The Buchanan County guardian. (Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1858-1864, 1859-03-10
From the New York Tribune.
Stcaming on Ice.

4
| Stcaming on Ice.
Wehave already printed some accounts
from Western journals Of the proposed
winter steamboat of Mr.. Norman Wizard,
now in progress of construction at Prai-
rie du Chen, on the Upper Mississippi
but the Importance Of the enterprise, and
the vast consequences which must flow
from its success, seem to demand more
emphatic notice. The general plan of
the boat is set forth by the inventor as
| follows:
The boat which / first propose to
| build will be twelve feet in width by sew
enty feet in length, and, when resting
upon the water, would displace about one
foot in depth. 1t will BIZ propelled by a
pair of locomotive engines, acting on a
single driving wheel, to which adhesion
is given by various devices. The bottom,
ends and sides of the hull, for about 3
feet in height, are Of iron the upper
part is inclosed and finished similar to
a passenger car, and warmed by steam
pipes, and will accommodate one humid
red passengers it is steered by pilot
familiar with the river, by devices which
give him perfect command over it.
" A steam brake is attached, by which
its velocity may be perfectly controlled !;
the boat is supported on skates or runners,
SO adjustable as to pass through snow
five feet in depth without presenting any
considerable resistance"
Says The Chicago Press
If it breaks through the ice or en-
counters an air hole, machinery is pre-
pared, which, in few minutes puts it
again on the ice ready for onward pro-
gress. The driving wheel is near the
stern, and the inventor calculates the or
dinary speed on the ice at twenty to for
ty miles an hour, and with clear, solid
ice, he believes his vessel can easily be
made to attain speed of eighty miles,
The cabin is twelve by forty feet, and
the capacity of the boat is rated at one
hundred passengers and FIVE tons of
freight. The entire boat, when loaded
with passengers and cargo, is calculated
to weigh thirty-two tons.''
Tile Prairie du CAien Leader, of the
18th inst, says that Mr. Wizard has now
forty mechanics at work on his model
boat, which he expects to have complet-
ed early in March. while the Mississippi
above that point is now covered by at
least two feet of solid ice, which rarely
breaks up till April. and sometimes not
till nearly or quite the first of May. Mr..
Wizard has for years been studying and
experimenting ON his boat, and believes
he has obviated every difficulty, includ-
ing those of hummocks" or irregular
bulging surfaces, which he planes down
to level. that of freezing to the ice, ten
dency to make leeway on short turns of
the river. air-holes, de-, DC. The route
of the boat over the ice is to be carefully
scanned and staked out beforehand by
men cunning in ice-lore and it is con-
fidently calculated that the ice boat, car
rying the Mails and seventy five passen-
gers in security and comfort, will make
the trip from Prairie du Chen to St. Paul
(30O miles, within the sunlight of a
winter day, at an average cost of not
over fifty dollars.
Should the result begin to correspond
with these expectations. the Northwest is
on the eve of a new and unparalleled de-
velopment. Her rivers, many thousand
miles in extent, will be even more prac-
ticable and useful in Winter than in Sum
mer, and the speedy establishment of a
swift Overland Mail from st. Paul to
Pugets Sound is inevitable. For the
Mississippi. the Red River of the North,
the Saskatchewan, and Fraser River
(which is separated from the Ssskatch-
evan near their respective sources in the
Rocky Mountains by distance of only
3l7 yards may easily be made to form
a network Of ice navigation, broken only
by three or four brief portages, from the
Aiif---a-y-e 1sfff ugt1s sNund ana the
Pacific. A fortnight, at most, of com
Portable Winter travel. through grand
and varied scenery, most OF it still un-
tanned by the industry, unhackneyed by
the descriptions of civilized man, with
ample supplies in the larder, replenished
from day to day with the choicest game
and fish. served up hot and tempting by
the cook as the steamer skins glibly ov-
er the ice, should suffice for traversing
the whole distance from our city to Pu-
gets Sound, allowing three days by rail
road hence to. Prairie du Chen and one
| from the lowest firm ice on Frazer River
to the head Of steamship navigation near
the mouth of that stream, and supposing
two or three days to be consumed in
making the portages from river to river.
We cannot. of course. judge from the
data before US how far Mr.. Wards glow.