;

44 UNIFORM OF FIRST ENGINEERS. "Coat.-Blue cloth, double breasted buttons having a steam-engine, with a crown above, embossed on them, to be placed four and four, and a larger button of the same kind on the collar.

"Waistcoat.-With buttons similar to those on the coat.

"Trousers.-Plain blue cloth.

"Cap. With a narrow gold lace band.

66 SUPERANNUATIONS AND PENSIONS. "The following rules shall be observed in regard to superannuations and pensions of the engineers of Her Majesty's fleet :

"First. That when engineers shall be found upon survey unfit for further service they shall be allowed 31. a-year for each year they shall have served as warrant-officers in ships in commission; and 17. a year for each year they shall have served as warrant-officers in ships in ordinary, or as supernumeraries in guard ships.

46 2nd. That in cases in which the services of engineers shall appear to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to be more than ordinarily meritorious, a further sum may be allowed to the said warrant-officers in addition to the pension allowed by art. 1, varying from 17. to 157, a-year, reference being had to the character of the officer, and the cause which may have rendered him unfit for service.

not exceeding in the first case 50l. a-year, nor in the second case 451. a-year, nor in the third case exceeding 357. a-year.

"4th.-1, that engineers who may lose one limb in action; 2, or who may receive wounds or injuries equal to the loss of a limb; 3, or who may receive injuries or hurts in the service, though not in action, equal to the loss of a limb, shall be allowed pensions (as the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty may deem proper), not exceeding in the first case 257. a-year, nor in the second case exceeding 207. a-year, nor in the third case exceeding 157. a-year.

"The pensions for wounds and hurts to be granted after a careful survey, held by the officer at this office, when practicable, and to be in addition to any other pension the officer may be entitled to.

"5th. No engineer to be allowed to reckon as service towards superannuation any period of time during which he shall not have maintained a good character in the ship in which he has served.

"Fourth Class.-Boys on entering the service as fourth class apprentices must not be less than 14 nor more than 17 years of age; they must be of good moral character and sound bodily constitution, and able to write and work a question in the rule of three.

"Third Class.-At the expiration of their third year of service, provided their conduct has been good during that period, the boys will be considered eligible for removal to the third class if, on examination, they appear to have made themselves acquainted with the names and uses of every part of the engines, gauges, barometers, &c.

"Second Class.-If boys, in the fourth year from their entrance into the service, be acquainted, through the instruction of the engineer under whom they may be placed, with the whole principle of the engine and boilers, with the use of all the various tools, and with the mode of effecting repairs, as far as they are performed on board; if they be able to take off and replace any of the working parts; pack the slide-valves, pistons, piston rods, and stuffing-boxes; if they understand the action and condensation of steam, the return of water into the boilers, the construction of all the pumps, and of the feeding and blowing off apparatus, safety valves, &c., and can chalk out roughly the outlines of the engines and wheels, and have become generally useful, they will be considered fit for removal to the second class, provided their conduct has been good.

"Boys of the second class having attained

the fifth and last year of their service will be transferred to Her Majesty's dockyard, at Woolwich, where they will receive instructions on various subjects connected with the construction and management of engines and boilers.

"First Class.-At the expiration of the 5th year, if, on a strict examination, the boys be found qualified for the appointment of third class engineers, and if their conduct has been in all respects satisfactory, they will be removed to the list of the first class, and be considered candidates for promotion, and will take precedence according to conduct and abilities.

"Pay of Engineers' Boys per lunar month. First class, 17. 148.; second class, 17. 6s.; third class, 1. 38.; fourth class, 14s. 6d.

"Monthly allowance.-During the first 12 months' servitude from the time of their first entry on board the ship, 2s.; after 12 months' servitude at home, 3s.; abroad, 48."

With the qualifications required of persons entering into the naval engineering service of the country, we have no fault to find, unless it be that they are so loosely and illiterately expressed. The first and second class engineers are to be "thoroughly acquainted with the working of the principles on which the machine works," while the third class engineer is to be "acquainted with the principles of marine engines and boilers"—as if it were meant to be said that the inferior officer must know the principles of the machinery, while it is sufficient if his superiors are acquainted with the working of these principles. Then we have the words "machine," 66 "engine," "engines and boilers," indifferently employed to signify the same thing-" defects in boilers, which no engineer can cure afloat, placed in the same category with derangements of machinery which he may and ought to be able to remedy on the instant; and eccentrics spoken of as things, the length (!) of which it is very necessary to be competent to adjust, &c.

