The San Francisco call., 1903-12-25
CREYHOUNDS
OF THE OCEAN
Clyde Shipyard Now Working
on Design Which Promises
to RevOlutionize Travel
VESSEL WITH TWO KEELS
Combines Many Other Improve
ments Which Will Tend to
Greatly Increase the Speed
ESSEL WITH TWO KEELS

ITO be able to cross the Atlantic in
three and a half days Will be an ac-
complished fact in perhaps a very
short time from now if an invention
which is at present being worked out
in a shipbuilding yard on the Clyde
for the attainment of that object is
successfully completed and put to the
test, and there are very encouraging
prospects in the present state of the
invention of its proving an entire sue
cess said Carl D. Flint, an ex-lieu-
tenant in the royal navy and now a
naval constructor for Harland S
Wolff the Belfast shipbuilders, who
arrived here last Wednesday from Ire
land. His visit is unofficial, but while
here he is making a tour of some Of
our principal shipbuilding yards in
order, he says, to get a general idea
as to the progress being made on this
side in ship construction. Mr.. Flint
is the guest Of Lewis Nixon. He made
visit TO the navy yard at Washing
ton recently.
Little or nothing has been said as
yet about the invention" Mr.. Flint
continued. 1t will not mean a revo-
luton in the present style of floating
craft. but simply ship with a sort
of arched bottom, and change in the
position and shape of the propelleTs.
There will be no keels, but, instead,
what might be called a double or
twin hull. after the style of the cata-
maran. Such a hull will prevent the
boat from rolling, and. therefore. do
away with what is to the majority one
Of - Ii r
ocean travel AS for the new screw
propellers, they will be moved further
up in the body of the vessel. and built
in ridges formed by the twin keels be-
ing a part of them.
In all liners as built at present the
screw prODellers, YOU know, come out
on each side of the stern. The ad-
vantage claimed for the new idea
that is, the screw and hull together
are twOfcld: first. on account of the
position of the screws being removed
from the stern. the tremendous suction
power which always follows a vessel
greatly retarding her speed, is carried
off to the stern by the two keels; sec
ondly, the propellers are rendered much
more powerful because their diameter
and consequent grasp OF the water is
very much greater. In every propeller
now being used on steamships there is
much lost power in the center of the
whirling blades. An electric fan is a
form of propeller. 1t forces air out
instead of water. If you place your
hand in the center of an electric fan
you will find that there is no air. The
breeze comes from the outside edges
of the blades. The same is true of all
steamship propellers in use at present.
and it means a great loss of power.
That defect has been reme1ied, how
ever, in the new propeller. by making
it nothing but blades and placing a
solid metal wheel or hub OF the pro-
pelier shaft and setting the blades on
it. The scheme. of course, would be of
no practical benefit if applied to our
present liners, because the wheel of
the propeller, being large. would catch
the water and tend to retard the pro-
gress of the boat with it's solid bottom.
AS [ have explained. however, the
new vessel has an arched or shallow
bottom along it's whole length, and
that secures a flow of water under the
center of the boat equal to that along
the sides and establishes a bearing for
the new propeller equal in diameter to
the large hub wheel upon which the
propeller blades are fastened. The pro-
peller' is Is feet long from the center of
the shaft to the tip of the blade and the
whole circle is more than 90 feet. The
Deutschland's propeller is exactly one
foot shorter than the new one.
THE sole object of the invention is.
of course, the reduction of friction, and
that It seems to have accomplished
wonderfully by the shortening of the
shaft and the hollow bottom. On our
present ocean liners the propellers are
all out at the end of the boat. The en-
gines are located in the center and the
shaft is necessarily long. connecting
these two points. New York Adver-
tiser.