The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1913-06-02
BIackton's New Speed Demon

the water over yonder-See, just
rounding the point in cloud of
spray? Why. where is she?
She's gone almost as soon as she
pops into your ken and out again
"a cracking shape of mahogany
and brass; of swish and ear-split-
ting splutter; of sireen-scream and
headlong rush--a trembling thing
with stem aloft and stern buried
deep in the fury of her own foam,
for all the world like a razor on
end; the fastest boat that skins the
seven seas.
Her name?
Speed Demon Reliance. She's the
up-to-the-minute pet of Commodore
J. Stuart Blackton, motor boat en-
| thusiast; she's booked for at least
| 60 miles an hour and there are
| minute-and she's out for every
| thing in the way of cups and tro-
| plies worth the winning, here and
abroad
Commodore Blackton is Brook
| lyn millionaire. He made his mo-
ney by getting in on the ground
floor when the movies" were In
their infancy; he spends a goodly
portion of it now on motor boats.
His newest has cost him something
like $4,000. But what of that.
if she Is the fastest boat in all the
world:
Motor boating attracted the Com
modore when the sport was young
and he has been following 1t ever
since, each year with the newest
and speediest models that money
could buy. Baby Reliance was
among his first successes, and then
in swift sequence came Baby Reli-
ance H., Baby Reliance Ill, and
Baby Reliance Nv. No. II proved
the queen OF the Quartet-shs
spesded up to 81 miles an hour on
her $50 horsepower. Pretty much
everything on the face of the wa
tiers had a fIeeting glimpse of her
stern at some time or other.
But still the enthusiastic Black
ton was far from satisfied.
Easter yet" was his order to
the builders. II want another boat.
Never mind the cost; put in all the
power she can stand without shak-
Ing her to pieces.
Every twist and newborn wrinkle
that the designer knew; every de-
vice and cunning artifice the canny
engine builder could evolve out OF
his brain to wiring another mile or
;. more Of speed out OF her. was put
into the machinery. which all but
crowds everything else out of the
oddly shapen hull. And besides
hull and engine there are dozen
other queer contraptions never ga
tnered together in one single bottom
before.
l.
than mile minute.
That's a faster average than the
trains which make the nerve-rack'
9 ing run from New York to Chicago
psiasss5sEsSefl s7 tha6 sn aasfast est
thing on the water that has ever
gone Baby Reliance II. No
man-made thing has ever touched
this fligh: except some mighty loco
motive and on a short, level stretch
with every condition favorable, or
an aeroplane, with the wind behind
it. tipping through the skies.
Speed Demon Reliance cant even
be steered like the ordinary racing
motor boat. She is guided precise
| ly as rifle Is aimed. Mounted on
| the steering stand is four-foot
steering wheel and his eye glued to
| telescope levelled on bayonet-sight
| fixed to the bow through hole in
the lip of the electric horn forward.
High in his helmsman's seat Of
brown leather on the extreme rear
end of the deck sits the pilot, his
hands grasping the big, black
steering wheal and his eye glued to
the telescope tube. There he picks
up his buoys and ranges as fast as
they pop into view only to disap-
pear again almost by magic, SO ter
| - n
rush.
To crowd on these few extra
miles some $50 extra horsepower
has been added to Baby Reliance
Ills $50. Each of the two racing
engines is $50 horse; mechanician
is needed for each. These mazes of
shafts and pistons and levers turn
ever 1900 times every minute and
the shafts run to gear boxes for
ward, which speed her propellers up
to 1000 revolutions every time the
second hand spins around its minute
circle.
The business end of this long,
hina-white-and-m racer is
| way aft. All her many controls are
affixed to the big bulkhead which
marks the front of her four-foot
cockpit. There are levers which adj
NIT air under her bottom so that
she has film of it between her
and the water; other levers force
crude oil beneath the forward plane
to cut down the friction of the wa
ter. There is a pressure gauge, a
speed Indicator, clock and the
magnetic and battery switch.
| -Four bilge bailers are fitted to
the bottom-Speed Demon Reliance
automatically throws out the water
l Che ia l1ac ahaard ha rIchac