THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 



completed a passage over the longer winter course, a 

 distance of 2,889 knots, in four days, fifteen hours, and 

 twenty-nine minutes, reducing the previous record by 

 twenty-nine minutes. 



When the Lusitania and Mauretania were completed 

 many short-sighted persons predicted that these vessels 

 would never be surpassed in size or speed. As if to 

 refute such predictions, however, the White Star Com- 

 pany at once began constructing two vessels, the Olym- 

 pic and Titanic, each with a displacement of one-fourth 

 more than the great Cunarders, and of overshadowing 

 proportions in everything save the matter of speed. 

 Against the Mauretania* s average twenty-six knot speed 

 the new boats are designed to make only twenty-one. 



These new boats are eight hundred and ninety feet 

 in length, as against the Lusitania' s seven hundred and 

 ninety. They are ninety-two feet in beam, and sixty- 

 two feet in molded depth. The roof of the pilot house 

 is seventy feet above the water. The maximum draft 

 is thirty-seven and a haK feet and the displacement 

 sixty thousand tons. 



They resemble the Great Eastern in that they have 

 two systems of engines. Two reciprocating engines 

 drive the two outer of the three screws, and the ex- 

 haust from these engines is utilized in a low-pressure 

 turbine engine, driving the center propeller. 



LIQUID FUEL 



Another step that has been taken to increase the effi- 

 ciency of the steam engine on ships, is the adoption of 



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