To give to his discovery farther publicity, Sir Humphry requested that three models of ships might be exhibited in the spacious hall of the Navy Office in Somerset House; the copper of one of which he proposed should be protected by bands of zinc, that of another by plates of wrought iron soldered on the sheathing, while the third should have its copper exposed without any protection whatever. These models were floated in sea-water for several months; and the experiment fully confirmed the results he had previously obtained in his laboratory. The models were from time to time examined by persons of the highest scientific character, as well as by others of great naval celebrity; and so alluring was the theory, and so conclusive the experiments, that, instead of waiting the result of the slow but more certain ordeal to which the plan had been submitted, it was immediately put into extensive practice, both in the Government service and on the bottoms of ships belonging to private individuals. To those the least acquainted with the principles of Voltaic action, it was only necessary to state the proposition, in order to command their assent to its truth. The utility of the plan therefore was never questioned, but the claims of Davy to the originality of the invention were doomed to meet with immediate opposition.[94] [94] Amongst other counter-claims, there appeared, in a weekly publication entitled "The Mechanic's Magazine," a statement in favour of a person of the name of Wyatt, founded on the following advertisement in "The World" newspaper of April 16, 1791. "By the King's Patent, tinned copper sheets and pipes manufactured and sold by Charles Wyatt of Birmingham. These sheets, amongst other advantages, are particularly recommended for sheathing of ships, as they possess all the good properties of copper, with others obviously superior." It is unnecessary to observe that, except their object, there is nothing in common in the inventions of Davy and Wyatt. The superiority claimed by Wyatt consisted merely in coating the copper with some substance less corrosive by sea-water than that metal: an idea borrowed from the common practice of tinning copper vessels.