Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 March 1893 — SPEED AT SEA. [ARTICLE]

SPEED AT SEA.

Far back in the year! 814, Captain John Ericsson, whom we remember ns the first builder of the ironclad “Monitor,’’ applied for a patent on a screw propeller to be used in driving ships through the water. Ten years Inter the secretary of the British Admiralty persuaded that body to make a trial of the new machine in the frigate “Arrogant.” The device was a success. The frigato went faster than others of her size using sails alone; she could move about in the water when there was no wind, and when other ships were motinloss or at anchor, and although her speed, even with the wind, was but litte increased, and the sailors growled at having the ship’s hold filled up with “ tea-kettles and b’ilers,'' they had to admit that she was safer in a gale, and could go better than before. Popular feeling was against the propeller, however, and it was not until 1852 that it was placed in the larger ships of war. All the great inventions have to fight their way, and this was no exception. It gradually came into use among merchant ships, and when the naval authorities saw its advantages most of the opposition ceased, and they decided to try it in the greatest ship they had. The “Windsor Castle" had just been completed at the Royal Dockyard, Pembroke. She was 255 feet long, (10 feet wide, nnd had three tiers of portholes—room for her guns. Bhe was the result of years of labor, and was then the greatest warship in the world. It seemed a pity to desecrate this noble craft by loads of coal, tous of oily machinery, hot boilers, nnd a company of “greasy engineers,” but it would never do to have England’s greatest war-ship lacking in anything that could give her greater speed nnd strength. Therefore it was decided to cut tho vessel in two, arid lengthen her so ns to accommodate the machinery. She was sawed directly through amidships, the stem was pushed back twenty-three feet, and the gap built up solid with tho rest of tho ship. W'heii she was launched the machinery was put in. Complete she was 278 feet long, and carried twenty more guns. In making a report of this great ship to tho French navy, Lieutenant Lnbrousse urged the French also to adopt the propeller, nnd wrote that “tho use of the screw as a means of propulsion is far from diminishing a ship’s sailing qualities. It is, on the contrary, cnpable of adding to the certainties of navigation.”

In 1859 we find the "Great Eastern” using tho propeller, but only as an uid to her paddle-wheels. In fact, for many years thereafter, all the ocean steamers used paddles only. The war ships alone continued to experiment with the propellers. Now, however, everything has changed in favor of tho screw, nnd, except somo light river bout drawing little water, all steamers are run by propellers. Boats wero soon built with propellers under the keel, then others used two, one on either side of the keel, nnd now three are being successfully operated. Then ciune tho days of “forced draft,” when the fire-rooms wero closed un tight, nnd air was pumped in to go roaring up through the chimneys after funning tho fires into greater heat. The engines worked faster, and the ships speed was increased, but tho increase soon reached a limit, for tho boiler-room became so hot that the poor firemen could not stay at their posts for more than fifteen minutes at a time. One hundred und sixty-five degrees w:is the awful heat they had to work in recently on the fast United States ship “Concord.” The men fainted in front of the furnaces, and others were hard to hire. What was to be done? The limit of speed for ships seemed to be reached, while more speed was wanted. Commander GeorgoW. Melville, of the United States Navy, has solved the puzzle by designing a ship with smokestacks one hundred feet high. These have tho snmo effect as tho tall factory chimneys on land. The firemen do not find this natural draft so oppressive, nnd these snoke-staeks give a steam power that sends the great ship, with spinning screws, at tho rate of twenty-six milesan hour. And, even at this railway speed, sho will use so little coal that she can run 24,000' miles, or almost aroundl tho world, without renewing her supply. —[St. Nicholas.