[127] In the Minute Book of this date it is mentioned as a reason for postponing any decision on the subject, that Mr. Brunel was making ‘final,’ and afterwards ‘further,’ experiments.
[128] See Mr. Guppy’s paper, printed in the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers for 1845, p. 151.
[129] This report is printed in Appendix II. p. 539. The paragraphs in which Mr. Brunel describes the advantages of the screw propeller will be found at page 552.
[130] A description of Mr. Humphrys’ trunk engines is given in Tredgold’s work on the steam engine (ed. 1838), p. 390.
[131] The balanced rudder, which is peculiarly applicable to screw ships, has encountered much opposition; but it has lately been successfully introduced by Mr. E. J. Reed, C.B., into vessels designed by him for the Royal Navy.
[132] It maybe convenient here to state that the dock in which the ‘Great Britain’ was built led into the Floating Harbour, which is a portion of the channel of the river Avon closed in. The Floating Harbour communicates through the Cumberland Basin with the river.
[133] One of the consequences of the publication of this report was, that Mr. Brunel received so many letters containing suggestions for lifting and floating the ship, that he was obliged to have a circular letter printed declining assistance; and more than four hundred letters were also received by the Company’s secretary.
[134] ‘The “Great Britain” Steam-Ship. Extracts from the letters of Captain Claxton, R.N., to I. K. Brunel, Esq., and the Directors. Bristol, 1847.’
Mr. Bremner’s apparatus is also described in a paper read by him at the Institution of Civil Engineers, and printed in the twenty-first volume of the Transactions, p. 160.
Accurate illustrations of the break-water and floating apparatus will be found in the Illustrated London News of August 21, 1847.