The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-02-11
HAVE VAST MOTIVE POWER.

One of the most impressive mani
festations of the power of the modern
steam engine, says the Scient1f1c Amer
lean, is the sight of an up-to.date
freight locomotive starting a train or
forty or fifty cars and gathering way
until the whole mass is numbering
over the rails al speed OF twenty
five miles or thirty miles an hour
When we attempt by our unaided
strength to move a heavy piece OF FUR
niture we understand very well what
is meant by mass and inertia
To move a single loaded freight car
on the level by human power it is nee
essary to crowd around it as many men
as can lay their hands or shoulders
against it in a united propulSiVe er-
fort And hence when we see not one
i.but forty or fifty loaded cars started
from rest and swung into their fulI
stride by a single locomotive the lat
ter becomes symbolical in the popular
mind of majestic power.
1t is for this reason that in our at
tempt to represent the horse power
which will be necessary to drive the
new Cunard liners at twenty-five and
one-quarter knots am hour we have
taken the aVera ge-Sized freight loco
motive as our unit of comparison.
The least amount of power which
the designers of the LuSftanla ana
Mauritania found would be necessary
to drive these ships at their contract
speed was $4,000 horse power Now,
the horse power of the average freight
locomotive is about 2,1OO and conse-
quently the total thrust on the four
propellers of each of these ships VIII
be equal to the total pull exerted by
thirty-two modern American freight
engines. One of these locomotives
could haul on the level a train of fifty
cars, whose total length would be Just
third of a mile. Consequently the
whole $4,000 horse power of the Cum
arder, expressed in terms of locomotive
work, would be sufficient to haul a
train of 1000 cars, whose total length
would be over five miles.
To develop a minimum of $4,000
horse power and a maximum that will
possibly run up to $4,000 or $4,000
horse power calls for a boiler and en-
CINE plant of truly titanic proportions.
Steam will be supplied by twenty-five
cylindrical boilers, of which twenty
three are double-ended and two single
ended, the former being II feet 8
inches in diameter and 81 feet long.
The. coal will be burned in these
boilers on 1872 furnaces, the total area
of whose CRATES would be represented
by a square measuring sixty-four feet
on each side, containing about 1000
square feet of surface. Night and day
an army of several hundred fremen
will be continuously shoveling coal into
these furnaces, where it will be burned |
at the rate of about 1000 tons every
twenty-four hours; and to insure that
the coal Is burned at a fierce white |
heat the air will be forced through the
CRATE continuously by means of power |
full electrically driven fans, the rush of
being also assisted by the four great
smokestacks through which the pro-
ducts of ombustion will be discharged |
high up in the air at about $50 feet |
above the level of the CRATE bars.
These smokestacks are worthy of
special mention, for in addition to |
their great height they will be far larg- |
er in sectional area than any that have |
been previously constructed. In order |
to present less resistance to the at
mosphere, which even on a day when !
there is not a breath of air stirring |
will be. on account of the great speed |
of the ship. equivalent to thirty-mile |
gale the smokestac ks will be made of |
a general elliptical section.
Each smokestack will measure z |
feet inches on it's minor axis and 8 |
feet inches on it's major axis. That |
these are extraordinary dimensions is |
shown by the fact that two large IL !
mousine automobiles could be con-
tanned within one of the smokestacks, |
one standing in the direction of the |
axis and the other transversely to it. /
Another standard of measurement is |
afforded by the fact that two modern |
steam railroad tracks could be laid |
side by side within one of these smoke |
it with g slight clearance in every di- |
rection.
In the summer of 1907 the Lusitania
and Mauretania will serve to put the
marine turbine to a supreme test.
These vessels are so much larger than
anything existing as to be in class
entirely by themselves. They are 7S5
feet long, 50 feet broad and COL feet
deep. Their gross tonnage will be
about 33, 900 and they will displace As
900 tons. Their horse power as al
ready stated, is $4,000 and will prob