Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1900-11-15
PULLS ITSELF UPSTREAM
AN INGENIOUS BOAT DEVISED Bl
OREGON STONE WORKERS.


Compelling the Forces of Nature to Do
work That WOult Otherwise Require a
Good Deal of Hard Labor Craft
! Which Works Its own Passage.
In the st. Nicholas Francis Ellington
Leupp describes an ingenious device
by which certain Oregon stone-workers
save themselves deal of unnecessary
labor.
Doubtless nearly every boy with
taste for out-of-door sports, he says,
has made a boat which the wind or
the current would cause to float over
the surface of pond. have seen
some lads rig up RATS on which they
could themselves ride down a swift
flowing creek; and l knew one, even,
who was clever enough to build COM
plete 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 have 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 it's
Kind l had ever seen. 1t was built by
some stoneworkers to convey their
stone from the quarry we'll up toward
| the head of a small river, down to the
mouth. The stream is everywhere SO
shallow that it can be forded without
danger: but it is broken at intervals
by stretches of rapids, or "riffles," as
they are called in that neighborhood,
| often extending as far as $50 feet The
men built 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 therew was no trouble,
| because one man could ride on the
scow and make his way along with
a paddle and pole; but the difficulty
was to get up the rapids. The best of
boatmen could not hope to propel it
against so powerful a current and up
Fill at that.
How do you suppose they accom-
plished the task, finally?
By making the boat first work its
own passage.
They made two large paddle-wheels.
which they placed one on each side of
the scow, and Joined them by thin
but strong piece of wood, in the shape
of a cylinder. This turned with the
wheels. and served the double pur-
pose of an axle and windlass. Each
end of the cylinder, near where it
Joined the wheels. played in a socket
somewhat like the row lock used with
an oar. only stationary, and mounted
on the top of triangular truss. To the
cylinder was fastened n 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
coil, and paying il gradually out as
he walked, so as keep it alwaysytaut
At the head of the rapid, or 4 trfie
beyond. he would fasten the further
end of the rope to tree. The moor
ings of the boat would be loosed. and
the current left to do the rest without
assistance. The paddlewheels, unable
to resist the force of the water flowing
against their sunken blades, would re-
volve and. of course, every revolution
of the wheels would cause the rope to
wind itself around the axle. With
each turn of the rope the boat would
necessarily be drawn forward and up
this stream: so, by the effect Of the
continued winding, it would gradually
rise and rise till it reached the place
where the current ceased to exert SO
much power. There it would be made
fast again, until the rope could b, dis
engaged from the cylinder and coiled,
ready for use when needed. Then the
man would cut loose. sieze his paddle
or pole, and work away till the next
rapid was reached. when he would
start off with his rope and repeat the
operation described above.
This process is wearisome with
heavy stone boat, but it struck me. as
] watched ii, that bright boy could
adapt 1t to n toy seow and get great
deal of amusement out of 1t. If the
experiment did nothing more, ii would
nj least be Il lesson In the art which
every mechanic must learn-of making
the forces of nature his servants. and
compelling them to do for him what
would otherwise require good deal of
labor at his hands.
Truth Well Eewurslet !.
Before his appointment as minister
1t. = -. "a