The Clyde is indissolubly connected with the history and progress of naval architecture. It was on the Clyde that steam navigation was first successfully applied. The Clyde may almost be said to be the cradle of iron shipbuilding; and it is to Clyde engineers and shipbuilders that the compound marine engine, and other improvements that have rendered ocean navigation more easy, safe, and practicable, are mainly due. But while the earlier history of naval architecture is bound up with that of the Clyde, its ultimate development and its present high state of perfection were brought about by the sustained and unflagging energy, enterprise, and ability of men like Professor Rankine, Robert Napier, and John Elder, who exerted themselves to maintain the pre-eminence which, thanks to their discoveries and exertions, the Clyde has never lost. The two latter gentlemen carried out in practice what the former demonstrated in theory. Never having been directly engaged in commercial pursuits, Professor Rankine could not earn the credit of building those leviathans that have directly contributed to our commercial prosperity; but in another, and not less essential way, he has assisted to build up and consolidate our industrial supremacy, and his numerous writings and discoveries in the science of mechanics will ever cause him to be regarded as a pioneer, not less than Henry Bell or Robert Napier, of a trade that has proved a source of untold wealth to the West of Scotland. Professor William John Macquorn Rankine was born in Edinburgh. His father was an officer in the Rifle Brigade, and afterwards a railway manager and director. After receiving his education at Edinburgh University, he studied engineering under his father, and afterwards under Sir John M'Neill, who subsequently became Professor of Practical Engineering in Trinity College, Dublin, and at the opening of the railway from Dublin to Drogheda, which he constructed in 1844, received the honour of knighthood from Earl de Grey, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. When we remember that Sir John was no less able as a teacher than as an author, and that his knowledge of engineering was not bounded by mere theory alone, we get a clue to the eminently practical turn of mind which characterised his illustrious pupil. In 1844 Mr. Rankine commenced business as a civil engineer in Edinburgh. His residence in Edinburgh was unrelieved by any event worthy of being recorded in his biography, if we except a project, which he brought before the authorities and zealously promoted, for obtaining a more efficient supply of water. After a two or three years' residence in Edinburgh, Mr. Rankine determined to remove to Glasgow, where a more congenial sphere appeared ready to receive him. Entering into partnership with Mr. John Thomson, he took an active part in all great schemes of a scientific or mechanical nature; and it was while here engaged in private practice