h a l f b a k e r yCeci n'est pas une idée.
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[See 2018 edit below]
Did I propose this already?
Anchored rope "rails" floating lower than boats so that
they don't get cut when a boat passes, allow large ships to
advance by pulling on the rope, creating large "undersea
railways".
A sonar unit replies to calls for location. The equipment
is
rented or sold, and the operation is run by pay for use.
Maintenance units automatically monitor the ropelines and
fix or update them as needed.
[2018 edited addition]
Here is an improvement that will make it bakeable:
Rather than a complete ropeway with "rails" have only a
series
of anchors with sonars and a buoy released to the
surface when sonar signal received. An RC dinghy
pulls a rope to the buoy and easily connects (with
mechanical device) Boat then pulls itself till next
buoy is needed. I suppose the system would be
started in shallower areas.
When done the buoy pulls itself back down waiting for the
next call via sonar.
It could be "virally spread" by ships spreading the
buoy's as they advance, or sending them ahead of travel with
a
"sinker" dinghy supplied by the BoatRail company.
Cable ferry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chain_ferry
Wkipedia calls them Cable ferries. [baconbrain, Aug 16 2011]
Here's a prototype...
https://www.youtube...watch?v=BrSRjfCNRxE
[pashute, Mar 19 2018]
[link]
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IMHO: This is the greatest of my ideas. |
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When nobody posts an anno you can always do so
yourself |
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Improvement: Small floating "towboats" anchored to
the ropes can simply pull the heavy boats ahead |
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//This is the greatest of my ideas// Oh dear. Ooooooh dear. |
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River ferries have operated by this mechanism for
hundreds of years, and still do today in motorized form.
WKTE? |
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Mark Twain described a riverboat in Europe that used this, many years ago. The chain lay on the bottom, the boat had rudders at each end. |
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That was an up-and-downstream boat, cross-stream ferries are presently in use in many places. |
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I've ridden the hand-cranked Saugatuck chain ferry in Michigan, and the Akers ferry in Missouri (although that one has an overhead cable, not under water), and watched but not ridden White's Ferry on the Potomac. |
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There are quite a number of modern river ferries in Europe
and the eastern US that run along submerged cables, either
under their own power or drawn by motors on the shore. |
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How is this not baked and widely known to exist? |
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Windermere ferry in Cumbria is the first that springs to mind. |
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Publish an idea that allows routes to cross - I'll probably bun that. |
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I think this is an adaptation of the cable-ferry to trans-
oceanic voyages, thus the idea is not quite baked, for
reasons too numerous to list. |
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Now I know that this is the best of my ideas.
Something close to it has been baked "BEFORE
RECORDED HISTORY" according to Wikipedia. |
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First, [brain] thanks for the ferry boat link. We
don't have
rivers in my country and when I visited Mississippi
it was far from the river, and I wasn't in 'touring
mode'. so I was not aware of it. Kissinger is
reported, upon crossing the Jordan "river", to
have said: "That's it?" And the Bible also laughs at
our river - Naaman, when told to rince in the
Jordan says: "Why should I not rinse in Avnah and
Parpar the rivers of Damascus, which have better
water than any in Israel?" |
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[Alterother] Is correct, it's an adaptation to cross oceanic
travel, and yes, please list some of the reasons that make it
a novelty and not WKTE. |
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Here is an improvement that will make it bakeable:
Rather than a complete ropeway have only a series
of anchors with sonars and a buoy released to the
surface when sonar signal received. An RC dinghy
pulls a rope to the buoy and easily connects (with
mechanical device) Boat then pulls itself till next
buoy is needed. I suppose the system would be
started in shallower areas. |
|
| |
It could be "virally spread" by ships spreading the
buoy's as they advance, sending it forward with a
"sinker" dinghy supplied by the BoatRail company. |
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[Absinthe] Please respond to this annotation and tell me if
you still think it's WKTE. Thanks. |
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I don't know how buoys are held in place, but if it's
just by a weight on the sea floor, there's a limit
how hard you can pull on them before their anchor
point moves. So they'd need pretty heavy weights. |
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Also you'd want to be pulling on something that's
further forward from you than it is down, so that it
trying to pull you forward rather than trying to sink
you. So in deep water, you want to be pulling on
something that's anchored quite far ahead of you.
This seems easier if you do have a complete
ropeway, rather than just buoys. Though I guess
only requiring buoys makes the system cheaper. |
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You'd want the small dinghy to start towards the
second buoy as soon as the first one is connected
to the boat, so that it's ready as soon as possible. |
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And maybe have a spare rope or two between the
dinghy and the larger boat. The dinghy travels to
the second buoy and connects it to a rope that
goes to the boat. The boat no longer needs its
connection to the first buoy, so it disconnects
somehow, and then sends the rope back to the
dinghy along the spare connecting rope. The
dinghy never needs to go back to the boat,
anything that needs to be sent back and forth can
be pulled along the permanent connecting rope(s). |
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ETA: maybe you want the dingy to go more than
two buoys ahead. You could have a loop of rope
that goes between the dinghy and the boat. The
dinghy goes ahead, linking more and more buoys
onto the loop. Once at least one is on, the boat
pulls itself forward. Whenever the boat reaches a
part of the loop that has a buoy attached, it
removes it. If there are more buoys, it keeps
pulling, otherwise it waits for the dinghy to attach
another one. |
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I also don't see why this wouldn't work. |
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ETA: possibly silly addition - if you could have a
multi-kilometre rod pushing the dinghy ahead, it
wouldn't need a propellor. It could be telescopic,
or inflatable, or some other mechanism so it's not
always full length. |
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