Oil tankers of the future may be giant descendants of sausage skins. Two years ago Engineering Professor William Rede Hawthorne of Britain's Cambridge University got empty sausage skins from his butcher, filled them with alcohol, tied the ends and towed them in the laboratory's wave tank. The alcohol sausages rode the waves so valiantly that he got financial backing from Esso Petroleum Co., Ltd. to build and test good-sized flexible barges.
Last week the professor demonstrated, in Southampton Water, his latest barge, which he calls a "Dracone," from a Greek word for serpent. It is 100 ft. long, 5 ft. in diameter,...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
