Omaha daily bee., 1899-11-26

| fast steam yacht. She has a turtle back
protective deck forward where the wash
| of the waves will come when she strikes
| a fortymile gait. Otherwise she does not
differ from her sister ships of less speed
| Her length is 210 feet her beam 20 feet
and her draught between five and six feet
the latter an evidence Of the extreme light
ness of her working machinery. Her dis
placement, in fact, is only 1926 tons.
In interior arrangement, however, the
Viper is very different from the ordinary
vessel of her class. Her boilers are much
larger, her engines and shafting much
smaller and the whole working mechanism
of the boat seems much more simple than
that of the ordinary steam vessel.
How the New Boat Works.
To understand the operation of the new
vessel it will be necessary to explain briefly
the turbine engine on which her claims
to superiority rest. In ordinary engines
of the reciprocating type such as are used
generally in steamships the steam passes
from the boilers through cylinders of high
and low pressure and thence is applied to
the shafts which drive the vessel by means
of pistons. In applying the power the mo-
tion is changed from the vertical move
ment of the piston head to the revolving
may be observed any day by watching the
piston rod that drives the wheels Of To-
comotive.
BY this method of applying the power
the piston changes its direction with every
revolution of the machinery it drives and
this continual change of direction with
every stroke of the engine causes the vbra-
tion which is always present in this method
of driving machinery.
Its Turbine Engine.
In the turbine engine which Mr.. Parsons
has perfected after fifteen years of ex-
perimental work, the steam is applied di-
rectly to the shafts which it drives. There
are no cylinders and no pistons. The only
gear used is carried by the shaft itself and
by the chest which encloses it.
This gear consists simply of hundreds of
small steel blades projecting from the shaft
inside the chest and fixed at such an angle
that the steam it enters the chest exerts
its power against them and turns the shaft.
Similar blades are fixed to the inner walls
of the chest in stationary position. These
are interpcsed between the rows Of revolv-
ing blades and slant in the opposite direc-
tion in order to turn the full force of the
steam directly upon the latter The steam
of the hundreds of little blades and turns
the shaft. The action is the same as that
of water in driving a turbine water wheel. |
The device seems simplicity itself, although |
1t has taken fifteen years OF experimental |
work on the part of Mr.. Parsons to bring |
about its successful application to steam |
1t is easy to see that by applying the |
steam in this manner so that the molten |
is steadily in one direction a much higher |
rate of speed is possible than could be OBJ |
tanned even with the best appliances un-
der the reciprocatng system. In fact the |
only limit of speed is the amount of steam |
power that can be applied The Turbinia's
screws were run at $500 revolutions per
minute, which is ten times the rate at
tanned in vessels of the ordinary type.
Another advantage of the turbine system
Is that it utilizes practically the whole
power OF the steam AS the steam travels
away from the boilers it constantly ex-
pands, of course, and therefore exerts legs
pressure to the square inch. But by in
creasing the size of a shafts collar and
of the blades which 1t carries. the same
lumber of revolutions per minute may be
obtained from steam of a lower pressure
IN the Turbinia they passed through three
If these phases, beginning with pressure
If 225 pounds to the square inch and emerg
ng with pressure of less than a pound,
While by the arrangement described the
hree shafts all revolved at the same speed.
Enormous steam Power.
The Turbinia had three propellers, all
riven by one set of engines. The viper
arries a double set of engines-port and
working two propellers.
he horse power of her engines is 10000 :
in reality it is probably more than thaD
gainst the 1000 horsepower OF the Turblna
nd she Is expected to make something like
Drty knots an hour, considerably surpass-
ng the Turblnas record OF thirty-fve
nots.
The Viper has boilers. one-ffth larger
han those OF the ordinary torpedo boat OF
er size; there are nearly 1000 feet OF ad-
itonal heating area. When one reflects
lat by using turbines 20 per cent increased
mciency is obtained from the steam. II
ill be seen that in the matter of ava'la-
lie steam power the Viper possesses an i'm :
ense advantage over other ships. Another
letor which adds to this advantage is her
Streme lightness; her tonnage is third