carbonate of soda, appear to have been little noticed by chemists,
and to have been still less attended to as curative means; at least
in proportion to the multitude of cases in which that substance is
administered in various other forms. Indeed the inference to be
drawn from the silence respecting the modes of analysis adapted to
such waters in our best elementary treatises, is that they have
hitherto been very seldom met with. In one district, however, of
Yorkshire, carbonate of soda is of frequent occurrence; it is found
in the ordinary springs; often, at the same time with substances
with which, in artificial solutions, or when concentrated, it, would
be considered wholly incompatible; while at other times it is the
predominant, or the only remarkable saline constituent. An analysis
of a water of this kind, known by the name of the Holbeck Spa, has
lately been published in the Annals of Philosophy, by my friend E.
S. George; similar springs are found, I understand, as far [p022]
westward as Bradford; they are numerous from the borings in and near
Holbeck; while eight miles south, a water similar in its character,
but differing in containing about twice as much alkali in the same
measure, has been discovered at Stanley.
About two miles from Wakefield, near the Aberford or York road, is
an ancient mansion called Hatfield Hall; near the park or inclosure
of which, in boring for coal, the spring in question suddenly gushed
up, when the workmen had got to the depth of eighty yards, and has
continued to run spontaneously, in all seasons, at the rate of six
gallons per minute.
The water at the spring is limpid and very sparkling; the portion
which is allowed to escape, deposits upon the trough and in the
channel through which it runs a quantity of sulphur; the smell is
that of sulphuretted hydrogen; the taste, from the stimulus of the
bubbles of gas modifying the softness of the alkali, rather pleasant
than otherwise.
The appearances presented by re-agents are,—
With tincture of soap, a slight opalescence.
Nitrate of silver, an abundant precipitate, partially re-dissolved by
pure nitric acid.
Sulphate of silver, a precipitate only partially soluble in nitric or
acetic acid.
Muriate of barytes, a slight precipitate.
Lime-water, a precipitate soluble with effervescence in acetic acid.
Oxalate of ammonia, no precipitate.
On boiling, a slight pellicle appeared, soluble in nitric acid.
Carbonate of ammonia, no precipitate, nor any on the subsequent
addition of phosphate of soda.
The water restored the colour of litmus paper slightly reddened.
With tincture of galls and ferrocyanate of potash, no change.
With muriate of lime, the water remained unchanged until heated; but
when boiled, a copious precipitate took place.
When concentrated by boiling, the water reddened turmeric paper, and
effervesced strongly on the addition of an acid.
Nitromuriate of platina produced no precipitate, however concentrated
the water might be. [p023]
The results of the previous experiments indicate the presence of
Soda, Lime in small proportion,
Muriatic acid, No magnesia,
Sulphuric acid, No iron,
Carbonic acid, No potash.
A. To ascertain the proportion of sulphuric acid, sixteen ounces
by measure, previously saturated by acetic acid, were treated with
muriate of barytes; the precipitate, washed and dried, weighed
one grain; this indicates, in the imperial gallon, 3.2 grains of
sulphuric acid, equivalent to 5.8 sulphate of soda, dry, or 13 grains
crystallized.
B. For the muriatic acid; nitrate of silver, added to sixteen ounces
of the water boiled, and the alkali previously saturated, gave a
precipitate weighing 2.8 grains; reduced to the proportion in the
imperial gallon, this amounts to 26.9 grains chloride of silver,
equivalent to 11 grains chloride of sodium (muriate of soda.)
C. The crystalline pellicle separated from a pint of sixteen ounces,
on boiling, weighed 0.2 grains.
This was carbonate of lime; but in the water the lime would be
combined with muriatic acid, forming 0.22; or, in the imperial
gallon, 2.1 dry chloride, or 3.75 crystallized muriate of lime.
D. The precipitate formed on boiling with muriate of lime, weighed
from the pint, 3.6 grains; from the imperial gallon, 34.6 grains;
showing the water to contain in that quantity a carbonated alkali
equivalent to 53 grains of dry, or 59.5 crystallized bi-carbonate of
soda.
