888 Transactions of tee American Institute. 



rudder or reversing gear on this, you will have one rudder and 

 four reversing gears on the screw. And in general there will be 

 about four times the complication of machinery on the screw that 

 there is on this, and yet this will be capable of producing a great 

 variety of movements, such as throwing the stem and stern from 

 and to the deck, moving the vessel side foremost, etc., that the 

 screw with all its complication of machinery will be utterly inca- 

 pable of producing. 



RESISTANCE. 



We are enabled to greatly reduce the resistance of the boat and 

 wheel, as compared with the screw. First: by bringing the stern 

 of the vessel to a sharp edge, which besides diminishing resistance 

 gives the wheel a "cleaner run." Second; the wheel being con- 

 structed of steel, the parts are thinner and sharper, and cleave the 

 water with less friction. Third: the rudder and rudder post are 

 dispensed with, which, by dragging in the current produced by the 

 screw produce much resistance. Fourth: this propeller may be 

 constructed with two blades, and these being brought to the neu- 

 tral pohit in their circuit will pass edgeways through the water, 

 ifhen the boat is under sail, producing but a tithe of the resist- 

 ance that would result from the fixed blades of a screw under the 

 same circumstances. 



WILLARD'S STEAM PLOW. 



Mr. Geo. Willard exhibited a model of his steam plow or culti- 

 vator. A full-sized machine having lately been tried near Chicago, 

 Illinois, with success. The inventor spoke as follows: 



A long time since, perhaps shortly after Adam vacated Eden 

 to earn his own living, and for aught I know to the contrary, it 

 might have been he, who, for himself and wife, wished to impro- 

 vise a garden of his own, that he might raise a few vegetables for 

 winter use, and some corn to pop in the long evenings, invented a 

 plow. For a long time, no doubt, it was a sore puzzle how to 

 uproot tall rank grass and weeds — for outside of his first habitation, 

 as I take it, to use a western term, all was raw prairie. But our 

 ancient relative was equal to the task, and conceived the brilliant 

 idea of sharpening a stick, or perhaps the limb of that identical 

 apple tree, and with a thong attached to it and a cow, an ox or an 

 ass, with the inventor at the other end to keep its and his own 

 equilibrium, if he could, and may be with his loving spouse to 

 drive, proceeded to plow. 



