving in the direction of its longest axis. 3. The greatest breadth should be at the distance of two-fifths of the length from the forward end. ESTABLISHED PRINCIPLES IN HYDRAULICS. 1. The chief resistance to be overcome in moving a solid through a liquid, is that of the prism of water, the area of whose cross-section is equal to that of the body moved. 2. The resistance to a solid moving in a liquid increases as the squares of the velocity. 3. The stability of a solid, in a fluid, is in direct proportion to the length, and increases as the cubes of the breadth; so that adding a quarter to the width doubles the stability. 4. There is a lateral retardation to the movement of a solid through a liquid; and for the following explanation of which, as well as the amount of resistance, as compared with that occasioned by the area of the crosssection, I am indebted to Professor Treadwell, who may justly be considered as the American Archimedes in mechanical science.* When a solid body is moved in a liquid, as water, there is no motion between the surface of the solid and that of the liquid, and consequently no friction, for the reason that the film of water in immediate contact with the solid adheres to it, by a peculiar form of attraction. Instead, therefore, of the surface of the solid sliding upon the liquid in contact with it, a film of the liquid must move with the solid, sliding upon the particles of liquid situated upon the outside of it. These particles, however, cannot remain stationary; for, being attracted by the particles constituting the film upon the solid, as much as by those situated farther from the solid, they will be carried along by the former with a celerity less than that of the solid, being retarded by their inertia and adhesion to the particles situated still further from the solid. In this way, we may conceive of the water, upon the outside of the solid surface, as divided, for a considerable distance, into definite films, infinitely thin, each sliding upon the other. Under these conditions, therefore, the friction is that of a liquid sliding upon a liquid. The resistance thus produced is exceedingly small, if sufficient to be made sensible, as is evident from the great motion produced in the waters of the ocean by the small disturbing force from the action of the moon's attraction, which produces the tides. The resistance thus offered to the sides of a solid, moving in a liquid, whatever it may be in amount, is not to be attributed to friction, but to the viscidity of the liquid, and to the little eminences upon the sides of the solid, which constitute its roughness, and displace the liquid in opposition to its inertia, like so many separate solids. Colonel Beaufoy ascertained that this combined lateral resistance, on a smooth-pointed surface of seventy feet, was equal to that formed by removing the water in the passage of a body having a cross-section of one foot area; the prow and stern of this body terminating at acute angles. So that every square foot of the cross-section of a ship should be connected with about seventy feet surface on the sides and bottom, to give the least resistance; which requires that a vessel ten feet wide, and two feet deep, below the surface of the water, should be at least one hundred feet long. 5. A vessel requires a greater power to move it, in a narrow and shallow channel of water, than in a broad and deep one. This fact was first noticed by Dr. Franklin, when passing through a * Rumford, Professor of Science applied to the Arts, in Harvard University, and the inventor of the steam printing-press, the machinery for spinning hemp and making cordage in the U. S. navy-yard in Charlestown, and of the method of making wrought-iron cannon, in such a perfect manner as to give them a decided superiority over those of cast-iron and bronze. |