E. Muriate of barytes, added to the water left on evaporating sixteen
ounces to two, gave a precipitate weighing 8.2 grains; deducting one
grain for sulphate of barytes, as found in experiment A, we have 7.2
carbonate of barytes; this indicates in the gallon 53 grains of dry,
and 59.5 of crystallized carbonate of soda, as in the last experiment.
Lastly, a pint of sixteen ounces of the water, evaporated to dryness,
furnished in three trials of saline residuum, weighed after short
exposure to a dull red heat, six grains, or 57.6 from [p024] the
imperial gallon. Now we have seen that this would consist of
5.8 Dry sulphate of soda (exp. A).
11. Chloride of sodium ( — B).
1.9 Carbonate of lime ( — C).
----
18.7
38.9
----
57.6
The remainder, 38.9, having been converted by the heat into
proto-carbonate of soda, is equivalent to 54.5 dry, 61 grains
crystallized bi-carbonate, agreeing nearly with the quantities found
from experiments D and E.
Following, as I do, that doctrine which supposes the bases to be
distributed among the acids in a mineral water in the combinations
which possess the greatest solubility, we must suppose the lime to be
in the state of muriate; we shall then have to diminish the muriate,
and increase the carbonate of soda: so that on this view, the saline
constituents of an imperial gallon, in the state in which they exist
in the water, are,—
Soda in combination with carbonic acid, equivalent to
Bi-carbonate or super-carbonate 56 gr. dry. 62.5 crystallized
of soda
Sulphate of soda 5.8 ditto 13 ditto
Muriate of soda (chloride 8.75 ditto 8.75 ditto
of sodium)
Muriate of lime 2.1 ditto 3.75 ditto
The gaseous contents of the water consist of variable proportions
of carbonic acid, sulphuretted hydrogen, and carburetted hydrogen;
the latter gas is continually emitted from the spring, in greater
quantity than the water can absorb; and a portion of the other two
also escapes from its surface. I have made many experiments on
the gas, separated by boiling; but find the results, as I might
anticipate, altogether inconclusive and uncertain. In waters
containing, as at Harrogate, these gases with muriates or sulphates,
boiling may be expected almost wholly to disengage them; but in this
case the affinity of the soda in dilute solution, is likely to retain
the carbonic [p025] acid, and even to cause a decomposition of the
sulphuretted hydrogen, so as to prevent our obtaining, in a gaseous
form, the quantity really existing in the water, and imparting to it
sensible or medicinal properties.
On the subject of medicinal qualities I am at all times cautious of
giving an opinion: but I may observe, first, that as this spring is
dissimilar to any of those which have already attained celebrity, so
none of them can form a substitute for this; it is not Harrogate,
or Cheltenham, or Buxton, or Tunbridge water: the alkaline springs
of the West Riding, of which this is by far the strongest, stand
as medicinal waters hitherto alone; the active ingredient, the
bi-carbonate of soda, being spoken of in chemical works, as “rarely
found in mineral waters.”
Secondly, from the known properties of this substance, carbonate
of soda, and the frequency of its administration in a long train
of arthritic, calculous and dyspeptic complaints, the water must
be highly useful as an anti-acid and as a diuretic; and as the
advantages which native mineral waters possess over artificial
solutions of the substances, in the great degree of dilution, and
the impregnation with gases, and still more in the adjuncts of
leisure, exercise, pure air, regulated diet and early rising, are of
especial consequence in the latter very numerous class of diseases,
those called stomach and nervous complaints; we may fairly suppose
that such a spring will be found to be a valuable addition to those
previously known, applying, as it does, to cases of such frequent
occurrence.
_Observations on the State of Naval Construction in this Country_.
It appears that there is at present a tendency to improvement in
every branch of science; monopoly in intellect may now be said
to be vanishing; and empiricism is obliged to seek dark corners,
to escape the light which is penetrating into regions from which
it had but very lately been excluded. The administration, too,
encourages advance of knowledge; yet notwithstanding these favourable
circumstances, there still exists, in [p026] some minds, an
inaptitude of scientific perception, which induces unwillingness to
acknowledge the advantage that results from the application of the
exact sciences to the useful arts.
