Water jet

“ The steam breath gradually grows and is exhaled with more vigor. Presently he belches up a barrel or so of water which falls back into his throat. Then in a minute come two or three such little spasms, when up lifts a rounded column two or three feet in diameter, rising higher and higher in exact perpendicularity 150 feet high. The jet breaks more or less as it rises into pointed sprays, which, when there is no wind blowing, fall with almost precise regularity about the up going column. ”

“ Having made a speedy retreat, I now took my station on the windward side, and was astonished to observe the elevation of the jets, some of them rising higher than two hundred feet; many of the fragments were thrown much higher, and some of considerable size were raised to an invisible height. For some time, every succeeding jet seemed to surpass the preceding, till, the quantity of water in the subterraneous caverns being spent, they gave place to the column of steam, which continued to rush up with a deafening roar for nearly an hour. ”

“ Sometimes, instead of shovelling the earth into the troughs, it can be washed out of its position into suitable channels by means of a powerful jet of water. This mode of working, which is termed hydraulic jet sluicing, offers great advantages where the natural conditions admit of its adoption. ”

“ D'ri stuck the hose out of the window. The stream shot away with a loud hiss. I stood by and saw the jet of water leap forth as big as a pikestaff. A man went off his horse, sprawling as if he had been hit with a club. The jet leaped quickly from one to another, roaring on man and beast. ”

“ A small jet is fitted for starting and running without load. The channels cast in the crank chamber, already alluded to in connection with oil-cooling, serve to warm the air before it reaches the carburettor, of which the body is water-jacketed. ”

“ If we leave the resistance of the air out of consideration, the water in the horizontal jet has no obstacle to overcome; and it might go on for ever, if its weight did not gradually cause its path to become more and more bent towards the earth, against which it eventually strikes.
When the jet is vertical the case is altered. The water thrown up vertically constantly tends to fall down vertically, as any other heavy body would do, and its momentum has to overcome the obstacle of its gravity. ”

“ We have referred to the enormous velocity of the jets used to drive Pelton wheels. Where high heads of water are obtainable water jets are used very effectively for excavating purposes, particularly in mining plants for washing down gold-bearing gravel banks. If water is not found near such banks expensive canals, flumes, and pipe lines are constructed and even tunnels are bored to bring the water to the point where it can be utilized. ”

“ The force of the jet of water itself is another source of danger, for broken limbs and even fatal injuries have often been caused by it. The number of accidental deaths occurring in hydraulic jet sluicing operations in the colony of Victoria is reported to average about 60 in a year. Material which has been worked before often yields a considerable amount of gold when the operations are repeated; and in localities favourable to the hydraulic jet system, the work can be carried on with little labour. ”

“ "Oh, trebly hooped and welded hip of power! Oh, high aspiring, rainbowed jet!—that one strivest, this one jettest all in vain! In vain, oh whale, dost thou seek intercedings with yon all-quickening sun, that only calls forth life, but gives it not again. Yet dost thou darker half, rock me with a prouder, if a darker faith. All thy unnamable imminglings float beneath me here; I am buoyed by breaths of once living things, exhaled as air, but water now. ”

“ It is a Hydro-Aircraft, and its engines propel it equally as well on water as on land."
"Then it beats my yacht," said Madeline, smiling.
"It is more adaptable—more versatile—to be sure," said Orissa. "Stephen has just completed his first Hydro-Aircraft, and while I am in San Diego I shall test it and make a long trip over the Pacific Ocean to exploit its powers. Such a machine would not take the place of a yacht, you know, and the motor boat attachment is merely a safety device to allow one to fly over water as well as over land. ”

“ The balloon began descending to earth again, and soon the guide rope again rested on the ground. There was nothing to do but to bring the trip to an end, because only a few handfuls of sand remained to us.
He who wishes to navigate an air-ship should first practise a good many landings in a spherical balloon—that is, if he wishes to land without breaking balloon, keel, motor, rudder, propeller, water-ballast cylinders, and fuel holders. The wind being rather strong, it was necessary to seek shelter for this last manœuvre. ”

