Thibodaux minerva. [volume] (Thibodaux, La.) 18??-1858, 1853-08-27

A "Water Witch the Second'' has also
been bniit. using the old engines, but en-
ploying Morean,s Paddle Wheel, from de-
signs by Engineer SHERWOOD These wheels
do no credit to our engineering genius; they
are more expensive, and are no more eff
fective than the oid-fashioned radial kind.
Three or four othes steamboats, have be-
longed to the Navy-mere tug boats not
worth naming. At the present moment
there are only three efficient steam frigates
in our Navy and considering the advance
ment and Improvements made in our mer-
camille steamships, it is disgrace to our
government. We also assert that We have
not truly respectable steamship III our
Navy-one worthy of our country. Our
government engineers have been peculiarly
| unfortunate with the propellers which they
have built. While the French and English
| have very fire. large. aud swift propeller
line Of battle ships, we have not a propeller
! frigate worth the name. We would advise
our government to get their steamers built
entirely by contract: they pay too much for
3them. One of the Collins line cost $780,
1895, only S25.627 more than the Susque-
hanna, and is about one third larger. There
is something rotten in the system, for there
are able engineers in our Navy; where the
fault is we cannot tell, we can only direct
attention to it, hoping that we may do the
State some service."-Scsentifc american.
HOBBS PrcK1se ANOTHER ENGLISH LOCI.
Until the year of the Great Exhibition
nobody had succeeded in obtaining the 900
guneas offered by Messrs. Bramah to any
person who could pick their celebrated lock
This piece of mechanical ingenuity was at
last performed by Mr. Hobbs, who was not
a lock maker, but lock picker: since then
the art of picking hicks has become some
what elevated, and has attracted the atten-
ton of several first rate English engineers
The Society of Arts, in John street. London,
DESTROYS of promoting the skill of English
iocksmiths isSned a circular last year for
premiums or various articles of manuiac-
lures, among which was one for the inven-
ton of good lock, combining strength and
great security from fraudulent attempts
cheapness, freedom from disarrangement BY
dirt. and requiring only small. key The
conditions upon which the prize of .e1o was
to be awarded seem to be somewhat incon-
>istent with the object required; but never
the!ess the offer commanded attention, and
the successful competitor was Mr.. Saxley
of Sheerness; and TO him the prize was
awarded by the committee, the chairman
being Mr.. Chuhb, the lock maker, in St.
PauFs churchyard. BY letter from Mr.
Hobbs, which appears in the "Journal of the
Society of Arts" OF the 24th OF June, we find
that Mr.. Hobbs curiosity which was only
equalled by his modesiy in not competing
for the prize. induced him to inspect this
piece of mechanism which the committee
presided over by MIR. Chubh, had pronounced
TO he one most in accordance with the pre-
srtibed rules Of the society; when so far
from its possessing that great security re-
CURED he discovered that il was constructed
on the principle of the Yale lock, such as
are manufactured BY Mr.. CotteriIl, of Biz
mineham. England and to prove TO the per-
sons present that it possessed no security,
Mr.. Hobbs took small straight iron wire
from his pocket, and with a thin strip of steel
opened ii in the presence of several members
Of the society in three minutes.
Scientific american.