Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1859-11-15

tbs GERMAN STRAMsHIP.-Quitea an excite.
meDt has been given to Buffalo Commercial and
Marine circles by the announcement by Mr. Ger
main of that city, Of plan Of his by which a
complete revolution would be made in the history
Of commerce and naval warfare. Mr. German
Is no visionary who enunciates this project as a
mere whim, but is one Of the prominent and re
speced citizens Of Buffalo who has been for fifteen
or twenty years. studying, planning and expert
mentng upon this idea, aud he has now brought
his years OF application to definite result, and
has, in a course of four lectures before the people
OF Buffalo, which he was invited to give by many
Of the citizens Of the place, including ex Prssi.
dent FilImore-eXplaned his theory. He claims
to have proven
First, That steamers may be constructed that
can be made to run more than one hundred miles
the hour.
Second, That they will be so strong and steady
that the greatest oceanic forces will not eudanger
their safety nor much disturb their equilibrium
Sea sickness will be impossible.
Third That the economy Of their movements
will be such as to reduce the cost of travel and
transportation thereby 10 less than ouc-hrth o.
their present ordinary rates
Fourth, That when light they need not draw
more than fourteen feet; and when loaded with a
very large amount of freight and passengers, aud
with fuel enough for voyage around the world,
they need not draw more than about twenty-five
feet,
Fifth, That as war ship, one of these would
be an overmatch for all existing navies.
It will be seen that he entirely ecpses the Great
Eastern in his propositions His plan is thus
briefly dCscribed
From the well known principles Of resistance to
bodies moving in water, Mr.. German showed that
the part OF vessel which opens the track, should
have its surfaces inclined as near TO the line of mo
tion as due regard 10 strength aud steadiness will
| permit The limit in this direction has not hereto
| fore been reached, or even approximated Great
| length has been supposed incompatible with
| strength whereas in the Great Eastern, about
| the precise length most trying TO vessel, to wit :
| the distance from the apex OF one large wave to
| another, has been adopted.
| The highest wave does not exceed thirty two
| feet at least we have authentic accounts of one
rising higher than this. The greatest distance be-
| tween the waves from apex to apex is 660 feet
| Should the Great Eastern encounter one of these
monster waves, she would be liable to break in one
fracture, her extreme length being about $50 feet,
but II ship supported by many waves sA ould
| break, the fracture must be compound, il each
| part is made equally strong. In the form OF ship
| proposed the ends are very light, made OF strong
material and on this account u long vessel must
be much stronger than short one. The entire
length Of the ocean steamer built upon this plan is
1000 feet, and each end constructed alike, In the
! form Of wedge. This wedge form is 1850 feet
long, leaving the parallel portion 500 feet in length
The extreme width Is 70 feet and height is 81
feet To steady tho vessel fins are attached 500
| ieet long TO each OF the ends These fins impart
strength possesses great buOyancy, and are used
for the purpose Of surface condensation Each flu
has vacuum equal to Il room 20 feet wide, 10 feet
deep and 3400 feet long.
The walls are double. The outer one Ia Ia
inch in thickness, the inner one but la inch thick
and each part Of those walls is to reach from the
bottom to ue top of the vessel Thousands o
these pieces are TO be formed precisely alike ant
I can easily be made exact in form, The space be
tween the outer and inner wall is divided into air
tight sections three feet square, so il the outside
wall be broken there can but little water enter -
The entire ship is built in air tight sections and
broken in two, no lives will be endangered, yet
Mr.. G. admitted that the position might be al
8 awkward one, and proposed 10 take along fOu
small steamers each weighing 400 tons, to be pu
into service in case OF accident. There are 81,
z wheels each side placed 300 feet apart Tn
first IL feet from the ends is composed Of soil
- IRON, weighs 80 tons, and taken the weakest way
will suspend weight of 229S tons II made Of ste,
: is dOubly strong with half the weight
o. A side wind Of twenty-three miles an hour wi
careen II less than two inches, and tornado OF on
hundred miles an hour, striking the whole side wit
force Of fifty pounds to the square foot Ofsuriact
would oareen the vessel only thirty eight nche
or little less than Ave degrees.
D. Resistance from inertia has always heretofol
'r been the chief resistance In navigation. Mr.. Ge
J. main expects tnhl WIN MS mOuei lflcuOn Will
. the chief resistance.
C. All the operations Of the vessel viii be conduct
lg ed under cover. Neither passengers nor crew wi
le be exposed to the force Of the atmosphere
!, The line Of motion being direct and witho
d pitch, sea.sckness will be impossible.
The displacement OF such avesse will be ITO
600 tons, l.2 Of which will serve for the vessel
ID self, II made Of iron, leaving the other half (
a. machinery, freight and passengers. II steel
AZ used for construction, the weight Of the vesi
m would be about Que half less, and the tonnage (
re useful purposes greatly increased There wou
III. be about twenty-five acres of deck floor
Compared with other vessels and their work,
nu expenses would be moderate, because voy q
ot across the Atlantic being accomplished in d
,c and half the time Of running the engines wor
be much less than II they had to run ten or eley
i's days, and the work accomplished would be en-
'p mously greater
ed Its size, strength, and velocity would make 1t
resistible by ordinary vessels OF war, Cannon 81
would glance unharmingy from its very obliQ
M sides during ts approach II would be directed "
a the precision Of rife, aud Its blow would div
od the largest line Of battle ships easily az br'
- axe would an apple.
10 His explstions and arguments are stated by
~ Buffalo Press to DO apparently unanswerable.