The penny press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1859-1860, 1859-08-27
The Mammoth Steamship Great East
ern-Her Engines in Motion.

Tho London Times gives long account of
the banquet on board the mammot tn steamship
Great Eastern, on the 7th instant, in honor of
her final completion. Speeches were made by
Sir Charles Napier, Lord Stanley, J. R. Camp
bell, the Managing Director, and several Mem
bsrs of Parliament. The Times pronounces
the ship to be the finest specimen of naval ar
chitecture that ever foated, and adds.
The screw engines have four cylinders of
eighty-four inches diameter, and four feet
stroke. The cylinders are capable of being
worked together, or separately. When work.
ing forty-hve strokes minute, with steam on
at fifteen pounds, and cutting off at one-third
of the stroke, these engines give an indicated
power Of four thousand four hundred horses ;
but at ffty-fve strokes minute, steam on at
twenty five pounds, and cutting off at one-
quarter Of the stroke, the power will reach to
six thousand five hundred horses. Thus
the united efforts of both screw and pad.
die engines, will drive the immense vessel
through the water with power of no less
than twelve thousand horses. What feet
could stand in the way Of such mass,
weighing some thirty thousand tuns, and
driven through the water by twelve thousand
horsepower at the rate of twenty-five or
twenty. three miles an hour? The screw. on
giue boilers are in three distinct sets. Their
weight is three hundred and sixty-two tuns,
and their capacity for water, two hundred and
seventy tuns. The probable consumption Of
coal when both engines are at full work, will
average two hundred and fifty tuns per day.
The cellular compartments at the bottom Of the
ship will be used for pumping water into her,
instead Of ballast, and as the webs subdividing
these are made perfectly water.tight, any one
or any number can be filed at pleasure. Steam
was got up in the paddle engines at half past
one. At that time all the visitors were on
board, and the engine-room and matches, in
spite Of the heat, wore crowded with eager
lookers-on.
The first movement Of the gigantic cranka
and cylinders of the paddle -engines was
made precisely at half-past one, when the
great masses slowly rose and fell as noise
lessly as the engines of Greenwich boat
but exerting in their great revolutions what
seemed to be an almost irresistible power
There was no noise, no vibration, nor the
slightest sign of heating, and the tremen-
dous frame OF iron-work sprang at once int
| life and motion with as much ease as if every
rod and crank had been worked for the las
ten years. The steam in the boilers was
| about twenty zone pounds, but as matter O
course, the engines were turned but slowly
never exceeding six revolutions per minute
Even with this slow motion, and the sliCh
| immersion of the paddle floats, the effect O.
the enormous power wasat once visible upor
the ship.
The great mooring chains astern were
frightened to the utmost, and it seemed as i
even Trotman's anchors themselves would
yield under the strain. Fortunately, how
ever, these held fast, and then the screw en-
gines were got into motion, working the shir
astern, so as to counteract the effect of tht
paddle. These latter engines worked with
the same marvellous case and freedom; there
was no noise, no sign of hot bearings, and
the result was considered by all the engineers
on board to be satisfactory in the very high
est degree, and far beyond what could have
been eyDected