The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-11-27
LARGEST ON SEA
: Proposed Battleships Outclass
: Boats of All Nations.
( Monster Craft viii Make
8 Speed of 35 Knots.
ITO HAVE SIX PROPELLORS
Models of Super-Cruisers Being
Tested in Basin. ~
Exact Information Possible
With Model Testing Tank.

Washington, Nov. 27.-Some idea of
Ethe size and power of the super battle
ships 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 participated in
the Spanish-American war, more tina
200 feet longer than any battleship
now af1oat and ten rect longer than
was the Lusitania.
Tests of hull models for the giant
cruisers are proceeding at the model
basin in the Washington navy yard to
determine just how much horse power
will be required to drive them 35
knots an hour. the speed fixed by the
navy general board 1t will take six
tseparate sets OF steam turbines it is
understood, operating six propellers to
sattaIn that pace and the hull designs
of the models show a huge, square
cross section amidships in order to
accommodate the mass of machinery.
There is no longer any doubt about
the amount of horsepower required
to drive ship of known design at any
desired speed The model basin has
done away with speculation on that
point. 1t is a huge tank several hun
dred feet long and thirty feet wide,
above which runs a travelling bridge
arrangement carrying the complicated
mechanism to measure the resistance
! offered by a model hull towed through
. the water. The average battleship
model is twenty feet long and is in ex-
f. act proportion to the ship it is planned
to construct. 1t has been established
as a law of physics that the power re-
squired to pull model through the
water at six knots, for instance, will
show exactly the force necessary to
drive the ship herself at a pre-deternl-
lined rate. The effect of any minor
schange in hull construction is instant
sly showned by the recording instru-
fments. An eighteen knot speed can
be reached in the tank.
1n6affnifn inf firr,
navy officers that England is building
a swift vessel as an experiment which
may reach IS knots an hour and
s which will carry heavy guns and no
rtype of scout cruiser rather than a bat
{ tie craft, 1t is understood, and have
less endurance than pattle cruisers
just Like Real Ocean.
; The navy model basin is now
equipped with making device
with which the rolling qualities of a
ship design can be tested and also her
ability to sustain high speed in rough
swater- 1t consists of a motor driven
sfan under water, which stirs the con-
tents 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
strapped in the space behind, prevent
gIng their return up the tank to inter-
fere with experiments. More accur-
given out from the navy plant than
from all other similar tanks in the
world combined. 1t has a capacity of
testing $50 or more models annually
as compared to so in the British Ad-
miralty tank. Nearly 20OO models
have been tested at the navy yard and
the results carefully tahuIated In
slack periods regular series of test
models is produced and the results
noted in order that the whole scien-
tific field may be covered. The Off
Ger in charge presents the new data
gathered before a scientific society
each year and private designers can
now work out the hull of a merchant
ship on the formulas gathered by the
government About a fifth of the
work now done in the basin is for
private shipbuilders who send plans
of proposed ships to the navy yard
where models are constructed and
tested. The plant soon will have ca
pacity of producing and testing one
model every twenty-four-hours.