Daily camera., 1899-02-03
A THREE-PRONED SHIP.
A salt Lake Mans Invention Which
Nay Revolutionize ship
building.

There is q wonderful mechanic and
inventor here in Salt Lake, Mr.. Leo S.
Whitehead. He has invented q gun
which we cannot speak much about
now, because it is, in fact, a govern
ment secret Suffice it to say that if
what is hoped for is realized it will
mean another step toward making war
impossible, because of its awful de-
structiveness. 1t will cause desire on
the. part of all Aguinaldos to compro-
mise inside of seven and half minutes.
That is, it will, if at the end of the
seven and half minutes after it opens
he remains in condition to express his
desires.
But another of his inventions is what
the writer has been looking for since as
boy he tossed orange peels overheard
and saw them keeping up alongside
with the speed Of the ship for a mile
or two, thus proving that the ship
was carrying with it a dead weight Of
water equal to, perhaps, the weight of
the ship and cargo. Well, Mr.. White
head, noting that when the beak of a
ship strikes the water it always pushes
a column of water out in front, which
may be described as a buffer which the
ship, in motion, is perpetually buffeting
against, went to work to see if that
could not be neutralized. The result
is that he has made the model OF I;
boat and has tried it to make sure that
be is not crazy, and is satisfied, which
he believes will result in giving most
of the power of the engines to the speed
of the ship, and not exhausting half Of
it in overcoming the obstruction Of the
water made by the ships momentum.
We cannot give very lucid descrip-
tion-for the mechanical part of the
writer's education, like the rest, was
greatly neglected-but, in homely
terms, his boat has three prows; The
main one in the center, and one on
either side, like a triple catamaran.
Between the center beak and the two
outside beaks he works two screws
upon the dead water, beating them
down and back, and leaving a clear way
for the ship. The three keels run into
two near the center of the ship, and
these continue to the stern, and there
between the two is the main driving
screw of the ship running on the cuSh
on Of water made by the two kees.
Mr.. Whitehead has also invented his
+ own propeller, and his trial boat works
like charm. He has made of the same
size models of his craft and Of the bat
tleship Massachusetts,. When the ma
chinery of both is started his boat runs
20 times. its length before the Massa-
chusetts gets under way at all. His
dea is that two-thirds of the energy
If ships engines is exhausted in over
coming the Instructions which are ere
ated by the speed of the ship, and that
with these removed and all the force
being given to the ships propulsion a
ship that now makes 90 knots would
with the same power make between
50 and 60 knots, or would run from
New York to Liverpool in say two days
and sixteen hours. From San Francisco
to Manila would require less than
sight days; to round the world. 25
lays, allowing for the slow time b.,
rail across our continent. If this can
not all be realized, still it is possible
that by the principle he invokes and the
trials that he has made the invention
will eventuate in ship that will make
30 knots as easily as 20 knots are now
made and reduce the voyage from New
York to Liverpool to four days, and
that possibly ournew warships, instead
If making IS knots, will cover rs knots
IN hour. By the way. this is about the
first radical change in the model Of
ships since Noah started out on the wa
ters with his life saver.-Salt Lake
Tribune.