ΤΟ THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR GEORGE COCKBURN, G.C.B., F.R.S., ADMIRAL OF THE RED, MAJOR-GENERAL OF THE ROYAL &c., &c., &c. DEAR SIR, Having been honoured by your permission to dedicate to you the following pages, I avail myself of the opportunity to express publicly my sense of the full consideration which, so long since as the year 1830, you gave to my proposals for defending Her Majesty's ships from the destructive effects of Lightning. Your anxious regard for the national welfare, and especially for the interests of the Navy of England, would necessarily have ensured a patient investigation of such proposals; but the kind attention with which you received my statements, and the candour and fairness with which you inquired into the many objections that were urged against them, have rendered the distinction of your approbation most valuable to me. That your opinion of the propriety of giving my method of fixing conductors in ships an adequate trial was not erroneous, is fully shown by the uniform success which has attended its adoption in about thirty vessels of Her Majesty's Navy, which during the last twelve years have been exposed to heavy storms of lightning in various latitudes, without experiencing the slightest inconvenience or damage. Permit me, Sir, to add the expression of my respect for the many eminent public services which you have rendered this great maritime nation, and my grateful acknowledgment of the many personal kindnesses I have received at your hands. That your valuable life may long be spared to your country and to your friends, is the earnest wish of, Dear Sir, Your faithful friend and servant, SNOW HARRIS. |