The Savannah morning news., 1900-10-13
DECADES or SPEED.
Prediction About swiftness nj Sea
Made by Prophet.


From the London Mariner.
In tho latter part Of 1883 the writer dealt,
in the columns OF an engineering contem-
porary. with the possibilities Of forty
knot steamer As the article suggested.
inter ala. quadruPilng the then prevailing
boiler pressure. doubling the numAer 81
revolutions. and halving the weight OF fuel
40 be carried but substituting Oh for c1ai.
needless 20 say II raises some c1nsi cradle
amount Of controversy. the general con-
sensus OF opinion plainly leading = The
idea that the writer was crank" To-
deed one paper. more oui spoken IN its
comments than its'fellows. went 20 far as
10 state that This idle dream Of "a vision
AIRY will never be realized"
Barely two decades have elapsed since
the article appeared and he Viper has
already come near ana her sister ship. the
Cobra. Will We believe. come nearer. 90
realizing the idle dream" Of forty knots
This however has yet 10 be proved: but
n we divide what We may term the exist
ence OF practical steam shipping into dee
cades. six such will embrace g. and into
The last OF these the naval architect and
marine engineer have compressed tue
greatest and most RAPID OF all their i'm
provements Whether the ship be Elmer
or tramp" battleship or cruiser Or tor
pedo craft. the last ten years mas witness
cd the greatest development OF the speed.
power and dimensions OF each type.
or course. there were earlier exceptions
10 the genera rule as Tor instance che
Great Eastern and the enormous Italian
hattleships. but these were abnormal
growths ana held no place IN the gradual
evolution OF larger ships ana higher
speeds. As general proposition. one may
say that the large high-speei Snip came
IN with the twin screw the city 81 New
York and the City OF Paris circa 1859. he-
ing the FIRST ships Of amy great size % ON
body twin sorrows driven by separate en-
gines placed In 'wo district watsr-'iEht
compartments. These vessels were Of 49,
~ tons. and averaged twenty knots with
Oco indicated horse power. The Paris
quickly broke the record from the trans
Atlantic trip and We may take 5 that
twenty knots was the maximum sneei IN
lSae or at the hcginnirg 81 our last de-
cadc the city Of Rome and Aufania. with
their seventeen KNOBS being the quickest
vessels during the early sis. while the NJ
teen knots Of the Adratlc con .titut
record Ia 1871. as did the S,otia's thirteen
knots IN 1852. In 1870 the Collins iirer A.
lantic did an average % twelve knots Toe
Atlantic was 1850 tons. the scotia 3 %
IONS tNt AhiAhtlt ~tAN0 ttflHl we AAfhilt a
100 tons. ana tho Ciiy Of Rome SiA tons
From these few typical casese u WI b.
seen that iu the three decades. iS0-1Ss0.
speed had increased from twelve TO scven-
teen knots and tonnage from SEQ 20 s.1H
the power of ;hg Atautic's engines being
20oo Indicated horse power as against the
a. so indicated horse power OF the City
OF Rome 1880 saw. as We rave ia u rad.
the advent OF the city 90 New York ara
the City Of Paris ana the increase o the
average TO twenty knots. ard toN rapid
the progress has been since then both in
speed and size. may D.. slelucl from lte
following brief particulars OF our present
day leading vessels. The Cdmpau lol-
lowered the two "Clties" 90 lS,0 she 10 log
OF 1900 tons. 2oD00 indicated hcr.e foA-
er ana twenty-five knots The cam
pania and her sister. the Lucanla. ala NOT
hold the speed record long. for in 1877 the
Norih German Lloyd Company sent tne
Kaiser Wilhelm der Gfo-s 80 he mai.
den voyage 10 New York The new Ger
man ship was OF 5000 tons Displacement
and englucd with $500 Indicted horse
power aud soon established her recofd
with 2 6 knots Two years later saw "a,
Oceanic. OF $500 tons. $500 10 tl.aicI
horse power ard 81 kunts while ttla
year has seen al previous Atlantic records
lowered by the Deutschland. wniih her
average %. twenty-thrse knts ri b
across.
a glance a. the performances OF the two
latest leviaihans leaves us oaen 10 doubt
whether later-day speeds are not obtain