This neglect of scientific principles is nowhere more manifest than
in the affairs of naval architecture, and it is not confined to the
Royal Navy, but extends also to our mercantile shipping; and hence
it is that our commercial marine is in some respects behind foreign
nations, especially the Americans, in the formation of its ships:
our merchantmen are, almost without exception, the most unsafe[7]
and slowest ships in the world. The ship-owners, therefore, would do
well to consider this circumstance, and endeavour to devise means of
introducing science into the merchant yards. The establishment of the
new university in the metropolis affords an opportunity of doing it
at a comparatively small expense, by the foundation of Lectures on
the theory of Naval Architecture; and the support even of a separate
institution in the vicinity of the merchant yards of this great port,
for the education of ship surveyors, would soon be repaid by the
improved character of our merchant shipping.
If the science of Naval Architecture depend on certain
physico-mathematical laws, as no doubt it does, it is monstrous to
imagine for a moment that such laws can be developed by a flight of
fancy, or that a man is born with an _intuitive optical_ perception
of the lines of least resistance, &c., or, in the jargon of the
craniologists, that he has a naval-architectural bump on his skull;
yet one would think that such was the case, when we see men, we
cannot say philosophers, start up and loudly assert that they are
in possession of the secret of construction; and they are believed
because their hypotheses are never submitted to the examination of
those who are capable of detecting their fallacy.
The Experimental Squadrons have, with a multitude of perplexing
results, elicited, it must be confessed, at least an interesting
fact, viz. that there has been an establishment seventeen years in
this country, in Portsmouth dockyard, for the scientific education
of naval architects, for the Royal [p027] Navy.[8] From the plan of
education, as laid down by the Commissioners of Naval Revision in
1810, it appears that, to a requisite knowledge of the _practice_
of their profession, the gentlemen composing this body of naval
constructors unite a sound and competent one of its _theory_[9].
It can only be from such a source that we can look for the
improvement of our men of war, and it is to be regretted that every
means should not be taken to avail ourselves of it: but unhappily
such is the force of prejudice that, unless some alteration should be
adopted in this institution, it will be in vain to expect advantage
from it.
The objection urged against this establishment, namely, that the
scientific education it gives to its members precludes them from the
attainment of a due knowledge of the practical construction of our
ships, is so absurd, that none but weak or jealous minds could ever
have brought it forward. Shall it be laid down, in the present age,
as an axiom, that a profound ignorance of the principles of his art
is the one thing essential to the formation of what is generally
meant by the term “practical man?” We contend that, having made,
_in vain_,[10] a long and most indulgent trial of a system without
science, if we may use such an expression, we must extend to one
in alliance with it, a like patronage, before we can be allowed to
pronounce a fair and legitimate judgment upon its efficiency.
But even in the peculiar path in which the naval architects educated
at Portsmouth might be supposed to excel, we do not find that any
opportunity is allowed them to come forward, nor shall we see this
until some effort is made by the heads of our naval departments, to
allow a broad and open competition to take place. It may be urged,
that the learned Professor at Portsmouth (Dr. Inman) in himself
includes all that can have [p028] possibly been taught or understood
in the establishment over which he presides, and that therefore he
is the representative of it in the late and present trials for the
palm of excellence; but we cannot by any means assent to this: many
of the students must have left his tuition seven, eight, and nine
years, and must be between thirty and forty years of age; and it
would be strange indeed, if during such a period, and in the prime
of life and intellect, some of these, if not all, had not cultivated
the science after their own bent of mind, and formed original ideas
on the subject: we say, therefore, that Dr. Inman’s constructions
cannot be called the production of the establishment—they are merely
the effort of one man, whose attention it appears is distracted by a
multiplicity of occupations, and can only, along with the vessels of
Capts. Symonds, Hayes, and Sir R. Seppings, be deemed criterions of
the particular views of an individual.