“ An airship can be anchored more easily with the point against the wind on water. It is quite impossible to anchor on land when assistance is not forthcoming to hold down the airship. On water, also, the airship will give a little to side winds and to alterations in the direction of the wind, without overturning. On land this danger is not excluded, even with rigid airships. Of course, a watertight and seaworthy car is a necessary condition for landing on water. ”

“ Every sail of the yacht flapped, and the skilful management of the helm alone prevented the boom from jibing. The pilot now saw that the task was not one which the Iris [Pg 339] would, as he had hoped, surmount with ease, and going as far forward as he could, stood on the weather bow as if to re-consider what he was about to undertake. Fixing his eyes long and steadily on the swift flowing water, he appeared to think that, should the wind fail, or the strong current bear us back, the danger was manifest. ”

“ In their job o' work of bombing U-boats, attacking Zeppelins, fighting enemy seaplanes, and carrying out reconnaissance and convoy duties, there is as much romance as in any particular effort in the war. In the future, grown great in size, the boats will form the winged Navy, and will carry mails and passengers over the water-routes of all the world.
Boat seaplanes, or flying-boats as they are called by the men who use them, are a true type of aircraft designed for dealing with the chances and hazards of flying over the sea. ”

“ It's exploded by the beam, exploded into God knows what, and the result is your jet. It's a wonderful drive, with plenty of power for the purpose. But I think it forms a strong field of static over the whole shell of the ship, a kind of sphere of reflection that throws the emanations back into the ship from every point. Just my theory, but it explains why you get these physical changes, because that process of reflection gives a different ray than was observed in the ordinary shielded jet."
Gene nodded, asked: "Can I look at the jet assembly?" ”

“ Of the machine Curtiss says: "I believe the hydro-aeroplane represents one of the longest and most important strides in aviation. It robs the aeroplane of many of its dangers, and as an engine of warfare widens its scope of utility beyond the bounds of the most vivid imagination. The hydro-aeroplane can fly 60 miles an hour, skim the water at 50 miles and run over the earth at 35 miles." ”

“ Your man will pick up much higher, and to the south-east."
And presently the latest type of Fleet hydroplane, a two-seater Batboat carrying two bareheaded young gentlemen, moaned into view, chasing its own wave-skipping, flying shadow at full stretch for the shore, came down in a long mallard-like glide, skidding over the water as the wild-duck does, and in a ruffle of glittering spray, continued the home-journey in the character of a motor-boat. ”

“ Into this space air finds its way and, by helping still further to free the float from the surface, aids greatly at the moment when the pilot—operating his hand-lever—seeks the final lift which will carry him aloft.
When in flight, as when skimming upon the surface of the water, a sea-plane must carry its floats with it; and this introduces a complication, inasmuch as the floats offer a resistance to the air and tend to reduce speed. Another need is thus shown; the builder of a float must so shape it that it will move through the air with the least possible friction. ”

“ By these seven jetties, the current between Whampoa and Fumen could be controlled and the bottom of the river flushed to a depth of 40 feet or more, thus creating a thoroughfare for ocean-going steamers from the open sea right up to the city of Canton. These jetties taken together will be not more than 5 miles in length and mostly in very shallow water. After the building of these jetties, land will be rapidly formed between jetties along both sides of the channel by natural process. ”

“ The construction of the hydroaeroplane, while keeping on the same general lines of development, will adapt itself to the exigencies arising from its extended uses. The propeller or propellers will be protected from the flying spray which might break them for small drops of water are like bullets out of a gun when hit by the rapidly revolving blades of the propeller which travel so fast that water might just as well be solid matter as far as getting out of the way is concerned. Spray will chip pieces right out of a wooden propeller. ”

