Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 April 1902 — WALKS ON THE WATER. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WALKS ON THE WATER.

Captain Grossman, Inventor of WaterShoes, Does a 100-Mile Walk.

Captain Grossman of Cologne, Germany, the inventor of water shoes, recently completed a 100-mile walk on the surface of the River Danube. He started from Linz and finished his journey at Vienna, drawing his wife in a boat all the way. A dispatch from Vienna printed in the papers the other day told of

the completion of the trip in less than two days and of the terror of peasants who saw the inventor from the banks and believed they were viewing the supernatural. The shoes are aluminum cylinders, thirteen feet long, and are light enough to be carried on the shoulders like a pair of oars. The wearer propels himself by a treading movement, which causes four oar-shaped wings to revolve. The inventor hopes to have his water shoes made a part of the outfit of lifesaving stations. In a flood in Germany two years ago he gave a practical demonstration of their usefulness by rescuing twenty persons. It Is said the shoes are no more difficult to operate in rough weather than on smooth water.

WALKING ON WATER.