It

would not, we presume to think, have lessened the respect with which it is desirable the instructions of the Lords Commissioners should be regarded by all their faithful servants" had they been in this instance expressed in a more clerklike fashion, and with a little more distinctness, clearness, and consistency.

The pay is liberal, and, so far as pay goes, well calculated to secure the ser

vices of men possessing all the qualifications required. Not so the superannuation allowances and pensions, which are disproportionately small, and very palpably inadequate.

Engineers of all the three classes are to have the rank of Warrant Officers, and to take precedence "next below the carpenters," that is below the lowest (heretofore) of the class, caulkers only excepted! Here is that which spoils all -a grand error which will go far to destroy all the good effect anticipated from the liberal pay and not so liberal allowances and pensions-a noxious ingredient thrown contemptuously-inconsiderately at least-into the cup, of which the sure effect must be to turn the whole to gall and wormwood,

Why should the engineers rank so low? A degree higher only than your handler of oakum and stopper of holes!

The qualifications required of the engineers are qualifications equal to those required of any officer of the ward or gun-rooms; they must be persons, not only of good, but of scientific education— masters of all the knowledge of a Watt, and of almost all the decision and promptitude of a Nelson. In a letter which we lately received from the head of an eminent steam engine building firm, there is a passage so apposite to this particular point, that we cannot forbear from here quoting it-though written certainly with no view to publication, and with little expectation (we fancy) that the valuable class of men in question were about to be so scurvily treated by Her Majesty's government. "I have been an eyewitness," he says, "to many instances of great emergency where the safety of all depended upon the thought of the instant -where your marine engineer has exhibited a degree of inventive power, united to a coolness of judgment and readiness of execution, such as none, but the mechanics of Great Britain, and those the very best of their class, could have displayed." Who, then, may we ask, was chief officer? Not either captain, or lieutenant, or master, or even gunner, or carpenter, or caulker, but undeniably the ENGINEER, who, everywhere else, but at his post and in public estimation, ranks below them all!

Between no two classes of officers is the analogy so close and striking as between the engineer and the master.

The one does all in regard to the steaming of the ship, which the other does in regard to the sailing. To whatever extent a vessel steams in the course of a voyage, to that extent exactly does the engineer supersede the master in his peculiar province which is that of navigating the vessel. When danger threatens, the master is directed by the "Naval Instructions" to represent the circumstances to the captain; but what can the master (such sailing masters, at least, as are found usually on board of ships) tell of the danger arising from a failure in steam machinery? The person with whom the captain must then consult and advise is not the master, but THE ENGINEER, and him alone. A new order of circumstances has arisen, which has called into being a new set of officers, to perform duties, for the performance of which the old class of sailing masters are entirely unfitted; and it seems but reasonable that the individual who has a master's duties to perform, and will generally be found more than his equal in education and acquirements, should not be inferior to him in nominal rank.

Again, the pay of the engineers, as now settled, is superior to that of all other warrant officers, and superior even to that of many of the commissioned officers of the service. How is it possible to reconcile such high pay with such low rank? We hold the two things to be utterly irreconcileable. Either the pay is too great for the rank, or the rank is too low for the pay. To give a man, pronounced by order of the Lords of the Admiralty to be a fit companion for carpenters and caulkers only, the income of a first lieutenant, (much more, indeed, taking all the allowances into account,) must have an inevitable tendency to produce low, grovelling, perhaps dissolute and intemperate habits-to break down and demoralize a class of men, whom it ought to be our study, to elevate as much as possible in the scale of intellectual vigour and moral worth.

No, no, Messrs. Commissioners! if you would encourage the growth of the new and prodigious power which science has placed in your hands, as it deserves and ought to be encouraged-if you would deal by the steam marine as fairly as by the other branches of the service-you will forthwith revise all that part of your present edict which relates to the "rank"

of marine engineers. You have given them the pay of gentlemen-go a step further, and give them also the rank of gentleman to uphold, which will bring with it the desires, inclinations, and pursuits of gentlemen. The sort of men you want for this service are such as are to be found on shore occupying, in our steam-engine factories, the situations of overseers, foremen, draughtsmen, &c., and who must have qualified themselves for these situations by much and long training and study. Now these, in every proper sense of the word, are gentlemen already-persons who would think it much beneath them to associate on shore with those whom you propose to place them " next below at sea. You seek to encourage these men to enter your service, and would wish, we presume, that they should not become, while in it, less valuable than they were before; and the first thing you do towards that end is, to assign them a rank which must at once degrade them in their own estimation, as well as in the estimation of others! Was there ever conduct more ill-judged, more uncalled-for, or more pernicious?

