, 1883-02-15
A New Steamship Oregon,

The new steamship Oregon. build
ny for the Guion Line of trans-At
lantic ships, will be the largest, most
costly, and probably fastest ship in
the service of the mercantile world
A partial description of her, as fol-
lows, is given by the London Engi-
| Hccr:
1T is anticipated that she will be
ready for her trial trip about midsum-
mer, and she is intended to exec in
speed the fastest ship now atloat. She
will not be much larger than the
Alaska, but her engines are intended
to indicate no less than 1900 horse
power She will have but one screw
as we understand, about "a feet in
diameter, with pitch of nearly 40
feet. Steam will be supplied by II
boilers, each with 6 furnaces feet 6
inches diameter, the CRATES being a
little over feet long. We may com
pare her with the Alaska, which ship
has nine boilers with6 furnaces each,
of about the same size. Comparing
CRATE areas, we find that the aggre
gate surface in the Oregon will be
1872 square feet, divided among Y
furnaces, while that of the Alaska is
l,134, divided among 81 furnaces. As
the Oregon will burn about 20 lbs of
coal per square foot of crate per hour,
her consumption in "a hours will not
be much under 300 tons, and allowing
that each ton of coal evaporates .
tons OF water, we find that no less
than 2,70O tons of steam will pass
through her engines every "A hours.
A tank 100 feet square, to hold 300
tons of water must be nearly 10 feet
deep to prevent the water from run
ming over the edge. If the tank were
80 feet square the water would stand
80 feet IL inches deep in it. If the
water were supplied to a town, allow
ing 4 cubic feet or rs gallons per
head per day, it would suffice for a
population of $4,000 souls; 5000 tons
of air will pass through her
furnaces, representing volume OF
liza, 100000 cubic feet through pipe
IL feet 4inches diameter. This vol
ume of air would flow at the rate of
1873 miles per hour, a strong breeze
to walk against. The total weight of
water evaporated on the run across
the Atlantic will not be far short of
three times that of the whole ships
cargo, engines and all. We give these
figures to enable our readers to form
some idea of what $1,000 horse pow
er means; and we may supplement
them by adding that it is equivalent
to 101, SIT tons lifted foot high eve
ry minute, or the same weight lifted
LAO feet in "a hours. Assuming that
she makes 20 knots IN hour, or, omit
tiug fractions, 2,028 feet per minute,
the thrust of her screw-that is to
say the force pushing her through
the water-will amount to over "a
tons, or about as much rs 20 OF the
most powerful locomotive engines in
England would exert if all were pull
ing at her together. Among the 9TH
er difficulties which crop up when we
have to deal with such enormous
powers as these figures represent, we
mention that of getting the coal to
the fires. We see that in the case of
the Oregon no less than 500 tons a
day, the full load for coal train of
30 trucks, will have to be handled
every "a hours. II the ship were at
rest, the problem would not be easy
of solution, but it becomes very hard
indeed to deal with in a rolling and
pitching vessel. All is done, of course,
that can be done in arranging boilers
and bunkers to accommodate each
other, but il is evident at glance
that out OF n total quantity of, say,
$500 tons of coal, great deal must
be slowed at considerable distance
from the furnaces. 1t does not ap-
pear that any mechanical device has
yet been hit on in the way of rail
way which answers better than the
existing arrangements, by which the
whole of the work is effected by
sheer manual labor"
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