Omaha daily bee., 1888-07-12
TO MAKE FASTER STEAMSHIPS.
Old Marine Ideas in New Garb That
Have Becn Patented Recently.

''1t is just thirty-tive years this sum-
mer since the first attempt was made to
build II six-day Liverpool packet" said
a South street shipping merchant the
other day, in speaking to Il representa-
tive of the New York Sun, land,
although the recent record of the Etru-
ria has almost made her a siX-day
Queenstown packet. the siX-day steamer
to Liverpool is still to be built.
sin 1888 William Norris, II Philadel-
phia engineer, contracted with John
w. Griffiths, New York marine archi-
tect, to build II steamer that should
average l6t nautical miles an hour,
carry from go to SO first cabin passen-
gers, coal for 5000 miles. and the mails,
the whole to cost Sl20,O 900. She was de-
signed to be 223 feet long on the water
line, 81 feet wide, and IS feet inches
deep, with Il displacement, when loaded
and coalcd (she carried 400 tons of coal),
of .l37 tons. With paddle wheels 36
feet in diameter. turned by an engine
that had a cylinder six feet in diameter.
Mr.. Norris and Mr.. Griffith believed
she would make 1872 knots an hour, and
so cross to Liverpool in six days. But
Mr.. Norris became bankrupt before the
vessel was completed. Another man
bought her. piled on two more decks
and reduced her power. Even then
she made II miles an hour against wind
and tide in smooth water. Perhaps as
designed she would have made the 1874
knots expected of her.
1T was some time before another at
tempt to build IA six-day steamer was
made. but within recent years the idea
does not seem so preposterOus as it did
when the average time was eleven days.
With each year the number Of invent
ors who try to solve the problem in
creases, and since January | this year
no less than dozen patents have been
issued to men who have plans for in
creasing the speed OF steamships.
1T is not long since press dispatch
from Pittsburg told of II vessel building
there which would make from thirty
five to forty miles an hour at least.
Nothing has been heard from the vessel
since that time in the daily press dis
patches, but II patent has recently been
issued to William Johnson, of Pittsburg,
for an invention which is probably the
one in question. Nothing seems more
reasonable to the novice than to suppose
that great speed would be obtained if II
belt could be run over band wheels
forward and aft on each side of the ship,
so that paddles set mt right angles to the
belt could dip in the water AS the belt
| travelled aft and then pass through the
air on the part OF the belt going for
ward. The Marquis de Jotfiie tried it
| without success at Lyons, France in 1872,
and William Johnson has obtained a
| patent on modification OF the idea in
lSSS. Mr.. Johnson used wide chain
| instead of n belt. William II. Silsby,
| of Martin : Ferry, Cali, has also patent
ed IA modification of the idea, his patent
covering paddles of the T-iron shape
| riyeted to belt
"Another patent issued shows another
| interesting revival Of an old idea.
| Emanuel Griffen, of Bordeaux, France,
has patented a modification OF the
duck 's-foot propeller which Mr.. John
Melville brought out in 1881. The new
invention consists of shaft on each
side OF the ship, with wide fan on the
outboard end. AS the shaft is moved
forward the fan is lifted out OF ths
water by the rotation OF the shaft
Then the fam dips down in the water
and is showed aft again. What would