History of Steam on the Erie Canal | Page 4

a tunnel-shaped encasement to her propeller. Of course she is reported as "very slow."
The John Durston had a propeller built in with her rudder, and driven with a vertical shaft, extending down through a cylindrical rudder-post, but was unfit for service.
PADDLE WHEELS.
The Port Byron is a stern, paddle-wheel boat, with vertical or eccentric acting paddles, and is like the Viele of 1858. She has a recess the entire length of her bottom of several square feet area, intended to facilitate a flow of water from the bow, but the flow does not occur; the mechanical currents of the wheel will be from the nearest water, and not from ninety feet forward.
The Montana is a similar stern-wheeler, without the recess.
The Success consists of two sections, to be disconnected for passing the locks, with paddle-wheel machinery at the bow. Her wheel, inside of the paddles, is a drum or cylinder, filled with cork, to be buoyant, and the hull has an easy, scow bow, for the water to pass under the boat. Practically, the large drum makes her a horizontal, cylindrical-bowed boat, and she mechanically throws the water therefrom against the scow-shaped bow, and so that the cylinder displacement with the mechanical currents, and the scow-bow displacement, combine to make her very slow. With her two sections she brought one and a half cargoes of corn.
The Excelsior has a horizontal, eccentric-acting paddle wheel, and was built of light iron at Green Point. She had a recess at the bow for her submerged wheel, and, when thus tried, found the retarding effects of the mechanical currents at and against the bow so great, as to cause her original bow-propulsion to be made stern-propulsion, when she was much improved. She was tried with cargo for a short distance on the canal, and withdrawn.
The Fountain City is a common boat, with machinery at her stern. She has two submerged horizontal, excentric-acting paddle-wheels, each of small diameter. These are placed under her quarters, in the rudder cross-section, and she is steered by her machinery. The characteristics of these wheels are like the Excelsior's, and the eccentric variations of both--together with the Byron's, Montana's and Viele's--are known as old devices of secondary merit on river, lake and ocean steamers.
The Santiago is a scow-boat, with a recess, or flume, the whole length of her bottom, to a stern propeller. Her steam was soon abandoned.
An endless-chain propulsion was tried upon the Western Division, without success.
A common canal-boat has been experimented with at Brooklyn to propel her by the reaction of a powerful blower or fan. This was driven first by a ten-horse, and next by a forty-horse stationary engine, and afterwards by a forty-horse oscillator. Each failed to move her from her slip, and the conception proved an absurdity.
In addition to these, local steamers have been run between different cities for local purposes, more or less, since 1858, and steam-tugs have been brought into requisition occasionally.
OBSERVE:
This review presents the important fact, that NO NEW MECHANICAL SYSTEM HAS BEEN INTRODUCED.
The screw-propellers and paddle-wheels are multiplications from the former era. The variations from the common propeller and paddle-wheel, in the miscellaneous devices, are all under reductions of merit.
All the bow-propulsions, and all the variations from the Viele, Sternburg and Ruggles of the former, and the Byron, Baxter and Newman of the present era, are inferior, whether viewed practically or scientifically.
Hence, steam has received no mechanical advancements since 1858; and the efforts of 1872 are as positive and determinate failures as those of 1862.
THE TRIALS OF STEAM IN 1872 LESS ECONOMICAL THAN IN 1858 TO 1862.
It should be observed that the first trials of steam in 1858 were made during a season of low water, and when the Canal Board had limited the loading of boats to four and three-fourths feet draught of water, which, later in the season, was increased to five feet, and in subsequent years to six feet, as continued to the present time.
Among the most successful trials of the first era of steam on the canals, may be mentioned the H. K. Viele, P. L. Sternburg, and S. B. Ruggles. Each could carry three-fourths cargo and tow a full cargo, and each exceed the speed of horse-boats.
Among the most successful trials of the present era may be mentioned the Port Byron, Baxter, and Newman. Each can carry five-sixths of a common cargo, and exceed the speed of horses.
In the early era of steam, the prominent policy was to combine towage with carrying capacity by the steamer, for economical expedition. In the present era, it has been to make the carrying capacity of the steamer, in itself, economical and expeditious.
This latter policy has arisen under the Appropriation Act of April, 1871, which limits the minimum cargo to two hundred tons, and the minimum average speed of three miles per