[147] Williams: Life of Sir Charles Napier.
[148] In 1835 a new department, of Royal Naval Engineers, was formed: to consist of technically trained men to manage the machinery of steam vessels. A uniform button was designed for them, and they were given the rank of Warrant Officers. Up to this time the machinery had been in charge of men who, for the most part, were “mere labourers”; and, commanding officers being ignorant of mechanical engineering, extensive fraud and waste had been practised, especially in connection with the refitting of vessels by contractors (Otway: Steam Navigation).
[149] Reed: On the Modifications to H.M. Ships in the XIXth century.
[150] The strategic value of steam power in warfare was first demonstrated by Lord John Hay in ’30. In the operations on the North Coast of Spain “the opportune arrival of a reinforcement of fifteen hundred fresh troops from Santander, by one steamer alone, despatched the previous day from San Sebastian, a distance of a hundred miles, for that express purpose, gave a decisive and important turn to the transactions of that day” (Otway: Steam Navigation).
[151] Fincham.
[152] The author of this work, M. Paucton, in addition to discussing the possibility of replacing the oar by the screw, threw out the suggestion of its use for aerial flight. “Je sçais qu’on ne peut guère manquer de faire rire, en voulant donner des aîles à un homme. Je sçais que plusieurs personnes, qui out osé prendre l’effor dans les airs, n’ont pas eu un meilleur succès que l’imprudent Icare.” Nevertheless, it is incontestable that a man can lift more than his weight. And if he were to employ his full force on a machine which could act on air as does the screw, it would lift him by its aid through the air as it will propel him through the water.
M. Paucton hastened to calm the incredulous reader by assuring him with an affectation of levity that he was not really serious. “Il est permis de s’égayer quelquefois.”
[153] A full account of these is given in Bourne’s Treatise on the Screw Propeller.
[154] Weale: Papers on Engineering.
[155] The Archimedes, with a 3-foot stroke engine which worked at 27 strokes per minute, was run against the Widgeon, the fastest paddlewheel steamer on the Dover station. Two points of importance were noted by the Admiralty representatives with reference to the propelling machinery of the Archimedes: the objectionable noise made by the spur-wheels, and their liability to damage and derangement. As, however, Mr. Smith proposed to obviate this objection “by substituting spiral gearing in lieu of the cogs” the representatives did not lay stress on these disadvantages.