PASSING OF THE ROTORSHIP.

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 126, 30 May 1928, Page 12

PASSING OF THE ROTORSHIP.

The rotorship Buckau is to bo converted intoj iin auxiliary schooner. Tlie interesting experiment of driving a ship by wind power in an ultra-modern fashion has thus jbecn abandoned. The Buckau, it will be remembered, was fitted with two large rotating cylinders, or lowers, which gave tho craft a for* ward 'or backward motion according to tho direction in which the towers wore rotated. Theoretically, the idea was feasible. Experiments in dynamical science havo shown that a cylinder rotated rapidly byv a motor of Mis own moves at right angles to the wind wliich strikes it. This characteristic was developed by Herr Anton Flettncr, and applied to navigation. \ But tho defect, of tho' system lay In tho fact that unless the wind was striking at right angles to the ship's' course the operation of the dynamical law was not thoroughly effective. ' Like the old-fashioned sailing ship, the new wind-driven vessel was obliged, to tack when tho wind was against- her, md a further defect was that .with a wind fair astorn she. was practically becalmed. The decision to use auxiliary power is thus an admisslori that the experiment of the rotorship has not been a success