Evening journal., 1888-08-16
Testing the Monitor.
A Continuous Good Run for
Twenty-four Hours.
TERRIBLE HEAT BELOW DECK.

The Machinery Has Run smoothly and
Satisfactorily SO Engineers TX.
haussed by the Heat-A Test Under
Forced Draft Tomorrow.
The hawsers that held the monitor
Amphitrite 10 the Harlan 4 Holdings.
worth Co S wharf, were stretched taut as
drum this morning The twin propel-
lers We're churning the water into a boil
ing foam and froth. which flowed off on
the ehb tide toward the bay. The propel-
lers were making forty-fve revolutions a
minute. and the stern of the immense
iron huh vibrated from their turning
At o'clock last night the engines were
started and the twentyfour hours test
began They ran satisfactorily all
through the night the screws
averaging about fifty revolutions a
minute, and up TO 10 o'clock this morn
ing no stop had been made. and there
had been no hitch fany kind in the run
ming Of the machinery. Everything ran
smoothly and there were no heated bear
ings Under the wooden shed on the deck
the thermometer registered 80 The engi-
neers in charge were busy taking the
data Of the trial The indicator cards
are taken from the four cylinders every
two hours, and from the circulating and
vacuum pumps and auxiliaries every
hour.
In the engine room the heat was almost
suffocating. The metal hand rails leading
down from the deck, and every part Of
the machinery was so hot that the hand
could hardly be borne on it, The per
SEPARATION ran from the engineers in
streams. Dat meal water, without ice
was drunk. No ice water was allowed
on board. Two or three of the engineers
in charge Of the engines have given out.
The engineer of Nanderbilt's yacht Alva
succumbed this morning. The colored
hremen. who are from Chesapeake bay
steamers seem to be standing
the terrific heat of the fire rooms won.
derfuily we'll None of them have given
out An old man climbed out of the
hold this morning and walked off the
boat singing some plantation song
The temperature of the fire room
this morning was 175 degrees blast
of air came through the door of the fire
room like a breeze waited from the
depths Of the lower world. Water
thrown from hose on the deck over the
boilers was turned into steam as it
flowed over the hot iron deck The gov
eminent engineers are divided into
watches Of four hours each. The firemen
started on watches of this length, but are
now working ON watches two hours long.
If the boat was running the tempera-
ture below deck would be cooler but
moored to the dock in the city il is of
course very high The engine on the
starboard side Of the boat drives the port
wheel and is known as the port engine.
The engine on the port side drives the
starboard wheel, and is called the star
board engine The pistons Of the engines
therefore work crossing each other
Each wheel had made 104, 800 revolutions
up 70 i0o'clock this morning The steam
guages indicated pressure on the boilers |
Of 10 pounds Of steam to the square /
inch. The blowers driving fresh air into
the engine rooms were making 300 revo-
buttons q minute
Tomorrow the fire and boiler rooms
will be tested under forced draft. The |
doors to the fire room will be closed air |
tight and the air forced in by blowers.
making a pressure OF about a pound of |
steam to the square inch. OF the gov
eminent engineers on board John V. |
AMMAN is from the cruiser Richmond, |
y A. b Smith from the Atlanta and b. |
q. Sampson from the Boston The
Others were ordered from Washington.