Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1896-12-24
NEW BRITISH SHIPS.
The Diadem the Latest Addition to Cruis.
ers of the Niobe Type.

The Diadem the Latest Addition to Cruis-
ers of the Niobe Type.
The Diadem, whose launch has been
briefly noted in the cable dispatches, is one
of four vessels commonly known as the
Niobe or Andromeda type, from which
Great Britain hopes for good results. They
are protected cruisers of 1900 tons, or
just one-half more than the Columbia and
Minneapolis, our largest protected cruisers.
But the admiralty has recently ordered
) second quartet of improved Niobes-
namely, the Argonaut Of J. & G. Thorn
son, Clydebank; the Ariadne of the Fair
field company, Glasgow; the Amphitrite
of the Naval Construction and Armaments
company, Barrow-in-F Furness; the Sparti-
ate, to be built at some government dock
yard, with Maudsley. Sons & Fields en-
gines. They are to have length of 435
feet, beam of SO and a nodded depth of
39N. with displacement of 11,000 tons
at 25H feet draft.
These ships are to have forecastle and
boat deck, but no poop. They will carry
sixteen inch rapid fire guns, twelve heavy
IL Founders and two lighter ones, three 8
Founders, eight maxiins and three torpedo
tubes, of which the one at the stern is
above water. The entire armament, it
will be observed, consists of rapid fire
guns The protective deck is 4 inches
thick at the maximum and has a rise of
10 feet.
The chief difference between the Dia-
dem, just launched, and the four new ves-
sells apears to be in the machinery. The
latter are to have two sets of four cylinder,
triple expansion engines, two Of the oylin-
der dameters being 81 inches and 55H
inches and two 64 inches each, with q
common 48 inch stroke In order to econ
omize space, instead of having the high
pressure cylinder forward, the intermedi-
ate next and the low pressure aft, it Is
proposed to put low pressure Cylinder at
each end The engine will run at 1870 rev.
olutions instead Of 110, as in the Diadem,
and 1S, 900 indicated horsepower will be
produced instead of IS, 500, although the
speed Is only expected to increase from
2014 to 2034 knots. The Belleville boilers
will also be modified little, with view
to improved circulation and to economy in
use.
1t does not appear that for SO great a
displacement these vessels have either re-
| markable speed or remarkable gun power.
Comparisons are not accurate unless the
conditions under which forced draft Is
| used are taken into account. But in gen.
eral it may be said that our Olympia, of
only $3.50 tons displacement, developed
on trial 1888 indicated horsepower and
reached ,ai.6S knots; that the Columbia,
of 1876 tons, showed IS, 500 horsepower
and 1913 knots, and that the Minneapolis,
also of 1876 tons, showed 20,862 horse
power and 23.0z8 knots.
With SO manyrapid fire guns the weight
Of metal which the new British cruisers
can throw within given time Is undoubt-
edly great, yet the armament contains nc
| guns above the inch caliber, whereas
our Olympia carries four 8 inch guns, be-
sides ten inch.
| 1t may be added that three new cruisers
of whatis known as the improved Talbot
type are, according to recent decision Of
the admiralty, to be built at Portsmouth,
Deyonport and Chatham. They are to be
| $50 feet long, or 10 feet longer than the
Talbot, 81 feet In breadth, and Of about
5000 tons In displacement. The aim will be
to give them greater speed, better battery
and larger coal carrying capacity than ths
Talbot has They will have the Belleyillt