MARINE SPIDER CRIPPLED.
Four of Her Legs Broken En Route to South Carolina.
Charleston, S. C., Aug. 20, 1999.—The marine spider, Nautilus, arrived here in bad shape from Brazil to-day, one of her fore legs having been broken. The Nautilus is one of the fleet of the South American Importing and Exporting Company, and was built at Charleston two years ago. The boats in this fleet were built on the principle of an insect, it being an established fact that a body can be carried over water much more rapidly than through it. The spiders were fashioned after the manner of a centipede, the feet being bell shaped and connected with a superstructural deck by ankle-jointed pipes, through which, when necessary, a pressure of air could be forced down upon the enclosed surface of the water. The locomotion is like that of a pacing horse and great speed can be maintained. The marine spider had for its inventive source a treatise on its possibilities written by John Jacob Astor as early as 1894.