The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1898-06-30
THE NAVAL BUGBEAR
COAL AND cOALlNG A CONSTANT
SOURCE OF TROUBLE.

fore and aft. Coal gets the nerves of fleet
commanders, ship commanders, chief and
assistant engineers on edge for long cruises
at q stretch. Coal, which also means
ronling, causes more desertions from the
navy thar any other feature of the service.
The growls over coal and coaling aboard
mcn-of-war of today are never ending.
When the potency of coal for rendering
chief engineers half insane Is considered,
it is no wonder that so many of them go
to pieces physically and are forced to retire
when they ought to be in their prime of
usefulness.
Ever since men-of-war were first driven
by steam the worlds navios AVE been ex-
pcrimenting with coal. The results of
their experiments up to the present time,
as most of the chief engineers confess.
may be represented by nnught. The steam
ing radius of a ton of coal, the weight of
a ton of GOALS smoke, the weight of a ton
of GOALS refuse, the proportionate amount
of olinker in each and all of the worlds
brands of steaning coal, the number of
pounds of steam made in a given time by
each and all of the worlds brands of
steaming coal-these and about 40 Others
of similar character are the minor problems
tina come in for solution after the chief
problem of getting aboard enough coal to
drive the ship a specified distance is solved.
These are the pencil and pad puzzles that
conduce so to the conversion of naval engt-
neers into neurasthenic wrecks.
The big problem of course is the con
sumption of coal-the getting of enough
ceal aboard n man-of-war to drive her
through a certain number of leagues of
water. Coal is doceiying and treacherous.
1t has an utterly inexplicable fashion of
working its way into the furnaces, of
snCaking out of bunkers and of smashing
the calculation states of shippers and en-
gineers TO smithcrcens. Many an limo
cent coal passer on board q man-of-war
gets himself dragged up to the mast to ex-
plain to his skipper and chief engineer
the absence of u certain amount of coal
that ought still to remain in the bunkers
the coal HEAVIER has been working in, but
that isn't there all the same.
Coal passers have been worried into say
ing "I didn't eat the coal, " under these
cross examinations. When coal consump-
ton calculations are spoiled in this way,
the recrimination that follows all along
the line is natural. The skipper says the
chief engineer hasn't a properly developed
bump of economy. The chief says the men
have sneaked the coal iuto the furnaces.
The men say the coal is no good and
burns like dry hemp. And the coal goes
right on using itself up as if bewitched.
Chief engineers know, of course, just
how much coal the bunkers of their ships
will hold, to u pound-in cubic measure
ment-but figures lie with reference to
coal. When a chief midway on a cruise
wants to know how much coal he has used
and how much he still has on hand, he
never simply subtracts the amount used,
according to the log, from the amount
taken aboard at the outset of the cruise.
He knows that if he does this he'll proba,
bly, get his ship in the trough of the sea
400 or 500 miles from land without a
pound of coal left to move her into port.
He first sends his yeoman, a chief petty
officer, into the bunkers to do some flgur-
ing. He discounts the yeoman's report
through his knowledge that all yeomen
are optimists and therefore likely to tack
on q good many more tons han the bun
kers contain.
After the yeoman has washed up and
made his pen and pencil sketch of the
bunkers, with the figured amount of coal
remaining in each of them, the chief end
one of his cadet engineers through the
bunkers for a report on the amount of coal
remaining on hand. The cadet engineer
does some fancy figuring, making his cal
culations as abstruse as possible for the
greater effect of them, and then the chief
has one of the assistant engineers under
take the murky, smutty trip through the
bunkers. The assistant engineers figures
occasionally get within 100 tons or so of
the figures presented by the yeoman and
the cadet engineer, Finally the chief as
sumes the blue jumpers and blouse him
self and makes the bunker cruise. He al
ways energies from the bunkers with a
gloomy eye and with his confidence in the
three officers he has sent through the
bunkers quite shattered, and he generally
makes for the captains cabin and a II
LOUNGES that if the speed of the ship Is not
Immediately reduced he won't be held re-
spOnsiblc for the ships running out of coal
in midOccan.
The perturbation of the chief engineer
under these circumstances usually works
on the feelings of one of the old machinists
at the throttle. These old maohinists are
practical, experienced men, who don't
know much about figures and have no sort
of reverence for cubic measurement. One
of them goes through the bunkers, sizes
up the amount of coal remaining In each
of them by the simple eye method, which
is the evolution of experience, and makes
a report on the mount of coal on hand
that in nin cases out of ten is proved al
the end of the cruise correct almost to the
ton. Thus the trouble over the coal IN
the bunkers is never at an end.
If the chief engineers trouble over the
question Of coal consumed and on hand
were the end of the problem, 1t would not
be so bad, but the number of reports he Is
compelled to make to the bureau of steam
engineering on each cargo of coal is ap
palling. He has got to tabulate for the
bureau of steam engineering the exact
amount of coal, TO a half bushel, use6
daily for driving ship, for working thu
yentilating eugines, for working the
flushing pumps, for working the dynamos
for furnishing heat, for running the ICE
machines, for operating the ~condensers
for doing all of the things aboard a nod
ern man-of-war that steam is employed
for. He must see to it that every poun(
of refuse from the coal used on a cruise IL
measured and weighed and report on it
He must have the clinker assorted from
the. refuse, have it weighed and report OF
it. He must note the color of the coal
smoke and report on it in varying degree
of density. He must, in general, note thu
conduct and morale Of all the coal con
sumed on his ship and report on it. N,
wonder that chief engineers on shore dut.
always look away when they pass a coal
yard.-New York sun.
Scald head is an eczema Of the scalp-ver
severe sometimes, but it can be cured
Doan's Ointment, quick and permanent in il
results. At any drug store, so cents,
Intended to Deceive.