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l«#rti—no ottifHA but il it my Ooflfiici ■■tm j ,mimhvm of mm into whicfa I shall not share be? !flail, Mtv tba L*rd God cover her beadthis her dsy of battle! | JJUTHE FIEST TRlF OF THE ICE-BOAT#Lt GasuM. Wto* lu 4, SCB1. ; tfjDia* Tiiti -I take the first occasion to j ^ante to you, knowing you will be much in* ^terestad in the evenu whieti h»w occurred to u*me within the last few hour*. I went toPrairie du Chien to spend the holidays, and jwhile at home renewed my acquaintancewith Norman Wiard, the well known inR*ventor of the ice boat, My own love ofmechanics of course attracted me strongly to-ft 4wards this ingenious visionary, and within a j \ushort time 1 found mvself hand in glove with | v»m m ! IF Ihim%MiWiard vu busily engaged in launching bistobeautiful new machine, the “ 1-ady Frank-jlt;v«lin/’and had for several days been exploring the river and preparing a track on the ice U# I ^this place. He bad hoped to be able to celebrate New Year’s day by a trial of hit novel s mvehicle, but was unable to complete all his I ^preparations before Thursday.On Thursday afternoon everything was in ^»reaainoss, and he bad promis'd the citizens ofinIfthe ** PralHt” he would grattf? their curios*-ty by setting the wheels in motion on the « *,next morning. These last few* days were | **doublbws the most exciting moments ofWiard's life. In a few hours be was to knowclwhether the result of bis years of labor was ais*1»mproud success, or he a bankrupt visionaryAs he saw at last the beautiful car resting 1 *Upon the snowy surface of the ice. his fever with anxiety knew no bounds. He could not dkeep away from the object of his ceaseless do- m,votion. We spent the evening in the saloonof the boat speculating uj*on the probable re-rsuit of the first trial until a late hour. Our\*iengineer and steersman were with us, andas mult; fa interested as MKWlittAfter a 1 ng conversation Wiard proposedI that we should raise steam, and take a shortfiaknhvaiiaexcursion cm the river, in order to I*come familiar with the working of the machine.— \3 J He would not admit the [ossibility of failure j 4f. j and no true isventor will. The idea wasteagerly seconded by the *est of us. and w ithinIi*ten minutes the fire was roaring beneath theboiler. Before half an hour had elapsed tb*-mm,eengineer announced sufficient steam to work*the machineryi3 Wiard was flying around everywhere withr his lantern and monkey wrench, tighteningsand adjustitig the screws, At last he p«v-e nouoced all readr, and gave the word to star..a at the same time climbed U|*on the roof whereI was standing.| The steam wa» turned on ; there wa* a mo*Itj lion of the machinery, and in the next mo-j ! meat the b .at was pr«*i«eliei smoothly oyerthe ice towards the McGregor shore. Stirf moves! thank God, she moves!” excla modlt;iWiard in a great state of flcitflSmik I sy tn- 11e i path need with him deeply, and I presume ex -1b pressed my delight in Vi*rn*us waysvOur motion as yet was no faster than ad j brisk walk, but after we had gained the mainchannel of the river and h* adlt;d up streame j the '}«*••lt;! was increased to ab ut six miles anhour. The path selected by Wiard that daswas clearly discernible in the clear moonr- bght. Betid*a this there was a large locomoatwe lantern fixed upon the forward part ofthe cabin, which shed a strong light for adlong distance in front of us. The boatobeyed the helm readily, and could easily berIturned completely around in a circle of fiftyfeet in diameter and I think leesr-nWe had not been running more than halfan hour before Wiard told me he had determined, if 1 was wilting to go throughto make a trip to La Crosse, beforeing back. 1 acquiesced in the arrangemente j v«*7 glwdly. So the engineer and steersmantwere instructed accordingly. It was thenE | f»asi twelve o’clock and our veloctiv was conit j tinumlly improving as the machinerv andc»f•hoes wore smoother. 1 remained on diwkminuntil 2 a. M , when becoming completelychilled through, I descended to the cabinwhich I found as warm as summer, being
Newspaper Details
Daily Times
Dubuque, Iowa, US
Tue, Jan 08, 1861
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
CA, USA 06 Jul 2020
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