Progress in Naval Engineering.

THOUGH surpassed in length by the presidential address of Sir William White to the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1903, the Thomas Lowe Gray lecture delivered to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers on Jan. 3 by Engr. Vice-Admiral R. W. Skelton, Engineer-in-Chief of the Fleet, on progress in marine engineering, bears comparison with it as an authoritative official review of an important subject. While Sir William White traced the evolution of mercantile and naval vessels, Admiral Skelton confined himself to the progress in marine machinery, and his lecture is probably the most extensive survey so far written. His predecessors, Admirals Durston, Oram, Goodwin, and Dixon, in their addresses and papers to the technical institutions, have all dealt with various aspects of naval and marine engineering, and were the series of contributions collected in a single volume it would go far towards filling one of the many gaps in the literature of engineering history. Such a volume should at least be available in every man-of-war and every school where marine engineering is studied.