STEAM NAVIGATION.
A VERY important experiment was made at Liverpool, on the 29th May last, with a • low-pressure boiler of Messrs. BRAITHwAirE and Eaxcssox's principle, by which experiment the efficacy of their peculiar mode of generating steam is most satisfactorily proved.' A correspondent who was present, favours us with the following concise, and we believe the only accurate report. "The experiment was conducted by Mr. Nimmo of Dublin, and Mr. VIcNOLES of London, civil engineers, in the presence of several of the first-rate mercantile gentlemen of Liverpool, who, sensible of the great benefit which must accrue to Liverpool by every important improvement connected with steam navigation, took a lively interest in the results. These were -1st, That the new boiler occupies less than one-fourth of the space of an ordinary boiler; 2ndly, That it consumes less than one. half of the quantity of fuel ; 3rdly, That a chimney is entirely dis- pensed with.
"The most striking feature in this mode of generating steam, is the greatly diminished size of the boiler; at the same time, a great saving of fuel is effected, from the circumstance of a much smaller surface being presented to the action of the heat, than in common boilers. These facts are truly novel ; and the great facility which will be added to com- merce by this invention, may be said simply to have originated in a due. consideration of the rapidity with which heat equalizes itself.
"The boiler in question was found to evaporate 40 cubic feet of sea- water in one hour, with a consumption of 2401bs. of gas coke ; hence, 6lbs. for every cubic foot of water converted into-steam ; which, accord- ing to the laws of mechanics, is equal to one horse power continually exerted for one hour : the power of the boiler was therefore found to be equal to 40 horses. It is intended for marine purposes ; anal will occupy 3 feet 1 inch of the length of a vessel of 15 feet beam, and cover about three-fourths of its section. The weight of the boiler itself is 3 tons, and the quantity of water it contains is 2i tons."
With a boiler constructed on BRAI'rIIwAlT E and Ens c ssoic's
he Hugh Lindsay would have saved the twelve days that were wasted in taking in coals on the voyage from Bombay to Suez.
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