The Farnborough Seaplane Tank: The New Equipment for Seaplane Research and Development Fully Described

IT is probable that the earliest recorded results of model experiments conducted for the express purpose of determining the water resistance of a body relate to the tests made by Beaufoy in the Greenland Dock during the years 1793 to 1798. The results of these tests were made public in 1834, and in the same year Scott Russell commenced a series of model experiments upon ship forms, these tests being conducted in a canal. Based on the results of these tests, Scott Russell formulated his theory of ship resistance, and in his paper to the British Association in 1869 he drew particular attention to the important effect of depth of water upon the wave formation. In 1869 the committee of the British Association recommended that experiments should be carried out on a steamer of known form by towing her at various speeds by means of an apparatus which would register the towing force. To this Mr. Froude, who was a member of the committee, added that so great a variety of forms ought to be tried that it would be impossible, alike on the score of time and expenditure, to perform the experiments with full‐sized ships. The Admiralty, when asked to carry out the proposal, declined to do so, but agreed to carry out Mr. Froude's proposal to try models.