The Washburn leader., 1914-08-28
TANNING THE SAILS
No Amount Of Wind Raised
Aboard a Ship Can PropeI It.
CONTRARY TO NATURAL Law.

CONTRARY TO NATURAL LAW.
AZ a Matter Of Fact, the Force Of The
Air Driven .Asainst the Canvas
Would Have q Tendency to Send the
vessslaa Backward instead Of Forward,
"lf an electric fan could be made
large enough to throw q SUFFICIENT
amount Of wind to move a small sail
boat and such . fan wa placed on the
end Of a bdat with the wind from the
fan blowing against tho sail on the
very boat the fan is on, is 1t possible
that It could move the boat? The ar
gument ID that the fan. being on the
same boat 40 the sail. cannot move
Itself. But % the cir detaches itself
from the fan and hits the sail. my idea
is that It can. provided it has tho
strength to move the boat. Please give
an answer"
This question is worth answ wering be-
cause it involves a principle Of physics
that ought to be universally under,
stood and ignorance ofswhich may lead
to the waste Of both time and money
upon Inventions that will not work.
The writer of the question thinks
that because the air, az she expresses
It, is detached from" the fan when It
starts or to strike the sail. it ought to
act like an ordinary wind and push the
boat before it. But she would not think
30 II she reflected that the particles Of
air driven from the fan resemble
swarm Of bullets shot from gun.
The air particles get their force from
the fan as the bullets get theirs from
the gun. and just as the gun recoils
with force equal to that which it i'm
parts to the bullets. so the fan, wheth-
er driven by electricity or steam or
turned by hand, inevitably recoils with
the same amount of force that it i'm
parts to the air.
To make clearer the comparison be-
tween stream of bullets from a gun
and a stream of wind from an electric
fan. imagine Maxim gun placed at
the rear Of u boat and an impenetrable
target at the front. and then suppose
that the gun should hurl continuous
current of bullets against the target.
Anybody can see that the boat would
not be driven forward. because the
recoil Of the gun would constantly
force it backward with the same
energy with which the bullets. striking
the target. forced it ahead.
But ii the gun were placed on shore
Or ON another support its stream Of
bullets striking the target would drive
the boat forward. because then their
effect would be like that of wind
blowing freely across the water and
having no connection with anything on
the boat.
An ordinary wind is able to drive a
boat whose sail it strikes because its
reaction (that Of the windl is not upon
the boat but upon the great mass Of
the atmosphere or upon the earth.
The principle to be remembered.
and ignorance or forgetfulness of
which has cost the happiness Of more
than one uneducated inventors life. IL
that no mechanical force can be pro.
duced without an expenditure. Of en-
ergy precisely equivalent Never for
get that there can be no action with.
out equal reaction and that II the ac-
ton takes its origin within the limits
Of the thing that is acted upon the
reaction will also be felt within those
same limits.
Your electric fan would drive q toy
vessel placed on the deck of your
boat. although it would not drive -
boat itself. because. with regard to-
the toy vessel. the breeze from the fan
would have an Independent origin. like
an ordinary wind blowing over lake.
and its reaction would not be upon
the toy. but upon the boat over wh"s'
deck the toy glided.
Ii you are inside car and push ul'"n
the car yon cannot move it as yo,, cOu Il
II you stood upon the ground outside
and pushed. In the first case your
action and reaction are both npnn the
car. but In the second case the action
Is upon the car and the reacti0n upon
the ground outside. The same thing
happens If you suspend bar above
your head and lift yourself by pulling
down ON it. and afterward put the bar
under yOur feet and try to lift yourself
by pulling up ON it. You succeed in
lifting yourself in the first case. but
yOu fail In the second. because when
the bur is under your feet the force
pf y0nr pull reacts upon your own
body and urges 1t down just as much
MS up.
There is one effect Of the electric fan
which might surprise you-it would
lend to drive your boat backward in
stead Of forward. 1t would push
against air like the propeller Of an
Aer0plane. and to make it drive your
boat forward you would have to face
the fan around. SO that its reaction
wonld be upon the atmosphere behind
Instead Of ahead Of the bolt. and in
either case your sail would be not only
useless but an Observation-Disclosures
- Gurvioc IL, Now VnrE IOreno0