The three successive positions that a boat takes are shown in Fig. 1. In the first it has just passed on to the frame, and is waiting to be hauled up on the ways; in the second it is being hauled up; and in the third the frame has been removed and the boat is shoved up on framework, so that it can be examined and receive whatever repairs may be necessary. This arrangement, which is from plans by Mr. Murray Jackson, suffices to launch 16 or 18 new boats annually, and for the repair of sixty steamers and lighters. These latter are usually 180 feet in length, 24 feet in width, and 8 feet in depth, and their displacement, when empty, is 120 tons. The dimensions of the largest steamers vary between 205 and 244 feet in length, and 25 and 26 feet in width. They are 10 feet in depth, and, when empty, displace from 440 to 460 tons. The Austrian government has two monitors repaired from time to time in the yards of the company. The short and wide forms of these impose a heavier load per running foot upon the ways than ordinary boats do, but nevertheless no difficulty has ever been experienced, either in hauling them out or putting them back into the water.--_Le Genie Civil_. [Illustration: FIG. 2.--DETAILS OF WINDLASS.] * * * * * IMPROVED HIGH-SPEED ENGINE. This engine, exhibited at South Kensington by Fielding and Platt, of Gloucester, consists virtually of a universal joint connecting two shafts whose axes form an obtuse angle of about 157 degrees. It has four cylinders, two being mounted on a chair coupling on each shaft. The word cylinder is used in a conventional sense only, since the cavities acting as such are circular, whose axes, instead of being straight lines, are arcs of circles struck from the center at which the axes of the shafts would, if continued, intersect. The four pistons are carried upon the gimbal ring, which connects, by means of pivots, the two chair couplings. [Illustration: THE FIELDING HIGH SPEED ENGINE.] Fig. 10 shows clearly the parts constituting the coupling, cylinders, and pistons of a compound engine. CC are the high-pressure cylinders; DD the low pressure; EEEE the four parts forming the gimbal ring, to which are fixed in pairs the high and low pressure pistons, GG and FF; HHHH are the chair arms formed with the cylinders carrying pivots, IIII, which latter fit into the bearings, JJJJ, in the gimbal ring. Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4 show these parts connected and at different points of the shaft's rotation. The direction of rotation is shown by the arrow. In Fig. 1 the lower high-pressure cylinder, C, is just about taking steam, the upper one just closing the exhaust; the low-pressure pistons are at half stroke, that in sight exhausting, the opposite one, which cannot be seen in this view, taking steam.