4 G 4 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[Sept. 17, 1910. 
that a carburettor is of equally vital moment as 
the design and construction of a hull, the com¬ 
mittee were clearly of opinion that the best boat 
did not win, and they did not hesitate to give 
expression to that thought, coupled with a sug¬ 
gestion which should insure a fairer test in 
future competitions. 
“The Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Co. are 
to be congratulated on the wonderful speed at¬ 
tained by Pioneer in this race (over forty miles 
an hour), notwithstanding the fact that the en¬ 
gines were under water for a considerable time 
after the accident with which the boat met at 
Cowes a few weeks ago. It may be mentioned 
in this connection that Mr. Noel Robins, who 
steered Pioneer in last Saturday’s race, has been 
awarded the Royal Humane Society’s bronze 
medal for his gallant conduct in saving the Duke 
of Westminster on the day that the boat cap 
sized.” 
Pilgrim. 
The motor boat Pilgrim, owned by F. A. 
Hyde, of Oakland, Cal., was built from designs 
by Gielow & Orr, of New York city. Her 
principal dimensions are : Length over all, 36 
feet; length on load waterline, 35 feet; beam, 
8 feet 6 inches, and draft, 3 feet. In appearance 
she differs considerably from the ordinary raised 
deck type of cruisers, as her sides are carried 
up only enough to give sufficient headroom 
along the transoms and lockers when a person 
is seated: full headroom being provided for the 
floor space by means of a trunk skylight. This 
arrangement does away with the high sided ap¬ 
pearance so frequently seen in motor boats of 
these dimensions. 
The interior arrangements are very simple; 
the water tanks being located forward of the 
collision bulkhead; aft of this a toilet and 
dressing room; next aft of which comes the 
cabin, with two berths; aft of this a combina¬ 
tion galley and engine room, with a hammock 
berth on port side, and oil stove, locker, shelves, 
a sink. etc., on the starboard side; aft of this 
is a long cockpit, with a raised bridge across 
the forward end, upon which are located the 
steering wheel and control for operating the 
motor. 
The boat is constructed in a thoroughly sub¬ 
stantial manner, using the native woods of the 
Pacific Coast, excepting for the interior finish, 
which is in polished mahogany throughout. 
The boat is driven by a 4-cylinder, 20-horse- 
power, “Ralaco” motor, which gives her a 
speed of over ten miles per hour. The fuel 
supply is contained in two cylindrical tanks, 
one with a capacity of 44 gallons and the other 
of 24 gallons capacity. The larger tank is used 
for holding distillate, and the smaller one gaso¬ 
line. the gasoline being used for starting and 
running the motor for a short time, after which 
the distillate is turned on. 
The boat has a very handsome appearance, 
and her owner has expressed himself as highly 
pleased with her in every respect. She is an 
exceptionally good sea boat, and very comfort¬ 
able at all times. 
Motor Boat Batteries. 
A man sat on the after deck of a 23-foot 
motormotor boat wiring up six dry cells with 
electric bell wire. Whenever any one is doing 
anything toward getting such a boat ready for 
use a group of critics gathers by his side and 
asks him why instead of what he is doing he 
does not do this or that. Such a group has come 
to be known as the committee, says the Sun. 
When the committee saw the man using bell 
wire for wiring up the dry cells one of them 
asked why he did not get some good insulated 
wire and do the job right. Being in an affable 
mood he replied : “Good insulated copper wire 
is three or four times as thick as this wire is, 
and the thicker it is the more likely it is to 
joggle loose when the boat is running. If it 
does that, the battery sparks where the joggle 
is and not in the cylinder.” 
“I should think.” said one of the committee 
after a while, “that you would make your bat¬ 
MOTOR BOAT PILGRIM, 
tery waterproof by filling the battery box with 
paraffin. Then you could sink it in the bay 
without hurting it.” 
“Water is almost as good a conductor as cop¬ 
per wire, and a battery of cells cast in paraffin 
would be exhausted under water just as quickly 
as if there was no paraffin in the box. Paraffin 
insulates the cells from one another and pre¬ 
vents joggling, but some wads of newspaper or 
wrapping paper rolled up and packed around the 
cells answer the same purposes.” 
