The Sun.
London, England, 1858-05-28 00:00:00

A_Vr)

P. Ales.

A' n 2e . en: m.-elii,g , f the So&ety of A. ts, Mr.
S,!..tt lius..ell in the chair, a paper was read by
M. John Macgregor, "On the Paddle=wheel and
Screvv-propeller from: the earlissr, times." After
having advertmg to the suppo -e i use of paddles
worked-by animal j owes for thelifcipillsion-of ves-
sels by the ancient Egyptians, the Romans, and
the Chinese, Mr. Macgregor says he first finds
authentic proof of their -win in two letters, written
;11 a. n. 1543, by Blaseo de Garay, and now pre--
served in. the national archives at Simahe;s, in
Spain. These give the particulars of experiments
at Malega and Barcelona with large vessels
pelled by paddle-
wheels, turned by 40 men. He,
however, finds no evidence of the asserted use of
seam by Garay for marine propulsion. The mus-
cular poWer of men, of horses, and of other ani-
mals, was often tried and frequently patented, even
to the year 1848, by Miller ; and 1856, by Moses.
The Marquis of Worcester, in 1631,' patented the
application of a current, to turn paddle-wheels on
or t
a vessel a hich they propelled 'by windirg up a
rope. Papin, in .1690, proposed to wort;
wheels by gunpowder, exploded under pistons ;
Conrad (1709) used the force of the wind,
Maillard (1733) and Goutaret (1753) applied clock.
work, (Rarriott (1797) used falling water ; weights
were employed by Tremeere (1801), Congreve
(1827) used the capillary attraction of a wheel of
sponge or glass plates ; Dundonald (1833) applied
the ostillatiana of mercury ; and Jacobi (1838) em-
ployed an electro-magnet to work the paddle-wheels
of a vessel on the Neva. The article number of Eng-
lish patents relating to marine propulsion is 802,
from the earliest, grante I to Ramsey in 1618, to
those of Juue, 1857. The first patent relating to
a steam-boat is that of Jonathan Hulls, tu 1736.
He placed a paddle-wheel en beams projecting over
the stern, and it was turned by an atmospheric
steam-engine, acting in conjunction with a counter-
poise weight, upon a system of ropes and grooved
wheels. The first notice of a successful trial of the
steam-beat recorded by witnesses is in a notarial
cart ificate, in Pads. This asserts that in July, 1783,
the Comte de Jouffroy caused a vessel of 130 feet
in length to be propelled for a quarter of an hour by
a steam-enl. ins on the Saone, n9ar Lyons. Experi-
ments conducted about the Sam: time, at Dal-
swinton, in Scotland, by Patrkk Miller, re-
sulted, in 1787, in the successful use of the steam-
engine, by Miller, Taylor, and Symington, to
propel a vessel by paddle-wheels, which worked
one before the other in the centre of the beat. The
Charlotte Dundas was built on the Clyde Canal, in
1801. Although Fulton used a steamer on the Seine
in 1803, and another in America, the Clermont, in
1807, was the first that plied SO'RS to be remune-
rative in that country. In 1809, the Fulton the
First., steam-frigate, was launched at New York.
Bell bull the Comet in 1811, at Glasgow, and used
it regularly for traffic next year. In 1815, Dr.
Dodd steamed from Glasgow, by Dublin, to Lon-
don, in the Thames, which made a stormy passage
of 758 nautical miles in 121 hours. Steam navi-
gation was introduced into France in 1815. In
1818, Napier's steam-packets ran regularly betwet n
Green, ek and Belfast. It is said that, in 1819, the
Savannah steamed from New York to Liverpool,
but the assertion is very questionable. The Comet
first carried the Admiralty pennant in 1822. In
1825, the Enterprise steamed from England to Cal-
en ta is 113 days. Guns were first carried by the
s•eatner Salamander, in 1832. The Emperor .of
Japan received a steam yacht, as a present from
the Queen of England, in 1858. The Chinese now
use mock steam-boats, with paddles turned by
m-n concealed inside. Having thus traced the
h'story of the paddlewheel, the paper proceeds
to describe the various positions in which it was
placed,
and the various plans and inventions re-
-1 tting to its several parts—the shaft, the wheel,
the floats, the paddle-wheels----in all of which
there have been many successive modifications
in shape and adjustment. Turning to the screw
propeller, which, Mr. Macgregor thinks,
may have been suggested by the motion of a
windmill, as that of the paddle by the action
of a watermill, it appears that several attempts
were made previous to the introduction of steam
to make the screw available for the propulsion
of vessels. In 1729, Duquet submerged an ap-
paratus like a smoke-jack, or windmill, and the
action of the stream turned its shaft 84 as to
wind up a rope. In 1746, Bouguer states that
" revolving vanes, like those of a windmill,"
had been tried for the propulsion of vessels, but
it is not clear that the axis was turned by force
inside the vessel, or t' at the mode was an ad-
vance on that of Duquet's. The use of the screw
propeller in China may be of an indefinite an-
tiquity. A model of one was brought from that
country about the year 1780. It had two sets
of blades, turning in opt rite directions ; hut the
first distinct description of the screw-propeller to
be turned by machinery inside a vessel, seems
to have been by Dr. Bernouilli, of Groningen,
ill 1852, and it is remarkable that this, though
the earliest recorded proposal, was well enough
matured to comprise the use of oblique
vanes at the bow, sides, and stern, turned by a
and capable of being hoisted out
steam-engine,
of the water. Iu 1768 Paucton proposed
the pterophorts, a screw thread on a cylinder, to
by wholly or partly immersed. In 1770 James
Watt suggested to Dr. Small the trial of a steam
screw propeller. Bramah, in 1785, first patented a
rotary engine for this purpose ; Ramsay (1792) put
the screw between two mills, and Littleton (1794)
used a three-threaded screw, while Fulton (1798)
tried one with four blades. Shorter's screw (1800),
with a jointed shaft, and worked by men, was ap-
plied in 1802 ta H. M. ships Dragon and Superb.
The first screw steamer was tried by Stevens in
America, in 1804. In 1825 Brown used one in the
Thames. The only patent for conahniug the screw
propeller and the paddle wheel is that of Turck,
in 1852. The Bee, a naval steam tender at Ports-
mouth, has carried both paddles and screw since
1342, but they are not worked t gether. The forms
of the screw propeller and the modes are as varied
as those of the paddle wheel, and the forms which
have been proposed for the blades, both in out-
line and section, are innumerable. The more im-
, portant of these are noticed in the paper. In conclu-
sion Mr. Macgregor says :—" In the modes of propul-
sioa adopted by aquatic animals may be found al-
most every plan which has been uaed by man with
machinery. 'Thus water is ejected for propulsion
by the cuttlo fish, and ' paper nautilus' sails. are
nice' by the velella and water birds • punting and
1 'cl sir'et folding
towing by whelks andf thet_crienp
' °a-ddleis; bya ducks,
paddle by the labster,- h
eafishofP
and oblique surfaces by
Lice appendage is found in the wings of an Austra-
lian fiy, but it is supposed to he shaped thus only
wh-n dried after death. There is, however, one
remarkable animal which propels itself by a rotary
movement, acting on the water by means similar to
those of the paddlewheel and screw- propeller 'com-
bined. This is the infusarial insect Paramecium:
My attention was called to this miniature
L viathan by Mr. Rol ert Mallet, and after some
l mon tha of ineffectual search, I was fortunate enough
to see is operations distinctly in one of Mr. Tom-
kin,' splendid microscopes. A sulcus or furrowed
groove runs oldsquely round the oval-shapedtbody
f the animal (in one variety it is only near the
stern). A wave-like protuberance passing along
this sulcus (with or'avithout cilia) causes tke body
to ro ate on its longer axis, and thus propels it as
by the fore-and-aft stroke of a paddle, as well as by
the screw like progress induced by thespiral groove.
The coloured diagrams around us 'show, without
verbal explanation, the gradual progress ohf marine
propulsion from the early days of
its more particu-
Baby-
lon, and Egypt. We bane tracedu
of the lar application in the rotatoser
Y these combined in
paddle-
wheel and screw, and
hsavweork en tio
s. Let us hope that
one of nature's smallest e,t
afloat would be a great suc-
cess, bearing the giant vessel now
our sturdy emigrants to lands
of plenty—honest English hearts to shores of
rcom-
merce—strong ,ands to works-of industry—strong
es knowlede— armies to
minds to stores
a b
ndof the eospelg of peacebrave to the ends
fields of glota,c—
of the earth. ..

