Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1893-02-25

The boat ANA its appli noes must be So
constructed and 80 arranged as TO act
with great certainty, ease. and Teldl
ness under all circumstances. 90 that
the commander may take his proceed
iugs ami give his orders for the work
mg # the boat in fuli confidence 81
he result Finally the boat must be-
ible t. discharge into and through the
water 4 torpedo large enough and pow
erflu enough t. destroy The greatest
Farshiu witdDut danger 20 thc boat
p.f
Far back in he year 1874, Captain
John Ericsson, whom we all remom5ar
as the builder Of The first lronelad "llon-
5or, applied for patent on "a screw
propeller 10 be used iu driving ships
Trough the water says 10 Davidson in
ST. Nicholas Ten gears later the see
rotary of hc British Admiralty pemugd-
cd hit body 70 make trial Of the new
machine in the figtc Arrogant
The uryice was % success. The FIJI
gate went fas.ers than others Of her
size using sails alone; she could move
about iu the water when there was no
wind, and when other ships were mo-
uouless or at anchor; and although her
speed even with the wind was but
little increased. ana the sailors growled
at having the ships hold filed up with
Jea-hettles and b'ncH," they had 10
admit that she was safer in a gale,
and could 20 better than before Pop
ular feeling was against the propeller,
however, and it was not until 1852 that
&c was placed in the larger ships Of
war
All great inventions have to fight
their way, and this was no exception.
# gradually came into use among mer-
chant ships ana when the naval au-
thorItes saw its advantages most of
the opposition ceased, and they decided
to try it in the greatest ship they had.
The Windsor Castle" had just been
completed at the royal Dockyard, Penn
broke She was 255 feet long, 90 feet
wide, and had three tiers Of portfolios,
room for 12O guns She was the re
suit Of years Of labor, and was then the
greatest warship in the world.
. 1t seemed q pity to desecrate this no
bic craft by loads Of coal, tons Of oily
machinery, hot boilers, and a company
Of greasy engineers, but it would
never DO to have England greatest
warshjp lacking In anything that could
give her greater speed and strength.
Therefore it was decided to cut the
vessel in two, and lcngthen her so as
to accommodate the machinery. She
was sawed directly through amidships,
the stem was pushed back twenty
three feet, ana the gap built up solid
with the rest Of the ship When she
was launched the machinery was put
in Compete, she was PTS feet long,
and carried 20 more guns.
In making a report Of this great ship
TO the French Navy Lieutenant La
brousse urged the French also to adopt
the propeller, and wrote that "the use
of the screw as a means Of propulsion
is far from diminishing a ship sailing
qualities It Is, on the contrary, capable
Of adding to the ccrtainties Of nayiga-
ton
I'm 1850 we find the Great Eastern
using The propeller but only MS an aid
to her paddlc-wheelsI In fact, for many
years thereafter all the ocean steamers
used paddles only The walships alone
continued TO experiment with the pro
pellers.
. Now, however everything has chang
cd in favor Of the screw. and, except
water, AN steamers are run by propcl-
lers Boats we're soon built with pro
pcllcrs under the keel, then others used
two, one on either side of the keel, ana
now three are being successfully oper-
ated
Then cmc the days of forced draft
when the drerooms were closed up
Urht, md air was pumped in to go roar
iug up through the chmneys after fam
ming the fires into greater heat The
engines worked faster and the ships
speed was Increased; but the increase
soon reached a limit, for the boilcrroom
hoc3wo su hot that the poor Hremcu
could not stay at their posts for more
th9n fifteen minutes nc "a time, one
hundred and SiNtytive degrees was the
awful heat they had TO work In recent
ly ou the fast United States ship Con
cord" Two mcu tainted i'm front of
the furnaces, ana others were hard to
hire What was 10 be done? The limit
nf speed for ships seemed to be reached
wule more speed WAS wanted
Commodore George ", Melville of
t.e United States Navy, has solved
he puzzle by designing q ship with
smokostachs one hundred feet high.
These have The same effect MS The
cam factory gbmupys on land. The
Hrc-meu do not tnd u.is natural draft
$50 oppressive and these smoko-Stacks
gjye a steam power That suuds the great
ship, with spinning screws mt the rate
uf y0nn-sjN miles am hour. And Gwen
Nr THIS railway speed. she will usn so
little coal thlt she can run 2too0 miles
er almost around the world without re
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