, 1882-10-04
Remarkable Vessels.
From the Tines

eTaI eXCeIlonC6 Oh IOCOLuOUlOA9 VIII AN
transcend any vessels at present at10at.
One of these the dome steamer Meteor, is
in course of construction at Nyack, on the
Hudson. She is the invention OF Mr.. A.
p. Bliyen of Brooklyn, and is being built
under his personal supervision. TIL en-
gines are capable of making $50 revolu-
tons per minute, which gives a velocity
of the wheel of over 40 miles per hour, so
so that it is expected that the Meteor Will
be able to make fully % miles per hour,
and thus complete the distance from New
York to Queenstown or Bristol in q little
over tive days. The vessel is being built
entirely from American materials by Anne
rican mechanics and is intended as the
pioneer of a-class of large steel steamers
which viii follow in rapid succession. A
new feature of the engines is that the high
pressure cylinders are inclosed within the
low-preSSure cylinders, only two cylinders
being visible and this method will pre-
vent condensation in the cylinder, thus
saving all the power of the steam. The
vessel will be supplied with a steam gen
orator of the Water.tube pattern-whlch Is
practically four boilers in one, having
two smoke stacks each three feet in diane
ter and 20 feet high, four steam safety
valves and four tiregrates. The boilers When
shut up are oval in shape, having rs square
feet of CRATE surface, $3.50 square @et of
heating surface, two centre cylinders OF
steel % inches in diameter and Is feet long,
and 1850 feet of steel tubing. Every part
Of the boiler will be tested to 1000 pounds
and inspected to 500 pounds, thus allow
ing a working pressure of $50 pounds.
The Meteor will be 1856 feet in length over
all length at waterline, 1872 feet 6 inches;
length on keel, 1875 feet 6 inches; depth
of hold, 16 feet 8 inches draught of water
aft, II feet tonnage, carpenters measure
ment 512,33- 100. She is the strongest YES
sci of her size ever built, being constructed
of white oak, locust, ~backmataC, ash, and
hard pine. Besides her dome deck, she
will have a main or spar deck, eight feet
below her dome deck, as strong as it is
possible to make it.. Her interior finish
Will be in polished hard woods; her ga
loon, state rooms, officers quarters, &c,
being all finished and fitted up in the
best manner alike with regard to beauty
as to comfort. Nothing will be seen above
her deck except the pilot-house and smoke
stacks. Last, but not least, no one need
be exposed on a steamer Of this type, for
i'll stormy, rough weather she can be
closed up perfectly watertight, and driven
through and over the heaviest seas with
out any danger to passengers, crew, hulk,
or machinery. A charter has been grant.
ed to the New England Quick transit
Steamship Company of Boston, capital
100000 dollars, and they will shortly
commence building steel steamers of the
above type of 1000 tons capacity to run
between Boston and British and European
ports. st. Louis and Chicago capitalists
are likewise forming a company, to be
called the South Atlantic Quick-transit
Line, which will run from Southern Ameri-
can ports to European ports while a third
company, known as the National COnstruc-
ton Company of New York, have purchas-
ed a large water frontage and q acres Of
land, adjoining the Manhattan Beach Rail
road Docks at Bay Ridge, for the purpose
of shipbuilding on a large scale and after
the Meteor type.
The second singular vessel in course OF
construction is the Oceanic, now being
built at Hastings, on the Hudson. The
principle of this steamship is the%.'invention
of Mr.. Robert Fryer, of New York. 1t is
stated to be a kiud of marine velocipede
three wheels, the hull not being in
tended to touch the water. The most
curious point of the invention is that the
of the ship, the float as it were,
and the propellers are one and the same.
The vessel floats on three spheres, made
of sheet steel, one forward and two ~astern;
each of these is fitted with fanges which
surround nearly the whole of it's circum-
and act as paddles. The spheres
are so arranged that they can be worked
backward and forward, or one worked
backward and the others forward simulta-