The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-06-01
Battleship Netu Mexico Is Wonderful Example Of Electric Propulsion
Application of Electricity Needs of Ocean Vessels One of the Important Modern Scientific Achievements. Some of the Advantages of Electric Equip
 ment for the Navys Fighters

, sion of ships. Although the subject has been discussed widely in the technical press for several years, no popular ex- position of electric drive has been att
 tempted for the purpose of interesting | the genenll reader. It is for this reason
 that the following article has been pre-
 pared.
 l Scarcely 15 years ago electricity had
 never been seriously considered as an
 agency in the propulsion of marine ves- 1 sells, though the adoption of electrical
 current in the operation of street cars,
 automobiles, railroad engines. etc, was | an accepted fact.
 l The forward march of electrical prog
 ress, since the United States has not in
 recent years considered itself a sea-far- i ing nation, was comparatively slow to
 rehch the ocean. Various applications of
 electricity as motive force in driving To- comotives and other vehicles of land
 transportation had reached an advanced
 stage of development, but the steam boat
 seemed to have escaped, due probably
 to the difficulties surrounding the adop-
 tion of satisfactory and efficient electri- cal means of propulsion. This condition, | however, was not destined to last very l long.
 AWAITED DEVELOPMENT | The possibility of electric propulsion of
 ships was talked about indeed, as soon as electric motors began to be used but
 the actual serious study of its applica-
 tions awaited the development of the steam turbine. When the turbine devel- opment reached an advanced stage, com bining high speed with light weight, en- gineers were ready to adopt electricity as | a means of transmission between the tur-
 bine and propellers. So successful have i they been in this respect that today the
 United States navy, as indicated by Sec
 retary Daniels, has been won over to the principle of electric drive and has decided | to equip all of it's new capital ships with
 electrical machinery, while the theory IS already making strides in the cargo car | rying mercantile marine field
 i Thus electricity again comes to the fore | front of scientific achievement. The cleo
 trically propelled ship has undoubtedly ! come-and come to stny.
 l Although many scientists and engineers
 were active in suggesting methods or adopting electricity as a means of, ship propulsion, it remained for w. l. R. Elm met who is consulting engineer of the General Elictric company, to place elec- l tric drive on a practical basis for large | ships and naval vessels, while even now 1 ship owners are beginning to prick up their ears and realize the value of cleo 1 tric drive for their own type Of vessels
 CHICAGO FIREBOATS EXAMPLE | One of the oldest practical examples | of the electrically propelled vessel in this country is to be found in the fire boats of the city of Chicago. H., where the | first boat was equipped in 19oS Chi cago was the first municipality to a.ic.pt l the theory of electric drive for boats of | this class.
 l Now, the popular mind, no doubt. con- | ceives an electric ship as like an electric | automobile or truck something that stores the energy necessary to it's opera | tion carries it along and draws upon it 1 as occasion may demand.
 | But this is not so. It may, therefore, | be of interest to explain briefly what an electric ship really is.
 WHAT AN ELECTRIC SHIP IS In the first place, electric current must be generated within the ship in order that this current may be put to it's proper use in propelling the vessel.
 The current is usually produced by a steam turbine which turns generator The apparatus is called a turbo-genera-
 tor and this unit, together with the ] usual engine room auxiliary constitutes