The New Rowing Tank.

The rowing tank in the University beat house is now completed and the rowing apparatus will be ready for use in a week or ten days. The rowing machines formerly used in the Cary Building have been transferred to the rowing room and will be used in the tank this winter. The general plan of the apparatus, however, will be different from any other rowing tank in the country, and its construction is the result of careful investigation and experiment, carried on by Professor Hollis and members of his engineering classes. The result of the experiment will be of interest owing to the fact that no rowing tank has yet been built which has been entirely satisfactory to rowing men, in its practical results.

The object of the work has been so to regulate the water in the tank that it will not offer too much resistance to the oar, and will correspond in its general action to the motion of water when the boat is moving. To accomplish this there will be two propellers fixed at the bow of the boat, run by electric motors and other specially constructed machinery in addition if necessary. In this way there will be a continual current of water, starting at the bow, turned by deflecting planes down either side and returning by the added power of the oars and a pair of circular deflecting planes, under the boat and on through the propellers again. This device will render the amount of water which has to be moved by the oar, as small as possible; and by relieving the oarsman from its dead weight will give him greater opportunity to pay attention to his bladework.

The concrete tank is now completed. It is sixty three feet long and twenty six feet wide, rectangular in shape and with rounded corners. The sliding seats are to be placed in a rectangular boat, similar in general construction to an ordinary eight, which will be supported from the bottom of the tank by metal braces, skeleton underwork and water proof compartments, through which the returning current of water will pass. On either side of the boat will be a wooden platform four feet in breadth which will serve as a support for men getting in and out of the boat, and upon which the outriggers will be attached. The water in the tank will be about thirty inches in depth.