The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1907-07-15
MOTHERAL BOAT
LOOKS A WINNER
With Air fabrication She
Shows Great Speed
Possibilities.

The recent advance in high speed on
the water has drawn attention to the
fact that there is now in Washington
a man who claims 10 have solved the
problem OF air fabrication for boats
bottoms years ago.
This man is w B. Motheral. origin
ally an Iowa farmer and an inventor,
and also a born mathematician. who
went at the subject as a scientific prop
osition. AS The result of his labors, Mr..
MotheraI has taken out a large number
of patents on craft with air fabricated
bottoms and the appliances necessary
to get the air where it will do the most
good.
Gets Air Under the Boat.
Mr.. MotheraI says that Stevens. the
famous steamboat builder. early con-
ceived the idea that il some means
could be devised for getting cushion
of air between the bottom OF the boat
and the water, the friction would be
enormously reduced and the speed pro-
portionately increased.
Stevens and other inventors worked
along the line Of pumping air under the
boat, which was found impracucable
Mr. Motheral saw there was nothing
10 the pumping theory, and invented
system of syphons running along the
sides OF his boats, which furnish con-
tinuous and even coating Of air in the
form Of bubbles beneath the craft, so
that the boat simply skins the surface,
encounter1ng very little friction, and
making very little or no wash. Some
OF the newspapers Of yesterday had
stories that a French motor boat enthu-
siast had been recently experimenting
with a boat which seems in many re-
- -F,r
the Iowa farmer patented years ago.
Valuable Idea.
Mr.. MotheraTs boat is wedged shape,
and the hull is the section of a cone.
except toward the stern. where there Is
what he calls q bat-winged curve, which
tends TO throw the stern UP as the bow
rises in response to the pressure from
the air as the boat shoots over the
water. This undue elevation Of $the
bow with increasing speed was a STUN
bling block 10 many inventors. but Mr..
Motheral Is positive he has the right
answer in correcting the curve under
the stern.
Mr.. Motherai recently built a sample
boat for Bruce Emerson. OF Alexandra,
Va, in which his patented appliances
were used. He says he contracted co
furnish a speed OF twenty miles an
hour, with a I5-horsepower engine, and
that she really made twenty-eight miles
an hour This boat Is thirty-eight feet
long and eight feet wide. and seemed 10
bear out all OF his assertions, both in
the matter Of speed. In remarkable sea-
worthiness and In failing 10 cause any
great amount OF wash He asserts that
the same boat with S5-horsepower en-
CINE would make thirty-1ive miles an
hour
Cheap and Substantial.
Mr.. Motheral made a similar boat in
1905 which was tried on the Mississippi.
and made seventeen and one-half miles
an hour against a current Of three and
one-half miles an hour. Since then he
has perfected his designs. and says the
Emerson hier is the fastest thing atioat-
Because of the simpleness of his de-
sign and the fact that he does not
have to sacrifice every other COnsidera-
ton to Ightness. and the power of his
engines Mr. Motheral says he can build
boats that will show the foam to any
power boats now in use. yet comfort
ably carry passengers and be perfect
" safe in rough water. He IS anxious
10 get a contract TO build another speci-
men before the jamestown Exposition
power boat races in September