The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-06-17
WHEELING OVER THE CHANNEL.
George Pinksrt Proposes to Ride His
Tricycle. From Calais to Dover.
From the New York Sun.

From the New York sun.
The tricycle. to ride on water was the
natural outcome of the tricycle. for road
riding, which machine, it will be remem-
bered, made strong bid for public favor
in England when the bicycle really came
into general use in 1876 and the following
years. The rather cumbersome three
wheeled machine, however, had to give
way to the two-wheeled bicycle, and it is
to-day practically out of date, so far as
road travelling is concerned, although
there has been quite splurge made with
it on the water as means of locomotion
and pleasure.
For this purpose it has many points in
its favor where bicycle would have
none, unless linked to cumbersome sys-
TEN of boats.
One of the latest novelties in this direc-
ton is the land and water tricycle. on
which George Piukert of ~ Schweine-
marht, Hamburg, Germany, proposes to
ride across the English channel from
Calais to Dover, in the third week of
June. The channel at this point is about
twenty miles wide and is world famous
as the most ''choppy' piece of water
there is in Europe, IL being estimated by
the late Capt. Webb, who swan across it,
that there were no less than nineteen
currents.
The machine to be used is an invention
of Herr Pinkert's, patented in 1888, and it
consists of front steering wheel, which
is made OF thin steel plates and is sixteen
inches wide at the axle, forming a lens
shaped, alright vessel of great buoy
ancy. The edge of this is fitted with a
concave metal rim and a rubber tire, for
running on land, the keel, so to speak, be-
coming the tire. The two large propel-
ling wheels are composed of a circular
tube Of steel plate, forming an air-tight
ring about four feet in diameter, con-
nected with the nave of the axle by
means of steel spokes, and fitted with
paddles on either side OF the outer cir
conference. IL is like the paddle wheel
of a steamboat, having a solid core run
ming through the center of the wheel, to
which the paddles are attached, instead
of TO The two side rims, as in the steamboat.
Outside of the alr-tight core, and at
tached to 1t by steel rods, is an ordinary
concave metal bicycle rim fitted with
hard rubber tire.
In all other respects the tricycle. is an
ordinary one, having the seat over the
axle. between the two wheels, which are
rather wide apart for the purpose of Civ
ing more stability by the greater beam.
AT a recent trial in the Munich baths the
speed of over six miles an hour was OBJ
tanned, and it is estimated that the trip
across the channel will be made in less
than five hours.
This is not the first time this trip has
been attempted. AS far back as 1882 a
man named Kunan of Brussels, invented
a machine which was well tested in the
smooth water of a bath and was, on July
2S, ridden across the silver streak" by
an Englishman named Terry. Dover was
left at a. m, and Calais was reached in
less than eight hours. the rider being
almost exhausted by the leeway made by
his machiue. The total distance travelled
by Terry was estimated to be nearly
thirty miles The machine he rode was
a high standing one, the wheels being
fifty-inch, this being before the day of
the low wheeled safety and so the
wind had a considerable effect on it and
carried The rider far out of his course.
IL was said that Col. Fred Burnaby,
who once attempted 10 cross the channel
by balloon, was at the back of the trial,
and that it was intended to demonstrate
its availability for transporting soldiers
across broad water courses in time OF
need. Be this as it may, nothing more
has been heard of the scheme in Europe
until this year with the improved machine
of Herr Pinkert.
Uncle Sam, however, has not been be-
hind hand in the matter OF water trl-
cycles, and no less than ten of various de-
signs have been patented and tried with
more or less success in America. Some
are for smooth water and some for rough
water a sea. the latter being htted with
boats on the catamaran style. One for
smooth water was to be seen almost daily
on the Hudson in the neighborhood of
Poughkeepsie last fall, ridden by we'll
known local gentleman, who promised
that when the ice came he would show
what the machine could do over the frozen
surface. but the ice never came
The great desideratum claimed for the
Pinkert machine is that il can be placed
on Broadway, ridden TO the Battery
dropped in the bay, and ridden to Staten
island tperhaps the inventor might even
tackle Europe) without any change OF
gear whatever.