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

until recent years, is practically watch charm-a little toy. There is only rotary motion in the steam tur- bine.
 Inside the casing are ten wheels arranged sid by side like the coins are kept in bank. In the rims of all of these wheels are hundreds of buck cts against which the steam strikes. The steam enters at one end of the turbine and dashes against the buck cts of each of these wheels, one after the other; and as it strikes against these buckets the wheels and the shaft to which they are fixt all turn around This shaft drives the electric genera tor immediately adjacent, and in it the mechanical power is turned into electricity. Then eight copper wires only slightly larger than a garden hose convey the 16,0OO horsepower thru the steel walls to the next com partment where the switchboard is located. Electric fans in the power plant ventilate the room and also cool the generator, and. the heated air, is pumped outside.
 The SwitchBOards.
 When the eight electric wires leave the power plant room, they go to the electric switcres back of the switch board. Here the ship is controlled upon receipt of instructions from the captain, sent either by loud speaking telephones, by indicators, by lights, or by messenger. Following these in structions, the engineers standing at the switchboard can start the vessel forward, or start it backwards; they can make it go many different speeds in either direction; they can run all four of the motors from one of the power plants, or from the other power plant; they can even split up the load so that one power plant vii run two of the motors forward and the other power plant will run the other two "astern." Another combinations they can effect is that both power plants can equally share the load of driving
 the four motors-one to each pro,
 peller.
 If one of the propellers becomes
 foul the engineer can disconnect this . motor from the circuit, and then al
 of the power in the two power plants is available for the three remaining
 motors.
 Giant Motor for Each Screw Can you imagine motor twice a! high as a six-foot man? Can vol imagine one motor capable of doing the work of 3O,OOO horses working a three eight-hour shifts? If so, thel D you can appreciate the picture whicl these made in their steel compart ments. One of these giant motors i provided for each of the four propell , CT shafts. The screw is at one end O . the shaft in the water, and the moto is at the other end of the shaft insid . the ship. One reason for their eff ciency is the fact that the shaft cal . be short as the motor can be close t , the propeller. There is an additiona : advantage also, because the turbine = generators can be located near tn boilers, and this permits of a shor
 steam pipe. These very desirable fea s lures area result of electric drive, be :, cause it doesn't make any differenc z what is located between the powe 2 plant and the motors.
 n No Reversing Turbines Il With electric drive, no reversin t turbines are necessary, the reversin d is done electrically. So with the e }. ectric drive, the turbine in the powe n plant always runs in the same diret a tion and at highest efficiency. n Electrical propulsion not only doe D away with reversing turbines, but als