PADDLE WHEELS AND PROPELLERS

PADDLE WHEELS AND PROPELLERS

The invention of the steam Engine in the 18th Centuary made mechanically driven ships fitted with paddle wheels or propellers a viable alternative to sails. Paddle wheels have fixed or feathered floats, and the model shown below features both types.

Feathered floats give more propulsive power than fixed floats because they are almost upright at all time in the water.

Paddle wheel were superseded by the propeller on ocean-going vessels in the mid-19th century.

Prpellers are more efficient, work better in rough water, and are less vulnerable in collisions.

The first propellers were two-bladed but later three- and four bladed versions are moe powerful; the shape and pitch of blades have also been refined over the years.

At the beginning of the 18th Century, tillers were susperseded on many larger ships by the ship's wheel as a means of steering.