The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1892-12-17
Machinery of Steamships.

\ letter to the BIltimora Sun from
Washington, DC, gives the following in
teresting facts
To the ordinary reader any technical
description Of the engines and boilers of
great modern steamship, no matter how
1 plain it may be to the expert, conveys very
little information and gives no adequate
/ idea of the enormous power they represent.
/ One reason for this is doubtless the fact
that very few persons ever see tho machin-
cry Of steamers Of large size, and even if
they did could form very little idea of its
power The average man is accustomed 10
look upon the locomotive engine as about
the most powerful machine devised by man,
and may be incredulouS when told that in
comparison with the machinery of great
Transatlantic liner or Il modern naval YES
sci, the most powerful Locomotive in exis,
tence, one that can draw great long ex-
press train at the rate Of mile a minute,
is a mere toy. To say that ship Is pro
vided with engines of twenty-five thousand
horse power means very little to person
who does not stop to think how long
team of twenty-five thousand horses hitched
two abreast would be- Passed Assistant
Engineer Fra y. Hollis, in recent lecture
before the Naval War College, at Newport,
in speaking of cruiser No. l3, put some of
her engine dimensions into form that
conveys some adequate idea of their mag
nitude After telling his audience thar
she has, including auxiliary machinery OF
all kinds, 81 separate engines, with l20 cyl
inders, he goes ON to give the following
about her main engines, of which she has
three, and the boilers that supply them
with steam "Her low-pTesure piston,
which is % inches in diameter, has an area
of 4G square feet, a very comfortable G-ioot
BY S-foot state-room ON board ship, and this
piston has an initial load of 100 tons, equal
in weight to three locomotives. The mean
piston speed at maximum power will be Ii
miles an hour and the maximum speed l6
miles an hour The lip of the propeller
blades will move through the water at the
moderate rate of IS miles an hour. The
condenser tubes, if placed end TO end,
would form a tube 33 miles long, and if fat
tened out would cover about two-thirds Of
an acre. The cooling water passed through
these tubes will be equal to 36,000,000
gallons per day-enough to supply large
city with water The main boilers, If
placed end to end, would form tunnel
lJ6 feet long and large enough for a train
of cars to pass through. II divided into
rooms they would supply hotel with l6
filir-sized bedrooms The heating surface
is equal to II acres. The CRATE surface,
if arranged on one CRATE, would equal small
lot of 90 feet front and II feet depth.
The boiler tubes, placed end to end, would
be 49, miles long. The blowers are capable
of supplying 84,000,000 cubic feet of air
an hour, which would supply good-sized
yacht with 10-knots breeze. The coal
required for full-power ruE across the
Atlantic wculd supply $50 families for one
year in New York State. With 2O,OO0-
horse power she would lift herself 97,500
tons weight to the Brooklyn bridge in three
minutes if hoisting ropes wess coiled
drums ON her shafts. If the
engines we're set up on shore and used
as cataput they would throw BOO
pound weight with such velocity that it
would el off into space entirely clear Of the
earth's influence The lictionS Of jules
Verne sink into insigniiieance BY fhe side
Of this coal-ea;ing monster Of the oh
century