[111] See “Rolls’ Chapel Reports,” 7th Report, p. 204. [112] See “Repository of Arts,” vol. xxviii. (second series), p. 138, and Woodcroft’s “Specification of Marine Propulsion,” Part I. p. 63, and “Steam Navigation,” p. 125. [113] Fincham’s “Naval Architecture,” on the use of iron for shipbuilding. [114] William Laird, father of the late John Laird, M.P., established the Birkenhead Iron Works in 1824, under the style of William Laird and Sons, and, in 1829, they built for the Irish Inland Company the first iron vessel constructed on the Mersey. She was a lighter of 60 tons measurement, about 60 feet long and 13 feet beam. From that time until 1861, Mr. John Laird carried on this extensive business of shipbuilding and engineering, and when, in that year, he was elected to represent Birkenhead in Parliament, he transferred it to his sons, who now carry it on under the style of Laird Brothers. Mr. Laird died in October 1874, about the same time as Sir William Fairbairn, another distinguished worker in the field of applied science, and both men of great eminence in their profession. [115] The _Elburkah_ was 70 feet long, 13 feet beam, and 6 feet 6 inches deep. Her plates were a quarter of an inch thick in the bottom, and her sides one-eighth of an inch. She weighed only 15 tons, including her decks, but without engines, boilers, spars, and outfit. (See evidence, Mr. McGregor Laird before Select Committee on Steam Navigation to India (1834), p. 59.) [116] Lardner (“Steam Navigation,” p. 482) says that, in one of their experimental trials, the _Elburkah_ got aground and heeled over on her anchor, and that in a wooden vessel the anchor would probably have gone through her; and, further that an iron vessel built for the Irish Inland Navigation Company, on being towed across Lough Derg, was driven on the rocks in a gale owing to the rope breaking; but, though she bumped for a considerable time, she sustained no injury. [117] The _Rainbow_ was, perhaps, the largest iron steam-vessel then afloat. She was 185 feet long, 25 feet beam, 600 tons burden and 180 horse-power. [118] See a learned and able report on the “Deviations of the Compass,” by Mr. Frederick J. Evans, Master R.N., Superintendent of the Compass Department of H.M. Navy, printed in the “Philosophical Transactions,” Part II. 1860. In this interesting paper, Mr. Evans calls attention to one or two important facts, certainly not known to the general public, or perhaps not even to many shipbuilders. He says, p. 354: “In an iron sailing-ship, built head to south, there will be an attraction of the north point of the compass to the head, and if built head to north, a like attraction to the ship’s stern; and so far there would seem to be no advantage in one direction over the other. But, in the first case, the topsides near the compass have weak magnetism; in the second case, they are strongly magnetic: the first position seems therefore preferable.