The Opelousas courier., 1901-01-26
PULLS ITSELF UPSTREAM
AN INGENIOUS BOAT DEVISED BY
OREGON STONE WORKERS,

"STNFN1tbSe
compelling the Forces OF Nature to Do
Work That Would Otherwise Require q
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 q deal of unnecessary
labor.
Doubtless nearly every boy with a
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 a pond. 1 have seen
some lads rig up RATS o. which they
could themselves ride down O swift
flowing creek; and l knew one, even,
who was clever enough to build a 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 q big vessel that
carries passengers and freight. The
trouble with all these toy boats, how
ever, is that they will go only II way.
Having made their trip, they haveto be
toilsomely dragged back by hand to be
started again in the same direction.
While travelling in Oregon, some time
ago, l discovered a boat which seemed
to me the most ingenious thing of its
kind 7 ha6 auan coon II vrvnc hf131f hu
some stoneworkers to convey their
stone from the quarry we'll up toward
the head of q small river, down to the
mouth. The stream Is everywhere so
shallow that it al be forded without
danger; but it is broken at intervals
by stretches of rapids, or rifles" as
they are called in that neighborhood,
often extending as far as $50 feet. The
men built a fat-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 conf
paratively smooth there was no trouble,
because one man could ride on the
scow and make his way along with
a paddle and a 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, aud up
bill 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 a 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 a windlass. Each
end Of the cylinder, near where 1t
| joined the wheels, played in a socket
somewhat like the row-lock used with
an BAR. only stationary, and mounted
on the top of a triangular truss. To the
cylinder was fastened a rope about
two hundred feet long. When the boat
reached the bottom Of a 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 as tokeep it always taut.
At the head of the rapid, or a trihe
beyond, he would fasten the further
end Of the rope to a 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, 1t would gradually
| rise and rise till 1t reached the place
where the current ceased to exert SO
| much power. There it would be made
fast again, until the rope could be 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 of with his rope and repeat the
operation described above.
This process is wearisome with a
heavy stone-boat, but it struck me, as
/ watched it, that a bright boy could
adapt it to a toy scow and get a great
deal Of amusement out of it. If the
experiment did nothing more, it would
at least be a 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 q good deal OF
labor at his hands.