The Return of the Paddle Wheel
Many believe that the paddle wheel began to be used as a ship's propulsion device at the same time as the steamship appeared, and the first paddle ship to make regular trips was the steamship "Clermont" (USA, 1807). The propeller was not even discussed then - its working versions appeared only in the second half of the 30s of the 19th century.
However, the first mentions of a paddle wheel driven by human or animal muscle power date back to ancient times. A Roman bas-relief dating back to the 6th century BC depicts a vessel with three pairs of paddle wheels driven by oxen.
A paddle-wheel vessel with an ox drive (from an ancient Roman bas-relief)
According to a number of manuscripts, in 1161 a junk equipped with paddle wheels powered by a windmill was built in China. Leonardo da Vinci did not ignore this mover either, and a sketch of a paddle ship was found in his papers. There are other written testimonies about paddle wheels, but they could not yet find a worthy use for them due to the lack of a drive engine.
Leonardo da Vinci's paddle boat
In 1707, the world's first steamboat, built by the French scientist Denis Papin, appeared on the Fulda River in Germany. It was powered by paddle wheels. Although the tests ended with a boiler explosion, a start had been made. The first truly operational steamboat is considered to be Robert Fulton's Clermont, with two paddle wheels 4,7 m in diameter with eight blades 1,2 m wide. Fulton's brainchild was also the first stories combat steamship - steam frigate "Demologos", built in 1815. It is interesting to note that it was a catamaran, in the space between the hulls of which a paddle wheel was placed, thus protecting it from combat and navigational damage.
In 1815, Russia also joined the steamship club: in St. Petersburg, the owner of a mechanical foundry, Karl Berd, built a cargo and passenger steamship, the Elizaveta, with a 4-horsepower engine that drove 2,4-meter-diameter side wheels with six plates. On November 3, the steamship made its first voyage from St. Petersburg to Kronstadt, showing an average speed of 9,3 km/h. Thus, Russia became the third country in the world (after the United States and England) in terms of the time it took to organize its own steamship construction.
Steamship "Elizabeth"
What is a paddle wheel? It is a ship's propeller, which is a partially submerged cylindrical structure with a transverse axis of rotation, around the circumference of which rectangular blades (plates) are fixed. The ship is set in motion by the thrust of the plates periodically entering the water.
Initially, the simplest design of this propeller had fixed blades, which significantly reduced its efficiency - the efficiency was only 30-35%. The blades entered the water with an impact, and left it, "scooping out" the water, which entailed vibration and increased noise. To soften the impact with the water, the diameter of the wheels was increased, especially on seagoing steamships. Gradually, the wheels reached truly cyclopean sizes. Thus, on the Great Eastern (1858), designed by I.K. Brunel, the two paddle wheels had a diameter of 17,7 m, and each of the 30 blades was 3,9 m wide and 1 m high. Their maximum rotation speed was 11 rpm.
Steamship Great Eastern (1858)
Sectional view of the Great Eastern's engine room
Attempts were made repeatedly to rid the wheel of the above-mentioned shortcomings, but it was not until 1829 that Elijah Galloway managed to patent a paddle wheel that was free of the main shortcomings. The rotation of the blades so that they entered and exited the water perpendicularly was provided by a hinged eccentric mechanism, driven by the wheel itself. This design turned out to be so successful that it exists with minor changes to this day.
Paddle wheel with turning plates (Sytin's Military Encyclopedia, St. Petersburg, 1911-1915)
These and other improvements to the wheel led to the fact that from the mid-0,30th to the beginning of the 0,35th century, the efficiency of paddle wheels increased from 0,7-0,75 to XNUMX-XNUMX, that is, twofold.
Battle of steam paddle ships - Russian steam frigate "Vladimir" fights Turkish armed steamer "Pervaz-Bahri". November 5 (17), 1853
Paddle steamboat races on the Mississippi River (19th century)
In addition to the design of the blades, the wheels also differ in their location - onboard and stern. Stern wheels are most common on American rivers. Such vessels have not sunk into eternity - in a new guise, the rear-wheel "passengers" "American Queen", "American Heritage", "Belle of Louisville" and others make cruises along the Mississippi.
Modern American rear-wheel passenger vessel “Queen of Mississippi”
Similar steamships were built in the Russian Empire based on American prototypes: the Amazon, Niagara, etc. sailed along the Volga. In recent years, rear-wheeled vessels have again begun to be built at domestic shipyards, but we will touch on this below.
Paddle wheels have both a number of advantages and many disadvantages. Let's focus on the main ones.
Advantages:
• In conditions of limited draft of the vessel, the stern paddle wheel creates a thrust that is much greater than the thrust of the propeller.
• Outboard paddle wheels allow you to turn almost on the spot.
• The towing thrust is higher than that of screw-propelled vessels, and it is also possible to operate at shallow depths, since the wheel sizes do not exceed the vessel's draft. Therefore, in the USSR, the construction of river wheeled tugs continued until 1991 (BTK series pusher tugs).
• A wheel propeller, unlike a screw propeller, allows for inspection and repair without docking the vessel.
