The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-09-03

In Furnace Room of a Man-of- ar.
Correspondence st. Louis Globe Democrat.
When l left the upper deck of the New
Orleans, through the narrow, grewsome
hatchway Immediately forward of her tall
twin smokeStacks, and lowered myself,
rung by rung, down the vertical steel lad
der into her sweltering furnace room, thir-
tv feet below. 1t was with much the same
feeling of mingled wonderment and eXpec-
fancy as | imagine the immortal Dante
must have experienced at the outstart of
his eventful excursion into the region Of
the damned. And l seriously doubt
whether Dante in any of his psychology
cal rambles ever encountered an atmos-
phere that was one whit more trying than
the fierce heat In the midst of which l
stood upon reaching the steel grated floor
of this modern inferno l had set out to
explore.
had been amply forewarned Of the ex-
treme high temperature / would encounter
in this section Of the vessel while running,
as in the present instance, under forced
draught and had attired myself, as 1
thought in a manner suited to such con-
ditions my costume being limited to a suit
of under garments of the lightest texture,
supplemented by the low-cut style of foot
gear commonly worn in the navy l had,
however no sooner ushered myself inc
the proximity of the great roaring furn-
example of the haf-naked firemen and
coal-passers, who moved briskly to and
fro through the narrow binding shafts
of light streaming through the grated
doors of the e-bOXe9, and discarded the
upper portion of my already scant attire.
Even then the heat was all but ntolera-
BILE 1t was of a character altogether diff
ferent from anything / had previously
experienced or imagined. 1t seemed to
transform the atmosphere into a seeth-
ing, scintillating element entirely unknown
TO the upper world. The effect was of a
million magnetic needles penetrating the
fbres and muscles of the body. and as l
watched my barred arms and chest grow
fiorid and crisp from the blistering heat
while the scaldng perspiration streamed
from every pore, ] little wondered that
strong men not infrequently tainted away
as a consequence of such torment, and
had to be borne by their comrades to the
upper decks ere they would revive.
CHANGING at a thermometer suspended
against a bulkhead near by, I observed
that the mercury stood at 165 degrees. An
hour before l had received a statement
10 this effect with not a little ecepticism.
Now I was confronted, surrounded with
proofs of it's accuracy in a dozen different
forms.
The furnaces which generate this ire
nendous heat are twenty-four in num-
Der, and occupy a section OF the vessel
lO8 feet in length This section Is divided
into four separate fire rooms, each Of
which contains six furnaces, lying hori-
zontally, three on the starboard and three
on the port side of the vessel. Over each
trio of furnaces is fixed a powerful rotary
fan, capable of developing a velocity Of
200 revolutions minute It is these fans
which contribute the forced draught TO
the fires, each trio Of which are arranged
beneath one of the huge cylindrical boil
ers.. eight in number, from which the
twin propeglers derive the power that
drives the ship through the water at her
speed of twenty-three knots an hour.
In order 10 produce the greatest possible
effect from the forced draught fans, all
matches leading 10 the fire rooms are bat
tened down. The consequence Of this is
that every breath Of air which pervades
the interior OF the fire room first comes
into contact with the furnace fires. from
the midst of which 1t Is whlrled in vol
umes scarcely less soaring than the fierce
flames themselves AT every three fur
naces are stationed a fireman and coal
passer. The latter brings the coal IN big
iron buckets from the bunkers, arranged
along the sides of the vessel and empties
II in a heap in the center Of the fire room
while the former shovels 1t at intervals
of every ten minutes or so through the
open doors Of the furnaces. This is I'M
doubtcdly the most arduous Of all the work
performed on board a man of war, or, for
<hat matter, anywhere else.