ALQUIST GEARING FOR SHIP PROPULSION. 183 
With gearing of the Alquist type we can use very small teeth without any danger 
of incurring excessive strains on individual teeth, which might involve risk of the 
development of fatigue cracks. In this connection it should be borne in mind that 
experiments have shown that the strongest steel, if subjected to periodic deflections, 
will break after a fiber strain of 20,000 pounds per square inch has been applied a 
million or more times. 
In the work which is now being done by the General Electric Company, gears 
of the type described are applied in three ways. First, a single reduction has been 
accomplished by engaging one solid pinion with a flexible gear of this type; second, 
by engaging a solid pinion with two flexible idlers, which idlers in turn engage with 
a solid large gear; and third, in a double reduction where a solid, high-speed pinion 
engages flexible gears on two counter shafts, these counter shafts carrying solid 
pinions, both of which engage a flexible gear on the same low-speed shaft. In these 
two latter applications the flexibility of the gears serves to equalize the loads between 
all of the driving points, and the use of a plurality of driving points on the large 
gear reduces the length of face necessary on that gear. These different methods of 
application are illustrated by diagrams in Fig. 2, Plate 101, and are also shown by 
the photographs and drawings of actual machines which are attached to this paper 
(Plates 102 to 108). 
In both of these cases where a single high-speed pinion drives two flexible 
gears, other very positive advantages are accomplished. The pinion is relieved of 
bending strains, and pressure on the high-speed bearings is avoided. 
Experiments have been made in Schenectady which carefully analyze the losses 
of high-speed gears under various conditions of load and pressure, and these ex- 
periments have indicated that low peripheral speeds are more efficient than high 
speeds. With solid gears, low speeds involve difficulties because they diminish pinion 
diameters and increase pinion lengths, thus complicating the troubles which may 
arise through deflection and torsion of pinions and pressure upon pinion bearings. 
Since the flexibility of Alquist gears enables us to compensate easily for all pos- 
sible degrees of torsional yield in the pinion, we can with such gears safely reduce pe- 
ripheral speeds by making the gears longer and of smaller diameter. Such reductions 
of diameter diminish weight and improve efficiency, and the fact that the Alquist 
method makes such reductions possible constitutes one of its important advantages. 
The table (Plate 99) shows a comparison of performances for two sister ships, 
the La Brea and the Los Angeles, operated by the Union Oil Company of Los 
Angeles. Both of these ships are new, carry similar cargoes, and burn the same fuel 
oil in the same boilers under similar conditions. The La Brea is fitted with our 
geared-turbine equipment, and the Los Angeles is fitted with triple expansion en- 
gines of the best type. The Los Angeles is equipped with steam-driven oil-handling 
pumps of the ordinary type, and the La Brea is fitted with a new arrangement of 
pumps driven from the upper deck by General Electric motors. The table illustrates 
the superiority of the oil-handling machinery as well as that which propels the ships. 
The horse-power hours given in this table are calculated from the propeller and hull 
