Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1899-08-14

If Engineer Oscar P. Ostergren sue
ceeds as we'll in his latest endeavor as
ne has in his earlier work since he
came to this country, there will soon
be a plant running in this city which
will make liquid air so rapidly that it
will gush from the outlet pipe OF the
machine as mountain streams gush
from clefts in the native rock. In two
runs, preliminary to regular time
trial, the liquid air has been made at
the rate Of 1900 gallons day, and up
on the occasion Of the first trial 1t was
demonstrated that it was possible with
the same machine to reduce the tenn
perature Of the liquid air to about 400
degrees below zero and to freeze 1T into
snow. That result was disastrous,
however, for it clogged the machine IN
such a way as to restrict the circula-
ton of air within it bursting that
part of the machine in which the air
was frozen and destroying 1T.
Mr.. Ostengren's successes in other
directions have been notable, and, as
he is still a young man, there is good
reason not only to believe that ne Will
bring liquid air into commercial use
for many purposes, but that he may
add in other ways to the remarkable
inventions which have made this the
most wonderful age of the world. He
came to this country from Sweden
seven or eight years ago, and is now
about 80 years old. The first work
that showed his exceptional ability
was the designing Of the steam launch
Ellide, which made worlds record
when she was sent out for prelimi-
nary trial trip on June Is, 1897, run
ming a measured mile at the rate of
361h miles an hour, and this speed she
is said to have exceeded by three miles
an hour upon her later trials.
Almost up to the time of the first
trial Of the Ellide the best speed that
had been obtained on the water was
about 80 miles an hour, and few per
sons were sanguine enough to expect
, materially higher speed except by
gradual advances. But in the spring
of 1897 the world learned of the Won
derful performances of the 1OO-foot
long, steam turbine driven in Great
Britain. Even after it was known
that she had obtained a speed of 3734
miles an hour, it was not expected that
any boat driven by the older type OF
engines could reach any ,such speed.
Suddenly, however, the Ellide made
her appearance, and, with length on
the water line of only 80 feet, she soon
passed the record. Since that time
81 or
pedo boat destroyer, built by the
Schichau works, at Elbing, Germany.
for the Chinese navy, has exceeded the
speed of the Ellide, making at the
rate of 35.2 knots, or 4O.8 miles, an
hour, but she is the only one, although
there are number now building which
J are intended to do even better.
When E. Burgess Warren, of Phila-
| delphia, gave the order to Charles D.
Mosher for the Ellide it was with a
) proviso that made the designing of the
little vessel a most interesting problem
in naval engineering. Mr.. Warren
had spent considerable time fishing on
Lake George, and had become annoyed
: at having large number of other per-
sons run past him in launches faster
than his own. He determined to have
5 something which could show its heels
to any other craft Mr. Mosher had
i already won a reputation for fast
/ launches, and Mr.. Warren went to
} him for the new boat The Feiseen
, was Mr.. Mosher's fastest production
: before the Ellide came out, and she
2 was credited with a speed of 80 miles
1 an hour. After talking over what
: Mr.. Warren wanted, it was decided
: that his craft should be about Is or SO
: feet long and as fast as Mr.. Mosher
could make her, with a guarantee that
she should make at least 80 miles an
hour. For this the contract price
was $4,000, and Mr.. Mosher was to
: get $1,000 permium for each mile of
} speed which she developed beyond 80
miles an hour This was the form in
which the problem came into the hands
Of Mr.. Mosher's employ as engineer
and designer So far as general de-
| sign of hull was concerned, there
J was not much to be done except to
adopt the lines already marked out,
which are accepted today as the best,
as they were then.
A hull 80 feet long on the water line
: and feet inches in beam was de-
} cided upon, and then came the problem
of getting everything down to the
: lightest possible weight, and combin-
) ing with this the greatest possible
: driving power in boiler and engines.
; Speed, with other conditions equal,
depends upon driving power, and the
amount Of this power to each ton of
weight carried increases with great
rapidity as the speed is increased. If
it takes 100 horse power to drive a
certain boat 10 miles an hour, it will
take 800 horse power to double the
speed. When the Ellide was finally
ready she weighed, complete, only Is
tons, and in strict racing rig could
be got down to IA tons, and her boilers
and engines could develop 800 horse