During a visit to the London Science Museum, I discovered these models of 'unusual' paddlewheels. I can only assume that in the quest for the most efficient design, trial and error was the accepted means of discovery!

...more...

...some more...

...even more...

Fascinating Mick, thanks for posting those - Trial and error testing and design is still used today, though much less so with the advent of computers to check designs etc.

Apart from paddlers, another area that fascinates me is hovercraft - I've built four models so far. Sir Christopher Cockerill is often wrongly given the title "The inventor of the hovercraft", in fact he never ever said that he invented it, what he did come up with was the peripheral jet which led to the SRN1, the first succesful commercial hovercraft. And he came up with the idea purely from trial and error testing.

Regards
Eddy

On Mayhem picture 411 on Martin took some more pictures with disruptions of the paddles.Oh and as its the Mayhem site no the forum you don't have to Join to view

peter


http://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/Gallery/Science_Museum/index.htm

the same seems to have applied to propellors too...

HEY! Some of those look like my first attempts at making a paddlewheel!

Randy

There's an interesting book, Original paddlewheel technology, available to be download at www.lulu.com/content/1948578 that shows a lot the above paddlewheels.