The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-09-20
SHIPS ON WHEELS.

The 1cOnOclaSt1c inventor Is constant
ly playing havoc with all our old ideals
of beauty, demolishing them and SUBJ
shutting ugly utility in their place.
The bicycle is concededly useful, but
the man astride Of it hardly comes up
to the standard of the erect rider on
his prancing horse, and, although the
short-skirted or bloomered woman
may find greater freedom of move
the eye educated or accustomed to the
ordinary skirt. The steam registers
that warm our rooms In winter dec
Grated and artistically finished as they
may be. are ugly things to one who
has felt the genial glow, the fancy
stirring, dream-inclining open fire.
places, with their flames leaping in
variegated colors to the outer air, and
their low voices singing songs of COM
fort and content.
Nowhere do the ideals of former
days lie shattered in greater profu-
sion than where men go down to the
sea in ships Where now are the
famous Yankee clippers that used to
delight the eye with their symmetrical
lines of hull, their tapering masts,
carrying wide, full-bellied sails,
mounting from broad main to
topgallant royals with pennant
flying from the mainmast and
''old glory" apeak? The ocean grey
i%c
faint memories of masts is not as
beautiful as the sailers it displaced,
and the black and uncouth freighters
are ugly things to look upon Then
there are these monsters that men call
battleships, that have sent to the
hulks the old frigates that used to de-
light the eye with their graceful lines
and spread of canvas, while they in
spired one with awe with their double
| and triple decks from which the black
mouthed cannon peered through their
portfolios. Ericsson sent them all into
oblivion when he came with his
''cheese-box on raft" and revolu-
tionized naval architecture, putting
ugly utility in place of beauty and
grandeur.
Now, after we have grown accus-
toned to and find some beauty in our
modern steamships, comes one Bazin
with sober proposition to put ships
on wheels. He backs his novelty with
a working model and the approval of
Admiral Coulombeaud, of the French
navy, who declares it not only prac-
teal, but that the same sized craft
can be driven at the same speed as one
OF our present ships at one-twenty-sev-
enth the expenditure of power But
the pictures show it to be SURPRISINGLY
ugly. Imagine, If you have not seen
the pictures of Bazin's boat, one of
our ocean liners with only the huII
above the saloon deck, forming a plat
form. This is supported on the axles
OF eight great wheels, four on each
side. These wheels take the place of
the hull and are great, hollow, convex
discs, as if two immense saucers were
fastened together at their edges Mo-
chinery causes these wheels to re-
vo1ye, while the ordinary screw drives
the craft ahead. Instead of pushing
aside quantity of water equal in vol
ume to the portion of the hull that ia
submerged, the inventor claims that
the wheels will ride through the water.
the revolving movement aiding the
passage, diminishing friction and re-
sistance. trial boat is now being
built, and the practicability of this
new departure will soon be tested
But, If successful and all prove true
that is claimed for it, it will, until use
accustoms us to it, be thing of un-
redeemed ugliness, and we will mourn
for our departed ideals Of the beau
tiful in naval architecture.