THE HIGHWAY OF THE WATERS 



But the boats that seemed to have come nearer at- 

 taining practical success for the moment were those 

 in which several sets of oars worked by steam were 

 placed vertically on each side of the hull, the machin- 

 ery so arranged that the oars were dipped into the 

 water and drawn stemward by one motion of the ma- 

 chinery, raised and carried toward the bow by the op- 

 posite motion. In some of these boats it was planned 

 to have four sets of oars, two sets on each side, which 

 were to work alternately, so that while one set was 

 traveling forward through the air, its mate would be 

 paddling through the water, thus insuring a continuous 

 forward impulse. But the machinery for these boats 

 proved to be too cumbersome and complicated for 

 practical results, and this idea was finally abandoned. 

 The jet of water did not prove any more successful, 

 and but two other methods were available — the pro- 

 peller and the paddle-wheel. 



Both of these methods of utilizing the power of mov- 

 ing water had been familiar in the form of the Archi- 

 median screw and the commonplace overshot or under- 

 shot mill-wheel. In these examples, of course, the 

 force of the water was used to move machinery, revers- 

 ing the action of the paddle-wheel of the boat. And 

 yet the principles were identical. Obviously if the con- 

 ditions were reversed, and the undershot mill-wheel, for 

 example, forced against the water with corresponding 

 power, the propulsive effect might be great enough — 

 since action and reaction are equal — to move a boat of 

 considerable size. But curiously enough, at the time 

 when Fulton began his experiments there was a wave 

 TOL. TIL— 5. [ 65 ] 



