THE INTENTIONS AND DISCOVERIES OF LORD DUNDONALD'S FATHER.--HIS OWN
MECHANICAL CONTRIVANCES.--HIS LAMPS.--HIS ROTARY STEAM-ENGINE, HIS
SCREW-PROPELLER, HIS CONDENSING-BOILER, AND HIS LINES OF
SHIP-BUILDING.--THEIR TARDY DEVELOPMENT.--HIS CORRESPONDENCE UPON
STEAM-SHIPPING WITH SIR JAMES GRAHAM, THE EARL OF MINTO, THE EARL OF
HADDINGTON, AND THE EARL OF AUCKLAND.--THE PROGRESS OF HIS
INVENTIONS.--THE "JANUS."--THE BENEFICIAL RESULTS OF HIS EXPERIMENTS.
[1833-1847.]
Lord Dundonald's father, the ninth earl, had devoted the chief
energies of his long life to scientific pursuits, which won for him,
not profit, but well-earned fame, and which proved of immense benefit
to his own and succeeding generations. By him was discovered the art
of extracting tar from coal, and out of that discovery was developed,
partly by him and partly by others, the manufacture of gas, first used
for lighting his tar-works. The important chemical process of making
alkali and crystals of soda was also introduced by him, whereby a
great impetus was given to the manufacture of glass and to many other
important branches of industry. He discovered the present method of
preparing alum, or sulphate of vitriol, and suggested its substitution
for gum senegal, which has proved hardly less advantageous to the
mechanical arts. In 1795, he published a treatise, the result of
numerous and costly experiments, on the connection between agriculture
and chemistry, which was almost the parent of all the later researches
that have issued in beneficial plans for improving the soil and
invigorating the growth of crops, and in various and important
developments of scientific farming.
The tenth Earl of Dundonald inherited his father's mechanical and
scientific genius. The lamp invented by him in 1814, which introduced
the principle upon which all later lamps for burning oil, naphtha, and
other combustibles have been constructed, has been already referred
to. Many other inventions and discoveries occupied his leisure during
the years in which he was allowed to follow his profession both in
British and in foreign service;[15] and the fuller leisure forced upon
him during the years following his return from Greece was chiefly
devoted to further exercise of his inventive faculties.
[15] It is interesting to note that the recent introduction among us
of the Turkish bath was due to Lord Dundonald. "Having recovered,"
says Dr. Gosse, in his treatise "Du Bain Turc," p. 58, "from two
attacks of intermitting fever, I visited the islands of the
Archipelago until summoned to Nauplia by Admiral Cochrane, who was
then on board the little steam-vessel _Mercury_. There the air of the
gulf, and the marshy miasma, brought on another attack of fever, from
which I feared a fatal issue. Lord Cochrane had the kindness to take
me in his arms, and to place me in the current of steam, which caused
me to perspire freely. My illness disappeared as by enchantment." A
similar service was rendered by Lord Dundonald to Mr. David Urquhart,
whose attention was thus called to the advantages of the Turkish bath,
and who became its great advocate.
To the wonderful invention known as his "secret war-plan" allusion
will presently be made. His other most important mechanical pursuits
had for their principal object the improvement of steam-engines and
other appliances for steam-shipping. Almost his first reminiscence was
of a visit in which, when he was seven or eight years old, he
accompanied his father to Birmingham, there to meet with James Watt,
and hear something of his memorable discovery. Apprehending in his
youth the value of that discovery, he never wearied in his efforts to
extend its usefulness. The _Rising Star_, built in 1818 under his
directions, and those of his brother, Major Cochrane, for service in
Chili, was the first steam-vessel that crossed the Atlantic, and it
was an additional disappointment to him, amid all the misfortunes
incident to his efforts to give adequate assistance to the Greeks in
their war of independence, that the ill-fated steamers which were to
be his chief instruments therein, failed through the indolence and
incompetence of those to whom their construction was assigned.
It is not necessary here to detail the studies and experiments by
which he afterwards sought to introduce a better steam-engine, for
locomotive purposes, than was then, or is even now, in general use.
