I. CAPTAIN JOHN ERICSSON.

The name and fame of the inventor of the screw propeller are less widely known in Britain than in America, and in neither country, perhaps, has full justice been done to his memory. As a mechanical genius, he was one of the most remarkable men of his time, and did much to promote the development of steam navigation.

Ericsson was born in the Province of Vermeland, in Sweden, in the year 1803. Coming to England in 1826, he entered into partnership with Braithwaite, a noted mechanician, in London, and there and then entered upon his remarkable career as an inventor. In 1836 he married Amelia, daughter of Mr. John Byam, second son of Sir John Byam. Accompanied by his wife, he came to the United States, arriving at New York, in the British Queen, November 2nd, 1839. His wife, however, soon afterwards returned to England, and during the rest of their lives, “by an amicable arrangement,” the Atlantic rolled between.

Before leaving England, Ericsson had already patented a number of his inventions. One of the first of these was a machine for compressing air, a discovery which has since proved valuable in the construction of long tunnels and in many other ways. The introduction of his system of artificial draught was the key-note of the principle on which rapid locomotion chiefly depends. He electrified London with his steam fire-engine, but the conservative authorities would not countenance “a machine that consumed so much water!” In 1829 he entered into competition with Robert Stephenson, when a prize of £500 was offered for the best locomotive. He came off second-best, but it was a feather in his cap that his locomotive, the Novelty, glided smoothly over the track at the amazing speed of thirty miles an hour! His experiments with hot air occupied much of his time, and not without valuable results. His forte, however, was in the construction of steam-engines, of which he designed a large number, introducing many new principles, some of which were destined to survive.

Ericsson’s first stroke of business in the United States made him famous. The Princeton war-ship (see page 69), built at the Philadelphia navy-yard under his direction, and fitted with his screw propeller, proved a great success, and gained him the favour and patronage of the government officials. Soon after the completion of the Princeton, he embarked in what he then accounted the greatest enterprise of his life—

THE CALORIC SHIP “ERICSSON.”

With the financial assistance of several wealthy friends in New York, Ericsson proceeded to build a large sea-going vessel, to be propelled by means of hot air. It was a costly experiment, involving an outlay of $500,000, the engines alone costing $130,000. The cylinders were 168 inches in diameter, with six-feet stroke. The machinery was in motion within seven months of the laying of the vessel’s keel. On her trial trip the Ericsson attained a speed of eight miles an hour, and subsequently as much as eleven miles an hour. The Ericsson was at once a success and a failure. She sustained the inventor’s theory as to the power of heated air, but so excessive was the temperature of the air required to develop the power, the cylinders were warped out of shape and some of the fittings were burned to a crisp. The costly experiment was consequently abandoned. The caloric engine was replaced by an ordinary steam-engine, and thus transformed the Ericsson earned her living for many years.

THE “MONITOR.”

This further product of Ericsson’s fertile brain is in the form of an armour-protected, semi-submerged steam vessel for war purposes, and first came prominently into notice in connection with the memorable contest which took place in Hampton Roads on the 9th of March, 1862, between the Merrimac and Monitor. The former was an old wooden vessel refitted by the Confederate Government at Norfolk navy-yard, and covered with protective armour to the water-line. The Monitor was a flat iron boat resembling a scow, with nothing visible above water save the flush deck, from the centre of which rose a massive iron tower containing two guns of heavy calibre. The “cheese-box,” as the Monitor was contemptuously styled, held her own against the Merrimac, which carried eleven guns. It was a drawn battle, but a victory for Ericsson, and resulted in many other steam vessels of this description being built for harbour and coast defence under his supervision.

John Ericsson died in New York on the 8th of March, 1889. Vide “Ericsson and His Inventions,” in Atlantic Monthly for July, 1862, and “John Ericsson, the Engineer,” in Scribner’s Magazine for March, 1890.

