The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-01-03
STEAMSHIPS OF THE FUTURE.
WHAT MUST BE DONE TO MAKE A
FOUR-DAY GREYHOUND.
The Subject Considered in a scien-
tinc and Practical Way by Prof.
j. II. BiIes, of Glasgow, the De-
signer of the Paris.
From the Youths Companion.

j. II. BiIes, of Glasgow, the De-
signer of the Paris.
From the Youths Companion.
I have been asked to look into the flu
ture and tell readers what kind of AT
lantic greyhound" as the modern Allan
tic liner is called, time is likely to bring
US, but can not see far enough into the
| future to discern. the greyhound which
it conceals. I can only draw on a limited
Imagination for information on this sub
| ject, and try to conceive a future steamer
with such improvements as seem not i'm
possible from consideration of the exist
| ing art of building.
Let US look back little and see the road
upon which we have come. Many human
beings are living who were alive long be-
fore steamships first regularly crossed the
| Atlantic. These vessels at first Travelled at
a speed of eight or nine knots" or nauti-
cal miles of 6OS0 feet, per hour At the be-
| ginning of the ten years 1S50-6O, the Cum
ard company had ship with speed Of
! il and one-half knots an hour. At the end
Of these ten years they had a thirteen-knot
ship.
At the end of the next ten years, 1850
| 20, the greyhound of the Atlantic was the
| City of Brussels, and she had a speed of
| IA and one-half knots an hour. In 1880 the
! Arizona, a sixteen-knot vessel, had made
| the shortest time on record and the next
ten years is within the memory of most OF
| the readers of the Companion.
At the end of 1889 the City Of Paris now
of the wel-known American line, broke
the record with a twenty-knot speed,
which she subsequently improved to near
| ly twenty-one knots.
Later the record was held by the Cunard
steamship Campania and Lucania, with
record of twenty-one and tnree-fourths
knots per hour, and the ST. Louis has since
made twenty-five and one-half knots.
Thus we have in the successive decades
| advances of three and sone-half one and
one-half, one and one-haf, one and one
! half and four knots respectively, We are
| half way through another decade, and the
speed may be considered as more than two
knots in advance Of that of it's earlier
| days
Now, on the basis of these facts, we
may prophesy of the future greyhound
| speed according to our fears and hopes,
our whims or our wishes. The advance
in speed between 1910 and 1890 was about
two and one-half knots per ten years. We
have already got an advance of two and
one-half knots for the present decade in
the st. Louis, so that, judging by the
past, we have not much advance to look
for before the century ends.
increase of speed generally means an
| increased price of the Ship and it also
means increased cost of running the ship,
| and these are things which are likely to
stop the development of speed.
The sea raises great objections to in
| crease of speed, as may be understood
from the fact that in the eighty-knot
ships the power was less than one-for-
tieth of that required to drive the Campo
mia and Lucania. OF course, the ships
which have SO much more power have to
be bigger than the Sow ones, but not so
much bigger as they would have had to be
had there not been a constant improve
ment in engines and boilers.
The Improvement has enabled engineers
| to get much more horsepower in the same
| space and for the same weight than they
formerly did. If we say the weight of the
| machinery of the earlier steamer was
about 1900 tons. that of the Paris would
have been 1900 tons unless some improve
ment had been made, but it is only about
! $500 tons.
Then as to coal burned. For every 4
| pounds burned on the older ship, only &
are required in the Paris to produce the
| same power. The Paris burns about 400
| tons in crossing the Atlantic She would
have burned 5000 tons unless improve
| ments had been made
Thus we see that to produce a ship of
the power of the Paris on the lines of
only fifteen years ago would have invoiv-
| ed LOO tons more of machinery and 500
tons more for coal than the actual Paris
| requires THIS weight is much more than
| the weight of the whole cargo of the
| Faris.
These matters greatly affect the money
| making capaoility of a ship, and il must
never be forgotten that there can be no
real future for a commercial ship that is
not constructed so that it can be run at
| a profit.
Safety in travelling is of prime impor-
lance. We know how to subdivide a shin
| into compartments so that she cannot sink
| by blow from another ship The thing
is quite possible and practicable, and
some OF the boys OF to-day, who will be
the men of the next generation, will in
sist that ships which carry many valua-
BILE lives shall be made so that they will
not sink if a hole be knocked out of their
sides or bottom by collision.
So much for keeping afloat with a hole
knocked through the ships side. What
about running her ashore: There are two
chances of this. One is in a fog when
the captain has mistaken his position. No
ship is free from this danger, nor win be
as long as it is human to err. There NAV
in the future be some means of dissi-
pating fog at sea. but the chance of such
a discovery being made is not great. Still
it is conceivable that our inventors. when
they fully understand what condition OF
the atmosphere really causes fog, may
contrive electrical power to dispel it a
short distance around a ship.
The other chance of going ashore is by
a breakdown of machinery when near the
land. This chance becomes smaller every
day. Every accident that takes place ia
machinery is a lesson which teaches some
thing, and as the years go on the acct
dents tend to decrease.
We have in recent years seen the gray-
hounds fitted with two screws and two
sets of machinery. which makes total
break-downs still more unlikely A great
American shipbuilder says that the grey.
hounds of the future will have three
screws, and the United States three-screW
cruiser Columbia is most efficiently pro-
PEELED. If the ships of the future have
three screws the chance of total break
down will be reduced to a very small one
The other dangers peculiar to the sea
are fire and laundering. The former is
very small, but will be smaller when the