“ In the fine weather, smooth water, and light winds of summer, these pilot-boats skim over the surface with the ease and swiftness of a swallow, apparently just touching the water with their prettily formed hulls, which seem too small to bear the immense load of snow-white canvas swelling above them, and shooting them along as if by magic, when every other vessel is lost in the calm, and when even taunt-masted ships can barely catch a breath of air to fill their sky-sails and royal studding-sails. They are truly "water-witches;" ”

“ No matter how the aeroplane may be improved, the possibility of engine failure always remains as a danger for work over water. In seaplane or flying boat form, the danger is still present in a rough sea, though in the American Transatlantic flight, N.C.3, taxi-ing 300 miles to the Azores after having fallen to the water, proved that this danger is not so acute as is generally assumed. ”

“ Then, again, after removing tons of superincumbent rock, the bed of jet would be of the hard stony-kind, worth not more than half-a-crown a pound; or a party would toil fruitlessly for weeks, losing heart and hope, and find themselves outwitted at last by another crafty digger, who, scanning the cliff a few yards off with a keen eye, would discover signs, and setting to work, lay bare a stratum of jet in a few days. ”

“ The work looks very easy, as you watch the men cutting, apparently with less concern than some folk bestow on the whittling of a stick, and making the chips fly in little heaps. The nature of the jet favours rapidity of hand. It has somewhat the appearance of compressed pitch, and when under the knife sends off a shower of chips and splinters as hard pitch does. Some specimens have been found with fossils so embedded therein, as to confirm the [Pg 92] opinion of those who hold jet to be a species of petroleum, contrary to the common belief that it is wood partly converted into coal. ”

“ With this jet there is little or no danger of the jet 'snapping' out through a surplus of oxygen, as the greater the flow of this gas, the greater the suction on the coal gas side.
The light is not quite equal to a good mixed jet, but very nearly so, and therefore this jet is deservedly gaining in favour every day. ”

“ The British and French aviation authorities have not adopted such methodical standardisation or rule of thumb inferences, but rather have fostered individual enterprise and initiative. This stimulation of research has been responsible for the creation of a type of aeroplane specially adapted to naval service, and generically known as the water plane, the outstanding point of difference from the aeroplane being the substitution of canoes or floats for the wheeled chassis peculiar to the land machine. ”

“ In shallow water the troughs of the waves are retarded, with the result that they become steep, the crests break, and the water rushes forward with great violence.
Water in mass played upon by the wind is not the tractable element it appears when running through our pipes, contained in shaving-mugs, or filling baths. Thus, while a land-machine pilot, down safely with engine failure, has all his worries behind him, the pilot of a seaplane or flying-boat, down at sea, has all his troubles to come, unless the weather be fine, help near at hand, or his craft very seaworthy. ”

“ As the tide makes keep heaving in the slack, letting your floating boat draw in sideways to the launch. This strain will aid the water in lifting, as the launch will have to rise with the floating boat. If the launch is very heavy or of scant beam, like the steam craft I mentioned, you had better use joists or spars to help the leverage.
I once took a launch off a rock by this same plan, when hours of heaving on hawsers had failed to move her. Another plan is to lift a boat by lashing empty barrels to the side by passing slings under the keel. ”

“ With the huge wing-like planes expanded to the full, the Ocean Flyer coasted aslant the air-waves. The cloud belt encircling the globe was penetrated and passed through, leaving small drops of moisture glistening all over the glass of the portholes. The moon’s rays made the metal body of the vessel [77] glitter like so much silver. As they dropped lower and lower, the world became dimly visible, seeming to be literally rising to meet the descending aviators. At an altitude of three thousand feet, the downward planing was discontinued and level flight again maintained. ”

“ The steam thrown into the air is nearly all condensed into little drops which fall back, and this condensation and this fall represent simply the loss of something, an interruption, a deficit. But a small part of the jet of steam subsists, uncondensed, for some seconds; it is making an effort to raise the drops which are falling; it succeeds at most in retarding their fall. So, from an immense reservoir of life, jets must be gushing out unceasingly, of which each, falling back, is a world. ”