His plan--not a new one, though it had never before been made
available in practice--was to substitute for the ordinary
reciprocating engine a machine which should at once produce a circular
motion. "Of the many rotary engines heretofore offered to the notice
of the world," he wrote, in 1833, "none have stood the test of
practical use and experience. The cause of this uniform failure has
been the great difficulty of obtaining, within the machine, a base of
resistance on which the steam might act in propelling the moveable
piston." He did not quite overcome this difficulty, but he succeeded
in producing what the foremost critic in this department of
manufacture describes--after a lapse of thirty years unrivalled for
their development of ingenuity--as "the most perfect engine of the
class that has yet been projected."
"In this engine," says the same authority, "an eccentric is made to
revolve on an axis in the manner of a piston, and two doors, forming
part of the side of the cylinder, press upon the eccentric. The points
of these doors are armed with swivelling brasses, which apply
themselves to the eccentric and make the point of contact tight in all
positions."[16]
[16] John Bourne. "A Treatise on the Steam-Engine" (1861), p. 392.
"This revolving engine," said Lord Dundonald, "does not require any
valve or slide; consequently, there is no waste of steam thereby;
neither is there any loss, as in the space left at the top and bottom
of the cylinders of reciprocating engines. There is much less friction
than arises from the sum of all the bearings required to convert the
rectilineal force of the common engine to circular motion. There are
no beams, cranks, side-rods, connecting-rods, parallel motions,
levers, slide-valves, or eccentrics, with their nicely-adjusted joints
and bearings; and thus the revolving engine is not liable, even in
one-tenth degree, to the accidents and hindrances of other engines. As
its moving parts pursue their course in perfect circles, without stop
or hindrance, it is capable of progressive acceleration, until the
work performed equals the pressure of steam on the vacuum--an
advantage which the reciprocating engine does not possess. The
diminished bulk and weight, and the absence of tremor, add to the
capacity, buoyancy, velocity, and durability of vessels in which it is
placed." The rotary engine did not satisfy all Lord Dundonald's
expectations, but it took precedence of all others of the same sort,
and was of great service at any rate in directing attention to what he
rightly considered to be the great want in war-shipping, namely,
vessels of the least possible bulk and of the greatest possible
strength, speed, and fighting power.
Years were spent by him in attempting to bring it into notice. At his
own cost he fitted out a little steamboat, which navigated the Thames;
but to perfect the invention were required more funds than he had at
his command, and he sought in vain for adequate assistance from
others.
In January, 1834, he wrote to Sir James Graham, then First Lord of the
Admiralty, thanking him for his share in the restitution of his naval
rank that had occurred nearly two years before, and urging the
co-operation of the Government in perfecting an invention that
promised to be of so much importance to the naval power of England.
"You are not obliged to me for anything," answered Sir James on the
15th; "I only am fortunate in being the member of a Government which
has regained for our country the benefit of your distinguished valour
and services, which, if again required in war, will, I am persuaded,
be so exerted as to win the gratitude of the nation, and to
demonstrate the justice of the decision to which you allude. It is
impossible to over-estimate the paramount importance of steam in
future naval operations; and it is fortunate that you have directed so
much of your attention to the subject. The Board has complied with
your request, and two engineers, in whom we place reliance, will be
ordered to attend you." It does not appear, how-ever, that the
engineers did attend. At any rate, nothing was done by the Admiralty
in aid of the invention either then or for many years after.
Yet its ingenuity was acknowledged by all who investigated it, and by
naval authorities among the number. The Earl of Minto, when First Lord
of the Admiralty, sought to introduce it into the national
ship-building; but official hindrances, too great even for him to
overcome, stood in his way. All he could do was to have it referred to
competent judges and to receive their report in its favour. "I am
commanded to acquaint your lordship," wrote Sir John Barrow, the
Secretary to the Admiralty, to the Earl of Dundonald, on the 20th of
December, 1839, "that the opinions received of your revolving engine
are favourable to the principle, and that it has not been stated that
there are any insurmountable obstacles to its practical execution."
The insurmountable obstacles were in the stolid resistance of
subordinates to any novelty designed to lessen labour and promote
economy.
