A Treatise on the Stability of Ships

A detailed technical and scientific discussion, first published in 1885, on how to ensure the stability of iron-built ships.

Edward James Reed (Author)

9781108026437, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 23 December 2010

424 pages, 225 b/w illus. 6 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm, 0.62 kg

Sir Edward James Reed (1830–1906) was appointed chief constructor of the Navy in 1863, and later founded his own ship design consultancy. He pioneered the methodical use of scientific calculations to determine a ship's weight, strength and stability, and was responsible for a number of revolutionary designs at a crucial period, when ships began to be armoured or rebuilt in iron in response to more powerful weaponry. This book, first published in 1885, sets out his approach to the problem of ensuring stability in iron-built ships. Reed discusses scientific theories of flotation, buoyancy and stability and applies them to contemporary ship design and shipbuilding techniques. Reed also describes the experiments of French naval architects in this area, providing the first English translations of their research. It is an important record of the Victorian naval and scientific understanding of iron-built ship stability, corrective design and building methods.

1. Primary conditions of flotation and stability
2. Fuller consideration of the metacentre
3. Further conditions of stability of square prisms
4. General case: stability of body of irregular form
5. Longitudinal metacentre
6. Purpose of 'metacentric diagrams'
7. Stability of certain war-ships
8. Elements to be determined in calculating stability
9. Mr. Macfarlane Gray's system of diagrams and calculations
10. Professor Elgar's vertical or cross-curves of stability
11. Brief historical survey of geometrical aspect of stability
12. Dupin's investigations
their generality
13. French systems of calculating stability
14. Merrifield's suggested mode of approximating to evolute of curve of buoyancy
15. Dynamical stability
16. M. Daymard's process of stability calculation
17. Amsler-Laffon's mechanical integrator
18. Rolling of ships at sea
19. Importance of determining longitudinal and vertical positions of centre of gravity
Index.

Subject Areas: Military history [HBW]