Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1892-08-16
NAPHTHA LAUNCHES.
THE REMARKABLE RAPID GROWTH
OF THIS NOVEL CRAFT.


which up to the present they have been
designed are CONCERNED. Few inven-
lions have been met with deeper preju-
dice against them and with quicker ac-
ceptance at the same time. At first
every body was afraid that they would
explode. FOR naphtha in its various uses
has been ON record as a terrible destroyer
In cases of misapplication or improper
treatment. The method. however, by
which naphtha is made to serve as q
fuel precludes any possibility of explo-
sion. That. at least, is what the in
ventor and the manufacturers say, and
experience thus far has confirmed their
statement. That the yachting public
generally has accepted this is evidenced
by the fact that nearly 600 naphtha
launches are now in use, and that man-
ufacturers are crowded with orders
months in advance.
The inventor of the naphtha motor is
Mr.. August w. Ofeldt. The launches
made under his invention, wherein
naphtha is the exclusive motive ma
terial, are not now in his control, for he
sold his inventors interest in the patent.
Mr.. Ofeldt was born in Sweden about
/. fifty years ago, and he gained his scien-
tifc and mechanical education there.
He came to this country twenty years
ago. 1t was while he was working with
gasoline that the idea of utilizing naphtha
as a motive agent occurred to him. That
was ten years ago. and for five years he
studied and experimental before he con-
structed an engine that satisfied him.
That engine is still in use in New York
waters, and generally appears at events
where naphtha launches are likely to be.
1t is set up in a small black boat that
looks as if it might once have been a
rowboat. and its name, painted in con-
spicuous white letters, is 1.-THE Original
No. H.
When J. A. Bostwick. Clement Gould,
John J. Amory Edward " Cary, and
others with capital took up the invention,
they began making boats specially de-
signed FOR the naphtha engine, and even
tually they acquired Mr.. Ofeldts interest.
The inventor says that there is still room
for improvement in the engine. and that
he proposes some day to bring out one
that will open new era in pleasure navi-
cation. and possibly lead the way to the
use of naphtha in larger marine enter
prises.
AT present naphtha launches are used
almost exclusively as yachts, though
there are ferries here and there over
which passengers are carried on them.
and some of the larger steam yachts
have abandoned steam launches for
naphtha boats as tenders. People who
are not familiar with them are often as
tonished to see y trim little boat, with a
bright brass funnel in the extreme stern
scooting speedily about, emitting rapid,
suffering cough, but showing no sign
whatever of smoke or cinders. The fun
mel is apparently all there is to the en-
CINE. boiler or coal Din. if the term may
be used.
If one could look down at the bottom
of the boat, beside the base of the fun
mel, one would see several small wheels
in complex arrangement, gauge,
pump handle. and on bar running
across the boat four cocks. That is all
one could make out of it unless one We're
an expert mechanic, and all one would
need to know about it in order to run
the boat, except that the supply tank of
naphtha is under the forward deck, con-
nected by pipes with the gauge, pump
and cocks. The celebrated inducement
set forth by another concern might be
modified by the naphtha launch manu-
facturers into You turn the knob and
we do the rest" The amateur needs
only to know what will be the effect of
turning each cock and when to pump in
order to be captain, crew, stoker, en-
gineer and pilot of his launch, for steer
ing also may be done at the engine, so
simple is the task of looking after it.
1t takes five minutes to get up STEAM"
to use another misnomer. ON naphtha
launch. Then all that is necessary is to
work the pump stroke or two, apply
match to an opening in the surface of
the funnel, turn cock, and let her go.
From that time the launch will go con-
tinuously for fifty hours Then the sup
ply will be exhausted, and the forward
tank will have to be replenished. The
engine may be stopped at any instant by
shutting off the supply Of naphtha,
which is equivalent to turning out IA gas
jet, and the engineer may go home at
once, with no cleaning up to do and no
fires to rake down.
These launches are from eighteen to
fifty-three feet long. The draught varies
from eighteen to thirty-eisht inches. Six
to ten persons may be carried safely in
the smallest boats The most popular
style of launch is the twenty five footer,
in which there is room for twenty passen-
gers. 1t costs fifteen cents an hour for
the power necessary to run boat of this
size
A curious use to which naphtha en-
gines have been put recently is as auxil-
iaries to sailboats. There are five or six
yachts on the sound, yawl rugged, that
have naphtha engines and screw wheels.
they are SO constructed that the wheel
does not impede the progress of the boat,
and the power may be turned on, when
once started, at an instants notice. The
utility of this device is apparent in case
OF Gains, when the engine will send the
boat along at six miles an hour. The
engine Is also used in putting about, this
maneuver being accomplished with re-
markable celebrity when the power is ap-
Piled. The speed of ordinary naphtha
launches is about seven miles an hour
with four-hNrse power engine. Some
launches with six-horse power engines
have made recorded speed of ten stat
ute miles an hour. The speed might be
increased by putting in engines of greater
horse ht3f