The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-10-27

are occupied with the building of battle-
ships, is to obtain a maximum amount of
lighting power upon a given displacement.
The total weight of ship and her equip
ment when she is afloat is the feature
upon which the naval architect must
base his plans for the ship. The Ne
vada. for instance, which is a battleship
OF 1880 tons displacement, has been so
built that with from 1S1s to 1s-inch armor.
and with sea speed of 20.5 knots, she is
able. to carry a battery of 10 14,inch guns.
1t Is regarded in the competent naval cir
cles as the most effective battleship of
her displacement anywhere In the world.
The Scientific American intimates that
George Westinghouse, who for some
years was In association with the late
Admiral Melville In the intensely diff
cult proposition involved In working out
an apparatus which would make 1t pos
sfble to combine the most economical
type OF turbine with the most economical
type of propeller in the same ship has at
last solved the problem, and it may be
OF immense advantage to the American
navy. Heretofore. the difficulty with the
marine turbine engine has been thought
FUNDAMENTAL 1t has seemed to be impos-
sloie TO reconcile the high speed of ro-
tation necessary to secure the highest ef-
hciency in the turbine with the low speed
oi fotatlon which Is necessary to secure
,he hish e11lclency of the propeller. Some
Years ago when his attention was first
directed to the remarkable invention of
the great English scientist, Alfred Par
sons, of marine turbine engine, Mr..
w Westinghouse realized that at least for
oa.tleships where the great problem is
TO obtain the maximum amount of fight
ing power on given displacement it was
Vltal II the marine turbine, were to be
used that 1t should be constructed upon
fundamentally new principles. 1t required
q great deal of time and an intense con-
centration of mental powers to solve the
problem, together with an expenditure
OF large amount of money so to carry
on the experiments as at last to bring
forth an apparatus which high authority
now commands to the attention of the bu-
reau of construction and repairs and of
steam engineering of the navy depart
ment.
A Great Invention
A description of the invention which
bears Mr.. Westinghouse's name is too
technical for any layman to understand
The results, however, obtained by the
recently were highly satisfac-
tory. Tests which were made in the
Westinghouse shops of Pittsburg in the
presence of experts demonstrated that
turbine of a capacity of 1000 kilowatts at
1000 revolutions per minute was able to
maintain practically constant efficiency
over wide range of power, and with no
diminution of the highest power
The bureau of construction and repairs
at Washington viii be impressed with the
fact that an apparatus of this kind will
make possible a great saving in weight
and space, and this will be of immense
advantage In increasing the fighting
power of battleship without increasing
its~ displacement. 1t was demonstrated
at Pittsburg that with an apparatus of
this kind the Nevada would have been
able to save in space and weight so much
as to make 1t possible to increase her
so as to secure a Nevada with
q, 5000 tons displacement which carried IL
14-inch guns instead of 10. This is the
battery which will be mounted on the
81, 900 ton battleship Pennsylvania. The Ne
vada, which is now the most completely
ship In the world. can be made,
according to the view of the Scientific
to carry two additional 1f-inch
guns by the mere redesign of her motive
power and the adoption of the Westing-
house apparatus. =
So. too, the Queen Elizabeth, which is
IT, be fitted with oil burning apparatus to
gain space and weight, would save still
more weight and space and be able to