Propulsion question

[jregniflow]

Hi out there, I am a newbe. Not much for modeling; however have
some background in mechanisms and machine design. I can find little
literature on stern wheelers and how they really work, so I am
asking questions.
1. Do all paddlewheeler utilize round paddlewheels?
2. How many paddles ,in an ideal situation, would be in the water at
one time?
3. What would produce the greatest propulsion, one paddle being
pushed for 10 horizontal feet or the passage of 10 feet of wheel?
4. Were multiple independent sternwheels ever used ie... two
together with individual controls.

Obviously Some different form is bouncing around in my mind; however
I do not want to re-invent the wheel. From looking at your messages
I can see there is a lot of information around somewhere, however I
do not think its going to jump out at me. I t would seem that most
on here have some sort of water background, I have none to speak
of. I live on a mountain 64 miles nw of washington D.C. and have
never seen a paddlewheeler , but thought it would be neat to fool
around making a model. You all have a great day

[Joe E Brown]

Hello newbie, welcome to Paddleducks. I'll try and give you a few
answers and I'm sure you will get others from all over the world on
this group....
> 1. Do all paddlewheeler utilize round paddlewheels?
No, there has been experiments with caterpillar drives that actually
resemble the tracks on a dozer. There has also been some helical
wheels (V shaped) that were experimented with to lessen vibration

> 2. How many paddles ,in an ideal situation, would be in the water
at one time?
Usually there is one fully submerged while another is half way into
the water and another half way out.

> 3. What would produce the greatest propulsion, one paddle being
pushed for 10 horizontal feet or the passage of 10 feet of wheel?
They would be equal if both are the same width. In reality the wheel
would cause it can produce faster momentum with several "Buckets"
than a single "bucket" making a 10 foot stroke.


> 4. Were multiple independent sternwheels ever used ie... two
> together with individual controls.
There were a few sternwheelers that had seperate drives so half the
wheel could back while the other half come ahead. These were found
mostly on pool boats. Most sternwheelers have split wheels that are
staggered to give the boat the same pushing power, but allows for
less vibration through the hull. These are always found on excursion
boats, but could be found on a couple of packets and towboats.

Madison Coal in Charleston, WV has three sternwheelers that are
still working the rivers. They're pool boats and used to move crane
flats to and fro. In case you're wondering what a pool boat is, it's
a boat around 100 feet in length, can be larger or smaller, that is
primarily used in the same pool of water above a lock. Every now and
then they'll take trips a little further from home, but mostly they
worked local harbors and made up tows for larger towboats.

[jregniflow]

I am not sure if this will get back but here goes. What happens if
you use the cat track with floats attached, say two in the water by
4 foot apart. If you used 4 tracks ie.. 2 for each float you would
be able to create angular movement and improve performance. The low
profile of the cat tracks would allow placement of the floats
anywhere . What haunts me about all "wheelers" is the turbulent
nature of the water float arrangement. This is a real power
performance issue. I could see the cat drive system giving
performance not unlike a racing shell if designed well.

[Joe E Brown]

What happens if you use the cat track with floats attached, say two
in the water by 4 foot apart.

I don't know what the answer to that would be, but I do know the
caterpillar drive didn't last long until they converted it to
regulat side wheels and a couple of years later that was removed and
three Harbormaster outdrives were installed on the stern. There's
some info on the cat drive in the files foulder at
http://f4.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/kC8AQPgvyz8NJR8rhp3sCgYih4hSUQVfllc-
f9xdmePY_3_Hh8-UwXbX69HZDYs60Z4tyQZsDS4KNNGBkMCOVmUTBGJArB7-
/sunco.jpg