Lord Minto, when out of office, was able to speak of the engine in
more approving terms than he could adopt in his official capacity. "I
need hardly say," he wrote on the 6th of September, 1842, "that the
report of continued success in your rotatory engine gives me great
pleasure, not only upon your own account, but as promising a valuable
addition to our naval power in its application to ships of war. As a
high-pressure engine, the complete success of your plan has, I
believe, been recognised by all who have attended to it, and it is in
this form that I had contemplated its application in the first
instance as an auxiliary and occasional power in some ships of war."
At length, though not with all the energy that he desired, Lord
Dundonald's engine was put to the test by the Admiralty during the
Earl of Haddington's tenure of office in that department. In May,
1842, he was invited by the new First Lord, who, in common with all
the world, was aware of the zeal and intelligence with which he had
devoted himself to the consideration of every branch of naval science,
to communicate his opinions thereupon. The first result of this
invitation was a letter showing remarkable discernment of evils then
existing, and curiously anticipating some later efforts to correct
them.
"The slow progress," wrote Lord Dundonald, on the 7th of June, "which
the naval service has made towards its present ameliorated state--yet
far from perfection--has not permitted any one Board of Admiralty in
my time to stand pre-eminently distinguished for decisive
improvements. These have rather been effected by the gradual changes
which time occasions, or by following the example of America, or even
of France, than by encouraging efforts of native genius. This has
arisen from causes easily remedied; one of which is, that the
rejection or adoption of proffered improvements has depended on the
decision of several authorities, who consequently feel little
individual responsibility, and imagine themselves liable to censure
only for a change of system. Thus, my lord, a still heavier
responsibility has, in fact, been incurred by continuing, long after
the most superficial observation demanded a change, to construct small
ships of the line, and little frigates, which the great practical
skill and bravery of our countrymen were taxed to defend against the
powerful eighty-gun ships of France and the large frigates of America.
This timidity as to change caused many years to elapse, after the
commercial use of steam-vessels, before the naval department possessed
even a tug-boat. Hence the mischievous economy manifested by the
purchase of worthless merchant steamers; hence the subsequent
parsimonious project of building small steam-vessels fitted with
engines immersed beyond their bearing, and deficient in every
requisite for purposes of war. I am not one of those, my lord, who
deem it advantageous to act on the belief that one Englishman can beat
two Frenchmen. I am inclined to doubt whether a practical
demonstration of that saying might not be attended with disastrous
consequences. Long habitude reared experienced British officers, who
are now replaced by others who possess less nautical skill, and are
nearer on a par with those of France, in regard to whose education
every pains has been taken by its Government. I do not presume to
advise that your lordship should adopt changes precipitately, nor
without consulting those who may be most competent to judge; no, nor
even then that the best measures should be prematurely disclosed, so
as to give intimation to other nations of the vast increase of power
which may suddenly be rendered available. But I venture to suggest
that you may quietly prepare the means of effecting purposes which
neither the ordinary ships of war nor the present steam-ships in the
navy can accomplish. Permanent blockades, my lord, are now quite out
of the question; and so, in my opinion, are all our ordinary naval
tactics. A couple of heavy line-of-battle ships, suddenly fitted, on
the outbreak of war, with adequate steam-power, would decide the
successful result of a general action; and I am assured that I could
show your lordship how to fit a steam-ship which, in scouring the
Channel or ranging the coast, could take or destroy every steam-ship
belonging to France that came within view."
That offer was accepted by the Earl of Haddington, who, being at
Portsmouth in August, made personal inspection of some experiments in
which Lord Dundonald was there engaging; and the result of that
inspection was that he promptly arranged for the introduction, at the
public expense, of the rotary engine in the _Firefly_, a small
steam-vessel which, like many others, the Government had bought and
found useless, by reason of its clumsy machinery. In her, with no more
than the usual delay occasioned by the co-operation of official
routine with private enterprise, in which Lord Dundonald had the
assistance of Mr. Renton and Messrs. Bramah, the experiment was tried
and found to answer so well, in spite of the difficulties incident to
a first attempt, that it was resolved to develop it further in a
frigate to be built throughout in accordance with his plans for the
improved construction of shipping.
