The Express.
London, England, 1866-04-09 00:00:00

APPLICATION OF HYDRAULICS TO MAX;

SNIPS.
-.-

An unpretanaing-looking little steam-ship of 87'
tuns, named the Nautilus, left London-bridge on
Saturday morning with a company of practical en-
naval architects, and otherecientiho men On
her dacha. She was innocent of piint, unencumbered
with masts and rigging, and looked altogethei
rather rough and home-made as she started off on
her trial trap. The novelty was that the vessel was ,
propelled with neither paddle nor screw &AC
the river-foxing people stared with no little
incrednlity on the strange innovation. The •
Nautilus is the property of private gentle._
men who have sufficient faith in what is known 11"
" Rathven's Hydraulic Propeller," to fit her tiyi
with it, and challense the attention of the scientific '
world to the invention. The principle is so simple,
and its promised advantages are so (111011110111
if the expectations of the promoters are reelied,
the revolution in merchant shipping will be almost
as great as that caused by the substitution of iron
armour for oaken planks in the navy. The impor-'
, tante of the results involved certainly deserved the
close observation with which the scientific gentle-
men on board watched the experiment ; and the
almost unanimous conclusions arrived at &wowed
te be highly.framble to the newly appfiedreollie,
pair. •
The eirisiltNefftedin•letheVillailo
tence. In the centre of the ship, end below the
water-line, there is fixed a kind of 'Turbine wheek,,
supplied with water through holes in the venal
bottom, and which, being set in motion by
an ordinary steam engine revolves rapidly,
Mad drives out a thick perpetual column of
water through apertures, termed nozzles, on
each side of the ship. This propelling,
power, unlike the paddle and screw, does
force the vowel ahead by pushing back the water,
but acts directly on the vessel (something like thy
I recoil produced by firing a gun), preventing, ot;
oonies, that loss of power caused by every revolu-
tion of the paddle or screw. The al-important
agents, the nosales, are the tubes through which
the water is expelled from the wheel to the outlet
apertures on the Inner line. When the steady
stream is directed towards the stern the ship goes
ahead ; when to the stern, she backs ; and when the
streams flow one each way, the vessel, as if on a
pivot, turns on her own length. These measles ere
so potent that they can be used to steer as well an
to peopel the ship ; so that the anashinj of a madder
would be a matter of perfect inglifferenos. The
advantage here is immense, when it is remembered
how many diluters at sea have been traceable to
the loss of a rudder, the breaking down of a
sr the fouling et a screw. In the Neutaue
De portion of the machinery is exposed. If she
were a ship of war the invariable attempt of the
lenemy to shoot away paddles, screw, and rudder
I would be therefore useless; and if she were a
merchantman she would not labour under the dis-
advantage of paddles to diminish her smiling powered
or of that inevitable weakness of stern which at-
tends the use of the screw. Again, the leak which
in other ships too often means hopeless destruo-
beoomes here, if not a positive blessing, at
least no source of danger or inconvenience, because
the greedy wheel can be made to swallow up the
ilmiapesons water, use it to increase the speed of the
wand, and in doing so to send it out considerably
*ter than it came in. These are put forward as
,the main advantages, but it will at once be seen
lhey would involve others, secondary perhaps to
stoea
,en.n extent, but still fraught with
tee uniform working of the machinery pre-
vents vibration, andconsequent wear end tear ; the
pitching and rolling of a heavy sea produces none
of that vexatious reaction which strains every part
'of the ship ; the steamer leaves no swell sad vary
little ferment behind ; the peculiarity of the ms-
ehinery enables the hull to be built on the lines
led the best clipper ship that sails ; and then there
comes in the additional claim of economy, both in
construction and working.
The Nautilus on Saturday was tested with one
of the ordinary iron paddle boats, and in the race
down towards Gravesend she held her own, and
once or twice got well ahead. The average speed
was 11} miles an hour. The Admiralty are so
convinced of the fitness of the principle that they
are now building a gunboat (the Waterwitch) at
Blackwell, to be worked by the hydraulic prapeller.
This gunboat will be launched probably in May,
and as she is to be of 778 tons burden, and 167
horse-power, her trial will in a measure decide a
very important question as to the future of steam-

skithe public will have no difficulty in seeing her,
as her owners invite the fullest inspection. At
present, as we intimated, the Nautilus is not
an exhibition ship, but a mere shell, fitted
with two engines of 10-horse power each. She
draws two feet of water, is 115 feet long, and being
7 feet 2 inches deep, stands rather awkwardly
high out of the water. The hull closely resem-
bles the Citizen boats, but being somewhat
broader, deeper, and fuller in the lines, seems
heavier. Raving nothing but a temporary mast,
or rather flagstaff, before the funnel, she looks con-
spicuously bare, but the main object, namely the
illustration of the principle, has been •
Looked at from shore, the thick stream of water
issuing from the nozzle may be seen shooting along
close to the side like a white column of glass. It
expends itself without causing much disturbance
of the surrounding water.