Mysticism and ignorance always accompany each other; and we may
reckon that in proportion as the latter disappears from amongst our
ship-builders, so will the absurd vagaries of the former recede, and
the subject be placed at last on the true principles of philosophical
induction, instead of the caprices of imagination. We look forward,
therefore, to this new body of naval architects for the expulsion of
all quackery from their profession, and for the exposition not only
of what we really do know, but also of what we do not know about it:
this is the only way to arrive at truth, which should be the sole
object of all investigation; but which we are afraid has hitherto
been sadly garbled and perverted wherever it has had to do with naval
architecture in this country.
But we repeat that we do not see that the nation is at all likely to
benefit from the science or exertions of those gentlemen so long as
they are placed in situations where a superior education can have no
other effect than producing disgust and chagrin in the mind of the
possessor; and if the institution at Portsmouth be designed for no
better purpose than that of supplying house-carpenters, joiners, and
still more inferior trades, with foremen, it had better be abolished.
Some would regard it, as at present used, as a gross mockery on the
public [p029] at whose expense it is supported; it is certainly a
cruel one of those who have been induced, by the fair and brilliant
prospects held out to them of support and encouragement, to devote
their lives to this branch of the public service.
But to return to the Experimental Squadron: it is with regret that
we must conclude, upon a careful consideration, that, although the
experiments are carried on with so much vigour and interest, they are
evidently founded on imaginative views, and that there cannot exist
any thing like legitimate data where so many failures and anomalous
results obtain. Who can read the account of the first Experimental
Squadron[11], without immediately perceiving that the constructors
of the contending vessels, however sanguine each might have been of
the success of his particular fancy, met with nothing but the most
perplexing results? We see sometimes one and sometimes the other
vessel claim the palm of excellence, and finally leaving the subject
as much in the dark as ever. This is the natural consequence of the
non-application of inductive philosophy to the question before us,
and the most important conclusion that can be gathered from the
experiment is, that we have begun at the wrong end, and that it is
high time to employ analysis instead of synthesis to effect the
desired objects: for in the present state of the theory of naval
construction in this country, there are yet no data existing to
effect with precision and confidence the synthetical composition of a
ship.
We cannot refrain here from noticing the paucity of information
contained in the reports hitherto made on the first Experimental
Squadron. The best one[11] is but little removed from a ship’s
log book, and in some respects is inferior to it: it is of such
a scanty nature, that we can scarcely inform ourselves on any
point, and that only in a _relative_ degree, of the qualities of
the vessels composing it: we cannot find out any mention of their
_absolute_ velocities on the different points of sailing, which is
a most important omission. We are neither informed in what way the
observations were conducted, whether they were made simultaneously
or not: unless the former, any attempt at comparison must be very
doubtful, if not entirely fallacious. Circumstances of wind and
the weather may very widely alter in the [p030] course of a short
time, and every endeavour at legitimate analogy be destroyed by such
variation. We strongly suspect that this is one cause of perplexity;
and another prolific one is the vague idea given of the strength of
winds by nautical language. Nothing but the determinations of the
anemometer should ever be allowed to appear in an account of such
experiments. Every circumstance attendant on the quantity and trim of
sail, the heeling, the rolling and pitching of the ship, position of
the rudder, &c. should be accurately ascertained and _tabulated_; for
it is next to an impossibility and a wilful waste of time to attempt
to institute comparisons without pursuing a system of tabulated
results, which should be kept in the same form on board each ship.
We must also express our regret that the scientific professor at
Portsmouth does not appear to have ascertained the position of the
centre of gravity of any of his ships, with regard to height, by the
simple and easy experiment long known in principle, and described
lately with geometrical rigidity in two or three publications by
some of his pupils[12]. The knowledge of the position of this point
would have placed him so far above his competitors, in so many
important particulars, that we are surprised he should have thrown
away his advantage, and descended to a level with his less scientific
opponents. We are afraid that, here again, imaginative views have
stepped in, and taken the sober mathematician from the only path by
which excellence can be attained. We are at a loss to conceive how
the stabilities of his ships can be said to be ascertained without
the knowledge of the position of this point.
