The Romance of Modern Mechanism / With Interesting Descriptions in Non-technical Language of Wonderful Machinery and Mechanical Devices and Marvellously Delicate Scientific Instruments

by Archibald Williams

PLEASURE BOATS

We may now consider the pleasure and commercial uses of the motor boat and marine motor. As a means of recreation a small dinghy driven by a low-powered engine offers great possibilities. Its cost is low, its upkeep small, and its handiness very great. Already a number of such craft are furrowing the surface of the Thames, Seine, Rhine, and many other rivers in Europe and America. While racing craft are for the wealthy alone, many individuals of the class known as "the man of moderate means" do not mind putting down £70 to £100 for a neat boat, the maintenance of which is not nearly so serious a matter as that of a small car. Tyre troubles have no counterpart afloat. The marine motor dispenses with change gears. Water being a much more yielding medium than Mother Earth, the shocks of starting and stopping are not such as to strain machinery. Then again, the cooling of the cylinders is a simple matter with an unlimited amount of water almost washing the engine. And as the surface of water does not run uphill, a small motor will show to better advantage on a river than on a road. Thus, a 5 h.p. car will not conveniently carry more than two people if it is expected to climb slopes at more than a crawl. Affix a motor of equal power to a boat which accommodates half a dozen persons, and it will move them all along at a smart pace as compared with the rate of travel given by oars. After all, on a river one does not want to travel fast—rather to avoid the hard labour which rowing undoubtedly does become with a craft roomy enough to be comfortable for a party.

The marine motor also scores under the heading of adaptability. A wagonette could not be converted into a motor-car with any success. But a good-sized row-boat may easily blossom out as a useful self-propelled boat. You may buy complete apparatus—motor, tanks, screw, batteries, etc.—for clamping direct on to the stern, and there you are—a motor boat while you wait! Even more sudden still is the conversion effected by the Motogodille, which may be described as a motor screw and rudder in one. The makers are the Buchet Company, a well-known French firm. "Engine and carburetter, petrol tank, coil, accumulator, lubricating oil reservoir, exhaust box, propeller shaft, and propeller with guard are all provided, so that the outfit requires no additional accessories. For mounting in position at the stern of the boat, the complete set is balanced on a standard, and carries a steering arm, on which the tanks are mounted; and also the stern tube and propeller guard, which are in one solid piece, in addition to the engine. In order that no balancing feats shall be required of the person in charge, there is, on the supporting standard, a quadrant, in the notches of which a lever on the engine frame engages, thus allowing the rigid framework, and therefore the propeller shaft, to be maintained at any angle to the vertical without trouble."[12]

The 2 h.p. engine drives a boat 16 feet long by 4 feet 6 inches beam at 6 1 / 2 miles per hour through still water. As the Motogodille can be swerved to right or left on its standard, it acts as a very efficient rudder, while its action takes no way off the boat.

For people who like an easy life on hot summer days, reclining on soft cushions, and peeping up through the branches which overhang picturesque streams, there is the motor punt, which can move in water so shallow that it would strand even a row-boat. The Oxford undergraduate of to-morrow will explore the leafy recesses of the "Cher," not with the long pole laboriously raised and pushed aft, but by the power of a snug little motor throbbing gently at the stern. And on the open river we shall see the steam launch replaced by craft having much better accommodation for passengers, while free from the dirt and smells which are inseparable from the use of steam-power. The petrol launch will rival the electric in spaciousness, and the steamer in its speed and power, size for size.

Some people have an antipathy to this new form of river locomotion on account of the risks which accompany the presence of petrol. Were a motor launch to ignite in, say, Boulter's Lock on a summer Sunday, or at the Henley Regatta, there might indeed be a catastrophe. The same danger has before now been flaunted in the face of the automobilist on land; yet cases of the accidental ignition of cars are very, very rare, and on the water would be more rare still, because the tanks can be more easily examined for leaks. Still, it behoves every owner of a launch to keep his eye very widely open for leakage, because any escaping liquid would create a collection of gas in the bottom of the boat, from which it could not escape like the gas forming from drops spilled on the road.

Photo Branger & Cie, Paris.

THE MOTOGODILLE

The Motogodille, or Motor Rudder, consists of a screw propeller fitted to a small Buchet motor. The whole apparatus is mounted on a standard in the stern, and the operator, by moving the inboard arm to right or left, can steer the boat as he wishes. A 2-h.p. motor gives a speed of 5 to 6 miles an hour.

The future popularity of the motor boat is assured. The waterside dweller will find it invaluable as a means of carrying him to other parts of the stream. The "longshoreman" will be able to venture much further out to sea than he could while he depended on muscles or wind alone, and with much greater certainty of returning up to time. A whole network of waterways intersects civilised countries—often far better kept than the roads—offering fresh fields for the tourist to conquer. River scenery and beautiful scenery more often than not go together. The car or cycle may be able to follow the course of a stream from source to mouth; yet this is the exception rather than the rule. We shoot over the stream in the train or on our machines; note that it looks picturesque; wonder vaguely whither it flows and whence it comes; and continue our journey, recking little of the charming sights to be seen by anyone who would trust himself to the water. Hitherto the great difficulty has been one of locomotion. In a narrow stream sailing is generally out of the question; haulage by man or beast becomes tedious, even if possible; and rowing day after day presupposes a good physical condition. In the motor boat the holiday maker has an ideal craft. It occupies little room; can carry fuel sufficient for long distances; is unwearying; and is economical as regards its running expenses. We ought not to be surprised, therefore, if in a few years the jaded business man turns as naturally to a spin or trip on the rivers and canals of his country as he now turns to his car and a rush over the dusty highway. Then will begin another era for the disused canal, the vegetation-choked stream; and our maps will pay more attention to the paths which Nature has water-worn in the course of the ages.

To the scientific explorer also the motor affords valuable help. Many countries, in which roads are practically non-existent, can boast fine rivers fed by innumerable streams. What fields of adventure, sport, and science would be open to the possessor of a fast launch on the Amazon, the Congo, the Mackenzie, or the Orinoco, provided only that he could occasionally replenish his fuel tanks!