Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-12-03
CRUISERS TO BE
800 FEET LONG
New Battleships Will Be More
Than Twice as Long as
Those Used in 1898 49,
BY Associated Press

Washington, Dec. 3.-Some idea of
the size and power of the superbat-
tlecruisers proposed as part of the
new naval program may be gained
from the fact that each one would
be 500 feet long-more than twice as
long as any battleship which partici-
pated in the Spanish American war,
more than 200 feet longer than any
battleship now afloat and ten feet
longer than was the Lustania.
Tests of hull models for the giant
cruisers are proceeding at the model
basin in the Washington navy yard to
determine just how much horsepower
will be required to drive them 80 knots
an hour, the speed fixed by the navy
general board. 1t will take six sepa-
rate sets of steam turbines, IT. is ur-
derstood, operating six propellers to
attain that pace and the hull designs
of the models show huge, square
cross section amidships in order to ac-
commodate the mass of machinery.
There is no longer any doubt about
the amount of horsepower required 10
drive a ship of known design at any
desired speed. The model basin has
done away with speculation on that
point. 1t is huge tank several hun
dred feet long and thirty feet wide.
above which runs q travelling bridge
arrangement carrying the complicat-
ed mechanism to measure the resist
ance offered by a model hull towed
through the water. The average bat
tleship model is twenty feet long and
I is in exact proportion to the ship ii is
planned to construct. 1t has been. es-
tablished as law of physics that the
power required to pull a model
| through the water at six knots, for in
| stance, will show exactly the force
! necessary to drive the ship herself at
a predetermined rate. The effect of
any minor change in hull construction
is instantly shown by the recording in
strunents. An eighteen-knot speed
can be reached in the tank.
| Nothing Left to Chance
! Indefinite information has reached
navy officers that England is building
a swift vessel as an experiment which
may reach 80 knots an hour and
which will carry heavy guns and no
| armor whatever. She will be a new
type of scout cruiser rather than a
! battleship, 1t is understood, and have
| less endurance than battlecruisers
! The navy model basin is now equip
ped with a wave-making device with
which the rolling qualities of a ship
| can be tested and also her ability to
sustain high speed in rough water. 1t
consists OF q motor-driven fan under
water which stirs the contents of the
tank into wave motions of any desired
| frequency or size. At the opposite end
of the tank is a beach over which the
waves run to be trapped in the space
behind, preventing their return up the
tank to interfere with experiments.
(, More accurate data on ship construc-
ton has been given out from the navy
! plant than from all other similar tanks
in the world combined. It has a capa-
city of testing 1 so or more models an
! nually as compared to fifty in the Brit
ish admiralty tank. Nearly 2,00O
models have been tested at the navy
yard and the results carefully tabu-
lated. In slack periods n regular SER
les of test models is produced and the
results noted I'm order that the whole
seientific field may be covered. The