A WONDERFUL STEAMSHIP.

Waikato Times, Volume VII, Issue 386, 3 November 1874, Page 2

A WONDERFUL STEAMSHIP .

lr is a fact not gemn-allj known, nays the Gli-.sa-.w , \f,tii, that the Admiralty have h:vl under coivsiclei.i- , tiun for home time past the scheme of a gentleman j who bolioves that lie' may, boftne long, bf> able to ) cnss t!io English Channel fn twenty minutes and , the Atlantic 1'!1 '! i two days. The inventor is Mr U. M. Rtinus, M.A., of Trinity College, Cambrld'co. Jn a ptmphlet which he has just published, this gentleman propounds his idea, which is, indead, a very siinpje one, being conveyed in the title which he has adopted for the shape of his proposed steamship, " polysphenic" — many-wedged. It is a practical application of the inclined plane principle s to .steam navigation. The ship ib to have a buUom coinponpd of two or more pauillel conseeuthu inclines*—the slopes being from 1 to XTyto 1 in 25. Such a form of ship the author avers, had never been subjected to mathematical investigation~before 1872, when he submitted his plans to theV.dmiralty, and he adds tbot it lid never before been, demonstrated that " th© lift of a v.\sscl ( n water depended upon, thf well-know i mochtuiioa.l advantage belonging to the inclined piano in all mechanical arrangements." This new form Mr Ramus alleges to bethe only one yet discovered that cm render a vessel cip-ible, under an unusual amount of propelling power, of steadily traversing the water with great velocity. He calculates that steam vessels constructed on this principle will not require more than three times the amount of power now used to bo propelled and maintained at a speed of 60 miles an hour ! Acting under the iiistiuctions of the Admiralty, Mr W. Froude made some experiments on this new form of steamship at Torquay in the summer of 1872, and his report was laid on the table of the House of Commons at the end of last session, * though it has not yet been printed. The report would seem to have been unfavorable ; but in the pamphlet Mr Runus contests the decision, and •especially Mr Froud's allegation that an exorbitant amount of power would be required for the proposed now form of construction. If we might trust Mr Ramus, this allegation was not warranted by the result of the experiments. Mr Ramus with his model .ictually obtained a speed at the rate of 63 knots per hour ; ami lie points out that the downward pressure of any vessel is always a force limited to its actual weight, whereas the contrary force aoting upwards increases with great rapidity — in fact, as the cube of the vessel's a elocity — and is, therefore, practically unlimited. The world would gladly welcome a steamship capable of performing the wonders sketched by Mr Ramus, or even the half of them, and when he produces the article he may depend upon receiving a reward commensurate in some degree with the greatness of the benefit which he will have conferred upon his fellow-men. But he may perhaps find, as so many have done before him, that theory and practice are not always in accord.