New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-05-14


tory and give clearer account than has
yet been furnished Of the experiment of hot
air as motive power with which she has
been connected. The story is this. At her
first trial the ship accomplished about nine rev.
olutions of her wheels minute and speed of
about seven miles an hour. Her cylinders were
30 large, being fourteen feet in diameter, that the
bottoms, to which the fires Of the furnace
were directly applied, were rende ed insecure
through constant expansion and contraction.
This difficulty it was found could not be easily
remeded, and the plan was adopted Of running
the ship on the high-pressure principle, and By
this means very much reducing the size of the
cylinders, bringing them down to about six feet.
The operation was long in being accomplished,
and vas attended with very heavy expenses.
These expenses in connection with the original
cost, which was of necessity very large from
the fact OF the ship being the first of her
kind, brought the bills OF the vessel 10
a very high hgure-it does not matter
what, but to the amount Of several
hundred thousand dollars. She was origi-
nslly owned by q company who had dubbed in
various sums to try the experiment Of the new
motive power Gradually one By one of the
number grew nervous and withdrew, leaving the
enterprise, as often happens in such cases, on
the shoulders Of the one or two who were most
deeply in The gentleman by far the most
largely interested, and to whose energy and
boldne3s the experiment on such magnificent
scale really owed it, life, was Mr.. John B. Kitch
ing. He had stood by when all others had de-
serted, ard had enthusiastically flung his for
tune into the cast.
Such was the state OF things when the ship,
in May or June last, made her first trip with the
new machinery, and when, in returning to her
dock after what Capt. Ericsson deemed most
successful trial, she was struck By that fatal
flaw which carried her to the bottom. Owing to
the extraordinary expenditure upon the enter
prise which had up to that time been made the
blow was most serious, though it would perhaps
have been fatal under almost any circumstances,
for the largest purse has a bottom and the most
enduring patience may be exhausted The in
ternal finishing of the ship, which was most
sumptuous, was ruined by the accident. The
river was then swollen by heavy rain and tur-
bid in the extreme The mud OF its banks, held
in solution by the disturbed currents, settled in
every chnk and Granny, penetrated and encrust-
ed every part Of the cabins, saloons, state
rooms and engine, adding to the latter rust
even worse than the filth aud necessitating its
entire removal. The accident, though happen
ing at home, was nevertheless q complete ship
wreck The ship was in fact reduced TO a
mere hulk, with everything movable in ruins
and everything fixed requiring renovation, the
entire machinery included. This would have
been staggering blow to an experiment of this
nature under any circumstances. As it was, it
so happened that Mr.. Kitcbing had oyerstrained
his pecunisry resources in the enthusiastic pur-
suit of his aims and on the very day his ship sunk
he received notice that he had gone to protest
in England through the abundant caution of his
commercial correspondents there, who had be-
come apprehensiye in regard to the success of
his great experiment Added to the eSpendi-
lures, the losses, the delays, and the yexations
Of which the enterprise had been so fruitful,
this last disaster sealed its fate.
The ship was after weary exertions finally got
INTO dock 1t was then that somebody money
must repair damages, and be the means of saving
v hat could be saved from the wreck. There was
no one having sufficient confidence in the resus-
citation ofthe now unlucky enterprise to advance
unds to carry it out. The consequence was
hat tho beaten track had to be rcsorted to and
The vessel converted into steamship. Such is
in brief the story of the Ericsson. Although
there has been failure to realize the eXpecta-
lions Of the parties concerned in this enterprise
of propelling large ships by heated air, through
the series of untoward circumstances that have
attended its development, it by no means fol-
lows that the theory has been proved
practically unsound or incapable of application
according to the expectations of It's author. On
the contrary, the experiment stands simply in
the position of an untried or but partially tried
scheme. In the future, and under other and
more favorable auspices, the enterprise may
possibly rise into successful accomplishment,
add new luster to the genius of the inventor who
conceived it, and elicit admiration for the heroic
yigor, the boldness and the lofty purposes Of his
enthusiastic though unfortunate hacker.
GOVERNOR GARDNER AND JUDGE LORISG.
Governor Gardner of Massachusetts, during
his short political career has strikingly Illus
trated that famous saying of Sam Patch that