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[PSUBS-MAILIST] Re: Bushnell's Turtle, revisited...
Hi, Pat.
On Tue, 15 Feb 2000 22:06:31 -0000 "Captain Nemo" <vulcania@interpac.net>
writes:
>In the past 6 months I've seen a nice (full sized?) model of the TURTLE
>on the internet; been looking for it lately, but can't find it. If I
>do, I'll send you the URL. According to this modeler, the Turtle was a
>lot "flatter" than many have depicted it; i.e. rather round and
>barrel-shaped when viewed from the side; and yet, much slimmer when
>viewed from the front; and almost "lenticular" in the vertical
>cross-section. If true, that hull shape would bring the volume /=
>displacement / weight way down, and improve the hydrodynamics greatly.
I'd like to see that site, but I've probably stumbled across it. I've
been
doing some serious research about it.
I've seen the representations of the Tutle that had it "lenticular."
There's
a certain minimum beam possible, because adult humans are a certain
size. I think three feet is about the minimum.
Hey, I'm near Williamsburg, Virginia. There's a cooperage there: I
wonder
what would happen if I asked them what it would take to do it?
>I've read debates over the type of propellor it had, too. Some say an
>Archemedian "helical screw" would be appropriate for the times, and
>argue that the bladed "axial propellor" shown in some diagrams didn't
>come into use until the time of Robert Fulton.
I think the World Book has a helical screw. Most of the recent drawings
have what we'd call a propellor.
(I thought John Ericsson was credited with the invention of the screw
propellor? The 11th edition of the Britannica says that in 1836 both
Ericsson and F. P. Smith patented the screw propellor. A Col. John
Stevens experimented with the idea in the early part of the 19th
century. Interesting note: pump jets had been proposed and tested
many times before the screw propellor was adopted.)
>(I wasn't around at the time, so I'm as much in the dark as the next
guy.)
A buddy of mine hears me say things like that, and she doesn't believe
me.
>Why not build a working R/C scale model to see how it behaves in the
>water?
Hmmm . . . . Because I don't know anything about R/C control, and
because I'm broke? In my case, it might be cheaper and easier for
me to build the real thing.
Mike
--
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