To these he had lately made some valuable additions. On the 19th of
January, 1843, a patent was granted to him for various improvements in
engines and other machinery, one of which was an apparatus for
propelling vessels. "This improved propeller," says a competent
authority, "consists of an arrangement of propelling blades immerged
beneath the water, in the manner now usual in screw vessels; but,
instead of the blades being set at right angles with the
propeller-shaft, they form an angle therewith. One important effect of
this arrangement is that it corrects the centrifugal action of the
screw; for whereas, in common screws, the water which is discharged
backwards assumes a conical figure, enlarging as it recedes, in a
screw formed on Lord Dundonald's plan the outline of the moving water
will be cylindrical, the centrifugal action being counteracted by the
convergent action due to the backward inclination of the propelling
blades. It is found, practically, that screws constructed upon this
principle give a better result than ordinary screws."[17]
[17] John Bourne. "A Treatise on the Screw Propeller, Screw Vessels,
and Screw Engines" (1867), p. 42.
Another invention patented by Lord Dundonald at the same time was a
modification of the boilers used for steam-engines. "These boilers,"
says the same critic, "are constructed with a double tier of furnaces
and with upright tubes, the water being contained within the tubes and
the smoke impinging upon them on its passage to the chimney. This
species of boiler is found to be very efficient. A hanging bridge is
introduced to retain the heat in the upper part of the flue in which
the tubes are erected. By inserting a short piece of tube in the upper
extremity of each tube within the boiler the upward circulation of the
water within the tubes was increased as the length of the lighter
column of water was augmented, while the length of the gravitating
column remained without alteration."[18]
[18] John Bourne. "A Treatise on the Steam Engine" (1861), p. 233.
These boilers, extensively used in London, America, and elsewhere, and
now introduced in the Admiralty ship-building, have been greatly
improved by Lord Dundonald's son, Captain the Hon. A. A. Cochrane,
C.B.
"I believe," he said in a letter to Lord Haddington dated the 22nd of
May, 1843, "that all our old vessels of war, save the class of
eighty-gun ships and a few first-rate and large frigates, are almost
worthless; whilst our steam department is deficient in most of the
properties which constitute effective vessels. No blockades worthy of
the name can now be maintained by fleets of sailing ships; nor can
accompanying steamships be kept for months and years even in
'approximate readiness,' awaiting the distant night when it may suit
the enemy to attack our blockading force or quietly to slip out in the
dark in order to assail our commerce in other quarters. I have, my
lord, during the last twelve years actually disbursed, to the great
inconvenience of my family, upwards of 16,000l. to promote nautical
objects which appeared to me of importance. Your lordship knows their
nature, and it is in no way difficult to ascertain their reality. I
consider that several, if not all our line-of-battle ships, should
have the benefit of mechanical power, say to the extent of a hundred
horses--the machinery to be placed out of the reach of shot. The
construction of new ships on the best lines that could be found would
prove more judicious than repairing old ones, however apparently cheap
such repairs may be; for a few powerful and quick-sailing ships are
preferable to a multitude which can neither successfully chase, nor
escape from, an enemy."
That allusion to the "best lines" of ship-building, and some of Lord
Dundonald's other views on naval architecture, will be explained by
another letter written by him to Lord Haddington, three months before,
on the 20th of February. "I have lately," he said, "submitted to the
consideration of Sir George Cockburn an axiom for the uniform
delineation of consecutive parabolic curves, forming a series of lines
presenting the least resistance in the submerged portion of ships and
vessels--an axiom never before so applied in naval architecture, as is
manifest from the discrepant forms of our ships of war. I also offered
to Sir George's attention a new propeller and method of adapting
propellers to sailing ships in her Majesty's service, free from the
disadvantages of paddle-wheels and from the injurious consequences of
lessening the buoyancy and weakening the strength of the after part of
ships by a prolongation of the 'dead wood,' and by cutting a large
hole through it for the insertion of the Archimedean screw. The
favourable impression made on the mind of Sir George, and my own
deliberate conviction of the importance of these improvements, and of
others then briefly touched on, lead me, by reason of the lamented
indisposition of that talented officer, now personally, instead of
through him, to offer them to your lordship's attention.
