Resistance of Ships and Screw Propulsion

Abstract

A TEXT-BOOK dealing with these subjects, on the basis of scientific principles and experimental investigation, in a form suitable for the use of students, was much required when, fifteen years ago, Naval Constructor Taylor undertook the task. He was exceptionally qualified for the work, having graduated at the Naval Academy at Annapolis, and subsequently passed, with distinction, through the courses of study in naval architecture at the Royal Naval College at Greenwich, where he had the great advantage of attending lectures by Prof. Cotterill, F.R.S., and the instructors in naval architecture. Mr. Taylor's-book was largely in the nature of a compilation, arid based on work done by British writers, and especially on that of William Froude and Rankine. Due acknowledgment of this indebtedness was made, but the volume also contained much original work. Its presentation of facts and principles was fresh and admirable in form. The style was clear and terse; mathematical investigations were numerous and well arranged; readers were referred to original sources of information; and within two hundred pages a great mass of information was compressed. In these circumstances it was natural that the volume should be widely circulated both in this country and in the United States. It has been out of print for some years, and all interested in these subjects have hoped for a revised edition in which would be embodied work done since 1893 in connection with the resistance and propulsion of ships. The intervening period has been marked by numerous and valuable experimental investigations conducted in tanks which have been established in this country and abroad on the model of that first constructed near Torquay by the late William Froude about forty years ago. Resistance of Ships and Screw Propulsion. By Naval Constructor D. W. Taylor, U.S.N. Pp. ix + 234. New York: The Macmillan Co.; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1907.) Price 10s. net.