Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1919-07-19

pride of the United States Navy, ana electric drive is the pride of the New Mexico. How the electrical machinery looks, how it works, why the electric drive is preferable to other forms of propulsion, how she looks inside and outside, is here related by one of the men who was recently passenger on Uncle sam's latest superdread- . naught, riding be'ween the Brooklyn Navy Yard and Rockland, Main.
 This latest leviathan weighs 32,OOO tons and requires 32,OO0 horsepower or one horsepower per ton. Her weight is equivalent to bar of iron weighing one pound to the foot and forming band of iron from the North to the South Pole with enough in addition to reach from Maine al most to the borders of Florida. She is so huge that it requires ten tugs to push her from her pier in Brooklyn Navy Yard out into the East River. From the platform called the "crow's nest" at the top of the mast down to the level of the water is 12O feet, or equal in height to a ten-story building. The battleship can generate enough electricity to run the giant General Electric Works and the Schenectady Railway Company.
 Motors Drive PrOpellers
 Like everything else that is electrl- cal, the New Mexico is the cleanest institution of her kind. There are no engines or turbines connected with the propeller shafts-only electric motors. There are no grates under the boilers-merely oil burners There is not a coal or ash shovel on the ship; nor are there any cinders, smoke, dust, or soot. The New Mexico "coals" thru a 6 in. hose, that is because she burns sonly oil for her power. The total oil capacity of the dozen or more com parts is 3,400 tons or 6,SOO, 900 lbs, or nearly million gallons. If the New Mexico were an automobile wlths a mileage of 20 miles per gallon, this amount of oil would drive her close to 20 million miles or distance equal to 80 times to the moon. But 32,- OO0-ton batleship does not equal the mileage of flivver, for it weighs as much as 60,OO0 of those vehicles, aro must blow thru the water displaclue her own weight of water each time she runs her own length, 624 feet The cost of fuel is more important or ship board than on land, and th:s i' emphasized by the fact that on tn 2,O0O-mile trial trip alone she will dis place over 620,O0O,OOO tons of water
 From Oil to Electricity
 Following the energy of the oil fue thru the different processes until thu energy drives the propellers electrl cally is an entertaining aud instruc tive trip. Escorted by courteous ot ficers, you start for one of the thre boiler rooms. You must open an close several steel bulkheads in tn water-tight compartment and descen steel ladders and steel steps apparent ly equivalent to those in Investor building On the way down you mus pass thru an "air lock" sir'llar those which give the cxcavators ac cess to the caissons used in bdildin the foundations of the skyscrapers 3 feet under Broadway, or in construct ing the piers under big bridges i the middle of the river. The ofticH who escorts you is very careful close the steel door behind you betor he opens the one in front of you.
 High Air Pressure
 No sooner are the bolts ioosene than you feel the increased air pres sure swish into your ears. This because the air in the fire-room maintained at higher pressure tha the outside air. All the air which tn firemen breathe is pumped al There is more oxygen in a cubic fof of this air than there is in ordinar air. This increased pressure and 1T creased oxygen are both useful in pro viding the proper combustion in tn boiler.
 How Smoke Screens Are Made
 If the New Mexico wishes to thro a smoke screen, the men in the firt room merely turn a few tiny han valves in A-in. pipe and, presto inky blackness will vomit from tn single smoke stack and blacken val sea areas. This is very nice stud of how different mechanical mixture of oil and air will bring about diffe' ent chemical combinations betwee oil and oxygen. One of these con binations eliminates smoke by effec ing almost perfect combustion; whi the other creates heavy black snol which will practically blindfold u enemy. And three little A-in. pip' in each boiler are all that is needt to do this.
 Size of Boilers
 It is said that no other 32,OO0-tt battleship has as few as nine boiler There are three boiler-rooms, each