In steam-ships, where salt water is used for generating the steam, the incrustation on the sides of the boilers becomes a serious annoyance. It obstructs the communication of heat from the furnace to the water, and the metal is thus liable to become red-hot. Numerous plans have been adopted for the purpose of preventing the accumulation of salt on the sides of the boiler, the most common of which is to allow the water, when saturated with saline matter, to escape, and then to fill the boiler afresh. Among other contrivances for effecting the same purpose, without the waste of heating power which the change of water occasions, is Mr. Hall's plan of condensing the steam in dry condensers, cooled externally, so that the distilled water may be used again and again. This plan though theoretically good, is not much adopted; for the condensation of steam cannot be so well accomplished by that means as when a jet of cold water is thrown directly into the condenser. The principle of the dry condenser has, however, been lately made available in a new kind of engine, wherein the combined action of steam and of spirit vapour is applied as the propelling power. Steam-boats had been for many years in extensive use on the rivers and seas of Europe and America before it was thought practicable to make voyages in them across the Atlantic. At the meeting of the British Association at Liverpool in 1837, that subject was brought forward for consideration, and it was then attempted to be shown, by calculations of the quantities of coal requisite for such a voyage, that steam communication with America would not be profitable, if it could be accomplished, as the coal would occupy so much of the tonnage as to leave scarcely any space for passengers and goods. Within a few months afterwards those calculations were set at nought by the "Sirius" and the "Great Western," which successfully crossed the Atlantic with passengers and cargo, the former in nineteen days from Cork, and the latter in sixteen. At the present time, steam-packets are constantly crossing from New York to Liverpool in eleven days.