Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1904-05-05
TURBINES FOR NEW cuNARoERs
An Important Experiment in Steam
ship Propulsion.

dtldCAes 10 the announcement That
the Cunard steamship company. guild
ed by the expert commission which
was appointed to investigate the sub
ject, have decided to install turbine en-
glneS on the two large passenger
steamers which they are about to
build with the assistance of the Brit
ish government The readers of the
Scientific American were prepared for
this announcement by the article
which we published few months ago.
IT. which, by the courtesy of the local
representative of the company. we
We're enabled TO give the leading d.
mansions of these great ships, and
state that in all probability the decis-
ion of the company would be in favor
of the turbine
The announcement is a most mo-
mentous one, and by many engineers
that the company has shown great
daring in applying the turbine to en-
gines which will probably indicate
when pushed to their maximum ca.
pacity, about 10000 horsepower 1t
is argued that the success of the tur-
bine on small river and cross-channel
steamers of not over 800 to 1000
tons displacement does rot guarantee
its success when applied to vessels of
such an unprecedented size as these
new Cunarders. The Scientific Amer
lean has never shared any of these
doubts. Indeed we have always
urged that there were no compiled
tons, no novel conditions, to limit the
usefulness of the turbine if it should
be installed in the engine room of a
large modern steamship; that, on the
contrary the duty required of the en-
gines of fast Atlantic liners is of the
very kind in which the steam turbine
has shown to best advantage, namely.
when it is running continuously, at
high speed, and under full load
The committee which was appointed
last September was probably one or
the strongest and most representative
that could have been gathered togeth-
eT. 1t included among others, the
superintendent engineer Of the Cunard
company. the late director of naval
construction, and the deputy engineer
in-chief of the British navy, and the
engineering managers of three of the
largest Shipbuilding companies in
Great Britain. including u member of
Messrs. Denny & Co, who have built
most of the turbine propelled passen-
ger ships that are now in service
When the committee was formed,
there was only a smalI amount of in
formation available as to the relative
economy of turbine and reciErocating
engines when they were doing similar
work and developing the same amount
of power. The work of the committee
was directed TO making careful COM
parative tests under such conditions.
One of these was carried on at New
castle-on-Tyne, where reciproeating
and turbine engines We're run at vari-
Gus proportions of their power and al
so at full s. aed, the output of cleo
tricity being recorded in each case and
the condensed steam from the engines
being accurately measured In addi-
ton to these tests ashore, others were
carried out on the sister passenger
steamships Arundel and Brighton.
which are identical in everything but
power the Brighton being driven by
turbine engines and the Arundel by
reciprocating engines The two yes
sells were run side by side from New
Haven to Dieppe and back. all posi-
bilities of error due to variations o.
weather and tide being thus oiimi-
mated Subsequently the Brighton
made several trials in the Solent. run
ming at differeE rates Of speed
Throughout the whole INVESTIGATION
the committee have been fully alive
IL the fact that it was great step
from the successful propulsion Of
ships of the size of the Arundel b.
turbines to the fitting of this type Of
engine in vessels OF the great dimer-
sions OF the new Cunard shius. Com
scuuently great attention has been
paid to the design of the turbines with
a view to rendering their manufac-
ture as simple as possible and 10 Sc
curing the well-known advantage Of
Efficiency due to increased size.
The dimensions of the ships as al
ready announced are: Length on deck
500 feet. beam s. feet. minimum draft
between 50 and 81 feet, on which as
mansions the vessels will have dis
placement Of about 10000 tons These
agures may BE compared with those
of The Kaiser Wilhelm If which is the