Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1897-05-29
BAZlN'S FAILURE.
His Roller ship Does Not Come Up TO
Antici nations of Its Maker.


Antici patiOns of Its Maker.
In the summer of last year mechnn.
lclans, shIpbuilders, seafaring men and
the general public were In ccstasics Of
excitement over new invention which
was to revolutionize the naval art and
solve the problem of transatlantic
rapid transit.
This invention took the form of
'rOller steamboat" 1t was first con.
ccived of some two or three years ago
by NJ. Ernest Bazln, "a distinguished
Frencl, engineer. Not until last Au-
gust. however. was he able to launch
a tentative vessel built according to his
specifications.
The Herald Mt the time fully dc.
scribed this ship, which Is named after
the inventor.
To recapitulatc briefly. It Is large
rectangular iron box, about 40 feet In
length. 40 feet wide and 3 feet high. 1t
Is mounted on six lentlcular disks or
rollers thirty feet in diameter. and sunk
In the water ten feet, while the lower
floor of the box Is at an equal distance
from the level of the water. In the
sides of the box Is the machinery.
which Is Of 1jO.horse power This sets
In motion a screw and the rollers. In
the upper part of the vessel. between
the disks, which pierce the box and cx-
tend beyond It about seven feet. are
comfortable cabins. This strange look
Ing vessel has displacement Of $50
tons.
NJ. Bazln predicted that his ship
would have a speed of sixty miles an
hour. or q mile a minute. Now. such
speed as that would indeed create n
| revolution. The fastest express trains
| on the continent could not exceed 1t.
| The fastest transatlantic steamer can
| hardly do half as we'll. At this rate
Paris would he only four days distant
from New York, ana It might be- posi-
bic to circumnavigntc the world In u
little less than a month.
Well. the launch was effected In due
time on August 10. 1896. at tie Cecil
dockyards. on the Seine. 4 vast crowd
gathered. there were speeches and re-
jocings and general wOndermcnt. hut II
was not until last week that the strange
craft was ready for the final test.
| The experiments are still under way
at Roucn. Alas! they do not 50 far
carry out the sangulne expectations of
the designer. Instead of sixty miles an
hour. Ernest Bazin could barely make
u dozen. Instead of being a grey
hound. II was n slOth. This failure Il
due to many reasons. The chief of
these, ana the one which touches the
very principle OF the invention, Is In
the lack Of speed In the rollers.
NJ. Bazin had made the mistake of
imagining that low rate Of power
would suffice to move the rollers. and
that to conquer their Wis inertia he had
calculated on an average of i!fty-horsc
power 10 every axle. He had lost sight
Of the fact that every one of the three
aXlcs carries one.third Of the weight of
the upper part of the entire structure.
or say u little over 100 tons.
Further, the trial trips have proven
that the rotation of the rollers entailcd
the additional weight. through adj
licrencc of large volume of water ana
u considerable loss of power In conse-
qucnce. NJ. Bazin had hoped to rem.
cdy this defect by rubber paddles,
whose office was to beat back the
waters, but 1t needs no great mcchan.
ical knowledge to recognize that these
paddles worked somewhat like brakes
upon the wheel of u carriage. The pow
or of the machinery was triplcd. but In
doing this their weight was also trlpled.
The result was too great an immersion
of the shin, Now tho original calcula.
lions had called for displacement Of
one-thlrd of their diameter rs the high
est limit of effective working. This
limit being passed by the Increase In
weight the situation seems to be hope.
lcss.-Ncw York Herald.