Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1919-10-16

NJ has been 30 successful and it's fight
ing advantages have become so gen
orally recognized that the navy de-
partment has decided to equip all of
-. it's new capital ships with electric
.lGSAu- propulsion apparatus.
The New Mexico is a most impress
sive fighting machine. She was built at the Brook
lyn navy yard and launched in the summer of 1917.
She is 624 feet over all. She weighs (dispaces)
$4,000 tons She draws 80 feet of water. She has
81 feet AZ inches beam at the waterline At full
speed she can make slightly in excess of 21 knots
an hour. She generates $4,000 horsepower for
propulsion. Her numbers nearly 1000 men.
She burns oil instead Of coal as fuel and has q
total fuel capacity of about 100000 gallons.
It's not an easy thing nowadays to get permits
sion to examine batteship from stem to stern
and to take photographs of her interior. But rep
resentatives of one of the big concerns which
had hand in making the New Mexico what she
is was recently allowed the prvilege-which has
been exceedingly rare since the beginning of the
great war. The following account of an inspec-
ton of the superdreadnaught at drydock in the
Brooklyn navy yard is the result.
Lieut.. Com. P. L. Carroll, chief engineer turns
us over to of the Junior engineers. We start
with the navigating bridge and examine the vari-
GUS pieces of apparatus for transmitting signals
to the engine room for the control of the
sci, and to half a dozen other parts of the ship,
each of which has particular and important
function to perform. Next we begin systematic
survey of the ship, and to begin as far down into
the vitals of the vessel possible we are led
through circuitous routes, down steep hatchways
through narrow alleys, and down more ladders
through deck after deck until have lost all
knowledge of time and space
We find ourselves at last on the very bottom of
the ship, directly behind the rudder. A compi
Gated of machinery, pistons, rods valves,
dials and electric motors combine to make up
the steering gear engine. This machinery is oper-
ated and controlled directly from the navigating
bridge by control device. This is only one Of
five different methods Of steering the ship. In
water-tight compartment directly aft is what is
known as the auxiliary steering gear. And here
we see four large wheels connected to shaft
which when occasion demands, can be used to
move the rudder by hand-which takes eight men.
But this shaft is also connected to an electric
motor and by the simple turn of switch can be
operated electrically. Two other electrical units
are situated in this compartment for rudder con-
troll apd If all steering methods fail. Jury" rud
der may be rugged off the stern.
Going forward along the bottom 'of the ship we
come presently to the propeller shafts-four In
number-each operating immense propeller.
These shafts extend from the motors which oper-
ate them back through the ship and out at the
stern through what are known respectively as the
starboard cupboard shaft alley, starboard inboard
port inboard and port cupboard alleys. Following
forward along the nboard shaft we go through
several more water-tight compartments. drop
down q hatchway and find ourselves in the pro-
polling motor room. This is the section OF the
ship which actually drives the propellers
The tremendous motor which meets our gaze
gives an inkling Of the power necessary to make
the big shafts revolve.
This motor stands IL feet high from the floor
and is II feet wide. 1t generates 1900 horsepower
Like the rest 1t is nclosed in q water-tight COM
partment, protected by bulkheads, and If anything
should happen to 1t, the current may be cut OF
at once and directed to the operation of the other
three propellers.
To see how the motor is controlled reversed,
started, stopped, ETC., we follow the wire cables
further forward still almost on the bottom of the
ship until come to what the engineers call the
center engine room. Here spread out before us
lies a switchboard containing levers, dials tele-
ing electrical currents. 1t is the main control
station of the ship containing the arteries
through which courses the life blood Of the ves-
sell the electrical current. In fact, 1t is often
called the heart of the vessel.
Here in this compartment the electrical current
is received, measured and passed on to the motors
which we have just left. From this station the
propellers may be made to reverse. or to go at
full speed ahead; two propellers may be reversed
while the other two are driven ahead Here also
any combination of control may be made up The
fexibility of control made possible by this cen
trail control station constitutes of the advan-
tages Of the system of electric drive The captain
of the ship communicates directly to this station
and gives instructions concerning the control of
the vessel.
Having seen how the ship is propelled, and con-
troled, we are naturally curious = see the source
from which the tremendous energy comes. The
cables from the switchboard lead forward into