Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/888

 An Engine-Carrying Fin for the Power-Boat

A device for conserving floor space on the boat and for enabling the boat to turn in its own length

���The engine-containing fin principle applied to car floats. These large, clumsy floats can be handled as easily as a light motor-boat, and the need of a tug is thus done away with

��A LL the captains who sail the briny J-\ deep are not satisfied with their ships. Captain Samuel Golden was not so pleased with ships as he found them that he did not think they could be im- proved. Therefore, he thought out meth- ods of improving power-boats. So far the captain has built three boats, all designed along the same lines.

The last one, known as the "Shib 1 1" is a forty-foot houseboat equipped with a four- cylinder 28-hp. engine which operates at about 500 revolutions a minute. The peculiarity of the construction lies in the fact that the boat is equip- ped with a fin which is about twenty feet in length, twenty- seven inches in width at its wid- est part and tw e n t y-s i x inches deep. The engine is built in this fin. The propeller is an ordinary three- bladed side pro- peller, twenty- two by thirty- inch pitch. The rudder is smaller than those used in other boats of her size.

The entire fin

���A new type of boat which contains the engine. The water. This boat may be

��is submerged. The water flows around the extreme lines of the fin without any suction. Therefore, the full surface propeller blades are available for pulling as well as thrusting. The thrust from the propeller cannot rise into the air. No air can reach the wheel.

The short narrow fin and the position of the rudder and propeller make it possible to steer the boat with great accuracy. One advantage in this construction lies in the fact that this type of boat may be used for many purposes, such as for tugs, lighters, pleasure boats, speed boats, ferry boats and power life-saving boats. In crowded harbors it is very neces- sary to be able to handle ships without -mishap. The invention of Captain Golden makes ft possible to turn any ves- sel in its own length and makes steering far more accurate than it is with ordinary boats.

The size of the fin is in propor- tion to the size of the boat. In the case of a float for railroad cars the finislargeenough to be a good-sized engine room. A

��has a short narrow fin that

propeller is always under

steered with great precision

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