II. THE WHALEBACK

was invented and patented some years ago by Captain McDougall, of Duluth, a long-headed and level-headed Scotchman hailing from the famed island of Islay. The peculiarity of its construction consists in its elliptical form, combining strength of hull, cheapness of first cost and working, and large carrying capacity upon a light draught of water. Having no masts, the whaleback is entirely dependent on its steam-power, which in case of a breakdown or heavy weather renders the vessel helpless and unmanageable; but, on the other hand, it is contended that so long as she has sufficient water under her she is practically unsinkable. She has no deck to speak of, and consequently nothing to wash overboard save the waves, which play harmlessly over her arched roofing. Her hold is, so to speak, hermetically sealed. Though chiefly intended to carry freight, the capabilities of the whaleback as a passenger steamer have been satisfactorily tested. The Christopher Columbus, built on this principle, did duty as an excursion steamer at the Chicago World’s Fair, and is now plying regularly as a passenger boat between Chicago and Milwaukee—the largest excursion steamer, so it is said, in the world, “having a carrying capacity of 5,000, which number of persons she has comfortably transported on a number of occasions.” The steamer is 362 feet in length, has engines of 2,800 horse-power, and runs at the rate of twenty miles an hour. A considerable number of “whalebacks” are now engaged in the Upper Lakes grain and iron ore trade, all of them having been built by the Steel Barge Company at West Superior.

The above cut is a faithful representation of a type of steamer peculiar to the Upper Lakes, which, though somewhat odd-looking, is said to answer its purpose well as a grain-carrier.

The latest addition to the fleet is the biggest vessel of her class, and just now the largest grain-carrier on the lakes. This vessel, named after the inventor, Alexander McDougall, is 130 feet in length over all, 50 feet moulded breadth, and 27 feet in depth. Her double bottom is five feet deep, giving her a total water ballast capacity of 2,000 tons. Her displacement on a draught of 18 feet is about 10,000 tons, and she is able to carry the enormous cargo of 7,200 tons, equivalent to 240,000 bushels of wheat. She is built of steel, and has quadruple expansion engines. The only departure from the original whaleback in this instance is the substitution of the perpendicular stem for the “swinish snout” or “spoon bow,” which has called forth so many uncomplimentary remarks, and which is much in evidence in our cut.

In 1891 the whaleback Wetmore was the first of this class of vessels to bring a cargo of grain from the Upper Lakes to Montreal and continue the voyage to Liverpool, where she arrived safely on July 21st. From Liverpool the Wetmore sailed to the Pacific coast via Cape Horn, and while carrying a cargo of coal from Puget Sound to San Francisco she was disabled in a violent storm, went ashore, and was wrecked.

III. THE TURRET STEAMSHIP.

The hull of the turret ship closely resembles that of the whaleback, but instead of the “spoon bow” it has the straight stem, and is further distinguished by a “turret deck,” so called, about one-third the width of the vessel and extending over its entire length, at a height of some five or six feet above the turn of the hull. This forms the working deck, and towering above it are the bridge, the cook’s galley, the engineers’ quarters, and other two-story erections, forming an unship-shapely tout ensemble of a most unprepossessing appearance; and yet, this is the type of steamship at one time seriously proposed by the contractors for the Canadian fast-line service! There are some thirty-five such vessels afloat in different parts of the world, all built at Sunderland, and most of them engaged in the coal trade, for which they are said to be well adapted.

The Turret Age, which plies between Sydney, C.B., and Montreal during the season of navigation, was built in 1893, and is owned by Messrs. Peterson, Tate & Co., of Newcastle-on-Tyne. She is one of the largest of her class, being 311 feet in length, 38.2 feet in width, and 21.6 feet deep. She is propelled by a single screw, has a speed of eleven knots, and carries 3,700 tons of coal. Her capacious, unobstructed hold and continuous hatchway permit of loading and discharging cargo with marvellous rapidity, and she is said to be a fairly good sea-boat.

IV. WATER JET SYSTEM OF PROPULSION.

While Ericsson, Smith, Woodcroft and Lowe were busying themselves with experiments for perfecting the principle of the submerged screw as a means of propelling vessels through the water, another plan was being devised which, for a time, excited much interest, and was very nearly becoming a success. This was Ruthven’s water-jet propeller. It differed from Ericsson’s in the singular fact that the actual propeller was placed inside of the ship instead of on the outside. This propeller, in the shape of a fan-wheel with curved blades, was made to revolve horizontally and rapidly in a tank of water placed in the hold of the vessel, fed from the sea through openings in the hull. The power of the steam-engine was applied to expelling the water from this tank through curved pipes with nozzles, on either side of the ship. In proportion to the velocity with which the water was forced through these pipes into the sea below the water-line, an impetus in the opposite direction was given to the vessel. The nozzles were so constructed that they could be turned easily towards the bow or stern, as occasion required, for forward or backward motion. The first experiment with this appliance was made by Messrs. Ruthven, of Edinburgh, on the Frith of Forth, with an iron boat 40 feet in length, in 1843, when a speed of seven miles an hour was attained. The Enterprise, 90 feet long and 100 tons burthen, was built on this principle, and made her trial trip, January 16th, 1854, when she developed a speed of 9.35 miles an hour. This vessel was intended for the deep-sea fishing, and the jet-propeller was suggested in this case as being less liable to become entangled with the nets than the screw or paddle. The water-jet system was also tried on a Rhine passenger steamboat with some measure of success; but while the theory was upheld, it seems to have failed in practice, because the results in speed and in other respects were not proportioned to the working power and the consumption of fuel. See En. Britannica, 8th ed., vol. xx., p. 661.

