The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-30 00:00:00

TEE WiRRIOR.

Day by day this noble frigate continues to
advance rapidly towards completion, and there is
little doubt but that in the course of six weeks or
so more she will be in a condition to go round under
steam to Poktstnalstli; where she is to be rigged and
masted and got/ready for sea with all despatch.
But with a newleitsselig such an entirely experi-
menial character ase this armour ship innumerable
details have to be consiclerel and even tried beldre
finally approved of, so.that, even if her equipment,
progresses faster than.il ids hitherto done, it-is
still likely to be towards .;the middle or end of Sep,
tember before her guns and stores are in, and she
cattle ranked is an effective man of war. The
;labour of putting on the erormous armour-plates,
'which are all dovetailed into each other, is one
which must necessarily—le slowly completed, and
the question whici occurs to every one on seeing
this process is hew could one be got off again in
case of its being fractured hy a shot. TO do this it
would be almost nezessary ,o strip the side of the
vessel, for the flanges of each plate fit so deeply
and closely into those all around it that, supposing
one broken at the water-line, a double row of those
above it would have to be removed before the
injured plate could be replaced. In one most im-
portant point, however, the Warrior is far advanced,
and that is the Matter of her steam machinery. No
matter what may be the doehts existing as. to the
soundness of the sciertific principles upon which
the vessel itself has been constructed, there can be
none as to the eXcellerce of the engines by whiCh
she will be propelled. These have been 'completed,
are all in, position, and steam has been got up in
them en two or three occasions. By keeping the
vessel's bows against the side of the Victoria Dock
they have'been worked
-with full power ahead, with
results satisfacto'y almost beyond anticipation.
Not a bearing heated, not a single screw or nut
required readjustment or alteration, and the ma-
chinery, in fact, was perfect. They are, beyond a
doubt, the most splendid speci nensof marine engines
ever produced. The Lords of the Admiralty have in-
spected theM, and expreped thEir admiration, but the
Braish public Also happens to be taking a lively
ante ess just teqvu'ka oval matters, and ,isre .ay \
theitsi4e be dseirin no unacoepte.ble serficeir
we describe these magnificent machines in detail.
Their vast, but simple, proportions—their union of
strength with tightness, and even almost elegance
of form—the tremendots concentration of force
within the closest compass and in the smallest
number of parts, and above all the perfect finish of
the workmanship make itimpossiblc to survey these
great machines without feelings of astonishment
and almost of awe. Nominally yielding an aggre-
grate force of 1,250 horses, their indicated power
will probably be little, if at all short of 6,000 horses.
Each cylinder is nine feet four inches in diameter,
and they require for their joint service the evapora-
tion of 16,250 gallons, or '4,600 cubic feet of water
per hoar. If the reader bears in mind that every
cubic foot of water yields 1,000 cubic feet of steam
he will cease to be surprised when we say that the
main steam-pipe is 2 feet 8 inches across, and that
a big man could not only pass down it and either
of its branches into the cylinders, but thence through
the passages of the slide valves into the condensers
themselves. In these latter he would find himself
in a two-roomed space 15 feet long by 12 feet broad
and 9 feet high, each compartment supplied with a
9-ft. pipe (the size of a large street main) for con-
densing purposes, and with a 7-inch pipe for con-
veying the hots water back atain to the boilers. It
is difficult for the most lively imagination to realise
the extent of the chymical and mechanical agencies
which are intended to operate within the limits and
proportions we have thus partially indicated. To set
them in motion 10 boilers are necessary, ranged five
on either side of the ship, each boiler fed by four fur-
naces, 40 in all, with a stokehole or passage between
more than 12 feet wide, every boiler with a comple-
ment of 440 tubes, through which the flame passes,
and capable of containing, when filled to their work-
ing level, 19 tons; or 4,256 gallons of water. Let us
suppose the 40 furnaces lighted, the 10 great boilers,
each 14 feet long by 10 feet 3 inches broad, and 12
feet 4 inches high, all charged with water, and the
steam rushing down the pipe made to escape from
its iron prison. It can only do so by forcing its
way through the slides, pushing to and fro the
huge piston, and dashing through the slide valve to
be quenched in the condenaor—yet what a tremen-
dous force is required to overcome even these ob-
stacles ! The weight of the piston and the parts
connecting it with the crank are no less than 13
tons, the stroke four feet, and the number of revo-
lutions calculated at 50 per minute. Here is a
weight of 13 tons moving backwards and forwards
100 times in that brief interval, or in fact driven by
the steam power at the rate of more than 400 feet
a minute. Of course, the principles of mechanism
are essentially the same as those by which the
smallest river steamer is propelled, but when one
examines attentively the immense size and weight
of a ship constructed like the Warrior, and endea-
vours to estimate the magnitude of the power re-
quired to drive her through the water at a speed
of 14 knots, the difference in degree is something
very difficult to realise. If by any process she could
be weighed when all her stores, armaments, and
equipments are completed, she would overbalance
nearly 9,000 tons, or within 1,000 tons of the
weight of the Great Eastern when launching. This
alone is a vas inertia one would imagine sufficiently
great to overcome without a resisting medium like
water superadded, Yet, with these engines and
her street of boilers in her vast hold, it is confi-
dently anticipated that she will attain r,a, speed
hitherto unknown in the navy. Of course, as the
propelling power lies entirely in the steam, the en-
gines being merely the medium for communicating
that power to the progress of the ship, the less force
' that is expended in keeping them up to their work
the more remains to be exerted for the attainment
of the final object. It has, therefore, been the
constant study of our great mechanical engineers
to bring down marine engines to the simplest
possible proportions, and to finish every detail
in the most perfect manner, so as to re-
duce to a minimum the tax on the steam-
power required for mere engine-driving. In
the man-of-war they have to combine the