Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-04-15

One result of the recent war with Spain
has been to turn the thoughts OF the
American inventors into. new channels
and the departments at Washington are
now flooded with inventions all of which
are intended to simplify matters in case
of another national struggle. or course,
as is to be expected, the majority OF these
inventions are of such an lmpfactlcaple
nature that they are rejected upon the
first inspection but there are some that
are too important not to be seriously con-
sidered. One of these inventions is
Joseph Turner's "Oscillating Propellcr.'
Joseph Turner, the inventor, is a New
York man and lives at No. 54I West
Twenty-seventh street. He is Il theatrl-
cal property man by profession and al
though but thirty years of age he has
long been recognized as one of the ablest
men of his craft. One day While study
ing the movement of the fish in the Bat
terry aquarium the idea occurred to him
that their motion might be initiated by
a mechanical device and that if this
could be lone it would be the attainment
of the ideal propeller for steamships. For
months he worked upon these lines of in
v~eStigation and even the officials OF the
navy department are compelled to adj
nit that he has succeeded in carrying his
idea into execution
The writer who recently considered Ny.
Turner's invention spoke of it as two
sea serpents harnessed to q ships keel
to draw it through the water at a hum
dred miles an hour and the illustration
is an apt one, for the new principle OF
ship propulsion that this inventor has
discovered is practically two serpentS OF
steel, driven by steam.
Mr.. Turner'S idea has been to do away
with the wasting Of power that must fol-
low the use of such mechanical devices
as paddle wheels and propellers. The
paddle wheels. as he explains, waste
80, 1,-ato, tI,n,, f1,nx ,,,c1 11 IL wa ri
and propellers eXpend a great deal of
their force by churning the water into
foam. With the new force that he has
discovered not a splash or a bubble is
made. AS the fish swims so the creatures
of steel do their work. There is a quiet,
steady pressure and the water is pushed
swiftly. forcing the boat ahead
rapidly. There is no wake left behind,
no wash waves are thrown back to the
shore. Every ounce of power is untitled.
Nothing goes to waste.
In the model that Mr.. Turner has sub
mitted for the inspection of the officials
of the ava department the secret of
this power is we'll illustrated. The force
is caused by a double line of hinged plates
four on each side, hinged together. AS
the forward plates come together they
force the water out where 1t
is taken in by the plates behind them and
forced still further to the rear. Before
the rear plates have ceased to force the
water back the forward plates have
opened out again throwing the water
back like a swimmers arms. The plates
work in perfect unison, just as a piston
rod works in and out of a cylinder. The
joints are attached to the shafting by
~eccentrics and as this shaft turns it gives
a sinuous movement to each line of
plates.
Although VI to the present time the
invention has been used only in a small
way the inventor is confident that it
would be just as successfulw when attached
to the largest craft. The only changes
that he would make would be to increase
the number of plates on each side and
he believes that when the shaft turned a.
the rate of 500 revolutions a minute the
ship would be driven forward at the rat'
of from sixty to Seventy-five miles al
hour. At this rate of speed it would be
possible to cross the ocean in fifty hours
AS visionary as this may seem Mr.. Tur
ner is confident hat he has not over es'
timated the merit of his invention. HI
believes that it could be attached to an,
kind of sailing craft from a steam launct
to an ocean liner but he is particularly
anxious that it should be tried on one o
the torpedo boats of the United State!
navy.
During the war the inventor took hi
model to Washington and submitted i
to the inspection of Secretary Long AM
Assistant Chief Naval Constructor Zahm
These officials thought so we'll of the idei
that the matter was rushed through tn
patent office and plans We're made to Civ
Mr.. Turner an opportunity to show Wha
his propeller could do. The date of thi
experiment has not yet been set but |
will not be long before he will be able t
give a practical illustration of his inven
ton for the benefit of the officials of tn
naval department.. From what they hav
seen of the model they have no doubt blu
that the new invention woul propel