The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-30 00:00:00

METROPOLITAN CLUBS RACES.

The final heat of the eight-oared race amongst the
metropolitan clubs for handsome silver cups was rowed
last evening from Putney to Chiswick Church as under :
London Rowing Club (Middlesex Station).—W. Atkin-

son, E. A. Do Paiva, J. P. Moore, W. V. Harton, H.
J. Edwards, C. Dickens, jun., H. K. Stinton, C. Baines,
P. Weston (cox.)

Thames Rowing Club (Centre Station).—W. C. Smale,
G. Wright, H. Gore, W. Page, W. S. Talbot, J. P.
Hodgson, T. S. Orr, W. Kipling, W. Clare (c0x.)... 2
West London Rowing Club (Surrey Station).—J. H.
Lee, J. Gouldsniith, W. Todd, W. Shepherd, G. Her-
ridge, F. Drake, W. Mares, A. Mares, S. Frost (cox) 0
West London got away with the lead, Thames second,
and London last ; these positions were, however, quite re-
versed at the Star and Garter, for here London led by half
their length, the others about a quarter of a length apart,
West London last. In spite of the hard rowing of Thames,
the Londoners drew clear below their boat-house, and the
West Londoners tailed past. At the Point half a clear
length was between the first and second, same between
second and third, and so continued to the Soap Works,
where London left Thames, and the West Londoners had
lost all chance. After passing through Hammersmith-
bridge the crews assumed very different positions, London
literally rowed aw2y from Thames, and the latter left the
West Londoners in a still worse plight. The race was won
by half-a-dozen clear lengths ; eight between second and
third. Time, 14 min: 26 sec.

Naval and Military Intelligence.

The ironclad ship of war Lord Clyde sailed from
Pembroke-dock on Saturday for Plymouth. A trial
trip had previously been made outside the harbour,
and the engines worked remarkably well, the average
speed being 12 knots. The Lord Clyde was accom-
panied on her voyage to Plymouth by her Majesty's
ship Gladiator.
A series of important trials has just been com-
pleted on the Thames and Medway, to discover the
best form of screw propeller for the propulsion of
steam vessels, by which some exceedingly valuable
data have been arrived at. The vessel experimented
,upon was a screw steamer belonging to Messrs.
Rennie, fitted with an improved Griffith's propeller,
as supplied to the ships of the Royal navy, with the
addition, and in which lies the improvement, of
what may be termed a fixed screw, or " boss," hav-
ing a number of arms attached, similar in form and
design to the sails of a windmill, the invention of
Mr. Rigg, a civil engineer at Chester. The atten-
tion of Mr. Griffith has been directed to this subject,
from the fact that nothing has been done during the
last few years to improve the propellor invented by
him. The new invention may be described briefly
as a " boss" attached to the rudder-post of the ves-
sel, behind the ordinary screw. Emerging from the
"boss " are a number of blades, which, for the sake
of description, may be called a fixed screw, which
in reality it really is. These blades are set at a
directly opposite angle to the screw, and on the
latter being set in motion the water acted upon is
ejected at an angle corresponding with its pitch
and velocity. At the instant of the water being
thrown off by the screw it is arrested and caused to
deviate by the fixed blades, already described, as it
impinges upon them. The result of this operation
is that the water is thrown off at nearly a line
with the vessel's keel, taking away all vibration,
rendering the action of the rudder more perfect,
and, as a consequence, enabling the ship to be more
easily steered. The result of the trials, which were
conducted personally by Mr. Griffith and Mr.
Rigg, under the supervision of Mr. Rumble, late
chief inspector of machinery of the steam reserve in
the Medway, was in the highest degree satisfactory.
The new system, itmayberemarked, has been tested
in juxtaposition with the improved Mangin screw
now introduced into the royal navy, and fitted in
the first instance to the iron-clad frigate Achilles,
built at Chatham dockyard, as well as to the iron-
cased frigate Bellerophon, now preparing for sea at
the same establishment, and the results obtained are
somewhat surprising. With the Griffith screw work-
ing in conjunction with Mr. Rigg's invention the
mean speed attained was 7.571 per hour, with 114
revolutions per minute. With the ordinary screw
now in use by the Admiralty in the new ironclads
the average speed attained by the same vessel was
only 6.871 knots per hour, with 227 revolutions of
the screw per minute. The results of the experiments
were consequently ascertained to be an increase of
1.703 knots per hour in speed, with 43 revolutions
less per minute ; or, in other words, a gain of 22.48
per cent. in speed, with a saving of 18.94 per cent.
in power. It is hoped that the Admiralty will grant
the use of the iron screw steam yacht Fairy for fur-
ther experiments with the invention, as that vessel
is in every respect better adapted than perhaps any
other steamer in the navy for experimental purposes,
while she has the further advantage of having had
nearly every form of screw inventedtrieduponher.
The grand annual prize shooting of the Rnyal
Marine Light Infantry, Woolwich division, took
place yesterday on the lower Plumstead marches,
adjoining Woolwich arsenal. The shooting was
under the superintendence of Capt. Bunce, the
musketry instructor to the division, to whose deci-
sion all reference was considered final. The firing
was according to Hythe regulations, and all ties
were shot off at 600 yards. The prizes varied from