CURIOUS SCHEMES FOR CROSSING THE ATLANTIC.

Hot Lakes Chronicle, Volume 2, Issue 118, 6 March 1895, Page 3

CURIOUS SCHEMES FOR CROSSING THE ATLANTIC.

(Tit Bits.) Man is a progressive animal, llis t" greatest triumphs rapidly develop into uninteresting reminiscences, thanks L to the influence of an ardent desire to > 'go one better.' In no department • is this tendency better illustrated than in tho question of transatlantic travel. Who has not marvelled at the extraordinary difference between the cara vels of Columbus and the Cunatder Campania? And yet naval experts ! are still yearning for swifter shins. Endless projects are elaborated 'for the annihilation of spaca and seasickness. The writer once heard a smart. American develop the startling theory that it would be possible to construct an immense pneumatic tube under the Atlantic through which passengers could be shot at lightning speed ! Dr Bausset, an American engineer, recently planned an air-ship capable of tiausportiug passengers from America to Europe in twenty-four hours. This aerial machine will consist of a steel cylinder 77-1 feet long and 144 feet in diameter, fitted with a three-story steel passenger car, 420 feet long, rigidly suspended beneath.The cylinder would bo made absolutely air-tight and the air within pumped out, thus giving the ship a lifting power of- several tons beyond its own weight. The inve.ntor claims that his system has been indorsed by all the most eminent engineering experts. The ' whaleback' is another curious marine monster. Invented by Captain Macdougall, it is considered by many naval architects to bo tho coming ship. This vessel is rounddecked, llat-bottomed, both extremities resembling the pointed end. of a cigar. The wlieelhouse is a mere turret, and the forecastles are under the whcelhoUfo, and aro set up on three turrets. These ' whalebacks ' possess peculiarities which make them a complete revolution in -ship-build-mg. There is no ponderous bulk above water to wrestle with the angry waves, which break over them—not against them. No matter how heavy the sea, the ship neither pitches nor rolls. Sea-sickness is thus minimised.

Professor Hazan, another American, has invented a btilloon made of goldbeater's skin, and equipped with extraordinary- devices. Moved by propellers worked by manual power and steered by a rudder, it will, he says, make the trip across the Atlantic in fifty hours. It holds 103,003 cubic feet of gas and costs £ 1,200. The basket is in the form of a lifeboat, and will servo for navigation in case of accident. The balloon will'lie filled with hydrogen lifting 701b for every 1,000 cubic feet. This would mean - lifting capacity of 7,0001b. The en, tire machine, including net, basket drag-rope, anchor, &c., will 'Weigh SOOlb. Three men will add 4501b, provisions and water 2501b.' This leaves a margin of 5,0001b for ballast. A. small pilot balloon will run up about a mile to show the direction of the wind. No return ticket would be issued, the nature of the windcurrents forbidding a return journey —except by going right round the world ! ISeverihclcss, the problem of propelling balloons has'already been partially solved in Franco. Air-ships have already succeeded in travelling in the teeth of a lifteen-mile wind.

Mr Darius Davison, an American naval.engineer, claims to have evolved a fourday ship. This leviathan is I,oooft in length, 45,000 tons burden, 50,000 horse-power, and will steam thirty miles an hour. Its novel features are a projecting bow* and stern, each 150 ft long. She is to have two rudders and four propellers, the latter placed so deep that' tiny canuot ' race,' or interfere with each other, two being on each side of the keel. They will make 150 revolutions per minute. The vessel will weigh 25,000 tons, and carry a cargo of 20,000 tons. Owing to her length, she will rest upon three Waves at a time, thus avoiding pitching and rollirg. Stability wiii bo secured by the SOft beam, making her 15ft wider than any vessel now afloat. Sho will have water-tight compartmenls from end to end, six masts, two funnels, four sets of engines, with special generators, whereby one-fifth less coal is consumed. On paper she looks like a huge fish with the upper part of an ordinary ship neatly fitted into' itb back.

"Until these ingenious inventions lmvo practically inati riaiiseu, transatlantic travellers must perforce bo content' with the comparatively iiiou'cal accommodation afforded bv such ships as the Lucania and the Pans.