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THE ROLLER BOAT
Successfully Launched in Toronto Bay
A New Departure in Marine Construction
[Welland Tribune, 24 September 1897]
Toronto, Ont., Sept. 9th- Frederick Augustus Knapp’s much-talked-of roller boat, which has been under construction in Polson’s shipyard here for some time past, is now afloat in Toronto Bay. All yesterday morning workmen were busy getting the ways in place, and in the afternoon the big cylinder was gently lowered into the water, where it now floats alongside the dock at Polson’s yard.
The vessel is cylindrical in shape, and is 110 feet long and about 25 feet in diameter. The diameter is the same to within five feet of either end, when the cylinder commences to taper rapidly, decreasing to a diameter of 15 feet at either end. The draught will be 23 inches.
The original design of the inventor has been considerably changed. Instead of having a heavy stationery cylinder, around which the outer part could revolve, as at first intended, there is nothing at all in the centre of the hull. At either end and there is to be a platform, resting upon wheels, which touch the revolving part. This platform will be weighed and remain stationary, upon the principle of a squirrel in a cage. On the platform will be placed two engines, with upright boilers behind them. These engines will transmit power to a huge driving wheel placed between, and this wheel will, by a system of cogs, cause the hull to revolve. There will be a platform similarly equipped at each end of the hull. The platforms each travel on four big driving wheels and weigh about fifteen tons, with engines and boilers complete.
Mr. Knapp proposes to suspend the platforms and was swinging gravity, but has allowed the engineers in charge of the construction to use the direct application. The whole craft will weigh 100 tons, and 500 square feet of area will be in actual contact with the water.
The boat, which is expected by its inventor to travel as the rate of a mile a minute, will be steered by two huge rudder or tail boards, one at each end, just below the platform. Steam steering gear will likely be used.
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