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X1S

STEAM NAVIGATION. 13

for them all; the wheels should be at equal distances from each other.lach wheel Consists of eight arms of iron, each three feet long, sothat the whole diameter of the wheel is six feet; each of these arms,at the distance of twenty inches from the centre, carries a sheet ironplane(or paddle) sixteen inches square, which is inclined so as toform an angle of sixty degrees, both with the arbor and keel of thevessel, to which the arbor is placed parallel: to sustain this arbor andthe wheels, two strong bars of iron of between two and three inchesthick, proceed from the side of the vessel at right angles to it, abouttwo feet and a half below the surface of the water. These bars aretwo and a half feet long, and five feet distant from each other.”The propellers for the stern he deseribes to be of similar construction,but shorter, and for driving them he says, they“can be moved bymen aboard the Vessels, or by Steam-Engines, or on Rivers by horsesplaced in the Barges.”*

In‘ 1760, FA, Genevois, a clergyman of the Canton of Bern,published a Pamphlet in London, entitled‘“ Some new Enquiries tend-ing to the Improvement of Navigation.”

This book Contains what he calls the discovery of the“ Greatprinciple.”.- This was to concentrate power, by whatever means pro-duced, into a series of springs, which might be applied to variousUses at the most convenient time, or in the most convenient manner.

He Suggested the application of his“ great principle” to the modeof Propelling a vessel by oars worked with springs. He also pro-Posed the use of an Atmospherie Steam Engine to bend the springs,which were to move the oars, and also to work&“ winged cart”When’ the wind failed, and a“ winged machine” in any wind, evena quite Contrary one. His favourite project, however, appears to

ave been to use the expansive force of gunpowder to bend the springsof his cars.

*© Arm des Arts,”

tom. xx,“ Retrospect of Philosophical, Chemical, and Agricul-tural Discoveries,”

vol. i. p. 243. London, 1806.D

He states, that since his arrival in England he had.

1752.

1760.