IN AN ELECTRIC LAUNCH.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 814, 9 December 1882, Page 3

IN AN ELECTRIC LAUNCH.

v's :Y ' 1 £ Professor S. P.Thomson sends to Times an account of a trip Qpcthe Thames in a launch propelled Cfy-llectricity. He says—“ At half-past the afternoon I found dnf-'boardthe little vessel Electricity, jyrhg at her mooring off the wharf at the the, Electrical Power Storage dompanyr*Millwall. The little craft is length, and 5. feet beam, drawing 2 feet of water. She is fitted with 1 W 2V inch propeller screw. On boatdawere: stowed away under the and seats, fore and aft, 45 clechw- accumulators of the last type, is-tlevised by Messrs Sellon and Volckiffaifii/TuJl f changed with electricity by sjr£&Vlchding from dynamo-generators In'the works. They were calculated to supply*power for six hours, at the rate of four-horse power. These storage '<SMs i wefe‘ placed in connection with two.Siemens’ dynamos, (those known as D 3), furnished with proper reversing gear arid regulator's, in order to serve -as,an engine to drive the screw projpelljaib v/Either or both of these motors could be*'switched into circuit at will. In charge, of , th* electric engines was asspchited; with Mr Volckman in fitting Up the* electric launch. Mr Volckman himself, and an engineer, completed '(With" the writer) the quartette who .made, r .the, trial trip. After a few minutes’ run down the river, and a Irtel’ Of the powers of the boat to go tack, or go astern at will, her head was turned citywards, and we sped silently along the southern shore, running at the rate of eight knots an hour against the tide. At 37 minutes past .four- London Bridge was reached, where the head of the. launch was put about, while a long line of onlookers from the parapets surveyed, the strange craft, that without or visible power,, -and without even a visible steersman, wind and tide. fifdwfrHfith the ebb, the wharf was at one minute ipast/five, thus,in 24 minutes terminal-, 'mg’ the trial trip of the Electricity.”