THANKS OF CONGRESS AND IS TO RECEIVE A GOLD MEDAL.
Information of this system of construction reached Russia after its value had been proved by the American, English, French, Austrian and German Governments, and Mr. Francis was invited to visit that country, where he was received by the Emperor.
In 1860, Admiral Boutakoff, of the Imperial Russian Navy, was ordered by the Emperor to proceed to Liverpool and examine the system of construction, with a view to its applicability to service on the Aral Sea, in Asia, and report as to its utility. From documents placed in possession of the writer, he is enabled to present a copy of the Admiral's Report, as follows:
"HONORED SIR: I have sent to the Scientific Committee of the Marine Ministry, with my reports of the 15th and 17th of October, for publication in a marine journal, a short article concerning the corrugated iron steamers. In addition to information therein contained, I would state that it is my conviction that for our rivers, which are from year to year getting more shallow, there cannot be built a more suitable steamer than the above. In the discharge of my duty, I communicate to you the result of the trials which have been made at the Liverpool factory.
"The corrugation of sheets of iron is effected, as may be known to you, crosswise and not lengthwise, and the sheets of the hull are riveted together by lapping one upon the other, corrugation upon corrugation, and a double row of rivets put in.
"It was important to ascertain the relative strength of the riveted lap to a whole sheet before proceeding with the construction of the steamers. For that purpose we placed upon two blocks a riveted sheet _a a_ (as marked in the diagram accompanying this), three feet ten inches in length by two feet six inches wide and three-sixteenths of an inch thick. We then began by laying on it, directly over the line of the rivets, zinc slabs, _b b_, each weighing thirty-one pounds English.
"The sheet broke at one row of rivets after having placed upon it 188 slabs, or 160 poods of fourteen pounds each (nearly three tons); after this test a whole sheet of the same measure was placed upon the blocks, and it bent after 199 slabs or 170 poods, (over three tons) had been placed upon it.