The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-29 00:00:00

instead of having its leading corners roughly cut
off for the occasion, it would have distanced all
competitors, both as regards increased speed of the
vessel and diminished 'vibration at the stern. This
was a great victory for Sir Howard's principles,
and accordingly he received congratulations from
all but the Admiralty, which alone made no sign.
Upon this, after a decent hipse of time, Sir Howard
wrote to the Admiralty at Somerset-house, point-
ing out how he was the originator of the improve-
ment, and how he had himself directed their
attention to the subject, and so induced the trials
with his screw which had terminated so satisfac-
torily. He expressed himself delighted that his
improvement had proved of such value and import-
ance, and the only reward he wished for or would
ever take was the free and just acknowledment that
to him, and him alone, was due the merit of what
we may almost term the discovery. After a time
the Admiralty replied most blandly. They were
delighted to forward him an abstract of the experi-
ments made on board her Majesty's ship Doris, and
would be the last to attempt to rob Sir Howard of
any credit which he thought due to his improve-
ments. In the present instance they intimated that
there was but little chance of doing so unfair an
act, inasmuch as Sir Howard's improvements of
1858 had been tried previously by the Admiralty
on board her Majesty's yacht Fairy in 1853. Now,
this latter assertion is very far from being correct.
The trials made on board the Fairy six years ago
were with screws of a peculiar form, cut down into
any or almost no form whatever. The screws, too,
were utterly different in principle and pitch from
the Admiralty screw which Sir Howard proposed
to improve, while the trials themselves may be
regarded as conspicuous failures, inasmuch as they
resulted in nothing, and left the old fan-shaped
Admiralty screw precisely as it was, and as it has
remained till the present improvement of Sir
Howard. The gallant veteran has replied to the
Admiralty, calmly persisting in his claim to the
merit of having originated the improvement, and
hinting strongly that the attempt of the authorities
to refer back the improvement to the meaning-
less trials of 1853 with totally different screws
looks very like trying to rob him of the hon-
our due to his skill and perseverance in
having been the first to see and the first to
work out this important modification of the
screw propeller principle. So the matter remains
at present. Whether the Admiralty will even-.
tually give the merit where the merit is due we
know not ; but in the cause of truth, and in the
cause of all our earnest, thoughtful men, who so
wearily and nearly always so thanklessly labour
to promote the efficiency of both services, it is right
that the truth should be known, and that the merit
of introducing this most important improvement
in the form of the screw propeller belongs to Gen.
Sir H. Douglas, and to him alone.
While we are upon the subject of Sir H. Douglas's
improvement of the screw we may refer to one
which, though very simple, is hardly less import-
ant in degree than that we have mentioned, and
one which it is certain the Admiralty must gladly
adopt. We mean, of course, that improvement
which is to prevent a ship's screw being fouled by
rigging or hawsers. In the last great naval war
with France our victories were as much gained by
the skill with which we out-manoeuvred our adver-
saries as from any other cause. This led the French
to prefer always firing at the spars and rigging,
while as constantly the English aimed at the hull,
These have become the traditional modes of attack
with both navies, and the result to be achieved
by firing at the rigging now would be almost iden-
tical with what was accomplished when ships ma-
nceuvred under sail alone. A screw liner having a
mast shot away would now have her screw fouled
by the wreck of the rigging drifting into her wake
astern within three minutes after the spar fell over.
The greater the "way" on the vessel the more cer-
tainly would such an accident occur, and in a naval
engagement with a mast shot away, and her screw
jammed, any vessel would be so completely at the
mercy ofher antagonist that further resistance would
be hopeless. There are many, and some most fatal
instances, already on record of the hopeless condition
to which a screw vessel is reduced when once her
propeller is fouled. Look at the loss of the Prince.
Yet in the whole of her Majesty's navy not a single
vessel is provided with any appliance to ward off
this most obvious and most serious disaster. In Sir
Howard Douglas's improved form of screw the
curved edges have, besides the advantage of readily
throwing off any floating materials that may come
in contact with them, that of not being so liable to
be broken by their oblique collision with large
spars. The angular parts of the common screw arc
far more likely to be hitched by ropes than the
rounded extremities of the form which Sir Howard
has now, we hope, introduced to the navy. These
curved edges, he also suggests, should he fitted with
sharp gun or other hard metal edges, so that as the
screw revolved in the water its power would divide
any rope or spar like a powerful circular saw. But
his main recommendation as a remedy for this great
evil is a contrivance that will enable the propeller
to clear itself of any floating wreck of riggihg which
may hitch upon the screw in its rotation, and which,
being drawn down to the root of the blade, would
be wound up on the boss so tightly as to disable
the propeller or break the sere w-shaft, if the enignes
were not instantly stopped. For this manner of
clearing the screw Sir Howard proposes to employ'
powerful and sharp knife-edges, firmly fixed to the
metal trunk in which the screw works, and close to
both edges of the blade, in such a manner that any
rope that may have hitched on the boss would be
acted upon during the revolution of the screw as a
body revolving in a turning lathe is acted upon by
a chisel. Thus, revolving with a force derived from
the power of the engines, the rope must be drawn
into and along the knife-edges, causing them to
exert a drawing cut sufficient to sever any rope,
whatever its strength or thickness, and so clear the
screw at once of what would otherwise be the most
dangerous and perhaps fatal entanglements. This
simple but most efficacious plan we trust soon to see
generally introduced into both the Royal and mer-
chant navies, and hope that the Admiralty will
make no attempt to purloin the merit of originating
this idea as well as that of the form of th screw.
How can any inventor look for success at the Ad-
miralty when even Sir Howard Douglas, with all
his claims upon the consideration of the authorities,
cannot get them to acknowledge gracefully that the
improvement they get for nothing is an important
one, and is his 9—Times.