"The French, as your lordship is well aware, are making great
exertions to advance their steam department, especially in the
Mediterranean, where calms are frequent and their coal is
abundant--doubtless in the hope of thereby preventing the future
blockade of Toulon, and of keeping open their intercourse with
Algiers; which would be equivalent to possessing the dominion of the
Mediterranean Sea, where a British blockading fleet of sailing ships
must, under such circumstances, themselves be protected. In saying
this, my lord, I beg to be understood as by no means depreciating the
capabilities of our common ships of war, whilst they possess the power
of motion, but as holding them to be quite unfit for blockades, and
exposed to great peril where calms are of frequent occurrence and long
duration. Indeed, it may be worthy of your lordship's serious
consideration whether, in another point of view, it might not be
judicious to place steam-engines in some, at least, of our
line-of-battle ships, in order to divert the attention of foreign
nations from the exclusive employment of mechanical propelling power
to purposes of naval war, whereby British officers and seamen,
deprived of the means of displaying their superior skill, become
reduced to a par with the trained bands of Continental states.
"I have prepared a model in bronze of a steam-frigate possessing
peculiar properties, founded on the before-mentioned axiom, which, I
do not hesitate to submit to your lordship, would save vast sums
wasted in the construction of inferior ships and vessels, by enabling
the Admiralty, on unerring data, to stereotype--if I may use the
expression--every curve in every rate or class of ships, and so impose
on constructors the undeviating task of adhering to the lines and
models scientifically determined on by their lordships."[19]
[19] The following statement of Lord Dundonald's "axiom" accompanied
the model which was submitted to the Admiralty:--"It is universally
admitted that a sharp _bow_ and a clear _run_ contribute to the speed
of vessels; but what the consecutive lines ought to be, in order to
constitute a perfect _bow_, or what those to form the _run_, no
builder has yet exemplified by uniformity of practice, or
theoretically defined. Ship-delineators profess the art as a mystery,
and arbitrary forms are assumed as the result of science. These lines
ought to be, by an axiom, founded on a law imposed by Infinite Wisdom
for the perfect guidance of inanimate matter. Projectiles, thrown
obliquely, take their flight in convex parabolic curves, wherein
resistance is overcome by a minimum of force; and elastic surfaces
obey the converse of that law in opposing certain external influences.
It is a property of conic sections that a straight line, centred in
the apex, and caused to circumscribe the surface of the cone, will
apply itself continuously to all consecutive parabolic curves. Hence
curves similar to the flight of projectiles, and to those formed by
the flection of elastic surfaces, may be described on a large scale
simply by causing a straight line or beam to revolve as on the axis of
a cone, in contact with a parabolic or elliptical section. Thus a
consecutive series of convex parabolic or elliptical curves may be
substituted in ship-building for hollow fantastical lines. The
benefits from which application are, increased velocity, capacity,
strength, buoyancy, facility of steering, ease in hard seas, and
exemption from breaking or 'hogging.'" Diagrams and explanations
thereof accompanied this concise statement of the principle.
Great interest attended the development of Lord Dundonald's
inventions. "I need hardly assure you," wrote Lord Minto, on the 4th
of October, "of the very great satisfaction I derive from the
continued and increasing success of your rotatory engine; and I shall
now look with no little impatience for further evidence of its merits
in the new steam-frigate to which it is to be applied. I am glad,
also, that you have turned your attention to the construction of
steamers of war. I have never been satisfied with the properties of
these vessels, much as their construction has undoubtedly been
improved of late years. It is certainly a difficult subject, because
some of the qualities essential to a vessel under sail can only be
obtained by some deviation from the form calculated to give the
greatest speed under steam; and I consider fair sailing powers, so as
under all circumstances to keep company with a fleet, as not less
important than speed and power as a steamer. The best combination of
these very different qualities, or that which will upon the whole
produce the most serviceable ship, is yet to be sought. I think, also,
that sufficient consideration has not yet been given to the correction
of that very grievous defect, the great uneasiness and excessive
rolling of all these vessels, from the low position of the weights
they carry. There is another object in connection with your engine
which I had constantly in view: I mean its adaptation in the
high-pressure form to our ships of war in general. It was my
intention, had I remained in office, to have fitted a frigate with one
of your high-pressure engines--not very high, however--with a view, if
the experiment answered, to the introduction of an occasional steam
power in all ships of the line. I believe you and I may probably
differ as to the amount of steam power it might be advisable to give
such ships, and that you would wish to steam the _Vanguard_ or the
_Queen_ at the rate of ten miles an hour. My wishes are much more
humble, and I should be perfectly satisfied with an amount of power
sufficient to give steerage way under all circumstances, to carry the
ship into or out of action, and to afford her some assistance in
clearing off a lee-shore--something about equivalent to five knots--an
amount of power that might probably be obtained, together with some
fuel for occasional use, without encroaching too much upon the stowage
of the ship. I shall be extremely glad if you can induce Lord
Haddington to direct his attention to this object."
