Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 March 1893 — Electric Tools on Ocean Steamers. [ARTICLE]

Electric Tools on Ocean Steamers.

An English electrical journal points out that the accident which recently befell the steamship Umbria through the cracking her propeller shaft, and the heroic efforts on dim parX.-.QL-hei~7Hig-tueQrs-, the conclusions that the Atlantic liners are nqt sufficiently equipped with appliances for grappling with such contingcncica. and it is proba ble that electrical tools will henceforth corne into-general use on board ocean steamers. It is lmpossiblc to carry a well equipped engineer’s shop on board such vessels, and, moreover, ordinary machine tools can not readily be moved about and applied in Confined spaces. Since ever? large steamer is now supplied with electric light machinery, it would bo easy to carry the current to any corner of the ship, no matter how remote or cramped it might be, and utilize it for actuating tools run by electric motors. A portable electric drill, for instance, could SSesEeadily have been used for boring the holes in the shaft of the Umbria, and the task could have been accomplished in one-fifth of the time with very little exertion on the part of the engineers. Such a drill can be used in confined spaces where there is scarcely room for a man to stand in. Many of these appliances of modern power and dimensions arc in use in engineers’ shops, and they prove an immense saving. Instead of bringing a boiler, cylinder, shaft or any other heavy piece of machinery to a fixed machine, portable drills are carried to the spot of application. and no other condition but a pair of wires is necessary to convey the motive power from the generator to the motor. These machines are efficient and inexpensive, and they ought to form, a part of every steamer's tool stores. Numerous mechanical operations are being con tinually performed on steamships which involve the mc.-it laboring hand labor, and which cun be done in far less time and at a nominal cost, besides with a much greater effectiveness through the medium o? electricity.