New York, Nov. 22, 1859.
_169 Broadway, Room 35._
J. H. GREEN, _Editor of Leader_:
Please say to all, or as much of what I have written as you
please, in your own words, for I assure you I believe it all
myself, and I believe that many of your readers will be glad
to have the information.
Yours truly, NORMAN WIARD.
Accordingly, we say as requested, that Norman Wiard, inventor of the
Ice Boat, will be in Prairie du Chien before long with a
twenty-passenger steam ice boat, which he has now in process of
construction at New York, and hopes by such means to keep open
communication with St. Paul and Prairie du Chien, connecting, always
up to time, with the Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad.
He will also be prepared with a pioneer machine to level a track, when
it is necessary, where the ice is rough. His twenty-passenger boat can
be raised or lowered, while in motion or at rest, to enable it to pass
through a uniform depth of snow of three feet. It has devices that are
ample and practical, by which it can pass over or through snow banks
and drifts; even if it should be run into a bank of snow twenty feet
in depth and there stopped, it can immediately be passed through it or
over it, or be backed out with the greatest facility. It is an
amphibious machine, is this Ice Boat, as it can be run off the ice at
a speed of twenty miles an hour into the water with safety; and it can
propel itself across the water to contact with the ice on the other
side, and get out upon the ice and be put again in operation without
any material delay. It is, also, almost dangerproof; for, if it should
be thrown into the water by accident, on its side, or even bottom up,
it would right itself instantly; and about thirty holes would have to
be broken in the hull before it could be sunk, even if it were full of
water.
Mr. Wiard exhibited a model of his Ice Boat at the fair of the
American Institute, N. Y., and received therefor the highest award;
the operations of his model corroborate the statements made above;
and the minutes of the Polytechnic Club, before whom he exhibited his
plans at their request, says [_sic_] that the working of the model
“proved his statements.” The practicability of the boat itself will
soon be tested on the ice of the Mississippi, and the judgment which
will then be pronounced [will be] a final one.
[Corner torn off] driver only, and can go up and down hill and into
the water, safely! “Please to say all this,” says Mr. Wiard, “for I
assure you, I believe it all!” So will we all, when we see it, and the
sight is promised us.
Mr. John Cleveland, 35 Wall Street, N. Y., is now the trustee of the
patent, and by the liberal subscription of a few intelligent and
responsible gentlemen of that city Mr. Wiard is enabled to fully
develop and test his plans. The machine he is now building is said to
be beautiful as well as useful; and it seems likely to attract a
number of New Yorkers to visit Prairie du Chien when Mr. Wiard brings
it here.
Should this invention prove to be a practical one, Norman Wiard’s name
will be ranked along with that of Fulton, Stephenson, and Morse. If
his machine should prove valueless, the worst that can or will be
said, will be that he _deserved_ success.