Disadvantages:
• When the ship rolls heavily, the outboard paddle wheels alternately come out of the water or sink too deep, the vessel yawing, making it difficult to maintain course. In addition, the wheels are subject to high dynamic loads, which can lead to their breakage.
• Lower efficiency compared to a propeller.
• Reduced operating efficiency when the immersion depth changes (for example, due to pitching or changes in the vessel’s draft).
• Greater weight and dimensions compared to a propeller.
• The use of paddle wheels requires the main engines to be located above the waterline, which reduces the available useful volumes, and in military navy - increases the vulnerability of the engine room and the paddle wheels themselves.
Due to the above-mentioned shortcomings, the wheel quickly disappeared from the scene on sea vessels and ships, but is still used in river fleets today. Now let us briefly dwell on the history of the paddle wheel's use on ships of the domestic river fleet.
Since 1816, paddle steamers began to operate on the Volga and its tributaries, and in the middle of that century, about 200 steamers of more than ten companies sailed along the river. Since 1862, passenger steamers of the so-called "American" type began to sail along the great river. Three-deck ships were very comfortable, many cabins had bathrooms, French buffets and kitchens. This was complemented by a common room with a grand piano, library, etc. Many of these "passengers" survived almost until the middle of the next century.
In 1882–1888, seven rear-wheeled passenger and cargo steamers of the Amazon type with a power of 7 hp, a passenger capacity of 500 people and a carrying capacity of 400 tons were built according to the design of the American engineer Dumbar. The last of them was used on the Volga until 390.
Steamship "Amazon"
In addition to passenger tugs, numerous wheeled tugs were also built. The most powerful of them was the Rededya Prince Kosogovsky (since 1888, the Stepan Razin), built in 1889–1930 at the Motovilikha Cannon Factory. The power of its steam engine reached 2000 hp. After a radical reconstruction in 1928–1930, it could tow a train of barges with a cargo of over 35 tons. The vessel was in operation until 1958.
Model of the tugboat "Rededya Prince Kosogsky"
Steamship "Stepan Razin" (former "Rededya Prince Kosogsky")
In 1911, the world's first paddle-wheel motor ship, the 800-horsepower passenger ship Ural, built at the Kolomensky Plant, entered the Volga expanses.
Steamboats began to appear on the rivers and lakes of Siberia, the Far East and Central Asia.
The first Siberian steamship, naturally a paddle steamer, was the 1838-horsepower Osnova, which entered service in 90 and was built in the Turinskaya Sloboda to transport goods along the Tura and Tobol. In the spring of 1852, steamship navigation began on the Amur as well – the paddle steamer Argun, built at the Shilkinsky Plant, entered its expanses. In 1861, the first paddle steamer, the Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk, appeared on the Lena River. In 1863, the construction of the first steamship Yenisei for this great Siberian river was completed in Yeniseisk.
In 1852, the steamships Perovsky and Obruchev, built in Sweden, were delivered to the Aral Sea in disassembled form from Orenburg on carts pulled by camels, and later sailed along the Syr Darya. These same steamships first appeared on the Amu Darya River in 1858-1859.
From the middle of the 19th century, paddle steamers appeared on all navigable rivers and lakes of the Russian Empire: the Dnieper and its tributaries, the Kuban, the Don, the Seversky Donets, the Vistula, etc.
Paddle steamers formed the backbone of the country's river tugboat and passenger fleet until the 50s. In the 30s and 50s, the fleet was replenished with new paddle steamers designed at a higher technical level (tugboats of Project 733 with a capacity of 200 hp, Project 732 with a capacity of 400 hp, and the Industrialization type with a capacity of 1200 hp).
Project 732 wheeled tug
Izhorets type wheeled tug
In 1951-1959, the last and most numerous series of cargo-passenger paddle steamers of the Joseph Stalin type (74 units) of projects 737 (river) and 737A (lake-river) was built in the USSR. The first five ships were built at the Leninskaya Kuznitsa plant (Kiev), and the rest at the Obuda shipyard in Hungary (Obuda Hajogyar Budapest) - project 737/205 (Maxim Gorky type). In addition, the Hungarians built one ship each for themselves and Czechoslovakia.
Depending on the type of vessel, their draft was 1,26-1,20 m, displacement - 518-542 tons, the power of the main steam engine - 450-520 hp, the carrying capacity - 50-76 tons, speed - up to 19 km/h. On board the vessel there were two lounges, two restaurants, a buffet.
Steamships of this design were operated on the Volga River, the Dnieper, the Don, the Ob, the Lena, the Kama, the Belaya River, the Oka, and the Moskva River.
Passenger ship project 737
The 113-year-old veteran, the only paddle-wheel passenger steamer in Russia, the N. V. Gogol, owned by the Zvezdochka shipyard, is still in operation. The vessel was built in 1911 in Nizhny Novgorod at the Sormovsky Plant by order of the Northern Shipping Company Kotlas-Arkhangelsk-Murmansk. The original steam engine with a capacity of 380 hp provides a speed of up to 18 km/h. Initially, the passenger capacity was 695 (including deck passengers), now, after reconstruction, it is 140 people.
Passenger ship "N.V. Gogol"
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