In 1845, the British Navy held an interesting tug-of-war contest between the cruiser Sidewinder and the steamboat Ericto. The tonnage and power of the two are similar, but the difference is that the power unit adopted is different, the "Sidewinder" adopts the propeller propulsion method, and the "Ericto" adopts the paddle wheel method.
At first, the two sides were evenly matched, and after a stalemate, the propeller's propulsion advantage was fully revealed, and the Sidewinder was full of momentum, and the Ericto was reluctantly pulled over.
The result of this race heralded the age of the propeller, which, in conjunction with the steam engine, completely pulled the warship out of the age of the ancient sailing ship.
The earliest steam-powered warship was actually introduced as early as 1813, and it was the "Dimorlaucas" built by the American Fulton.
But at that time it was not practical, because the power unit was driven by a paddle wheel (also called a web wheel). Most of the paddle wheel is exposed to the water, and the machine drives a circle of webbed plates that resemble the soles of ducks, and the webbed plates follow the paddling of the wheels.
There are several factors that are very unfavorable to warships, one is that it is exposed and easily damaged by artillery fire during combat; The second is to squeeze the space for artillery installation and weaken the firepower of warships.
As a result, the initial steam-powered warships were not very reassuring and were extremely slow to propagate. They rarely fought, and were more likely to be placed as mascots in shipyards for people to visit.
However, the seeds of marine propeller power units were planted long before the advent of steam-powered warships.
Mention should be made here of the Genius Bernoulli family in Switzerland, that is, the Bernoulli family with 8 scientists in 3 generations.
One day in 1752, one of the most prominent members of the Bernoulli family, known as Bernoulli of Bernoulli, was fascinated by a carpenter while resting between experiments.
What attracted him was the carpenter's action of drilling the plank with a screw: the screw turned clockwise, drilled into the plank, and advanced through the plank; Reverse again and exit from the plank.
If this principle can be used for the propulsion of ships in the water, it should be a pretty good idea.
Although the genius Bernoulli came up with this very creative idea, there was a lack of suitable power units at that time, and it was difficult to get practical applications.
Because the steam engine, though it has come out, is a dangerous and inefficient guy. Watt was a teenager at the time, and their union still had a long way to go.
Decades later, the world has already entered the age of steam. In view of the disadvantages of the Ming Wheel, Bernoulli's vision finally came close to reality.
At the beginning, the promotion of the propeller was not smooth, and there were many scoldings. Because the power unit needs to be installed underwater, it also needs to be punched in the boat. Faced with rough seas, this series of operations made the captains headaches when they thought about it.
The turnaround occurred in 1829 when the Austrian Joseph Leisser solved the problem of sealing and invented the propeller for ships. Later, the Englishman Smith and the Swiss engineer John Eriksen made further improvements to match the propeller to the marine steam engine.
The application of propellers is finally becoming practical. Now, the propeller device installed underwater is no longer criticized, but has begun to be talked about, because it also gives the artillery a free space.
All that's left is a tug-of-war, who is strong and who is right!
In the end, the propeller runner dragged the paddle wheel runner away, and the ship entered the propeller era.
The paddle wheel as a meteor has also left its historical imprint, and the term "steamship" is more widely known than the "propeller".