The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1905-03-11
ELEVATORS ON SHIPS
New Liners Will Have Convenience
for PASSENGERS.

for Passengers.
From the New York Herald:
II some inventive genius would but
build a subway to tit the hold Of a big
transatlantic steamship, passengers
could then go to sea with the assurance
that they would find every convenience
offered in the most advanced cities.
With the growth Of ocean travel steam
skip owners have found 1t necessary to
build their vessels more and more On the
plan of modern hotels.
1t has been left to the Hamburg Ameri-
can line to work out the principle Of pas
senger elevators, an idea which has pre-
scented itself to steamship builders time
and again. but which has been abandoned
as often as unpracticable. The vessels on
which the newly developed idea is to be
found win be the America, now building
at tie Vulcan works, Stettin, and the
Kaiserin Augusta Victoria, building at
the Harland & Wolff yards, Belfast. The
former ship will be ready for service in
August, 1905. and the latter early in 1906.
In former plans for 'ships' the sug-
gestion was omitted, because, 1t was
argued. the length OF the ship would not
allow II 1t. BY this was meant that to make
speed, which some lines thought was far
more necessary to a modern ship than
stability, vessels were so built that they
did not take kindly to rough seas: that
with a rolling sea vessels level was
constantly being changed, making 1t i'm
possible to work an elevator with safety.
The time has now come, however. when
steamship companies realize that the old
idea that speed is the essential point is
wrong.
The desire Of the steamship companies
to build slower ships Is even greater than
the desire Of people to travel on them.
Fast ships mean much coal. In one of the
big greyhounds the engine space is so
great that no room Is allowed for cargo.
In the two new ships Of the Hamburg
American line there will be eight decks
five of which will be occupied by first
cabin passengers. This means that pas
senger who is quartered on the fifth deck
below the sky In order to reach the sun
deck will have to mount distance great
er than the height of five-story build
ing
The contract for supplying the elevators
and the ACCOMPANYING machinery has not
yet been awarded, but rumor has it that
as likely as not an American firm will get
it. In Germany it has been noted that
American designs Of elevators are quite
popular and it may be that they viii! take
their place on board the foreign ships
with other American inventions. They
will however, be electric lifts, and will be
controlled by dynamos, the power for
which will originate at the same boiler
which will generate steam to propel the
vessels. " ~
The shaft through which the cars will
run will be located beside the grand stair
way, amidships. The decks to be reached
by the lift will be the boat decks, the
promenade deck, the upper deck. the main
deck and the lower deck.
On the boat deck the door to the shaft
will open onto rathskel1er. On the deck
below the promenade deck 1t will find the
music rooms very handy. The entrance
on the upper deck will be In a corridor
running both athwart ship and fore and
aft, and very convenient to the many
staterooms on this deck. The main deck
the next below, will contain the grand
dining saloon. adjoining which the shaft
will run. On the lower deck. at which
the shaft will end, the entrance will be
from the grill room.
In fact, the ship will be so arranged
with reference to the elevator that one
may pass from his stateroom to any
other part Of the ship much as he would
from floor to floor in hotel