The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-01-03

walk or a ride, or a game of base ball.
The promenade deck is the pleasure
ground of the ship, and on the upper deck
is the street where the steerage passen-
gers and crew may air themselves.
All this is included in the space we have
already measured, yet trip in one Of
these greyhounds is very enjoyable to
those not seasick.
But none would object to more space in
their private cabins, and in the future
greyhound more will be found Some one
may ask. How can cabins be enlarged If
the greyhound is to be more sGbdivided?
Inasmuch as the subdivision is wanted
more below the water than above, We can
have large spaces in the passenger quar-
tiers, some distance above the water, and
small ones in the spaces below.
With this enlarged space for atcommo-
dation we shall have room for shops, so
that passengers may buy many things on
board which they may have forgotten 10
bring with them. They may be able to
get news from the shore by some means
of communication, so that on a voyage
they will not be cut off altogether from
the world. But engineers must acknowl-
edge that such means of communication
exist only in imagination.
Seasickness? So far nothing has been
devised or adopted for completely stopping
those motions of ship a sea which cause
such unpleasant feelings. Is it even con-
ceiviable that a ship may be made per-
fectly steady at sea? Let us inquire into
this
We cannot very we'll hope to prevent the
wind from blowing and causing waves,
which lift the ship, only to drop her, so we
must try to make the ship move up and
down as little as possible when the waves
are passing her. One way is to have the
vessel of the smallest possible volume at
the waters surface and for some distance
above and below this. A submerged YES
sci would not rise or fall much even II
near the surface, so that if we could get a
vessel which is nearly submerged, We
should have one free from the objectiona-
bic up and down movement.
This kind of vessel would not be very
comfortable for those can stand the sea, so
that it would be necessary to have above
the sunken hull and well out of the water
a kind of second vessel, upon whose deck
the passengers could promenade and the
captain navigate the vessel. But such a
vessel might lack certain other necessary
qualities, such as power to remain up
right, and large quantity of weight would
be required in the bottom of the vessel to
give her stability
Now, weight is the thing which the ship
designer is always trying to lessen. He
wants the structure and the machinery to
be as light as possible. If, therefore, it is
weight to the sunken part of the ship in
order to make her less pump" at sea, her
speed or carrying capacity must be i'm
paired unless she can be lightened above
while weighted below. This is likely to come
to pass through the use of aluminium.
Aluminium is one-third the weight of
Steel and at present is about one-half of
its strength. When the chemists and met
allurgists shall have succeeded in making
aluminium or one of its alloys as strong as
steel we can then look for a saving of one
half the weight of the steel structure of a
modern vessel.
In a ship like the Paris this would mean
$500 to 5000 tons, irrespective of any saw
ing in the machinery. This saving of
weight would so tighten the ship that she
could carry machinery about twice as
heavy as the machinery she now carries,
and so gain in speed, if the power of the
machinery was also doubled.
But it would be very difficult to find
room or space in such vessel as the Paris
for machinery of twice the power of hers.
And if the power of the machinery were
doubled we should find difficulty in getting
room for the additional coal required
nearly twice the amount now carried. 1t
| will, therefore, be necessary to find means
of slowing machinery and fuel much more
| closely than it is at present slowed.
In 1881 an engine of 1900 horsepower
| occupied 10000 cubic feet. To-day the
same power can be got from two sets of
! engines occupying 1900 cubic feet. IN
! the case of the Paris, her engines of q, =
600 horsepower occupy 100000 cubic feet,
| so that if we could put five sets of the
| 1900 horsepower engines of to-day into
the Paris they would occupy only one
fifth of the space that her present en-
gines take.
1t is therefore, possible to reduce
he ,arrtfo
| quired for engines by adopting some COM
pact types of engine as they become
adapted for large ship work. If we could
| double the power of the engine in the
Paris, and could provide the necessary
| fuel to carry her across the Atlantic with
out adding anything to her total weight,
we could increase her speed by nearly
one-fifth, or reduce her time by more than
a day.
The fuel used at present is coal, which
has to be put on board in baskets or bar
| rows by manual labor, and when on board
| has to be lifted by the firemen with
shovels and thrown into the fire. If we
could put it on board in a liquid form
it would go through pipes to its place of
storage IN the ship and be drawn from
this place and forced through other pipes
into the fires by a steam pump This
would make available for fuel spaces in
the ships which at present are useless
for carrying coal, and would get over one
of the difficulties of finding room for the
extra coal if we want extra speed
Now, petroleum may be regarded as
liquid coal. When the price of this fuel
becomes low enough to admit of it's being
probably used, it will take the place or
coal, with many advantages. One of these
is that very much less weight of fuel is
required to obtain the same result.
Everything points to the adoption of this
kind of fuel. We have already obtained
nearly thirty knots per hour in small YES
| sells carrying small supply of fuel In
| the future we may reasonably expect to
attain this speed in the Atlantic greyhound
and it VIII then be possible to reach Eu-
| rope in four days.
| But the progress of human knowledge is
not bounded by our powers of imagination.
Many things to come will make the grey
| hound of the future a more wonderful
thing than even our imagination can con-
| ceive.
shocked A LEOPARD TO DEATH.