After a little Google digging, the ship is suspended from a truss by a large number of padded cables.
Obviously it is old and delicate. Rotating it can be descibed as a belt and wheel problem by considering tangential displacement as you say. However, it is a very elongated wheel, more of a tapered pole. The cables all need to be eased on one side, taken up on the other side to rotate it; however amounts vary due to the tapered shape, and the need to match rotation at each station so as not to torque the fragile hull. The description seems a little confused at first blush, but actually describes well the headaches of carefully rotating the artifact. The Hunley has a beam slightly under 1.2 m (height is a little more due to an oval cross section, but not much). It would be horrible to be stuck in that tin can underwater with eight other men hand-cranking the screw. ________________________________ From: James Frysinger <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Fri, June 24, 2011 9:57:55 PM Subject: [USMA:50735] Confederate Submarine Upright for First Time in 150 Years - FoxNews.com This AP article uses only metric units, though the quantity is muddled. They speak of rotating the Hunley by 800 mm to 1000 mm in 2 mm increments. Obviously they are speaking of the tangential displacement at the radius of the hull, not an angular displacement. Jim http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/06/24/confederate-submarine-upright-for-first-time-in-150-years/?test=latestnews -- James R. Frysinger 632 Stony Point Mountain Road Doyle, TN 38559-3030 (C) 931.212.0267 (H) 931.657.3107 (F) 931.657.3108
