The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1897-07-15
JOHN BULL IN BAD PLIGHT
THE CRAFT HE IS BUILDING To
BEAT THE U. s. TORPEDO
BOAT PORTER.
A PUZZLE FOR ENGLISH AUTHORITIES
In Order to Avoid Further Humilia-
tiOn They Deny That Their
Vessel Was Intended to
Catch Uncle Sans Flyer.

Washington, July 10.-The joke is on
John Bull this time. at is to laugh"
and the merry peals of laughter are
echoing and re-echoing in naval circles.
And here is the story in nutshell.
When it was announced many months
ago that the United States was building a
torpedo boat the speed require
ments of which would enable her to run
away from anything ahoat England de-
cided to build a torpedo boat destroyer
that would be able to overhaul the Amer
lean boat. OF course John Bull did not
announce his decision from the house
tops but nevertheless the secret leaked
out. 1t 10 said here that the navy de-
partment, hearing of this plan, tipped
off the contractor and the result all the
world knows. But the navy department
saws wood and says nothing The Por-
ter has 30 far exceeded expectations as
to at once preclude the possibility OF fall
ing n prey to the Express, which Is only
expected TO come up to her speed require
ments. which fall below those already
demonstrated by the Porter.
Following is a description OF the IN
press. something of which has already
been published in this newspaper. Inc
Express is now in process of construction
at the shipyards of Laird Brothers at
Birkenhead. Her engines will be capa-
BILE of attaining 10000 indicated horse
power. The power of this tiny boat, TOR
She is only $50 tons burden, can best be
appreciated by considering the fact that
she will be able to develop fully as great
ha RnnnNVn n
shin now building for England, which
will have a displacement Of 12,5OO TONS
The Express will have as an armament
one 12-pounder quickfiring gun, five =
and 3 FOUNDER quickfiring guns, and
two Whitehead torpedoes.
While it is not known with certainty
how the machinery will be arranged, or
the exact dimensions thereof, it is I'M
derstood they will be as follows:
Each set of engines will have, four cylin-
ders the diameters of which will be:
High pressure IS 81 inches, intermedi-
ate, 80 1-2 inches; two low pressure of
33 10 inches; intermediate, 80 1-2 inches.
Each Engine is of the three stage COM
pound type, the stroke for all cylinders
being 10 inches. The most noticeable
point about the engine lies i'll the ar
rangement of the valves. The high and
intermediate pressure cranks are set op-
posite to each other, while the two low
pressure franks are similarly located, al
though at right angles to the high and in
termediate cranks.
The arrangement described renders the
design of valves adopted possible. All
the valves are combined in pairs, each
pair having Il common valve rod. The
result of this is a reduction of the num-
Der of moving parts and renders possible
that very desirable arrangement of plac-
ing the engine in less fore and aft space.
The air pump is worked direct from the
main crank shaft. This latter is pro-
longed through small crank shaft, a
coupling joining the two. The diameter
of the pump is 10 inches and its length
of stroke A inches. The material used
is such as to render breakages necessa-
rily rare, for both piston and top cylinder
are made of forged steel.
A Cylindrical copper condenser each
with 929 5-8 inch tubes is attached to
every main engine. The total cooling
surface is 3040 square feet and the total
heating surface $500 square feet. The
crate surface is 17S square feet In front
of the boilers are air bulkheads, the air