Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1907-09-04

boats, for attaining high speed by
sweeping over the surface of the
water, have received much advertising
+ FIR several years past. But it now ap-
pears that DR.. Peter Cooper Hewitt,
the wellknown inventor of the
Cooper-Hewitt mercury vapor lamp,
has been quite as successful in this
field Of experiment as any of the
Frenchmen. Note was recently made
that he had been experimenting
along this line, but fuller details of
his remarkable boat are now at hand.
1t seems, however, that the American
inventor was led to experiment with
the hydroplane through his interest in
the greater problem Of aerial naviga-
ton. He believes that the same gen.
eral laws govern the action of an aero
plane that govern a hydroplane, the
main difference being in the density
of the two fiui mediums, the air
being about 500 times lighter thai
the water. Experiments can much
more easily be made on the water
than in the air, and Mr.. Hewitt there
fore undertook to test some of his
ideas in a hydrplane boat which, with
its gasoline motor, was entirely of
his own design and construction.
The difficulty in p-opelling an or
binary boat through the water at high
speed is that the resistance increases
as the cube of the speed AS a result
in order to double the speed of an or
binary boat it is necessary to multiply
<he horsepower eight times. But the
gliding boat which rests upon a series
of horizontal or almost horizontal
fms Or planes upon which it rises as
its speed increases, naturally meets
much less resistance in going over
smooth water. The possibilit es of a
craft of this sort are not yet clear but
1t is Mr. Hewitt's belief that he has
attained a speed of SO miles an
hour in his first experimental craft,
from which it is reasonable to suppose
hat further experiments will result
in still higher speed. Mr. Hewitt's
boat consists Of a light mahogany
hull with a rounded bow and stern,
which is suspended from within
strong rectangular framework of
heavy steel tubing Within the hull,
but firmly mounted upon a subframe
connected with the outer frame is an
eight cylinder gasoline motor. The
exact horsepower of this motor is I'M
certain since it has not been tested
Near each corner of the outer frame
vertical trussed sheet steel frames
project downward and carry sets of
Lydroplanes, which are terraced like
a flight of steps, the uppermost planes
of each pair being connected together
across under the boat by a horizontal
strip. Four larger planes are placed
with their forward edges about on a
level with the bottom of the boat and
project outward several feet from its
side. The propeller is placed at the
forward end of the boat on the bottom
of long vertical shaft, which projects
downward through the hull and which
is inclosed in a suitable tubular cas-
ing. AS soon as the boat is started at
rapid speed it begins to rise until
the large planes leave the water and
the hull itself is entirely raised above
the waters surface 1t then runs on
the four sets of lower planes at high
speed, and without any commotion
except when the upper planes hap
pen to strike a wave, in which case
the spray is thrown violently against
the hull. In future boats it will prob
ably be necessary to place the planes
farther below the hull, and also the
propeller. 1t has been found that at
a high speed the propeller comes too
close to the surface of the water, and
that there is a consequent loss in
power and diminution of speed, a pro-
cess which is repeated over and over
again.
There is general complaint of the
modern factory system that 1t does
not give the operator an opportunity
to make himself a thorough master of
his trade; that is to say, an all-round
mechanic. because he is confined to
feeding material to some one machine.
An interesting and helpful article
strongly combating this idea has been
written by G. F. Stratton, and appears
in the August number of the Engineer
ing Magazine. He emphasizes that
there is a real, growing and insistent
need for the skillfu, painstaking, old
time mechanic, whose prototype, as
has been said, was the foundation of