A BOAT WITH FINS.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9813, 24 August 1897, Page 2

A BOAT WITH FINS.

Swi-tt-Y P-.OPHCX._D BY THR ACTION OJ" THI

Waves—New Motivb Fobok,

Tourists at Naples this spring have noticed I, a little open boat, which set out seav/tfd | .-• whenever the sea was rough, and partiott* I •* larly when the treacherous sirocco sent ths &- turbulent waves spraying over the stone | coping of the Via Carraoiolo. Once having' pL. noticed the little frail shell, the fact of it* , *■ going out in heavy weather seemed so much more strange sinceit wasimpossibletolellhow it moved about. The single person seated in the boat did not row, there was no siil, no smokestack was visible, no wheel, no screw, no boiler, no engine ; hone of the metal parts unavoidable in motors of any kind, and no noise indicating any the ordinary motive , powers, which man has mode a tributary. At the rudder the man was calmly seated A directing the little shell wherever hs wanted to go. iWhat was driving the little boat through t* the turbulent waves? Its inventor and con- Br% structor, secretary Linden, of the zoological m station at Naples, kindly explained the I • simple and exceedingly clever invention, j. * which he has just patented in sev-MJ I ' countries, and whioh is to be introduc-d *.- both in the Gorman and Austrian MVltt. 1 , The forward and Aft. ends o! the boat m >-• provided with vertical, steel rods; a . fe (*? £~ end of these steel rods, which are dipjwa f ,•• in the sea, wedge-shaped plates of sp-in-* >-.• steel of great firmness are fastened lion" "Ji zontally with the wide and thin end awn.*" ,*< from the boat. When these pliahfe j| are made to vibrate by mea-S <» Jj} 9 .'[ ** movement of the wavaa, they tm «» tl l 9 •' . fins of a fish, and drive the boat forward. Not the wave, alone furnish the power- lot in perfectly still water the mere pitching « the vessel will result in a forward movetlifl«. - • The lowering or raising of the steel roawith the fins is an easy matter, and the themselves can be attached or detacnea Dy , a simple mechanism in a very few monw-ts. *. A trial with the small model of such a | boat in one of the basins of the aq-__ni**-»« j the station is highly amusing and surpri-ing at the same time. The toy is perfectly stui when placed in the water, bub as 80011 W, ,'„• little waves are produced in the basm wiw the hand or a small board, the toy startsi as if driven by witchcraft. The W™ T *\ veloped is rather considerable, and it w»» » compared with the pull exerted by _.*«•* ".? a brisk wind. The new boat, which «• ■ ... uxvetitot has called the AutM»a«. « »■», , J * exactly a boat without a motor, wwJ'J, . « without the ordinary & I matter of fact, the steel _n « motion of the water is the motor pt «*F* a Autonaut. , - | Secretary Linden first conceived the i 0» J $ of the new motive force while d*" l | n movement of the fishes in the **°**™£ i particularly the tail motiona, theinK»' * M porttot, apparently, in the locomotion * -"» / *- finny tribe. After many yeara* 1 calculation, and improvement*, bIS -Mjwj i •which is thirteen feet long, has against a. strong wind and tide in » of Naples at the rate of three and!• * * h miles an hour. The steel fins * about ten square feet in size, and «»r £ "• experiments established tbe best ay * .-_ about one-third of the surface npon «», . the boat is resting. The fins whicbgj - first made of several layers of steel, are now wrought out of one r '*} the most effective shape is that 01 w , phin'a tail fin. The new boat can be * in the ordinary manner, and w»» _ another bc*t heavier than it is ltMl *j'-j w r apparatus is cheap, and can be «W""L,, VI any boat even if it has other motive p*»» Itj No matter how little wind, the • ment alone is sufficient to , im g motion to the waves to propel tha w»*» *$ | > I vided with Linden fans. The &™fzTwl \, of the Linden boat, however, and "•«*« i value is inestimable, is in •*• ™JJ &>t*\f saving apparatus which has to »»»*■ ft Ie 1. crew would arrive at the spot where _bw jv « Wanted in excellent condition, and ™j£,,f l' ( Of much more help to a shipwrec"*ojfc_ to: . than now, when they arrive ." t li ' and often useless efforts against * n whelming odds of waves and wind, aataaw— ft j ; ~mm£mmMm M«b l