Tile NEW LANDING-STAGE AT LIVERPOOL.—The
Hersey Dock Board have ordered the lifeboata to be
placed at the new landing stage, as they will thus be
available at all stages of the tide. There is it appears,
,ome difliculy about making satisfactory traffic arrange-
'merits f r the stage, it being found that carts and other
heavy vehicles damage the planking very seriously. The
expediency of another and fifth bridge, entirely devoted
to carts and cattle, is at present under consideration,
together with the employment of cranes and other tackle
to be erected on the piers, so the' heavy goods might be
thug paced upon the stage, the incline of the bridges at
lowwatt r being excessive.

Yeentrui TRAVELLER.....A good deal of curiosity
was exited among the passengers at the Central station
on Monday evening by the arrival in the 7.45 train
from King's-cross, of a little girl rearcely five years old,
ption up%:‘ hose. back. was securely sewn a label, bearing the
f flowing The child's grandmother,
Mrs. —, Pipewell-gate, Gateshead, will be on the
platform at the Central station, Newcastle, to receive it."
The vqas in excellent spirits after her day's ride,
zind bcre the handling of the bystanders—all of whom
insisted ou reading the singular label—with great good
humour and composure. Unfortunately the granddame
had been at the station on Sunday evening inquiring for
the little traveller, and on this occasion was s
office to not present.
The child, however, evinced no feeling of grief or die.
appointment on finding herself quite alone in so strange
a place, and trotted off to the station master,
await the arrival of the grandmother, apparently rath
amused than otherwise.—Ncilvuate aroretc/c,