Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 April 1877 — A New Motive Power. [ARTICLE]

A New Motive Power.

In the middle ages, gentlemen of a philosophic turn of mind and an unlimited amount of leisure wasted their lives in a fruitless search after the elixir at life or the philosopher’s stone. The present time finds people more sensible, and these desirable butvery unobtainable articles are not now sought after; the philosopher of the nineteenth century prefers employing his talents to better advantage, and, when everything else fails him, he turns his attention to the discovery es a new motive power, and whenever he announces that he is ready to run a train of cars or a steamboat with a half pint of water, or condensed air, or pendulnms, or something of that sort, there are hundreds ready to believe the inventor’s promises who would scoff at the idea of transmuting metals. There is no doubt that a new motive power is urgently needed; any person who has run against a lamp-post at midnight is ready to admit that, and perhaps this is one of the reasons that makes people so anxious for something novel in this line, as icy pavements and late hours are veiy apt to undermine a person’s confidence in the present style of locomotion. Philadelphia had her moment of triumph in this matter, but now the voice of Keely is heard no more in the land. Detroit stepped to the front, but Glassey has departed forever; so Brooklyn now stands up, and in the person of Isaac Chomel, 501 Fulton street, challenges the admiration of the world for her new motive power. Unlike Keely, Isaac is not satisfied with a pint of water, he wants oceans of it; in fact, he intends to utilize the rolling motion of the ship to propel it. In his ship is suspended a movable platform, hung so as to yield to the pitching or rolling motion of the vessel. This, at its bottom, gears directly upon the propeller shaft, so that there is the least possible loss of power. As this platform is inclined to an angle of thirty degrees, the propeller mtuces eight revolutions, continuing to revolve in flle same direction when the platform is tilted the other way.

Mr. Chomel says that a ship at sea rolls about ten times per minute, mid that he will thus secure in a brisk sea eighty revolutions per minute. Of course, the invention is only in its infancy yet. Few can realize the Immense influence this newly-discovered power is going to have on the future of the world. If the rolling of the waves will propel a boat it will run a mill, factorv, foundry or any other kind of machinery. Real estate will fall and water lots will go up. On every h&rnj will be seen posters announcing the sale of choice and wavy sections of lake and ocean at lowest prices. Advertisements will appear in the Free Press of that time something as follows: The subscriber has just erected a grist mill on one of the roughest sections of Lake Erie. In calm weather only custom work done, but daring storms he is prepared to furnish floor for home or foreign consumption. On a good windy day we may expect to see all sorts of factories nodding away at each other on the river, and a free and easiness will be introduced into our industries never before experienced. Then, the more shaky a man’s investments are, the better it will be for his prospects; it is far otherwise now. As may he expected, this new system of things will have its drawbacks, Wje shall read items Uke the following:

During thegale yesterday, the saw-mill of J. Smith, near Windsor, was working at its highest rolling power, when it broke loose and ran into William Jones’ soap factory at the middle of the river. Before the storm subsided the saw-mill had most of the soap factory cut into six-inch strip* in spite of the efforts of the new car-works and rolling-mill to separate them. No insurance. But then there are Immense advantages in connection with the Brooklyn invention that it is impossible to estimate. What a boon it will be to humanity when a man comes home at questionable hoars, finding the street all too narrow for him, to explain to an inquiring policeman or an investigating wife, that he has not yet got accustomed to the stability of dry land after rolling around in his office at the mill all day. At the Board of Trade banquets a 'regular toast will he “Our manufactures—long may they wave,” which will be responded to by a song—“ Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep,” or the band will strike up “ A Life on the Ocean Wave,” and our manufacturing interests will indeed have “ A Home on the Rolling Deep.” Thns it is that Isaac Chomel has answered the longestablished conundrum, “ What are the Wild Waves Saying?”and itistobehoped that Isaac will soon render serviceable that vast portion of the earth’s surface which has hitherto been more useful to commerce than to manufactures.— Detroit Free Press.