A POLYSPHENIC SHIP.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 3488, 16 June 1879, Page 2

A POLYSPHENIC SHIP.

Por the last alx years (soys the JBnjluTi Mechanic) the Bev 0. M. Bamus. Eeotor ot East GuUdeford and Playden, Enuland.hnß held hia invention of the DOlvßPfconio Bhip at the disposal of the Admiralty. Thia vessel, lt i* ejaculated, will.skifc the Beas at the rate of forty inilea an honr. The word , •« skim diaoloeea the secret of the idea is mainly based on the faot that if a vessel canbe made by theforoe ■with which it moves to-ride- over the waves.instead of driving throußh them, thoro ia prima facie reason to bellevo that a mnoh highor spoed than anything yet reaohed will bo aohieved. The winotofibof - Mr" Bamns' invention oonsistain makiigthe bottom of tho vessola series of inclined; planes, fii 1872, Mr Bamus mado a model, havfaig its ; bottom composed of two parallel ahd conßecutive in-, dined planes, or the vessel may be described as mode np of two wedges, tho thick ends of whioh nro placed abaft the thin ends. There is thns in the centre of the vessol a ridge where the thin end of the Bternmost,wedge abnjs against the thiolc end of > the foremoM.'Any floating body thn» shapoa n»8B,---whon driven forcibly through the water, tend to rise, and if the speed is high enough, it will rise on the surface instead of driving through the water. These faota were demonstrated by some rough expertinents made in the pfe3enoo of credibio witnesses. Tho propellingpowor in these experiments waa a six-onnco rookot. In one trial the model, weighing : Site Soz, ran a distance, of 105 yds in" 3secß.' In ' another it map 480 , /eet fli 4\ seoonds, the water being rippled by a strong- -breeze, but in spite' of this the deck was t found to be dry. Tho prinoiple underlying these, models,' says tho Mechanic, may be talon advantige, of to construct wedge-shaped ships, for it has been' demonstrated that tho rosistanco to suoh ships, whioh at first increases abont as the square of their velocity, decreases as the speed ia augmented, r nnUl after a certain poriod there ia no further in--ereaae of resistance. Givon the required maohinery then, for propelling the polysphenio ship, and there seems every probability that a speed of forty miles an hour or more can be attained. -• ■ - V -...ii ii i ' *i i