Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1900-12-06
INGENIOUS FELLOWS.
Oreeonans Devise Boat that Pulls
Itself Upstream.

In the ST. Nicholas Francis Filing
ton Leupp describes an ingenious
device by which certain Oregon stone
workers save themselves a deal of I'M
necessary labor.
Doubtless nearly every boy with a
taste for out-of-door sports, he says,
has made boat WHICH the wind Or the
current would cause to float over the
surface of a pond. | have seen some
lads rig up RATS on which they could
themselves ride down a swift-fiowing
creek; and I knew one, even, who was
clever enough to build a complete
little steamboat. He could light a
lamp under the little boiler. and the
steam would form, and the piston
would work, and the wheels would re-
volve, just as in a big vessel that
carries passengers and freight, The
trouble with all these toy boats, how
ever, is that they will go only one way.
Having made their trip, they nave to
be toilsomely dragged back by hand to
be started again in the same direction.
While travelling in Oregon, some
time ago, | discovered boat which
seemed to me the most ingenious thing
of its kind l had ever seen. 1t was
built by some sto1e-workers to convey
their stone from the quarry we'll up
toward the head of a small river, down
to the mouth. The stream is every
where shallow that it can be forded
without danger; but it is broken at
intervals by stretches of rapid, or
rifles" as they are called in that
neighborhood, often extending as far
as hundred and fifty feet. The men
built a flat-bottomed boat, which they
loaded with stone, and it carried its
cargo down the stream admirably.
But then arose the problem, how to get
it back when it had been emptied. 1t
was too heavy to haul UP the stream
by hand. Where the water was com
paratively smooth there was no
trouble, because one man cou4l ride on
the scow and make his way along with
a paddle and pool; but the difficulty
was to get it up the rapids. The best
of boatmen could not hope to propel it
against so powerful a current, and Up
hill at that
How do you suppose they accom-
plished the task, finally?
By making the boat work it's own
passage.
They made two large paddle-wheels,
which they placed one on each side of
the scow, and joined them by a thin
but strong piece of wood, in the shape
of a cylinder. This turned with the
wheels, and served the double purpose
of an axle and a windlass. Each end
of the cylinder, near where it joined
the Wheels. played in g socket some
what like the row-lock used with an
oar, only stationary, and mounted On
the top of a triangular truss. To the
cylinder feet fastened rope about two
hundred feet long. When the boat
! reached the bottom Of rapid, it would
be made fast to the shore. Then the
man in charge of the boat would ford
the stream and mount the opposite
bank, taking with him the rope in a
coil, and paying it gradually out as he
walked, SO IS to keep it always taut.
At the head of the rapid or trifie be-
You'd, he would fasten the further end
of the rope to tree The moorings OF
| the boat would be loosed, and the cur
rent left to do the rest without as
sistance. The paddle-wheels, unable
| to resist the force of the water flowing
| against their sunken blades. would
slowly revoIve, and, Of course, every
| revolution Of the wheels would cause
| the rope to wind itself around the exile
| With each turn of the rope the boat
| would necessarily be drawn forward
and up the scream; so, by the effect OF
| the continued Winding, it would grad
, ually rise and rise till it reached the
place where the current ceased to ex
ert much power. There it would be
made fast again, until the rope could
be disengaged from the cylinder and
coiled, ready for use when needed
| Then the man would cut loose, seize
his paddle or pole. and work away
until the next rapid was reached
when he would start off with his rope
and repeat the operation described
above
This process is wearisome with 6
heavy stone-boat, but it struck me, as
:, I watched it, that bright boy could
adapt it to toy scow and get deal o.
amusement out of it. If the expert
ment did nothing more, it would a
least be a lesson in the art which
every mechanic must learn-of makins
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