Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 February 1894 — Water Propulsion. [ARTICLE]

Water Propulsion.

No plan yet proposed for substituting jet bout propulsion for the screw or paddle wheels seems likely to realize the efficiency needed in such case.. The chief reuson assigned for this is that the power in a boat or self-navigating ship is not applied quite as on the locomotive; that is the driving-wheels of ipi engine take hold of a fixed base, and thrust against it, or a series of such basis, all the while, but the mechunlcal appliances used in propelling a vessel at sea act upon an extremely mobile mass—something that, tends to slip, and does to some extent slip away from them. It is, in fact, only because the weight or inertia of the portion Immediately in contact with the oar, paddle wheel, or screw, offers some resistance, that any headway is secured, and the larger the watery bulk acted upon, the more stable It, will be and hence the more progress will bo secured. On the other hand, an equal amount of power may be consumed in moving a little water a great distance astern and a large amount, a small distance ; in the former case, however, the leverugo being almost lost, while in the latter it Is largely retained, consequently it is desirablo to apply the power so as to strike broad surfaces rather slowly instead of small ones with great velocity. A minor consideration mentioned Is that in the jet system, water has to be pumped into the moving vessel before it is ejected, and a certain amount of force must be consumed In giving to It in the interval the forward motion which every other object inside the craft has; this substracts from the amount of power available for propulsion.— [New York Witness.