Mr. Bullivant, who manufactures the torpedo netting and hawsers for the
navy, has devised a method of getting rid of the difficulties complained
of by substituting steel booms for the wooden booms and an arrangement
of pulleys and runners, whereby the protection can be run out and in,
topped and brailed up out of the way, with great facility. The system
was tried at Portsmouth last year with considerable success upon the
Dido, but as it was thought that some of the fittings were somewhat
frail and might collapse beneath the shock of a live torpedo, it was
resolved to submit them to a practical test under service conditions
upon the Resistance. The ship was consequently fitted with three of the
steel booms on the port side. They were 32 ft. long and spaced 45 ft.
apart, and connected by a jackstay to which the nets were attached. Each
steel boom weighed 5 cwt., or less than half the weight of the ordinary
boom, and whereas the latter is fixed to the ship's side by a hook which
is liable to be disconnected or broken by the jerk of an exploding
torpedo, Mr. Bullivant's boom works in a universal or socket joint,
which cannot get out of gear except by fracture, and which permits the
boom to be moved in any direction, whether vertically or fore and aft,
close in against the sides. Below each boom is a flange, which serves as
a line along which a traveler moves, the latter being actuated by means
of a topping line running over a pulley at the head and another near the
heel.

Upon the booms being topped to a perpendicular position, the nets are
attached to the runners at the bottom of the booms close inboard
(instead of, under the existing system, to the tops of the booms from
boats alongside or otherwise), and when this is done, the mere
depression of the booms into position will cause the nets to run out of
their own accord. In like manner, when the occasion for their use has