National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1886-03-05
Credit to Whom Credit is Due.

A contemporary has recently attempted
to controvert the statement, originally
made in the NATIONAL REPUBLICAN some
thing over two years ago and repeated in
cdentally in last Saturdays issue, that the
plans for the steel cruiser Chicago were
copied from plans of certain English
steamers built a quarter Of century or
more ago. 1t says;
The whole statement Is absurd The Chi.
cago's engines were designed by two members
of the naval advisory board, to wit Mr. Alex
ander Henderson,, chief engineer of the
navy, and Mr.. Miers Corycll, n civilian from
the Morgan Iron Works. Their counterpart
does not exist anywhere else in the world, and
nothing remotely analogous to them was ever
attempted except in the walking.beam ma.
chine Of the Cromwell Line steamship Louis
lana. We are not particularly partial to the
English, but in the commoncst spirit of fair
play we cannot stand tamely by and hear them
accused of having furnished the model of the
Chicago's engines.
1t was well known to the NATIONAL Re-
PUBLICAN, and in well-informed circles
generally, at the time the Chicago's
plans were being prepared, that they were
copied from English engines now in use,
but very nearly, If not quite obsolete. The
advisory board was and is controlled wholly
by line officers who had no experience
in and very little knowledge Of shipbuld-
ing, and they naturally made some mis-
takes. They ignored as "cranksn all the
practical shipbuilders of theirown country,
some Of whom build one steamer per month
in busy times, and sighted in every way
the two civilian members whom they grudg-
ingly admitted to their councils in obe-
dience to law of Congress.
Being left to its own limited resources,
the board could only copy such English
plans as they were most familiar with,
which happened to be, as matter of
course, those Of twenty or thirty years ago.
The plans for the engines of the Chicago
were accordingly copied mainly from the
designs of the Whitclaw (English) engines
Of 1850, and in part from the engines OF the
steamship Jura, built in Glasgow about
that time.
They are more than twice the weight per
indicated horse power Of the modern Ameri-
can engines, and will require about double
the amount of coal to run them. In short,
they are obsolete, heavy, cumbersome, and
expensive to build and maintain. They
will, however, be serviceable where economy
Of fuel and speed are not especially desired,
and thousand tons, more or less, of extra
! weight are not objected to.
The advisory board should not be too
severely blamed for the result of its own
ignorance. 1t must be admitted that its
4,
controlled ibid the best they knew how.
| After they decided to treat all our practi
cal shipbuilders as 'cranks''-as they were
designated by member of the board
there was nothing to do but to copy obso.
lete designs Of English origin. The best
designs are invariably kept by builders
| everywhere for their own use. Only the
obsolete are sold or given away
Upon this subject the London Engineer
has the following, which we commend to
our contemporary and TO the naval com
mittees Of both houses of Congress--par.
| tlcularly TO members who so persistently
| ignore American enterprise, and favor the
adoption of English designs:
The American naval authorities are curl.
| ously enough going over old ground and adopt.
ing rs novel arrangements which have been
| discarded MS imperfect by all English and
Scotch marine engineers years ago. The en-
ginC room of the Chicago, with It's four work,
ing beams, will present n sight which will
strike English eyes as archaic, The engines
are modelled very nearly on the line of some
small engines made by WhltClaw about the
| year leo, and are enormously heavy; indeed,
! the weight Of the machinery is given q. $50
| tons, or 10000 cwt. Tho boilers are of worse
| design than the engines, and will, no doubt
| be pulled out after cruise or two. They arc
| carried In bTickwork, So much doubt Is felt
concerning their powers of supplying dry
| stcam-and iustly-that supcrheater has been
added, which cannot be used when the ship is
| going into action that is to say, just when dry
| steam will be most wanted. The superheater
seemed TO have been specially constructed to
/ do the greatest possible amount of harm when
/ II eXplodes, as It issurc to do some day. In at
! tempting TO account for the conditions which
| have produced the Chicago, we are driven to
conclude either that American engineers do
not really know how even to copy a good de-
sign and adapt il to their own use, or that they
are so conceited that they fancy they can i'm.
Prove on English and Scotch practice.
In the absence Of anyinformation regard
ing the composition, prejudices, and aims OF
our advisory board, the London Engineer
naturally concludes "that American engl-
nGers do not know how TO copy good de-
sgn;n when, In fact, no American steam