Volume 01: Production and resources of the northern and western districts of New South Wales, 1854 [ca. 1850-1857] - Page 452
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264
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES.
LIVERPOOL APRIL 6th 1853 [?]
TRIAL OF THE BOOMERANG PROPELLER
Yesterday afternoon a trial was made in the waters of the mersey of Sir Thomas Mitchells new mode of propelling ships by the Boomerang, in liew [lieu] of the common screw. The trial trip was made in the Genova, one of the Messrs Kean & McKartys Mediterranean steam Ships, the distance being from the Rock light to the.Crosby light ship and back. The Boomerang is used in a similar way to the ordinary screw, but its design & Construction are widely different.
The original idea was borrowed by the inventor from the peculiar gyrations of the weapon used by the natives of Australia in its flight through the air.
That instrument is crescent shaped, by instead of
an arc it has an elbow in the middle. It is about two feet long & two inches broad, a quarter of an
inch thick, and is made of heavy wood - When thrown in the air by the natives it describes two revolutions, one direct, the other rotatory. By the
latter motion it revolves round its own centre of gravity, is enables to survive the direct impetus
with which it was sent up, & is made to screw back to the spot whence it was thrown. The peculiarity suggested what is called "The Boomerang propeller" which in the [indecipherable] of the day, was described by Sir Thomas Mitchell. After many experiments made for the purpose of discovering the best means of attaching a centre so as to make the principle applicable to the propulsion of vessels, the various practical difficulties in the way were removed.
The elbow shaped weapon of the savage gliding through the air shows how the difficulty of the centre may be avoided; the Cusps illustrate the mode by which engineers may regulate the circumference while the general form of the missile, in acting obliquely upon the radius of the rotary motion teaches how it is possible to embrace two Columns of water at once, with the least possible surface, and the least obstruction to the rotary motion, but, at the same time, with greatest effect as a screw - The great difficulty of testing the true value of the invention has hitherto lain, & still continues to lie, in the fact that screw vessels are built with apertures too narrow for its application in its entire & complete form. It requires a space equal to at least one third of the height of the aperture - The only opportunity the inventor has at present had for testing it- & this a very severe test - is by applying only mutilated portions of it relying on the more harmonius [harmonious] nature of its surface, compared with the screw now in use, & to its perfect freedom at the centre, which prevents if from the King, & Consequently gives it greater facility for rotary motion -
THE BOOMERING NAMED BY THE ABORIGINES.
The various tribes of the blacks inhabiting New South Wales, of course name this war instrument in their own language, here being no general name. Boomering being the name given by the Sydney tribes, which was of Course adapted by the whites -Tur-rur- ma is the name applied to it by the Newcastle tribes in the Wanneroo language, & Arcanna by the New England tribes in the Narbal language. We thus find Kangaroo applied by the whites to this well Known animal;
while a different name is given to the animal in the Narbal Language, viz. Pundarra, & so varying with every different tribe in the