Through the latter part of 1843 and the whole of 1844, Lord Dundonald
was chiefly occupied with the construction of the _Janus_, the
steam-frigate which was being built and fitted upon his plans. She was
shaped in accordance with his "lines," and in her were introduced both
his revolving engines and his improved boilers. "I have just returned
from Chatham," he wrote to a friend on the 6th of April, 1844, "where
everything regarding the _Janus_ is going on very well indeed. And I
have further good news to tell you. The Admiralty are so pleased with
my parabolic lines for ship-building that they have ordered a drawing
to be made immediately of a frigate of the first class, in order to
have one constructed." Hopeful that at last his long-cherished ideas
would bring benefit both to himself and to the nation, he had in these
months much to encourage him. "All is going on as well as I could
wish, or even as I could accomplish, were destiny at my command," he
wrote on the 31st of May. "The Portsmouth engines now meet the
approbation of all the authorities of the yard, and the Admiralty are
so satisfied that they have given me the building of a steamship to
put them in, in lieu of placing them in the old _Firefly_." "Nothing,"
he said in a letter written a week or two later, "can exceed the
perfection of the work which the Bramahs have put into the _Janus_'s
engines." "The experimental engine at Portsmouth," he wrote on the 3rd
of July, "continues to perform admirably, beating all others in the
yard in point of vacuum, which, you know, is the test of power." "The
engines will commence being put together in ten or fourteen days," we
read in another letter dated the 10th of July; "after that we shall
make rapid progress. The _Janus_ is now completing--that is, being
coppered--and having the part of her deck laid down which was left off
for the purpose of getting the boilers on board. My patent boilers
will be tried by authority of the Admiralty about the 20th, and I hope
for a favourable result." The trial, postponed till the 1st of August,
was satisfactory. "We have tried the boilers of the _Janus_," he wrote
on that day, "and the result is most triumphant, having, with slack
firing, ten and a half pounds of water evaporated by each pound of
coal." "I have just returned from Portsmouth," he had written five
days before, "where I had the pleasure to find my engine exceeding
even all that it had done before--the vacuum, with all the work on,
being 28-1/2, two inches above that of any other engine in the dockyard.
Mr. Taplin, the chief engineer, is quite delighted with it." "Sir
George Cockburn and Sir John Barrow, permanent Secretary of the
Admiralty, saw my engine yesterday," he wrote on the 24th of October,
concerning the machine being built by the Bramahs for the _Janus_;
"and so did Lord Brougham; all of whom were well pleased with my
explanation of its principles and the appearance of the workmanship.
It is now being pulled to pieces, in order to its being sent to
Chatham and set up on board the _Janus_, whose boilers, by my request,
are again to be officially tested as to their evaporative power, and
that, too, by the Woolwich authorities, whose boilers have been beaten
one-third by the evaporation of mine. This request must show the
Admiralty my confidence in the correctness of the former trial; for
there is no doubt the Woolwich people would condemn it if they could."
This second and crucial trial took place on the 9th of November, and
the result exceeded alike Lord Dundonald's expectations and those of
the official judges, to whom failure would have been most pleasant.
