NAUTICAL VELOCIPEDE. 



459 



useful to those who distrust the natural buoyancy of water and their own 

 powers of keeping afloat or swimming. The simple apparatus, shown in 

 fig. 486, is the invention of an American named Richardson, a citizen of 

 Mobile, U.S. 



The machine consists, essentially, of a shaft, upon which a float is fixed, 



and at the end of the shaft is a small screw propeller. The shaft is put in 

 motion by a wheel arrangement worked by the hands, and by a crank moved* 

 by the feet. The swimmer rests upon the float, with his head well above 

 water. The float sustains him, while the propeller forces him through the 

 water, without his feeling fatigued, at the rate of about five miles an hour. A 



