The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-11-26

Nevertheless, he retains the courage OF
his convictions, and proposes to demon
! strate next spring that he has struck some
thing which must revolutionize the methods
of propelling st am vessels-or result In
lgnonlinious failure.
| WHAT SHE LOOKS LIKE.
Externally there is nothing notable about
the little ship except that, unlike most
steam vessels built for speed, she has abun-
dance of beam. Her length over all is
about 10 feet and on the water line IS feet.
Her beam is % feet. Her draught will be
about four feet, and she will have plenty of
free board. Her deck plan is not unlike
that of the Volunteer, except that she does
not taper so much aft.
| .She is a staunch, seaworthy looking craft,
| but there Is nothing of the greyhound"
| about her build. Both in model and mech
anism her designer has struck out boldly
for new departure.
THAT LITTLE HOLE.
In the stern post of the boat, about two
| feet above the bottom of the keel, is a cir
cular opening about six inches in diameter.
| II looks like the usual hole for a propeller
| shaft But it isn't The ''Great Expecta-
tions" 1--WE can call her that until she gets
better name) will have neither side wheels
nor screw propeller, and consequently no
shaft. To the hole in the sternpost a noz-
|
| through it with tremendous force The in
ventor says, it is to drive the boat forward
! al the rate of thirty miles an hour.
In its general feature this idea Of moving
| a boat by pumping out continuous stream
| of water is not a new one. The British gov
| eminent several years ago built a vessel
called the Water Witch, which was to be
impelled by hydraulic pressure and do
things that would astonish the world. But
she proved failure, and the British gov
eminent paid the cost of experience and
other nations profited by the lesson. Pri-
| vate individuals from time to time have
caught the infection of the idea, but accom-
plished nothing. In recent years not much
has been heard of this method Of propulsion
| Because the conviction is pretty general
that the theory is impracticaoe.
| But in the Great Expectations, instead of
discharging a comparatively big stream of
| water at such pressure as could be obtained,
| the stream will be no bigger than can be
forced through nozzle IA inches in
diameter. The pressure will be- it is said,
something like 10000 pounds to the square
inch-simply immense.
WHAT WATER CAN DO.
| Anybody who has seen anything of hy-
| draulic mining-how the solid earth itself
seems to vanish before the assaults of
comparatively slender stream of water dis
charged under great preSsure-knows that
water can be made to exert a tremendous
power. The Great Expectations is to have
engines of 800 horse power, tremendously
powerful engines for boat of her size, and
the inventor says that the stream of water
these engines will pump through that n
inch nozzle will he as sigd as a bar of steel.
II man strikes at the elected stream
| with an AK, he says the water will turn the
edge of the weapon. He says, too, that it
will defect bullets discharged from a rife,
and do other wonderful things. All this
| physicists admit, but smile derisively when
told that there is man who expects such a
stream of water to drive a boat thirty
miles an hour. And people who know
nothing about the matter must be content
to wait until next spring, when the bat
will be launched, and the experiment
| made.
The Great Expectations has a small orr
flee in her bow through which the stream
| of water is to be discharged III the same
| manner as through the stern. By this means.
it stcontended, she can be almost instantly
stopped and driven backward nearly as
fast as forward. The pumps will be fed
through hole on each side of the boat.
Another popularity .of the Great Ex-
pectations will be the absence of any rud-
der. This is rendered unnecessary, it is
claimed because the nozzle through which
the steel-ike stream of water is discharged
can be turned to the right or left, thus
making the boat spin around like a top
much quicker than a rudder could do it.
| POSSIBILITIES.
If Hateful ''if y this little stream of water,
IA inches in diameter, shall accomplish
wnat is expected of 1t, any one can see that
it will knock out sidewheelS and screw pro-
pellers in no time. Big ships would be able
to dispense with shafts that are liable to
break, and propeller wheels that may have
their blades smashed. The ability to stop
and turn quickly would much lessen the
danger of collisions.
DR.. Walter M. jackson, the inventor,
claims to have applied his hydraulic theory
to 50-foot launch two years ago and to
have obtained speed of twelve miles an
hour. the stream of water that pushed the
launch at this rate being forced through a
hole only one-sxteenth of an inch in diane
ter This little spray DR.. Jackson says.
drilled hole through a 4-inch plank.
All summer DR.. jackson has been work.
ing at the machinery for the Great Expecta-
| tions. The most power with the least
weight has been his desideratum.
DR.. jackson cares not a jot because engi-
neers generally predict tine failure of his
theory. He is sere1ely confident that 1t
..,,n