Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1896-08-20
SHIP OF THE FUTURE.
A French Invention to Revolutionize
Navigation.

-
Navigation.
Is the water cycle the ship of the
future? At least one scientist thinks
so, and is spending money to prove it.
There is an inventive Frenchman
named Bazin, who believes that, after
years of study and experiment, he has
solved correctly the problem of marine
lOcomOtion.
The device which is the outcome of
all his calculations is now being con-
structed at the dock yards of St. Denis,
in the port of the Seine, and within a
month or two will be ready for her
trials
Marine architects and people in the
shipping trade generally have kept
close track of NJ. Bazin's experiment.
and are waiting with much curiosity
to see how his big roller boat will go
when he comes to try her on real water
The inventor is personally oversee
ing the construction, and is confident
that his vessel will furnish an entirely
new theory AS a basis for boat building.
1t will not be a pretty craft, but all
the resistance, which is the impeding
factor in beats as at present built
will be done away with, and the new
vessel will, unless Bazin's theory and
mathematics are badly at fault, be
allie to travel over the water at a
startling rate.
In one way the new boat resembles
the modern ferryboat. 1t has the same
broad platform, at a considerable
height above the water, which affords
enormous deck room. But instead Of a
lower hull, settling down into the
water and so encountering enormous
resistance, the new invention is sup
ported upon great hollow floats, or
wheels, which hold it twenty feet or
more above water.
These wheels, too, are the instru-
ments by which motion is obtained
They are equipped with fianges, on
the same principle as those of a mill
wheel or old-fashioned paddle wheel
A rotary motion is obtained in these
wheels by means of steel shafts, which
run across the boat from side to side,
underneath the platform. They are
like the axles of a wagon wheel, and
rest upon bearings of prodigious
strength.
One or two screws will be used to
provide an impelling force, which will
by the heavy shafts be impaired to all
the wheels. M. Bazin contends that
once started, the boat can with a
moderate supply of steam power, de-
velop an amazing rate of speed, m
asmuch as all friction with the water
is eliminated.
The whole fabric simply rolls along
over the surface Of the water like a
powerfully propelled bicycle over a
level road, but with infinitely less re-
tardation.
On the broad platform are situated
the engine and furnace rooms, as we'll
as passenger cabins, dining rooms,
cooking galleys and everything else
that a first-class passenger boat has to
have
One of the most novel features CT
this remarkable vessel is the rudder,
WHICH 10 hydraulic apparatus OIL
great strength and utility. instead of
being broad, heavy implement Of
~--oo1 or iron IT "n-,-ic+c SOLELY IF a
hollow vertical column, situated at the
stern of the boat. 1t is managed by
the pilot
From out this hollow rudder a
mighty stream of water is constantly
projected into the sea. 1t is thrown
out with such strength that it really
becomes as solid as the ordinary fat
surface, and operates exactly like the
ordinary rudder. But the usual fric-
ton of the rudder when thrown over
is obviated III this new tiller by the
pushing force of that heavy stream
of water, which, being constantly
thrown out astern, serves to drive the
vessel forward.
In case the roller or propeller en-
gines should become stopped the con-
tinued election of this stream of water
would, the inventor says, serve TO
propel the boat to port, as a speed of
half knot can be obtained from it.