The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1891-09-26
SCIENCE AND PROGRESS.
RAPID ADVANCES IN INDUSTRY
AND SCIENCE.
High speed Passenger Steamships
--Ammonia as Motive Powers"
Electricity a Cool Light--The
Strongest Cement.
HIsh-speed Passenger Steamships

High Speed Passenger Steamships.
A steamship which will cross the
Atlantic in three days is under discus
sion in marine circles. Mr.. Carl Shurz,
President of the Hamburg American
Packet Company, considers it feasible
but believes that such ships will carry
passengers only, will be larger than
the present vesselo, and fitted with
the necessarily powerful machinery in
two distinct sets, divided by q long;-
tudinal bulkhead, and driving upon
twin-screws, either set of which would
be competent to propel the vessel in
case OF accident to the others.
Messrs. James and George Thomp-
son, Glasgow, have modelled new
steamer guaranteed to steam at the
rate of % LIZ knots an hour, which will
enable the vessel to cross the Atlantic
within five days. The vessel is to BIO
about $50 feet long by 20 feet beam.
The lines are very fine. The new YES
sci will have twin screws % feet or
% feet in diameter, well supported.
There are four tunnels, and
about 200 feet of the length of the
ship is left for the boilers and bunk
ers. The engines are to be triple COM
pound, with four cranks. They will
probably indicate $4,000 indicated
horse power Accommodation is pr o.
vided for 700 first and 800 second
class passengers and about 400 emf
grants, and all the arrangements
worked out in the plans are far ahead
as far rs regards luxury and comfort,
OF anything yet produced. The plat
ing of the ship is carried up to the
promenade deck, which runs from end
to end, and width of about 20 feet
on each side is left for walking. On
the promenade deck are twelve ma
chine guns, and in other respects the
vessel is made suitable for an armed
cruiser.
While these efforts at excessive
speeds are interesting from an engin-
eering point of view, Power thinks it
is to be doubted il the present speed
can be increased so per cent. on any
thing like n practically commercial
basis. With the restrictions of cost
both of equipment and operation re-
moved, marine engineers could doubt
less attain the speed mentioned, but
the power required for propulsion
increases enormously with the veloc-
ity, and it is very doubtful if the
limited number OF passengers upon
whom such q ship must rely for it's
revenue, would care to purchase such
curtailment of avoyage made in the
major number OF instances as o mat
ter OF pleasure at a price which would
warrant the equipment and mainten-
ance of vessel OF the required speed.
steel Chlmneys for Mercantile
Buildings.
In the erection of such large build
ings as are now going up in the city Of
Chicago and elsewhere, many innova-
tions have been gradually introduced,
and steel is daily becoming employed
to greater extent in the construction
Of these enormous structures. Many
OF these buildings are now framed al
most entirely OF steel, and in two of
them now being erected in Chicago the
large chimneys will be OF steel also.
One OF these two, known as the Fair
building, is to have chimney $50 #.
high. 1t will be made out OF steel x in.
thick ut the bottom, gradually thin
ming until at the top it is about $50
in. in thickness. 1t will be lined at
the bottom, and for distance of 80
It. from the ground, with friedrich.
Above that point it will be
lined with hollow thing. The out
side diameter OF the chimney will
be Oft. 5 in, and it will carry away
the gases from twelve coin. boilers
20 it. in length. The object OF making
the chimney of steel is to reduce the
cost. the weight and the space occu-
pied by it, and much will be saved IN
this respect; besides these advan-
tages the chimney can be constructed
in much less time than with brick.
The chimney is supported uponfound-
ations similar to those employed for
the columns OF these steel buildings.
After the ground is prepared layer
of cement is laid, then several layers
OF rails laid in cement, and upon that
u tier OF I-beams, upon which is
placed the base OF the chimney. The
Letter building, another now under
construction in Chicago, will also have
steel chimney, which will be about
200 #. high, and slightly over 10 #.
in diameter on the outside. This is
calculated to carry away gases from
nine 72-in. boilers each 20 #. in
length. 1t is estimated that these
chimneys will cost about 60 per cent
of what would be expended in con-
structing brick chimneys OF similar
capacity and height.
Electricity a Cool Light.
A German physician has investigate