ACROSS THE ATLANTIC IN TWO BAYS.

Evening Star, Issue 10401, 24 August 1897, Page 4

ACROSS THE ATLANTIC IN TWO BAYS.

A curious vessel is now being constructed at Toronto which, if it meets with the success expected by its inventor, will revolutionise lake and ocean travel. For a long time Mr P. A. Knapp, a lawyer of Napanee, a small town near Toronto, has been at work on a model for a vessel designed to lop no less than four days off the time in which the most modern s;earners make the voyage across the Atlantic. Not until recently could he getsome oue to take hold of his plan to build a vessel that would cross from New York to England in two days, or at the rate of a mile a minute. But Mr Knapp persisted, and at last succeeded in imparting some of the faith he has in the scheme to George Goodwin, a contractor of Ottawa, who put up IO.OOOdoI and gave a conti act for bfc e construction of a vesselafter Mr Knapp’s ideas to the Poison Ironworks Company, of Toronto, and a huge framework of iron, in the shape of a large cylinder, is being reared in the shipyard there. It is described as resembling a huge tubular boiler lying on the horizontal, with a small cylinder inside of it. It is 110 ft long and 40ft in diameter. The framework is being covered with Jin steel plates. The inner cylinder is sufficiently smaller than the outer one to leave a space between the two of 4ft. There will be an axle, on which the inner cylinder will swing and on which the outer will revolve. Paddles of a curious kind will be fastened to the outside shell, and it will be made to revolve by the motive power carried in the inner cylinder, rolling over the waves at a great rate of speed, according to the inventor’s calculations. The inner cylinder, which the passengers are to occupy and where the machinery will be placed, is to he fitted with a steam engine of 150 horse-power. This will be the motive power by which the outer cylinder is to be made by friction to revolve rapidly, The inner cylinder will be fitted in the outer shell so as to allow it to slide around it as the outer one revolves, on an arrangement of tracks and ball-bearings, and this compart, ment will be kept hanging in position by ballast. Jt will provide in this way against the disagreeable motion of an ordinary vessel in a choppy sea that produces seasickness and makes the ocean voyage in other wavs far from agreeable. Between the two cylinders the vessel will afford space forfreight that will revolve with the outer cylinder. It will have a number of diamond-shaped ventilators for the escape of smoke. On each end there will be the steering apparatus. The steering will be a simple matter, since it can be arranged to have a sort of rudder projecting from each end capable of retarding the motion of one end or the other and changing the direction of the vessel very quickly. At each end the vessel will open, and, as it will sit high on the water, there will be no danger of shipping waves. Toronto shipbuilders believe that it will be an altogether unseaworthy vessel, but Mr Knapp is quite confident of success. He fully believes that the paddles will keep it on the surface, and is satisfied that he has invented a wonderful machine and one that will soon be in universal use, .