While the pay is so high, there will never be wanting men to take the situations of marine engineers; but they will not be of the superior description we have just indicated; or if occasionally a person of that description is tempted by love of gold to enter the service, you may calculate with great certainty on his losing rapidly, under the influence of your letting-down system, all the superiority he ever possessed. Overpaid or underrated, all are sure to fall short, in the end, in point of merit and efficiency.

As there are sailing masters and mates with the rank of officers, so also should there be engineer masters and mates of the same rank; not a reason can be suggested why there should be the slightest difference made between them.

the same scale as other officers, and not such contemptible steerage class "pensions" as are assigned to them by the present Rules and Regulations.

We feel perfectly satisfied, in short, that until the steam engineer department of the navy is placed, in every respect, on the same footing as the sailing, fighting, and civil departments, it will never be equal to them in efficiency, or productive of half the excellent service which it is capable of rendering to the country.

After finding so much fault with the Lords of the Admiralty for their treatment of their steam engineers, it gives us much pleasure to record a mark of honour recently conferred by them on one individual of this class, which shows that their Lordships are not, after all, without a growing sense of their claims to higher consideration. On the return home of the Tartarus steamer, after an absence of upwards of four years in the West Indies, her machinery was found in a state of such perfect working order, as, with the exception of the boilers, to require scarcely any repair. During the whole time, too, she was on the West India station, she never failed, in a single instance, to perform the duty assigned to her; a circumstance the more to be valued, that on that station no means of making any engineering repairs exist, so that, had any accident of moment befallen the machinery, the vessel must have been either laid up, or have returned to England. The Lords of the Admiralty, considering that such admirable results could not have been obtained, except through firstrate conduct and ability on the part of the principal engineer, have ordered a silver medal, with a suitable inscription, to be struck, and presented to him. No doubt the machinery must have been first-rate, too, which the Engineer had to superintend and work; but instances are rare, of very excellent engines turning out very badly in incapable hands.

not

The en

gines of the Tartarus were built by Messrs. Miller, Ravenhill, and Co., and are, like all the productions of that eminent firm, nothing but first-rate, in point as well of ma

terials as of construction and workmanship.* Much, also, of the success of the Tartarus is doubtless to be ascribed to the commander of the vessel, Lieut. T. W. Smith, whose conduct we have heard spoken of in the highest terms, as being in every respect what that of a commander who has "silver medal" men under him should be. His arrangements for the comfortable lodging of the crew, and the perfect ventilation of the ship-his constant solicitude to promote their comfort and happiness, and to make their labours as little like labour as possible-have been more particularly described to us, and we believe with perfect truth, as being beyond all praise.

WHO FIRST INTRODUCED THE USE OF EXPANSIVE STEAM FOR MARINE ENGINES? [From the "American Repertory of Arts, Sciences, and Manufactures."]

If the reader believe, as we do, that the history of the marine engine would not present the series of astonishing successes it does, but for the introduction of expansive steam, he will deem the question we have placed at the head of this article one of exceeding interest; and, if there are rival claimants, one that cannot be discussed too early.

In an article contributed by Professor Renwick for Tredgold's late work on the steam-engine, he says: "It appears probable that the use of a valve, cutting off the steam at half stroke, had at first no other object in view than a saving of fuel. The person who first ascertained, as a practical result, that a greater speed might be attained in a given vessel by using steam expansively was Adam Hall-at that time the director of the workshops of the West Point Foundery Association. He, at all events, entered very fully into the practical investigation of this subject, and drew up a paper exhibiting his views, which was communicated to the writer of this essay. The same views had been previously exhibited theoretically, by the writer, in a public course of lectures delivered in February and March, 1830. These were soon after made public, in a treatise on the steam-engine, which, it is believed, had some

Messrs. Miller and Ravenhill have fitted fourteen other vessels with engines constructed from the same models as the Tartarus, eight of which were for foreign governments Those of the Tartarus are two seventies; and their average consumption of fuel, when on the West India station, did not exceed from 8 to 9 tons in the 24 hours.

influence in the improvements that have since been made in navigation by steam."