Some of the obscurity which pervades this difficult subject may be
overcome, as to broad and general principles, by attentively and
_coolly_ observing the progress of marine architecture, since the
introduction of cannon into naval warfare, and more particularly
during the last century and a half. We shall then clearly perceive
that the French, who, as early as the beginning of the reign of Louis
XIV., employed men of first-rate talent in their naval arsenals,
and neglected no opportunity for the [p031] advancement of science
in them, increased and kept increasing the dimensions of their
ships, more especially the length, the ratio of which to the breadth
has been augmented by them from about 3-1/4.1, to 4.1 within the
last century. While this principle was acted on, the improvement
of their ships was gradual; and by referring to our own progress
in the art, in tardy imitation of the practice of the French, we
shall likewise conclude that our navy has derived precisely similar
advantages from the same causes. Here we have at once two grand but
_concurring_ results derived from an experiment, not made on one or
half a dozen different vessels, but on the whole navies of the two
most powerful maritime states in the world: and if to these we choose
to add the result of the practice of the same means on the Spanish
and other navies, we might surely be warranted in saying, from this
broad but _certain analysis_ of _facts_, that, in relation to the
hull, the _general increase of dimensions, with a greater relative
length_, is one cause of the improvements that have been made in the
sea-going qualities of the ships composing the fleets of the present
maritime powers: the question therefore that remains to be decided
on in relation to this principle is, whether we have arrived at its
utmost practicable limits, or rather, whether we have arrived at the
_maximum_ of improvement it is capable of producing.
This brings us again to the experimental squadrons, as far as they
are connected with, and illustrative of, our observations; and the
first question naturally put forward about them is, whether there be
any thing very peculiar in the formation or dimensions of the rival
vessels? We suspect that the answer cannot otherwise than disclose,
that neither in principle, dimensions, nor in the formation, can they
be said to differ very materially from each other, or from ships of
the common construction: indeed we perceive in some a retrogression
of ideas and a violation of the principle, that the increase of the
ratio of the length to the breadth, in conjunction with a general
increase of dimensions, has been a predominant cause of improvement.
The fact also of so immaterial a difference necessarily includes a
system of masting and sails equally confined, and totally inadequate
to produce any great superiority of sailing over ships to which they
are so nearly equal in principal dimensions. [p032]
After so many years of trial with the present nearly invariable set
of principal dimensions, during which period it may be said, that
every possible contour of hull has been experimented on with them,
we are inclined to think that almost all has been done that could
be done under such restrictions, and that some great step must be
made in one or other of the principal dimensions themselves, with
correspondent alterations in the masting, before we can expect to
see a decided and great improvement in the sailing of our ships.
The depth is an element which has arrived at its limit from very
apparent external causes; but the length and breadth remain to the
skilful constructor without any such clogs to his endeavours; and
he has only to accommodate their relation to each other in the
manner most conducive to velocity, which in our opinion is the very
capital object of naval construction, both in ships of war and of
commerce. That it is so in the former, no one will, we apprehend, on
due reflection deny; but there will be many who will assert that it
cannot be obtained, in the latter, without a sacrifice of capacity;
which will defeat the object of carrying large cargoes: to this
we may reply, that if a vessel with an expense of one quarter the
capacity can make _three_ voyages instead of _two_, will not the
merchant be still a considerable gainer in capacity, and still more
so by a ready return of his capital[13]?
All observations on well-conducted experiments concur in proving that
velocity is gained by increasing the length, to a much greater degree
in relation to the breadth, than has ever yet been done in ships; and
that the increase of the same element contributes to their weathering
powers is too obvious to need insisting upon: it is also generally
advantageous, when not carried to an extent which would seriously
retard the manœuvring of the ship. This limit has not yet by any
means been determined; for it must be recollected, that although
the additional length increases the resistance to rotation about a
vertical axis, yet the power of the sails to give rotation about the
same is also increased, although not in so high a ratio. The power of
the rudder to produce rotation is also greater in a long ship than
in [p033] a short one, not only on account of the greater distance
it is from the axis of rotation, but also on account of the greater
velocity, and the more direct impulse of the water on it.