GAS RACING BOATS.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2436, 8 January 1881, Page 4

GAS RACING BOATS.

These great sculling matches hare giren a great fillip to boat construction. The last new scheme to make racing boats buoyant is to fill them with hydrogen gas. The idea of this is to enable scullers to go faster and stay better than in the ordinary shells. Mr Marks, a Newcastle gentleman, has made many experiments and spent much money with this object. His last invention is a boat in which bags filled with hydrogen gas have been fixed, both fore and aft, inside the craft underneath the ordinary canvass covering. The hydrogen is supplied through small pipes from the cockpit. This gas boat was tried by Elliott, one of the champion rowers whom Hanlan beat so easily last j'ear. It is said of the new boat that although “ she did not stand so prominently out of the water as had been expected* she seemed full of life, and leaped to each stroke in a surprising manner.” This boat when tried against another certainly gained a considerable advantage, but this may have been due to the oarsman. It is undoubted that it sat more firmly on the water, and that while its competitor “ dipped a good deal at the catch,” in never juelded in the slightest. The results of those trials go to prove that there is something in the emploj'ment of gas, but it must be carried further before it is very generally adopted, and it will never probably equal the advantages of a good sliding seat thoroughly well used.