Professor Renwick, we think, is in error, both as to the gentleman named in this article, and the date at which he fixes the discovery. We have been put in possession of a number of facts, which go to prove conclusively, that the person who first used steam expansively, and at a much earlier period, was F. B. Ogden, Esq., of New Jersey, now or late U. S. consul at the port of Liverpool.

As early as 1808, when Mr. Fulton was making his first trials on the Hudson River, the attention of Mr. Ogden was attracted to the steam-engine, as connected with navigation. In 1811, he assisted in a series of experiments made at the instance of his uncle, late the governor of New Jersey, with the view to its introduction on a ferry owned by the latter, between Elizabeth-town Point and New York. This led him to a close investigation of the subject, when he was forcibly struck with the extraordinary advantages to be derived from using the expansive power of steam, which, to his astonishment, had never yet been made available. He made a drawing that year of a double engine, united at right angles, to consume the same quantity of steam required for a single one; that is, cutting it off at, and using it expansively for the rest of the stroke.

At the breaking out of the war, his attention was attracted to other objects, and the subject of steam was not again entertained until 1813, when appointed to the superintendence of the building of two boats at Pittsburgh, for a company in New Orleans, he had leisure to give it his full consideration. This resulted in an application for a patent, which was granted, bearing date 31st December, 1813. His claim was therein set forth as "combining two or more cylinders in such a manner as to form one engine, with the view to cutting off the steam, of whatever pressure, at,, or the stroke of the piston, and using it expansively for the residue." Incidental to this he claimed, "the arrangement of the cranks at right angles in two cylinders, or at 120 degrees in three, thereby enabling them to carry each other over the dead points."

In 1814, an engine was constructed under the sanction of Mr. Ogden, by B. H. Latrobe, Esq. for a woollen manufactory at Steubenville, Ohio, which gave great satisfaction to the proprietors; and in the following year he had his first marine engine placed on board a boat of 230 tons, to run on James River, between Norfolk and Richmond. The engine of this boat was built in Elizabethtown, N. J. It consisted of two cylinders, 27 inches diameter, with a 4 ft. stroke shutting off the steam at 4.

In 1816, Mr. O. went to England, for the purpose of having an engine built there. He submitted his plans to some of the most eminent engineers of the day, and among others, to the celebrated James Watt. To use the words of our informant, "he often speaks with great interest of his interview with that celebrated man. He had met with incredulity and doubt in some to whom he had explained his views; but no sooner had Mr. Watt examined his plans and heard his explanations than he exclaimed, 'I do not hesitate to say, Mr. Ogden, that this will make you a beautiful engine, and that you will derive the advantages you anticipate from it.' In reply to Mr. Ogden's question, if he was right in believing himself the inventor? he said: The expansive power of steam has been long used in Cornwall, where much larger engines are erected than are at first required: of course, they are not put to their full work; or of the power being sufficient, the cylinders are only thus far filled with steam, and the residue of the stroke is made by expansion.' 'Two or more cylinders have also been so placed as to be combined when required; but I am not aware that they have ever been so united with a view to the advantages your propose.'

An estimate for the work was made out by Messrs. Watt and Bolton; but it so far exceeded Mr. O.'s expectations, that he was induced to apply to Messrs. Murray and Co. of Leeds, whose offers were so much more moderate that he immediately contracted with them for a double acting engine, consisting of two cylinders, 30 inches diameter, 4 ft. stroke, with double condenser, air-pumps, &c. &c. so united that the power of each should be communicated to the same shaft by cranks at right angles with each other, a throttle valve to be attached to each cylinder with a cut-off at stroke. The whole weight of the engines and boilers when completed was 68 tons. Mr. Murray was an ingenious, practical man; he took great pride in the job; nothing to be compared with it in magnitude for marine purposes having yet been undertaken in England. But he never could be made to understand the principle of expansion, insisting to the last that wire-drawing the steam would produce the same effect. It was only through Mr. Ogden's positive orders that the throttle valves and cut-offs were introduced.

In the mean time his patent was infringed in a variety of instances on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, both in high and in lowpressure engines, for one of which piracies he brought a suit in the District Court of the United States at New Orleans, and obtained a verdict for 1000 dollars. An appeal