V. THE CIGAR STEAMBOAT.

Experiments with this style of river craft have been frequent on both sides of the Atlantic without, however, being followed by substantial success. So long ago as 1835, the Rapid, consisting of two hollow cylinders, pointed at either end in cigar fashion, placed ten feet apart, with a large wheel between them in the centre, appeared on the Upper St. Lawrence, fitted with the steam-engine of the superannuated Jack Downing. Her first trip down the river was also her last, for, after many fruitless attempts to return, she was wrecked, and for a time abandoned. Eventually, she was towed, by way of the Ottawa and Rideau canals, to Ogdensburg, where she was refitted and plied for some time as a ferry boat. A very pretty specimen of a cigar-boat built of iron, with an elegant superstructure, the writer remembers having seen on the Clyde more than half a century ago, but as to its career and ultimate fate deponent sayeth not. A twin-boat steamer, reminding us of Patrick Miller’s first attempt at steam-boating, propelled, however, by side-wheels, may be seen any day during the season of navigation dragging its slow length along on the ferry from Laprairie to the opposite shore of the St. Lawrence, near Montreal.

VI. THE ROLLER STEAMBOAT.

The reader is requested to put on his thinking cap before endeavouring to comprehend the brief reference now to be made to Mr. Knapp’s “Roller.” On the 8th of September, 1897, there was launched from the yard of the well-known Polson’s Iron Works Company in Toronto, an enlarged model of the strangest craft ever seen—a huge innovation upon all preconceived ideas of marine architecture. The exterior of the boat in question, if it can be called a boat, has all the appearance of a round boiler 110 feet long and 25 feet in diameter. The outer cylinder is built of one-quarter inch steel plates stoutly ribbed and riveted, and armed with a number of fins, or small paddles, the ends being funnel-shaped, with openings in the centre. This is made to revolve by means of two engines of 60 horse-power each, placed one at either end of the vessel. An inner cylinder similarly constructed, corresponding to the hold of a ship, remains stationary while the other is supposed to be rolling over the surface of the water, regardless of wind and waves, at railway speed. The modest calculation of the inventor is that a steam vessel so constructed of 700 feet in length and 150 feet in diameter, ought to cover the distance between New York and Liverpool in forty-eight hours! This model was built at a cost of $10,000. The results of the trial trip on Toronto Bay have not been made public.

VII. THE “TURBINIA.”

In June, 1897, there appeared on the Solent, at the time of the great Jubilee Naval Review, a steam vessel furnished with a novel method of propulsion, by which a speed far in excess of any previous record was attained. In the opinion of competent experts this new application of steam-power is likely to bring about in the near future a revolution in steam navigation. The following account of this phenomenal craft appeared in the Montreal Star:

The Scientific American, in its issue of June 26th, 1897, says: “Nothing more startling has ever occurred than the wonderful runs which have recently been made by a little craft called the Turbinia, in which the motive power is supplied by a steam turbine of the Parsons type.”

Quoting from a paper read at a meeting of the Institution of Civil Engineers in London, by the Hon. Charles A. Parsons, the inventor of this new system, the advantages of the turbine system are thus summarized:

Referring to the difficulty of reversing the engines of the Turbinia, the Scientific American adds, that “by using a system of ‘butterfly’ reversing steam valves, a motor has been constructed in which the steam may be made to flow through the blades of the turbine in either direction, the whole horse-power of the engines being thus available for going astern.” Detailed drawings and descriptions of the Turbinia and the new motor may be found in the supplements of the Scientific American (New York) for June 26th, 1897, and March 12th, 1898.

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