“But why do you use dry cells at all?” an¬ 
other o,f the committee asked. “Why don’t you 
get a good storage battery and have the right 
thing?” 
“A good storage battery,” replied the man, 
“weighs from fifteen to twenty pounds. I should 
have to tote it to where I could get it recharged, 
wait two days and lug it back. If they didn’t 
happen to know or were careless about the cur¬ 
rent used in recharging, they would destroy the 
battery.” 
“How about a wet battery that you could re¬ 
new yourself for five or six cents?” 
“I had one in a 16-foot launch. I left the 
boat close inshore at high water and when the 
tide went out she listed over and the battery 
liquid ran out. It ate up the linoleum floor cov¬ 
ering and part of the board flooring.” 
“Don’t ask fool Questions,” said still another 
member of the committee. “What I would ad¬ 
vise the cap’n to do is to put in a good magneto, 
use a battery of drv cells for starting and have 
no further trouble.” 
.“I had a good magneto,” the man replied as 
he finished up his wiring job and erected the 
battery with a four-candle electric light bulb, 
“and I gave it away. The brushes wore out 
and had to be replaced; the commutator wore 
down until there was no insulation; the insula¬ 
tion of the brushes failed to insulate; the belt 
kept breaking and when I substituted a friction 
pulley that wore out. and when the thing wasn’t 
out of commission and was making 2,400 revo¬ 
lutions a minute, it made more noise than the 
engine. 
“Because of the many ways in which it could 
get out of order it gave me more bother than 
all the rest of the outfit gave me.” 
“What does it cost you for dry cells for the- 
season?” some one asked. 
“I use two sets of five cells each-—ten cells 
at 25 cents each.” 
“What are the best cells?” 
“Generally speaking, the newest brands. 
There is a lot of rivalry in the trade. Any new 
brand is apt to be good. A few brands have 
kept up their standard of goodness: others have 
been cheapened and sold on their reputation 
OWNED BY F. A. HYDE. 
until they became so poor that nobody would 
buy them. In this respect the dry cell busi¬ 
ness has been conducted somewhat like the 
cigarette business.” 
“Do all engines cost the same for battery?” 
asked a landlubber who had joined the com¬ 
mittee. 
"A two-cylinder motor uses twice as much 
battery as a one-cylinder of the same make; 
a four-cylinder four times as much as a one. 
A four-cycle motor uses half as much as a two- 
cycle, because it sparks once in two revolutions 
instead of every revolution.” 
“Economy of battery,” the man who was 
handing out information went on, “depends of 
course upon the sparking device. Generally 
speaking, a jump spark rig uses more battery 
than a make and break, sometimes called a snap 
spark. 
“The amount of current used depends upon 
the length of time during which the battery 
circuit is closed. On this little jump spark 
motor there is a rotary timer—a wheel rimmed 
with insulating fiber having a section of bronze 
in it. While this metal part is passing under 
the contact plug the current is being consumed. 
"The metal section is about one-sixteenth 
of the periphery of the timer disk. During one- 
sixteenth of the revolution of the flywheel a 
shower of sparks is playing between the elec¬ 
trodes at the end of the spark plug within the 
motor cylinder, the explosion chamber. 
“In a jump spark rig the shower of sparks 
begins at the moment of completing the circuit 
and lasts till the circuit is broken. In a make 
and break rig there is but one spark for each 
explosion. It takes place not when the circuit 
is completed but when it is broken. 
“A good make and break rig closes the cir¬ 
cuit about 1-32 of a revolution before breaking 
the circuit. Thus it consumes about half the 
amount of battery per cylinder that such a jump 
spark device as I am using consumes. But 
there are jump spark devices that do not con¬ 
sume battery more than 1-32 of the revolution 
and there are poorly constructed make and 
break contrivances that consume current dur¬ 
ing a quarter or more of the turn.” 
The man who had wired up his battery and 
had just finished screwing on the cover of the 
battery box looked up as he ceased speaking 
and saw that all of the committee had disap¬ 
peared save one man, who had not spoken be¬ 
fore. This man said: 
“Thank you. I’m getting a little motor boat 
and haven’t been able to decide about battery 
and the rest of the ignition outfit. I think that 
when I go around making further inquiries I 
shall be able to put up a pretty fair bluff of 
knowing something on the subject.” 
