Its speed is sixty bales an hour.--_Engineering._
* * * * *
JET PROPELLERS.--HYDRAULIC PROPULSION OF VESSELS.
Certain mechanical devices appear to exercise a remarkable influence
on some minds, and engineers are blamed for not adopting them, in no
very measured terms in some cases. It is not in any way necessary that
these devices should have been invented by the men who advocate their
adoption, in order to secure that advocacy. The intrinsic attractions
of the scheme suffice to evoke eulogy; and engineers sometimes find it
very difficult to make those who believe in such devices understand
that there are valid reasons standing in the way of their adoption.
One such device is hydraulic propulsion. A correspondent in a recent
impression suggested its immediate and extended use in yachts at all
events, and we willingly published his letter, because the system does
no doubt lend itself very freely to adoption for a particular class of
yachts, namely, those provided with auxiliary power only. But because
this is the case it must not be assumed that the jet propeller is
better than screw or paddle-wheel propulsion; and it is just as well,
before, correspondence extends further, that we should explain why and
in what way it is not satisfactory. The arguments to be urged in favor
of hydraulic propulsion are many and cogent; but it will not fail to
strike our readers, we think, that all these arguments refer, not to
the efficiency of the system, but to its convenience.
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