| Description | Written from Loders, Bridport, Dorset. The letter includes an extract from a biography of Andrew Crosse recounting Crosse's belief in the importance of electric power and suggests that electrical power might be a help in launching the Great Eastern. The letter remarks that the writer has seen the Great Eastern and is an old sailor. The letter suggests fixing a cradle or frame under the light water mark and then anchoring buoys or cables up and down stream which would raise the sternpost of the ship and check the momentum of the vessel. A postscript hopes that even though Brunel may think that creating artificial ice on the launchways may be a simple idea, he will not let it reflect badly on the writer's other ideas. |