"
Then comes another claimant--Mr. Robert Wilson, then of Dunbar
(not far from Coldingham), but afterwards of the Bridgewater
Foundry, Patricroft. In his pamphlet, published a few years ago,
he states that he had long considered the subject, and in 1827 he
made a small model, fitted with "revolving skulls," which he
tried on a sheet of water in the presence of the Hon. Capt.
Anthony Maitland, son of the Earl of Lauderdale. The experiment
was successful--so successful, that when the "stern paddles" were
in 1828 used at Leith in a boat twenty-five feet long, with two
men to work the machinery, the boat was propelled at an average
speed of about ten miles an hour; and the Society of Arts
afterwards, in October, 1882, awarded Mr. Wilson their silver
medal for the "description, drawing, and models of stern paddles
for propelling steamboats, invented by him." The subject was, in
1833, brought by Sir John Sinclair under the consideration of the
Board of Admiralty; but the report of the officials (Oliver Lang,
Abethell, Lloyd, and Kingston) was to the effect that "the plan
proposed (independent of practical difficulties) is
objectionable, as it involves a greater loss of power than the
common mode of applying the wheels to the side." And here ended
the experiment, so far as Mr. Wilson's "stern paddles" were
concerned.
It will be observed, from what has been said, that the idea of a
screw propeller is a very old one.
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