|
Spirit Of Peoria
''Spirit of Peoria'' is a riverboat that normally runs in the Peoria, Illinois area on the Illinois River watershed. The boat participated in the 2004 Grand Excursion. ''Spirit of Peoria'' is a true paddle steamer, paddleboat, actually using its paddlewheel for propulsion, unlike some modern riverboats with purely cosmetic wheels. The boat was designed by architect Alan Bates, and built in 1988 at the Walker Boat Yard in Paducah, Kentucky, making it the first paddleboat vessel built there. The propulsion system was designed by Norm Rittenhouse, with steering by Custom Hydraulics. ''Spirit of Peoria'' has no propellers or thrusters, and is powered by twin Caterpillar Inc., Caterpillar 3412 diesel electrical generator, gensets, producing 700 kilowatts combined in 208 volt 3-phase voltage. The AC power is rectified to DC which in turn powers two locomotive traction motors, which drive the paddlewheel via two by chains. This allows the boat to be comparatively fast and efficient, b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grand Excursion
The Grand Excursion was a promotional voyage by train and steamboat into the Upper Mississippi River valley, USA that first took place in June 1854. It marked the first railroad connection between the East Coast and the Mississippi River, and it included dignitaries such as former president Millard Fillmore. In 2004, 150 years later, the Grand Excursion route was retraced by both riverboats and a steam locomotive. The original Grand Excursion The original excursion of 1854 was organized to promote the opening of a new rail line between Chicago and Rock Island, Illinois. This line was the first railway link from the eastern United States to the Mississippi River, and thus a more than symbolic moment in westward expansion, allowing for commerce and westward immigration, and ultimately a complete rail line to the Pacific coast. The route took travelers overland from Chicago, Chicago, Illinois to Rock Island, Illinois, then upriver to Saint Paul, Minnesota, Saint Paul, Minnesota Terri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pere Marquette State Park
Pere Marquette State Park is an protected area in southwestern Jersey County, Illinois, United States. It is located near the city of Grafton, Illinois, at the confluence of the Mississippi River and the Illinois River. The park is located on Illinois Route 100, which at this location is also part of both the Great River Road and the Meeting of the Great Rivers Scenic Byway. The park is operated and maintained by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, and is Illinois' largest state park in area. The park is also part of the Confluence Greenway and is at the northwestern end of the Sam Vadalabene Bike Trail. History of park The park was named in honor of Father (Père) Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit priest who was the co-leader, with his comrade Louis Jolliet, of a 1673 voyage of exploration on the Mississippi River. Marquette was the first European to map the mouth of the Illinois River, which he and Joliet used to return from the Mississippi to the Great Lakes. At t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ships Built In Kentucky
A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world's oceans and other sufficiently deep waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research, and fishing. Ships are generally distinguished from boats, based on size, shape, load capacity, and purpose. Ships have supported exploration, trade, warfare, migration, colonization, and science. After the 15th century, new crops that had come from and to the Americas via the European seafarers significantly contributed to world population growth. Ship transport is responsible for the largest portion of world commerce. The word ''ship'' has meant, depending on the era and the context, either just a large vessel or specifically a ship-rigged sailing ship with three or more masts, each of which is square-rigged. As of 2016, there were more than 49,000 merchant ships, totaling almost 1.8 billion dead weight tons. Of these 28% were oil tankers, 43% were bulk carriers, and 13% were cont ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paddle Steamers Of The United States
A paddle is a handheld tool with an elongated handle and a flat, widened distal end (i.e. the ''blade''), used as a lever to apply force onto the bladed end. It most commonly describes a completely handheld tool used to propel a human-powered watercraft by pushing water in a direction opposite to the direction of travel (i.e. paddling). It is different to an oar (which is similar in shape and performs the same function via rowing) in that the latter is attached to the watercraft via a fulcrum. However, the term "paddle" can also be used to describe objects of similar shapes or functions: *A rotating set of paddle boards known as a paddle wheel is used to propel a steamboat (i.e. paddle steamer). *A number of games (e.g. ping-pong), a "paddle" or "bat" is a small racket used to strike a ball. *A mixing paddle is an agitator device used to stir and more thoroughly mix separate ingredients within a mixture. *A spanking paddle is used in corporal punishment, typically to forcefull ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julia Belle Swain
The ''Julia Belle Swain'' is a steam-powered sternwheeler currently under restoration in La Crosse, Wisconsin, US. Designed and built in 1971 by Capt. Dennis Trone, the ''Julia Belle'' was the last boat built by Dubuque Boat & Boiler Works of Dubuque, Iowa. The boat's steam engines were built in 1915 by the Gillett and Eaton Company and originally installed on the central wheel ferryboat '' City of Baton Rouge''. The engines have logged well over a million miles. The steamer prominently featured in various cinematic adaptations of Mark Twain's literary works - firstly in 1973 movie ''Tom Sawyer'' (as the ''River Queen''), the 1974 movie ''Huckleberry Finn''., and also in the opening and closing titles of the 1979 television series ''Huckleberry Finn and His Friends''. The ''Julia Belle'' was formerly based in Peoria, Illinois, making short excursions on Peoria Lake and two-day round trip cruises to Starved Rock State Park. Singer-songwriter John Hartford ("Gentle on My Mind" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ottawa, Illinois
