Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 January 1893 — Improvement In Machinery. [ARTICLE]

Improvement In Machinery.

The wonderful advance that has been made during the last third of a century in the construction of machinery, and particularly in the equips ment of ships with propelling power, is well illustrated by comparisons presented by an Eastern journal. It is well known that the Great Eastern, that wonderful leviathan of the seas which was the talk of the world some thirty years ago, was in all practical respects a complete failure. The reason fo'r this will bo understood when it is stated that engines of only 7,650 horse power were provided to propel,a shin 680 feet in length and 82 feet In oread th. In those days engines of such power were considered very remarkable, and it does not appear to have been suspected at the time that the failure of the great ship was due to a lack of sufficient power to drive her vast bulk through the water and render her manageable.

She was abandoned and allowed to go to ruin because it was believed that the limit of size had in her case been exceeded. But when we compare her 7,650 hoirsc power with the 20,605 horse power of that modern greyhound, the City of Paris, a vessel 120 feet shorter and nearly 20 feet narrower than the Great Eastern, it is plainly seen where the trouble lay. Such an equipment of machinery as the great steamships of our day carry would h,afe fjee’n entirely beyond the comprehension of the engine-builders of thirty years ago. But after all it appears that we are only just beginning to develop the possibilities of the steam engine, and that there are no longer any limitations as to the dimensions that may be chosen for steamships. The Campania, just launched from an English shipyard, is 620 feet in length, or only sixty feet shorter than the Great Eastern, and is equipped with engines of 30,000 horse power. The propelling force which these figures indicate is almost iqconceivable. The new American steamships now building for the transatlantic business, will be smaller than the Campania, but larger than any of the other liners now afloat. They will be provided with engines proportionately powerful and representing the highest modern skill.