"All matters as regards my engines," he wrote on the 20th of November,
"are going on well. I hope soon to hear something satisfactory from
the Admiralty on the subject of the boilers, respecting which they
have until now pursued the most profound silence, notwithstanding the
triumphant result, which has surpassed the product of the far-famed
Cornish boilers in evaporative power."
Those extracts from Lord Dundonald's letters to the friend with whom
he corresponded most freely will suffice to show in what temper he
watched the progress of his inventions during 1844. At the close of
the year he hoped that his labours to bring them into general use were
now nearly at an end; but in this he was disappointed. The Woolwich
authorities, who had at the time expressed their approval of the
boilers, sent in an adverse report to the Admiralty, and Lord
Dundonald had to wait several months before he could disprove the
statements made against them; and opposition of the same sort--the
common experience of nearly every inventor--encountered him at every
turn, and had again and again to be overcome. His Portsmouth engine
continued to work well; but in September, 1845, he learnt that a
malicious trick had been resorted to, to prevent its working better.
"On a recent examination of the pumps in the well," wrote Mr. Taplin,
the engineer, "to our utter astonishment we found, in the middle
suction pipe, an elm plug, driven in so tight that we were obliged to
bore and cut it out. The plug stopped that suction pipe effectually,
and from its appearance must have been there from the time the pumps
were first put in motion. As proof of this, we never had such a supply
of water as at present." And that is only an illustration of the
obstacles, accidental or designed, that occurred to him.
By them, the _Janus_ was delayed for a whole year. She was to have
been completed in 1844; but this was not done till the end of 1845. "I
have just returned," Lord Dundonald was able to write on the 24th of
December, "from a nine days' trip in the _Janus_, the result of which
has been successful, both in regard to the properties of the engines
and those of the 'lines' on which she has been constructed. Nothing
can exceed the beauty of her passage through the water, without even a
ripple, far less the wave which ordinary steamboats occasion." That
success, however, was to be followed by a long series of disasters.
The weight of the _Janus_ had been miscalculated, and though she could
proceed admirably in smooth water, she was found to lie so low
that there was constant danger of her being wrecked in rough seas
and bad weather. Other faults, incident to the bringing together
for the first time of so much new workmanship, were also discovered.
She had to be returned to dock, and fresh hindrances of every sort
occurred during the two following years; each hindrance being
attended by tedious correspondence or controversies with petty
functionaries jealous of a stranger's interference, and only eager to
bring discredit upon his work. Much discredit did result. Loud
complaints were made concerning the waste of public money resulting
from Lord Dundonald's experiments, and on him, of course, nearly all
the blame was thrown. All this, added to his previous difficulties in
securing for his boiler and engine any notice at all, was very
grievous to him. Every complaint and every entreaty from him was met
by a new excuse and a new reason for delay. "Ten days are always
added," he said, in one letter, "and ten days yet are said to be
required."
The days became weeks and the weeks months, and still the _Janus_ was
incomplete. She was unfinished when Lord Dundonald left England for
more than two years in order to fulfil the duties assigned to him as
commander-in-chief of the North American and West Indian squadron, and
his absence caused a final abandonment of the works.
The tedious process of her construction, however, to which only
sufficient reference has here been made to serve as illustration of
one phase of Lord Dundonald's life, was attended by many good results.
To himself she brought only trouble and expense; but the obstacles
thrown in her way and in his did not deter private adventurers from
acting upon some of the principles developed in abortive attempts at
her completion by public functionaries. Lord Dundonald's
inventions--his revolving engine, his screw-propeller, his boiler, and
his "lines of ship-building,"--have all proved useful in themselves,
and have been of yet greater use in their influence upon the improved
mechanism of our own generation.
To him must be attributed no slight share in the revolution that has
been effected in the materials for naval warfare. Of the superiority
of steamers to war-ships, he was one of the first advocates. His own
rotatory engine was never extensively adopted, and was superseded by
other engines which, lacking the great merit of direct action upon the
paddles, that it was his object to attain, had other and greater
merits of their own; but in their adoption his great object was
realized, seeing that that object was not his own aggrandisement, but
the development of the naval strength of England.