Stalwart readers of this newgroup may recall a recent thread where an
intermittent participant claimed variously that
a) paddlewheels were more efficient than propellors;
b) steam engines were more efficient than internal combustion piston engines
of the diesel cycle;
c) the combination of steam and paddlewheel was more efficient than the
combination of diesel and propellor; and
d) the incontrovertable source for such revelations to the world of naval
engineering was "Discovery Channel"
These first three of those statements are completely at odds with accepted
engineering understanding & practice, and the laws of thermodynamics (and
quite how, as was argued, one would get from a) and b) being wrong but c)
was not is perhaps just one of those examples of usenet being the great
leveller).
But d) was intriguing.
Serendipitously, it seems that that particular Discovery Channel show is on
at this very moment. I've been watching it assiduously, waiting for these
dramatic announcements.
Nada.
Nothing.
Well, it was mentioned that at the time the American Queen (a reconstructed
paddlewheel steamer now plying the tourist trade on the Missippi waterway)
was built, large diesel engines where not available.
It was also mentioned that the American Queen, as currently powered, would
not be able to make headway upstream with steam power & paddlewheel alone,
but that it also needed a number of diesel powered propellors mounted in
under-hull pods to be both manoeverable and capable of upstream traffic.
Now, I missed the first few minutes of that episode of "Super Ships:
American Queen", so it might be that Martin's road-to-Damascus moment
occured in that part of the show. The Discovery Channel website has the
following schedule for this episode - if any newsgroup readers are
interested would they please take especial note of anything he might have
believed was relevatory:
Fri, Jun 17, 2005 at 2:00 PM (ET)
Fri, Jul 1, 2005 at 6:00 PM (ET)
Sat, Jul 9, 2005 at 7:00 AM (ET)