The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-11-26
MARVELLOUS SPEED EXPECTED.
FROM THE BRITISH TORPEDO DE-
sTROYEu VIPER"

I ElAdN MltfA an AAOhE Dh AAhN DN----N'
The Most Powerful and the Light
est Vessel Of Her Size Eyer FIOnt-
ed-The OmciaI Trials viii Occur
in a Few Days.
Copyrighted by the S. s. Mcclure Co., 1899.
Newcastle Upon-Tyne. Nov. 2O.-In the
! yellow waters Of the Tyne now lies an un-
pretentious looking craft which Is pracu-
cally certain within the next few days to
win distinction Of being the fastest steam
ship, ever constructed. She is naval ves-
sci, Her Majesty's torpedo boat destroyer
! Viper She has been built by the Parsons
Marine Steam Turbine Company, of which
| the Hon. Charles a. Parsons, the origina-
tor Of the turbine engines, is managing Ii
| rector If she fulfNs the expectation OF
| Mr.. Parsons and the experts Of the British
admiralty Office She will bring about an
| important change in the construction -ef
torpedo boat destroyers Therefore the IN
terest Of naval men in all paris Of the
world is centered upon the boat and upon
her Impending trial trip.
The Viper is the first vessel Of any prac-
deal importance to be built on the turbine
principle. It is true that the Turbinia was
hardly more than a toy boat. She was built
as an experiment, 10 prove the feasibility
of the turbine for marine propulsion.
| What Mr. Parsons learned from the Tur-
bina he has embodied in practical form
in the Viper.
| In external appearance the new boat
| does not differ greatly from others OF her
class now in use. Her four snort wide
/ tunnels suggest tremendous draugnt
| across her fire CRATES Her lines are the
| lines of the fast steam yacht She has
| turtle-back, protective deck forward,
where the wash of the waves will come
when she strikes a forty-miie gait. Oth-
| erWise she does not differ from her sister
! ships of loss speed. Her length IS 10 feet,
| her beam twenty feet and her drausht
| between five and six feet-the latter an
| evidence Of the extreme iightness Of ner
| working machinery. Her displacement, in
! fact is only 1926 tons.
In interior arrangement, however, the
| Viper il very different from the ordinary
! vessel of her class. Her boilers are much
| larger, her engines aud 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 lie necessary to explain brief
| w the turbine engine on which her claims
! TO superiority rest III OtuliidIS chg liACG
/ 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 motion is changed from the vertical
movement of the piston head to the re-
/ volving movement of the shafts. The
| same thing may be observed any day by
watching the piston rod that drives the
wheels of a locomotive.
| By this method of applying the power
| the piston changes its direction with ev
| cry revolution of the machinery it drives,
| and this continual change of direction
| with every stroke of the engines eau -es
the vibration which is always present in
this method of driving machinery.
The Turbine Engine.
In the turbine engine, which Mr. Par
| sons has perfected after fifteen years of
| experimental work the steam is applied
| directly 10 the shafts which Il 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 CT hundreds
of small steel blades projecting from he
| shaft inside the chest and fixed at such
an angle that the steam as it enters the
chest exerts its power against them ana
! turns the shaft. Similar blades are fixed
TO the inner walls of the chest in a sta
| tionary position. These are iuterpOsed
| between the rows of revolving blades and
| slant in the opposite direction in order 10
| turn the full force Of the steam directly
| upon the latter. The steam passing
| through the chest strikes the face CT the
| hundreds Of little blades and turns the
| shaft The action is the same as that
of water in driving turbine water wheel
The device seems simplicity Itself, al
| though il has taken fifteen years of ex-
| al tvo or Tho of Mr.
sons 10 bring about its successful applic3-
ton TO steam propulsion.
1t is easy to see that by applying the
steam in this manner so that the motion
is steadily in one direction a much higher
rate of speed is possible Than could be OBJ
tained even with the best appliances uu-
der the reciprocating system. In fact the
| only limit of speed IS the amount of steam
power that can be applied. The Tur-
| binias screws were run at 900 revOlu>
tons per minute, which is ten times the
rate attained in vessels Of the ordinary
| type
Another advantage of the turbine sys-
tenn is that II uuiiZes practically the whole
power of the steam As the steam travels
| away from the boilers 1t constantly ex.
pands, of course, and therefore exerts less
pressure to the square inCh. But by in
creasing the SIZE of a shafts collar and
OF the blades which ii carries the same
number of revolutions per minute may be
obtained from steam of lower press ure
In the Turbina they passed through three
of these phases beginning with a pres
sure of 225 pounds to The square inch and
emerging with a pressure of less &han a
pound, while by the arrangement describ,
ed the three shafts all revolved at the
same speed.
Enormous Steam Power.
The Turbina had three propelers all
driven by one set of engines. The vi
per carries a double set of engincs-nort
and starboard-each working two propeu-
ers. The horsepower of her engines Is
10000 lin reality it is probably more than
thaO against the 1900 horsepower of the
Turbina and she is expected 10 make
something like forty knots an hour, cor
siderably surprising the Turbinia's rec
ord OF thirty-fve knots. AT the present
time the speed record. aside from that Of
the Turbina, is a matter of dispute be-