The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1916-10-14

on Rear Admiral Robert S.
Griffin, chief of the bureau of steam engineering,
according to a writer in the New York Sun.
These engines, which will be of the electric-drive
type, are expected to push the 900-foot ships
through rough seas at a speed approaching So
knots; that is, about four knots better than the
latest United States destroyers and at the rate
Of a passenger train running on a carefully
graded road.
When Admiral Griffin tells the story one gains
from his manner the impression that about all
he had to do was to speak to Captain Dyson
about it and the design of these Sc, 900 en-
gineS sprang into existence, but those who know
the admiral have their own opinion about that;
and it differs somewhat radically from the i'm
preston.
Yes" said the chief, "at first it was rather
appalling when we realized the magnitude of those
engines. The largest in any of our battleships
give 25,OOO horse power; those of the Lusitania
were 10000; and it is said that those which drive
the English Tiger at about 30 knots are from So
600 to 10000. So one can see that we had to
make a leap, and at first 1t seemed like a leap in
the dark, to provide approximately 100000 horse
power. But somehow, when we got the conditions
right before us, everything seemed to unfold
itself and fall into the right place and there really
was little difficulty.
"We saw at the outset that 1t was impossible
TO control and apply the power without adopting
oil fuel and the electric drive. In the great
mercantile ships like the Aquitania and the
ldnu we eAulupleS Oh the JUU~IOOI
boats with a speed of % or 90 knots, but 1t is
the last few knots which are so difficult to get,
Very roughly speaking, the new cruisers steam
ing at 10 knots will consume the equivalent of
$50 tons of coal a day, and to attain somewhere
between "a and 80 knots will burn up the same
quantity in one hour; to put 1t another way, the
coal required to drive one of these cruisers at
full speed for a day will drive a battleship across
the Atlantic and back. If full speed can be main
tanned steadily for three days and seven hours
it will take one from New York to Liverpool; but
as that would require 1900 tons of coal it is
certain that such a run will never be attempted
on coal fuel.
mo one can tell what the chemist-engineer of
the future will do; but until something is found
battle cruisers will have to depend upon oil to
convert water into steam; and without that sub
stitute they cannot be driven many consecutive
hours at full speed. 1t would not be possible to
transmit so much power on one shaft or one
screw. Therefore it is distributed to four shafts,
each receiving about $4,000 horse power, or dou-
BILE the total power in a superdreadnaught and
greater than that of any but the largest of the
modern merchantmen.
eff only a low or moderate rate of speed were
required the old-style reciprocating engines
would, because more economical, probably be Sc
lected, but to secure the high rates turbines will
be adopted.
'The electric drive is not difficult to compre-
bend if one will think of the familiar trolley, sub
way or railway car driven by electricity. The
power is created by the operation of steam-driven
generators or dynamos. They produce the cleo
trio current, which is carried by wire to the many
small motors in the cars scattered along the sys-
tenn, The motorman or engineer turns on the
power and the motor is driven ahead; he moves
his lever and the power is shut off he shoves II
farther over and reverses his motor. For many
small motors say several large ones and you have
the plan Of the ships electric drive. The turbines
operate the generators of the current for the mo
tors, and the motors turn each of the four pro
peller shafts of the ship.