Ottawa is a city located at the confluence of the navigable Illinois River and Fox River in LaSalle County, Illinois, United States. The Illinois River is a conduit for river barges and connects Lake Michigan at Chicago, to the Mississippi River, and North America's 25,000 mile river system. The population estimate was 18,742, as of 2020. It is the county seat of LaSalle County and it is the principal city of the Ottawa, IL Micropolitan Statistical Area. History Ottawa occupies a place on the Illinois River that has long been one end of a portage trail between the Mississippi River and Lake Michigan. Here the river was reliably deep enough for canoes. The North Portage Trail connected the site over land and water to the Chicago River. Ottawa was the site of the first of the Lincoln–Douglas debates on August 21, 1858. During the Ottawa debate, Stephen A. Douglas, leader of the Democratic Party, openly accused Abraham Lincoln of forming a secret bipartisan group of Congressm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Starved Rock State Park
Starved Rock State Park is a state park in the U.S. state of Illinois, characterized by the many canyons within its . Located just southeast of the village of Utica, in Deer Park Township, LaSalle County, Illinois, along the south bank of the Illinois River, the park hosts over two million visitors annually, the most for any Illinois state park. A flood from a melting glacier, known as the Kankakee Torrent, which took place approximately 14,000–19,000 years ago led to the topography of the site and its exposed rock canyons. Diverse forest plant life exists in the park and the area supports several wild animal species. Of particular interest has been sport fishing species. Before European contact, the area was home to Native Americans, particularly the Kaskaskia who lived in the Grand Village of the Illinois across the river. Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette were the first Europeans recorded as exploring the region, and by 1683, the French had established Fort St. Louis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grafton, Illinois
Grafton is the oldest city in Jersey County, Illinois, United States. It is located near the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 626. Prior to the Great Flood of 1993, Grafton had enjoyed a stable population of nearly 1,000 residents. Grafton is a part of the Metro-East region and Greater St. Louis. History Founded in 1832 by James Mason, Grafton is the oldest city in Jersey County. Described as having "a post office, one store, one tavern, and a number of families" in 1834, the area was being settled as early as 1812 when a blockhouse was built at the confluence for protection. The city was named after Mason's birthplace of Grafton, Massachusetts. Grafton was incorporated on May 16, 1907. Grafton's population reached its peak at approximately 10,000 in the 1850s with employment opportunities coming from the local stone quarries, boat building and commercial fishing. At one point, there were five quarries ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diesel Fuel
Diesel fuel , also called diesel oil, is any liquid fuel specifically designed for use in a diesel engine, a type of internal combustion engine in which fuel ignition takes place without a spark as a result of compression of the inlet air and then injection of fuel. Therefore, diesel fuel needs good compression ignition characteristics. The most common type of diesel fuel is a specific fractional distillate of petroleum fuel oil, but alternatives that are not derived from petroleum, such as biodiesel, biomass to liquid (BTL) or gas to liquid (GTL) diesel are increasingly being developed and adopted. To distinguish these types, petroleum-derived diesel is sometimes called petrodiesel in some academic circles. In many countries, diesel fuel is standardised. For example, in the European Union, the standard for diesel fuel is EN 590. Diesel fuel has many colloquial names; most commonly, it is simply referred to as ''diesel''. In the United Kingdom, diesel fuel for on-road use is c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maritime Call Sign
Maritime call signs are call signs assigned as unique identifiers to ships and boats. All radio transmissions must be individually identified by the call sign. Merchant and naval vessels are assigned call signs by their national licensing authorities. History One of the earliest applications of radiotelegraph operation, long predating broadcast radio, were marine radio stations installed aboard ships at sea. In the absence of international standards, early transmitters constructed after Guglielmo Marconi's first trans-Atlantic message in 1901 were issued arbitrary two-letter calls by radio companies, alone or later preceded by a one-letter company identifier. These mimicked an earlier railroad telegraph convention where short, two-letter identifiers served as Morse code abbreviations to denote the various individual stations on the line (for instance, AX could represent Halifax). "N" and two letters would identify U.S. Navy; "M" and two letters would be a Marconi station. On Apr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electrical Generator
In electricity generation, a generator is a device that converts motive power (mechanical energy) or fuel-based power (chemical energy) into electric power for use in an external circuit. Sources of mechanical energy include steam turbines, gas turbines, water turbines, internal combustion engines, wind turbines and even hand cranks. The first electromagnetic generator, the Faraday disk, was invented in 1831 by British scientist Michael Faraday. Generators provide nearly all of the power for electric power grids. In addition to electromechanical designs, photovoltaic and fuel cell powered generators utilize solar power and hydrogen-based fuels, respectively, to generate electrical output. The reverse conversion of electrical energy into mechanical energy is done by an electric motor, and motors and generators have many similarities. Many motors can be mechanically driven to generate electricity; frequently they make acceptable manual generators. Terminology Electromagnetic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paducah, Kentucky
Paducah ( ) is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of McCracken County, Kentucky. The largest city in the Jackson Purchase region, it is located at the confluence of the Tennessee and the Ohio rivers, halfway between St. Louis, Missouri, to the northwest and Nashville, Tennessee, to the southeast. As of the 2020 census, the population was 27,137, up from 25,024 during the 2010 U.S. Census. Twenty blocks of the city's downtown have been designated as a historic district and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Paducah is the hub of its micropolitan area, which includes McCracken, Ballard and Livingston counties in Kentucky and Massac County in Illinois. History Early history Paducah was first settled as "Pekin" around 1821 by European Americans James and William Pore.Rennick, Robert. ''Kentucky Place Names''p. 224 University Press of Kentucky (Lexington), 1987. Accessed August 1, 2013. The town was laid out by explorer and surveyor William Clark in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
