. Bulletin - United States National Museum. Science. hand man in his exhibition and it was a very interest- ing one. He had a long water tank in the centre of the room in which he exhibited various ways of propelling boats. He had one little boat with the ordinary paddle wheels propelled by clock work. He would have his visitors time it in the long tank and he would then take out the wheels and substitute his feathering wheels in their place. These paddles entered the water edgewise and came out in the same way, as he said "the skillful rower feathered his ; He had Saxton's '&quo
. Bulletin - United States National Museum. Science. hand man in his exhibition and it was a very interest- ing one. He had a long water tank in the centre of the room in which he exhibited various ways of propelling boats. He had one little boat with the ordinary paddle wheels propelled by clock work. He would have his visitors time it in the long tank and he would then take out the wheels and substitute his feathering wheels in their place. These paddles entered the water edgewise and came out in the same way, as he said "the skillful rower feathered his ; He had Saxton's '"package express," an arrangement of cords over differential wheels the draft being given at the periphery close to the contact with the rail—a pretty plaything. [49] I do not think Mr. Saxton ever had the idea of applying this practically, but merely as an attractive feature to the exhibition; it certainly caused much amusement to take hold of the cord, and by a short draft hurl the little car from end to end of the long gallery. Saxton also had on exhibition an electric magnetic motor of his own invention and construction in which great velocity was obtained, the power being from battery, as in Page's engine, that at that time was exciting much attention in [50] [There was also] a hydrostatic machine to measure the compressibility of fluids; an arrangement of evaporating pans to show the circulation of water; but the great attraction was his [Perkins's] steam generator and steam gun, with which at certain hours or when there were sufficient visitors to witness it, a stream of leaden bullets would be shot the length of the room and flattened and shattered against an iron target. The show never lasted as much as a minute but an almost incredible amount of lead was shot. The bullets were about l^-inch jn diam- eter. I had notes of the weight of lead thrown in a given time but I have lost them. His steam generator instead of being the round massive tubes used
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Keywords: ., bookauthorun, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectscience
