Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-10-07
NAV|ES MADE OLD
VESSELS WILL BE CONSIGNED TO
SCRAP HEAP If NEW DE-
VICE is SUCCESSFUL.
IMPROVED TURBINE MAY
REvoLuTloNlzE NAVIGATION
Work Of Three Famous Marine Ensi.
neers Intended to Put New Style En-
sines Into All Glasses of Ships.
Seeming lmpossihility Conquered.

neers Intended to Put New Style En-
eines Into All Glasses of Ships.
Seeming lmpossibiIity Conquered.
Unless the greatest of the worlds
marine engineers are mistaken in their
estimate Of the new turbine device in
vented by Rear Admiral Melville. John
II. McAlpine and George Westinghouse
the world will soon see a revolution in
the art of building marine engines.
The new device means greatly In
sreased speed, with greatly diminished
space for boilers. engines and coal,
and therefore great and economical
changes in construction, 1t is perhaps
not too much to say that it means also
complete rebuilding of the navies of
the world, for diminished size and
weight Of driving power, with in
creased speed. means capacity for car
rying heavier armor and heavier guns.
The first nation to possess vessels of
this new type will have vessels of all
| other kinds Mt it's mercy, and other ma
lions must follow the example of the
drst or allow their navies to stand con-
/ fessedly Inferior
The Westinghouse Nc Alpine-Melville
invention is intended to permit Of the
driving Of marine turbine engine at
high speed. while the propeller con-
nected with the turbine revolves at
lower rate of speed, This is prob
lem that has long bafiled marine en-
gineers. Owing to its seeming impos-
sibility of solution the turbine engine
has heretofore been used only in YES
sells of the greatest speed and proper
tionately small carrying capacity, max
ing them enormously expensive. The
new device is an arrangement Of gears
and pinions that reaches the desired
end.
Development Of tho Turbine.
To make the nature and Importance
of this invention generally understood
1t is necessary to remember that all
the world was talking about steam
turbines few years ago-not the en-
cheering world only but the world of
laymen too. Turbines We're to change
steam engineering practice everywhere,
ashore and a6oat They have not done
so except on land. For stationary
practice-that is to say, for driving
machinery for the generation Of cleo
trio currents-they are immensely sue
cessful. But for driving ships they are
far less successful-not mechanically
but financially.
They drive ships. but at far too great
a cost. Ashore they are economical
af1oat they are extravagant A few
fast vessels have, them. some liners and
warships. but fast vessels comprise
only per cent of the ocean going ton.
mage of the world. If the war craft
are deducted there remains not more
; than / per cent of sea ships that have
' speed exceeding 20 knots an hour
/ And of these but few have turbines.
3 Ships intended for less speed than &C
5 knots an hour cannot afford to use tur
bines. And even the fastest ships have
y proved that the turbine drive is very
a costly. Ship turbines take too much
steam This means an excessive cos
profits. 1t also means an excessive en-
croachment of bunker and boiler an(
engine room space.
o PropelIers Must Move Slowly.
: A steam turbine is most efficient
1t that is to say, a pound of steam doe!
!, the most work in it-when the motor II
:, driven at high speed. But the pro
:. = pellers of ship are most efficient, the.
a do the most work per pound of steam
when they turn at low speed. TIL
faster a propeller turns the smaller
must be in proportion to the work ]
:, has to do, the size Of the ship it has t
: drive. The propellers Of the turbin
= driven Mauretania are not more thai
y eighteen feet in diameter. They turl
1876 to 10 times minute. They ar
- smaller than the propellers Of the Ka
II ser Wilhelm der Zweite, which revolv
ninety to a hundred times a minut
and are driven by reciprocating er
gines. All turbine ships have thei
= propeller shafts connected direct to tn
y turbines. Therefore the turbine spec
,~k 4 r.