April 22, 1920] 



NATURE 



235 



Progress in Naval Engineering. 

 "^HE association between the Royal Navy and \ rendered possible. The machinery weight is, more- 



the Institute of Metals has always been 

 close. The first president was the late Sir 

 William White, for many years the chief naval 

 constructor, while the fourth to hold office was 

 \'icc-Admiral Sir Henry Oram, late Engineer-in- 

 Chief of the Navy. The institute has now elected 

 Vice-Admiral Sir George Goodwin as its new presi- 

 dent, and thus for the second time chosen the 

 Engineer-in-Chief of the Fleet as its chief executive 

 officer. 



The valuable address delivered by Sir George 

 Goodwin on assuming office dealt very appropri- 

 ately with progress in naval engineering, and the 

 way in which this has been, and may be, still fur- 

 ther aided by metallurgical research. As he pointed 

 out, the British Navy is the largest individual user 

 in the world of the principal non-ferrous metals, 

 such as copper, zinc, lead, aluminium, nickel, tin, 

 and their numerous alloys. The standards set by 

 the Admiralty for most of the metals required by it 

 have always been high, and to be on the Admiralty 

 list in the supply of such materials has always 

 been regarded by manufacturers as a valuable 

 asset. 



Sir George Goodwin remarked that the standing 

 problem for naval designing engineers for the last 

 thirty years or more has been the reduction of 

 machinery weight and fuel consumption with 

 increased durability and trustworthiness. There 

 were days, however, when speed was not con- 

 sidered in the Navy to be of great importance, and 

 when steam power was used chiefly for auxiliary 

 purposes in getting in or out of harbour and in 

 calms. In those days the machinery of warships 

 was of very much the same type as that fitted 

 in contemporary merchant ships. Pressure for 

 advancement began when speed was recognised as 

 an essential condition of naval warfare, and the 

 never-ceasing demand since then for higher speeds 

 has resulted not only in the enormously increased 

 power of machinery for the swift war vessels of 

 to-day, but also in a greatly reduced weight of 

 machinery and an increased degree of trustworthi- 

 ness. 



The present-day problem, as outlined by Sir 

 George Goodwin, deserves to be stated in his own 

 language, and is as follows : — 



In warship design offensive and defensive powers, 

 speed, and radius of action are all tactical factors which 

 must be taken into account. Their relative importance 

 varies accordingly with the type of vessel and her 

 intended service, but in all designs, once the separate 

 values are allocated to these features, it is essential 

 that the weight and space required for the propelling 

 machinery should be as small as possible consistent 

 with maintaining the desired power and degree of 

 reliability and durability. Anything that can be saved 

 in this direction will react on the design of the vessel 

 as a whole, and lead to a smaller displacement and a 

 higher speed, or, alternatively, to reduced engine power 

 and lower fuel consumption for the same speed ; or, 

 again, on the same displacement greater offensive or 

 defensive powers or a larger radius of action will be 



NO. 



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over, closely allied with the steam consumption of the 

 engines at full power, and any reduction in this 

 respect is reflected in the weight of the boiler and 

 condenser installation with their auxiliaries. 



The position reached as a result of cumulative 

 endeavour along these lines is that in the latest 

 British battle-cruiser it is hoped to obtain 

 144,000 shaft-horse-power on a total machinery 

 weight (including water) of 4750 tons — i.e. at the 

 rate of 74 lb. per shaft-horse-power ; while our 

 most recent destroyers have frequently developed 

 more than 28,000 shaft-horse-power on a weight 

 of 32 lb. per shaft-horse-power. 



The new president then briefly reviewed the 

 successive steps which have led to this position. 

 He first directed attention to the application of 

 forced draft to naval boilers, which led by suc- 

 cessive stages to the water-tube boiler, and pointed 

 out that this was a time of trial with worries and 

 troubles which have rarely had an equal. Event- 

 ually, however, the difficulties were overcome. 

 Simultaneously with this development in boilers, 

 we passed through a stage of intense reduction in 

 engine weight by increasing the speed of revolu- 

 tion of the reciprocating engine. Following upon 

 this came the splendid realisation of Sir Charles 

 Parsons 's endeavours for many years in the pro- 

 duction of the steam turbine, which marked an 

 epoch in naval engineering. It was quickly turned 

 to account, and gave us a lead which has ever 

 since been maintained. Another direction of pro- 

 gress was in respect of the fuel used for power 

 development. For many years naval engineers had 

 directed their attention to the utilisation of oil, but 

 only as an auxiliary to coal. The experience 

 obtained, however, and particularly the progress 

 made in burning appliances, were such that it was 

 demonstrated that oil could be used as the sole fuel 

 when security of supply could be ensured. This 

 done, the combination of oil fuel, water-tube 

 boiler, and turbine became the definite policy for 

 the Navy, and finally determined the superiority 

 which we obtained. The British Navy was the 

 first in the field, and its designs have been adopted 

 in principle by other navies. The most conspicu- 

 ous instance of the successful performance of the 

 above combination was afforded by the expedition 

 of the Invincible and the Inflexible to the Falk- 

 lands in the late war and Its satisfactory result. 



In the second half of his address Sir George 

 Goodwin dealt with the ways in which the work 

 of the institute could be made to serve the 

 advance of naval engineering, and considered 

 briefly the problems and difficulties \vhlch centre 

 round the use of condenser tubes, turbine blading, 

 propeller-blade materials, bearing metals, and 

 fast-running heavy oil engines. 



Condenser tubes constitute the most important 

 instance of the use of non-ferrous materials In the 

 Navy. Anyone who desires to become acquainted 

 with the perplexities of Lord Jelllcoe during 

 the late war caused by the corrosion of condenser 



