Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1904-05-09
TURBINES FOR NEW cuNARDERs
An Important Experiment in Steam
ship Propulsion.

the Cunard steamship company. guild
ed by the expert commission whic'
was appointed to investigate The sui
/ ject. have decided to install turbine el
gines on the two large passenge
steamers which they are about
build with the assistance of the Bri
f ish government. The readers of q
I Scientific American were prepared f,
this announcement by the artic
which we published few months as
/ III which, BY the courtesy of the loc
( representative of the company.
were enabled to give the leading
mansions of these great ships. al
state that in all probability the deci
ion OF the company would be in fave
of the turbine
The announcement is a most m
mentOus one, and by many engineer
that the company has shown gre:
daring in applying the turbine to e.
gines which will probably indicat
when pushed to their maximum c;
pacity. about $4,000 horsepower.
is argued that the success of the tm
bine on small river and crOss-channe
steamers of not over 1900 to 200
tons displacement does rot guarantee
/ its success when applied to vessels o.
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 complica-
tons. no novel conditions, to limit the
usefulness of the turbine if it should
be installed in the engine room of q
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 OF
the strongest and most representative
that could have been gathered togeth-
er. 1t included, among others. the
superintendent engineer Of the Cunard
Z q
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 a member OF
Messrs. Denny & Co.. who have b tit
most of the turbine-propelled passen-
ger ships that ere now in service
When the committee was formed.
there was only a small amount of in
formation available as to the relative
economy of turbine and reciprocating
engines when they were doing similar
work and developing the same amount
of power. The work of the committee
was directed to making careful con-
parative tests under such conditions.
One of these was carried on at New
castle-On-Tyne. where reciprocating
and turbine engines were run at vari-
Gus proportions of thei: power and al
so at full speed, the output of cleo
tricity being recorded in each case and
the condensed steam from the engines
being accurately measured. In add
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 b!
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 elm
mated. Subsequently the Brighto
made several trials in the Solent, run
ming at different rates OF speed.
Throughout the whole investigation
the committee have been fully aliv
to the fact that it was a great ste
from the successful propulsion c
ships of the size of the Arundel b
turbines to the fitting of this type
engine in vessels of the great dinner
sions of the new Cunard ships. Cor
seouently great attention has bee
paid to the design of the turbines, wit
view TO rendering their manufaC
ture as simple as possible. and TO sc
curing the well-knOyn advantage o
efficiency due to increased size.
The dimensions of the ships, as al
ready announced, are: Length on decl
500 feet, beam IS feet, minimum draf
between 80 and 81 feet. on which di
mansions the vessels viii have a dis
placement of about 10000 tons. These
figures may be compared with tnOst
of the Kaiser Wilhelm II. which is the
largest of the high-sTeed transatlantic
liners. This vessel on length OF zoe
fcNt has a beam of u feet and a. draf;
of % feet, the draft being limited by
the depth of water in the German
ports. The contract viii probably re
Cuire that the new Cunarders develop
q speed of % knots on trial and sus-
tanned sea speed of 241z knots ar
hour
The $4,000 horsepower viii be de
velODed upon four shafts. On the
outer pair will be the high-pressure
turbines; on the inner pair the low
rrassure. and also the gO-aStern tur