He continued his experiments from time to time, as
opportunity permitted, confident that he was gradually, but surely,
approaching the realization of his great scheme.
Meanwhile he applied himself with his accustomed energy to the
practical working out of another favorite idea. The principle of the
Ericsson propeller was first suggested to the inventor by a study of
the means employed to propel the inhabitants of the air and deep. He
satisfied himself that all such propulsion in Nature is produced by
oblique action; though, in common with all practical men, he at first
supposed that it was inseparably attended by a loss of power. But when
he reflected that this was the principle invariably adopted by the
Great Mechanician of the Universe, in enabling the birds, insects, and
fishes to move through their respective elements, he knew that he must
be in error. This he was soon able to demonstrate, and he became
convinced, by a strict application of the laws which govern matter and
motion, that no loss of power whatever attends the oblique action of
the propelling surfaces applied to Nature's locomotives. After
having satisfied himself on the theory of the subject, the first step
of the inventor was the construction of a small model, which he tried
in the circular basin of a bath in London.
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