--_L'Illustration_.
* * * * *
PICTET'S HIGH SPEED BOAT.
It is now nearly a year ago since we announced to our readers the
researches that had been undertaken by the learned physicist, Raoul
Pictet, in order to demonstrate theoretically and practically the forms
that are required for a fast-sailing vessel, and since we pointed out
how great an interest is connected with the question, while at the same
time promising to revert to the subject at some opportune moment. We
shall now keep our promise by making known a work that Mr. Pictet has
just published in the _Archives Physiques et Naturelles_, of Geneva,
in which he gives the first results of his labors, and which we shall
analyze rapidly, neglecting in doing so the somewhat dry mathematical
part of the article.
For a given tonnage and identical tractive stresses, the greater or less
sharpness of the fore and aft part of the keel allows boats to attain
different speeds, the sharper lines corresponding to the highest speeds,
but, in practice, considerably diminishing the weight of freight capable
of being carried by the boat.
[Illustration: FIG.
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