Hanlan's Secrets.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3861, 14 May 1881, Page 2

Hanlan's Secrets.

A new theory in explanation of Hanlan? wonderful success as an oarsman * as turnished to a Californian paper by Horace J. Wildner, a member of the .London Bowing Club, who has visited California after a hunting trip through Canada, Montana, British Columbia and Oregon. Mr Wildner was a sp-ctator of severallot Hanlan races., The.j.mp^sJV'bwJneh Mr Wildner received from race* m*s that Hanlan had some (Unknown agency to increase his speed, and never won on genuine merit. It was thought that be might have attained his wonderful degree of speed by filling the airtight compartmentsof his shell, with gas. but some experiments demonstrat- d the fallacy ot this theory; Hanlan himseJi assisted in disproving this theory by taking the bulkheads out of his boat, thus making it impossible to fill her with gas> and then rowing her faster than ever. The great secret of his speed is that at the end ot each stroke of his oars the boat does not lose headway. Eacing aculU are so light that they usually dwell after the oars have left the water, whereas Hanlan's boat keeps her course steadily until his sculls have been dipped again to give her fresh momentum. . ' - .•.'*,*

AX EXTHAOBDINABY, DIBCOVKBT

11 After watching the man critically," said Mr Wildner, "I was convinced that he had something to assist him besides swivel rowlocks and a sliding seat. In practise he did not seem to row particularly well, but the moment he started on his race his pace was altogether different. I examined his boats several times, but could detect nothing strange in them that would explain the secret. I was almost a convert to the belief that the man was a wonder when I went to see the Barrie regatta. About 8 o'clock in the morning, when there was hardly a soul around, I went down to Hanlan's headquarters and found the trainer bending over the champion's shell, with an oil can in his hand. The shell was turned bottom up, and four brass wheels about three inche9 in diameter were sticking out of her keel. The trainer seemed to be greatly discomfited by my unexpected visit and turned the shell over with a jerk that knocked a big hole in her forward deck; I was hot disposed to let the matter pass, however, and asked what was the idea of having miniature water wheels in the bottom of a racing shell. Just then one of Hanlan's backers came in, and seeing how matters stood, proceeded to explain that the wheels were an invention of his own. 'But,' said he ' they are more harm than good. They don't work at all, and stop the boat instead of helping her along.' I wanted them to show nic how the wheels worked, but they professed to be late for breakfast, and shoved the shell up oil the rack, and went off, locking the boat-house after them. On account of the break*in the deck Hanlan was obliged to use another boat, and though she was a very fine shell he only rowed a dead heat with Riley of Saratoga, a second-class sculler, who had a poor boat and was in the worst possible condition." •

HOW IT IS WOBKED

"After that exhibition," said Mr Wildner, " I made up my mind that the wheels in the keel of the boat did the business for the champion, and that without his trick boat he could not hope to defeat any good second-class man. In the . International regatta at JProvidence last July he rowed in a boat which could not p ssibly have been rigged with secret machinery, and got beaten most disgracefully. From what I saw of that boat at Barrie I am satisfied that the champion rows all his big races in a trick boat with wheels in the keel. These wheels are worked by a sliding seat. Yon know how a man rows. He slides up along steel tracks twenty-three inches long and then slides back again, pressing his feet against the stretcher with force enough to raise half a ton. When the champion is ready to start, he touches a spring in the stretcher with his feet and the wheels ftjL down. The moment he slides down for the stroke, the wheels commence to revolve with lightning rapidity and help him along wonderfully. The great gam howeter is in the recovery, for as he slides back for the stroke, the wheels keep working and the boat retains herheadway. In this way he gains probably a foot or r perhaps more ffn each stroke, and it is easy to calculate how much more powerj fully his antagonist must row to keep up with him. This explains why all the men Hanlans rows with are exhausted in the first mile."