The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1898-07-30
A BATTLESHIp'S LIGHTS.
SWITCHBOARDS THAT CONTROL
MASTHEAD AND MAGAZINE.

or Injury The Case of the Texas.
The best electrical installation to be
found anywhere is aboard the modern
battleship. There the work is con-
stantly under the severest tests; the
specifications prepared by the Navy
Department, under which the work is
done, cover every possible detail; the
highest grade of material. and work
manship is required throughout, and
the work is done under rigid inspec-
ton. On older vessels the electrical
equipment was practically confined to
lighting circuits, but one after an
other various details of work per-
formed by auxiliary engines have been
transferred to electric motors, until
now little but the dynamos remain for
the steam engines. The Kearsarge
and Kentucky, recently launched at
Newport News, mark the latest adj
vance. In these ships the turrets and
ammunition hoists, for the first time
in our navy, will be worked by electric
motors.
The main business of electricity on
board warship is still the lighting.
The American Electrician contains an
exhaustive article by e. w. Countiss
on ''Naval Marine Electric Lighting"
with fifty illustrations, from which the
present account is largely derived.
Every ingenuity is exerted to secure
the largest amount of illumination
from the least number of lamps and
so make the weight as little as possi-
BILE. The plant of the Texas, which
| operates $50 lights, weighs about forty
tons, large item where every hun
dred-weight and almost every pound is
figured out Formerly it was the
practice to enclose the wires in iron
tubes, thereby adding much to the
weight of the equipment; but now the
/ wires are run in wooden mouldings,
much the same as those i'll use in
buildings on land.
The generators are wonderfully eff
| ficient. Some of them have carried
overloads of 100 to $50 per cent. with
out sparkling or heating. They are so
designed that the magnetic field is in
appreciable at distance of fifteen feet.
Usually there are three generators con-
nected into the switchboard, SO ar
ranged that they can be run either
singly or together, to operate either
one part or all of the light equipment.
Although in itself complex the
switchboard of a man of-war is simple
compared with other switchboards. An
attempt has been made to secure uni
formity throughout the navy so that o
man may go from one vessel to an
other and yet know how to work each
board. There are two main divisions
known respectively as the lighting"
and "motor" circuits. The lighting
circuit is again divided into six di-
visions, according to the use required
of them, called continual, battle, :"
general" ''sea," ''day" and "spe-
cial."
Wherever possible the wires are car
ried under the protective deck ana are
so connected with feeders and covered
and interlaced that even if most of the
system should be shot away, what re-
mains would still be effective. In the
most important places, as the bridge
and the magazines, the system is
double lin other places, as the side
lights, masthead and towing lights,
two lamps are provided, SO that if one
fails the other may be used. In the
magazines the lanterns are enclosed in
light boxes, provided with heavy
bull's-eye lenses. The lanterns also
have candles, so that in case the plant
is totally disabled the men in the maya
zines can still serve out ammunition.
On some ships, as on the Texas, large,
narrow spaces built between the maya
zines supply the place of the boxes,
and lanterns placed in these illuminate
several magazines at one time
| One of the most important items in
the equipment of battleship is the
search-ight The standard sizes are
Is, "a and 80 inches, the sizes given
being the diameter of the rejecting
mirror at the back of the arc. The
movement of the light can be con
trolled either by hand or by motors
The tendency recently has been tc
the use of motors, because by this
system the light can be placed high
up in commanding position. while
the operator remains on deck or below
The controller is small box with {
projecting handle, so connected by
wires with the motors in the drum
containing the light that by raising Oh
lowering the handle the beam of ligh
is raised or lowered or turned to tn,
right or left as the handle is turned
in the same direction. The lights viii
burn six hours with one trimming
and an 1S-inch light will render clear
ly visible light-colored object ten b.
twenty feet at a distance of two ant
one quarter miles. The 30-inch hgh
will show the same object at three ant
one-half miles.
The Ardois signal hoist, with which
most of the modern warships ar
equipped, is composed of four douBl
lanterns, similar to the truck lights
Each half of each lantern has sep
arate wire leading to the key board
with q general return wire formin
the heart Of the cable. As the tw
halves of the lanterns are of differen
colors, thirty combinations can b
made, each one shown on the key