Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1905-09-12
WONDERFUL ENGINE.
THAT WHICH SUPPLIES POWER
TO THE AUTo-BOAT.
Working of the Motor Is Something
Marvelous-Some Interesting
Points About the Wa
ter Racers.

Just what one of these motors will
do is shown by analyzing the ma
| chinery OF fast auto-boat. Some of
these boats have four, six, eight, and
even II cylinders in their motors.
The most successful so far, says
Pearson's Magazine, have been of the
eight cylinder type. When Commodore
Harrison B. Moore's auto-boat Onon-
ito made her famous record trial, COW
ering nautical mile at the rate of
1885 statute miles an hour, her deli
cate machinery was pulsing and throb-
blng in way that was wonderful to
watch and still more wonderful to
think about. This boat is driven by
an explosive gas engine. 1t has eight
cylinders, set in tandem fashion, and
each cylinder works on the shaft to
which is attached the propeller The
propeller was being turned at the rate
OF $50 revolutions minute. Four
teen times every second the three
bladed wheel spun around in the
water. Fourteen times to every tick
OF the clock the piston rod of each
cylinder was driven down and brought
back again.
One after another, so fast that the
eye could not follow, these eight
cylinders, working in perfect uniform
ity, made each $50 downward and up
ward movements, so that in each min
ute these eight piston rods were driv-
en- down and brought back to the top
of the cylinders $500 times.
The marine gas engine has become
much more practical than the engine
used for vehicles. A motor of small
power can be put in a boat for very
little money, or the wealthy man can
spend thousands of dollars for
machine similar to that in the Onon-
ito. Racing men, too, can enjoy the
sport for small outlay, and this year
members Of the Knickerbocker Yacht
club had IL 21-foot boats built that
cost only few hundred dollars each,
which they raced and enjoyed, and the
members of the Eastern Yacht club
promoted another class Of small,
cheap boats.
market costs SITS. 1t is simply an
open boat fitted with IL horse
power motor, but it works well and
drives the boat at the rate of five
miles an hour. 1t will use quart Of
gasoline an hour. Gasoline is worth
16 cents a gallon, SO this boat does
not cost much to run.
A 17-foot boat fitted with IA
horsepower motor costs $3.50. A boat
20 feet long, fitted with three
horsepower motor sells for 1915, and
25-foot boat, with a five horsepower
motor sells for $3.50. These prices are
only for boat and motor, awnings and
other fancy fixtures add to the price.
AS the size OF the boat and power
of the motor increases, so does the
price. A 30-foot boat fitted with a
standing roof and driven by six
horsepower moter which will give a
speed of seven miles an hour will cost
$1,425. This boat is substantially
built. 1t can carry so gallons of oil
and will use three quarts an hour. If
| the front is inclosed with glass and
| the interior finished in mahogany the
| cost will be $3.50. This is an ideal
| craft for outings during the day. If a
| boat is wanted for cruising and is fit
ted with berths and a galley, the cost
| increases very fast. One SO feet long,
| built of cedar and oak, will cost 3d.
29O to $500. This boat will need a
ten horsepower motor and it will use
az quarts of gasoline an hour.
| The cost of running a motor boat
increases very rapidly as the power
increases. An ordinary engine will
use pint of gasoline an hour for each
horsepower, so that a motor of 20
horsepower will use ten quarts an
hour. In the racing boats this rule
hardly applies, as those who so in for
racing craft do not care for expense.
| A boat like the Onontio will use %
gallons of oil an hour, which at the
present price of gasoline will mean
a cost of four dollars each hour it
runs.