Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1899-08-14

tended greatly to exceed the Ellide
both in speed and compa1 alive light
ness. This boat was for Francis P.
Magoun, of this city, and was to be
only 40 feet long, while intended to at
tain speed Of between 40 and so
miles an hour The entire boat was
to weigh two tons, and was to have 400
horse power, and ready for service
would weigh only three tons, or Is
pounds per horse power. She was to
carry steam at 600 pounds pressure to
the square inch, and to use this
through quadruple expansion engine,
which was so delicately designed that
it would weigh only two pounds per
horse power. Ordinary yacht en-
gines weigh about Is pounds per horse
power, and those for big steamers
weigh double that Mr.. Ostergren says
that this boat would have been three
pounds to the horse power lighter than
Maxim's flying machine. After Mr..
Ostergren left Mr. Mosher's employ
ment he designed the United States
| torpedo-boat destroyed Bailey for
torpedo boat destroyer Bailey is
208 feet long, 10 feet beam and of 245
tons displacement, and is intended to
attain a speed Of 80 knots. She has
5000 horse power. Mr.. Ostergren says
that the Bailey is novel in design
throughout, being the first of the
United States torpedo boat destroyers
not built after European designs.
Mr.. Ostergren declares that the
limit Of speed for vessels driven by
steam has been nearly reached, but
that he expects to see vessels driven
| in other ways built before many years
to make 60 miles an hour, and that
he hopes to take up that problem him
self before long Future progress, he
says, lies in the use of liquid fuels. If
gasoline were burned under a boiler
it would give double the steam-mak-
ing result, pound for pound, that coal
does, but that would only be a step in
the right direction,
II wcdld do away with steam engines
and steam boilers altogether" he said,
tand in their place use vapor engines
burning liquid fuel The amount of
weight saved would not only be that of
the boilers and water, but also that
got by doing away with the auxiliary
engines of the steam engine, which
weigh ordinarily as much as the main
shafts revolving at high speed, and
upon each of these would be cluster
of small propellers instead of one
large screw Then instead of using
one large engine to drive each shaft
would divide the power production
into small units, extending these small
engines for a long distance within the
ship. BY doing this the vibrations
would be broken up by the mutual in
reference of their waves and I think
it would be possible to get power
enough to drive boat at the rate of
60 miles an hour across the ocean,
A proper hull for 60-mile ship, he
said would in theory have to be about
80 times as long as it was wide, but
this would be out of the question. He
thinks it might be possible to model
the present 10 to one proportions for
express steamers SO that a length of
Is or Is to one in breadth could be
obtained. Such boats would carry
| only a limited number of f1rst-class
passengers and mail or express matter.
Mr. Ostergren says that he has been
greatly misquoted as regards the
possibilities of liquid air for CONNER
cial uses. "Our plant" he said, 'is
not intended for any direct commercial
purpose. 1t is being built in order to
demonstrate the possibility of produc-
ing liquid air in great quantities at a
low cost, to enable us to arrive with
certainty at it's cost, and then
through having at hand large quaint
ties of liquid air-to learn how it can
velop uses for it if such can be
found"
At present Mr. .Ostergren figures
that gallon of liquid air can be
made with the expenditure of 211a horse
power hours, and that fair price at
which it may be retailed would be 1C
cents a gallon. That it can be used
for cooling and refrigerating pur-
poses there is no question, but Mr.
Ostergren says that for producing
temperatures from zero up it's use
would not be nearly so economical as
the use of ordinary refrigerating appa-
ratus. Still, there are places, such
as fruit storage houses, where it's high
er cost might be more than offset by
it's purity and dryness, Nand Mr.. Oster-
gren believes it could be used to great
advantage for ice cream freezing, and
also by undertakers For cooling
houses, too, it may have use. Accord
ing to Mr.. Ostergren's figures gallon
of liquid air at 312 degrees below zero
will expand to 800 times that bulk, or
to about 100 cubic feet in the gaseous
form, and still be at the same tempera-
ture 1t would then be capable of
cooling 81 times it's own bulk of other
air 10 degrees, from 70 degrees to 60
degrees. He is now making cool
ing fan for q room which will have a
reservoir for liquid air, and be driven
by the air as it escapes. Mr.. Oster-