Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-02-24
To EUROPE IN
THREE DAYS

10 ne dDle 10 cross the OCEAN III tnIee
days, to leave New York on Monday
morning and to arrive in Liverpool
sometime Wednesday night, seems too
realm of possibility, and yet there is a
Brooklyn inventor who insists that he
has not only solved the problem but
that he will have a boat capable Of ac-
complishing this marvellous feat ready
fer a trial trip within a few months.
James Gresham is the man who
claims that he has succeeded in per-
pe1fecting such an invention, and his
standing as an inventor is such that
there are few persons who would be
being of the opinion that he will not BE-
able to fulfill his promise. Already he
has perfected several inventions, from
the profits of which he has been able
to aanass a fortune, but these achieve
mems. great as they have been, will
sink into insignificance when compared
to the new BOAT that will soon be ready
for the launching.
Although Mr.. Gresham is a singuiarly
modest man, he has enough of the egotist
ea.iz the extent Of his capabilities,
and he does not hesitate to say that
the boat that he has just invented viii.
be to the ocean steamer of the present
what the steamer itself was to the sail
ing vessels that piled between the
ocean ports SO many years ago. In
other words, it is to be the twentieth
century boat, the craft that is to open
the way for all future improvements in
this mode Of conveyance.
Such is the assertion of the inventor,
and if he has not over-estimated the
merits of his invention the new craft
will fully merit all the laudatory things
h a can be said about it: II the boat
will be able to make it's eighty or one
hundred miles an hour with as much
ease as the ocean g~rayhounds now
cover their twenty knots. It viii be
or to go around the world in twenty.
All that Mr.. Gresham can now show
OF his boat is a working model. But q
fifty-foot craft is now being constructed
along the same lines n as soon as
he can show that the scheme is a prac-
teal one a ship capable of entering for
the ocean trade WITH be built. From
that day, If it still proves successful,
transatlantic transportation will be rev.
olutioniZed.
Mr.. Gresham calls this marine nov
city a %"serpentine ship" The name is
an appropriate one. With it's long,
snakey body and it's bow and stern ele-
waited like THE head and tail of a seaser.
pent, it certainly bears a striking resenl-
blance to the tabled sea monster as our
fancy has pictured 1T.
In describing this unique craft Mr..
Gresham explains that the invention is
nothing more or less than a new appli-
cation of an old mechanical device.
Archimedes, the Greek mathematician
who lived some 2,100 years ago, in
vented the water screw and it is this
principle that Mr.. Gresham has worked
out in a novel manner. A broad spira1
flange has been built around the outside
of the boat. Within this outer shell is
another round and hollow shell. Here
the power that turns the propeller fange
and the whole outside cyclinder is gen.
Grated.
A special arrangement on the inside
of the boat enables 1T to keep it's equi'
libr.lm so perfectly that the rolling and
pitching which attends the sailing Of
an ordinary ship lis almost. entirely
avoided. The method by which this re
suit has been accomplished requires a
brief and somewhat dry ex-
PLANTATION.
In the inner part Of the boat is located
the machinery that turns a long snatV
extending from the bow to the stern OF
the BOAT. At each of these extrenlities
and in the middle this shaft is connect
ed by gearing wheels to the outer shell
AS the result the turning of this shat
r%evolves the outer cylinder of the boat
while the revolving of the outer shell car
Ites the fiange with it, making OF it
continuous propeller that extends from
one end of the ship to the other. s.
nicely is the inner shell fitted in posi-
Hion, so carefully is 1t hung on bali bear
ings, so perfectly is it balanced ant
weighted that there is no friction or ia,
no matter how great the speed.
To make the proposition more clearl,
understood it may be said that this il
the same principle on which a fist
swims. 1t is not the movement Of tn
fins that enables a fish OF dart wit
such lig~thning-like rapidity through tn
water. If a fish used it's fins alone i
might churn the water into foam a.
around it and yet be able to move onl
at a snail's pace. The secret of tn
speed of the fish lies in the motion of 1t
body. BY simply curving it's body i
q s~erpentine motion it becomes wha
might he termed an animated lever thu
pushes 1t forward with the greatest rar
3dity.
The frst glance at the inventor
model would give the idea that it was
new kind Of submarine boat. and y,
mis- II not the object OF the craft.