UNION OIL COMPANY OF CALIFORNIA’S TANK STEAMER LA BREA. 197 
consist of a number of rolled steel plates, each 1 inch thick and thinned out near the 
center in order to give a certain degree of flexibility, thus insuring equal distribution 
of the work through the total face of the teeth. This construction has been found 
not only to give smoothness and lack of noise in operation, but has also resulted in a 
great reduction in the wear of the gears and pinions. 
Slip couplings are provided between the high-speed gears and low-speed pin- 
ions in order to prevent any movement of the main thrust shaft being transmitted 
to the turbine. 
The turbine bearings and gears are supplied with oil under pressure of about 
10 pounds. The oil is circulated by means of steam pumps which take oil from the 
main tank, where it is first forced through a strainer and then through a cooler be- 
fore being delivered to the turbine bearings and the spray nozzles delivering oil to 
the gears. Oil is also supplied under pressure to the various bearings of the gears 
and pinions. 
The complete weight of the turbine and reduction gear, including all parts for 
the throttle valve and thrust shaft coupling, is about 110,000 pounds. 
The electric cargo pumping system is the result of much labor and study on the 
part of Mr. O. B. Kibele, General Superintendent of Transportation for the Union 
Oil Company of California, who, with the able assistance of the San Francisco 
office of the General Electric Company, perfected all of the details. The writer is 
indebted to both for much of the material worked into this paper. 
The installation consists of twenty-two Ideal 4-inch rotary pumps, built by the 
Union Tool Company, Torrance, California (Figs. 7 to 9, Plates 115 to 117), and 
are designed especially for handling highly viscous oils, molasses and creosote, and 
are also fitted with a steam jacket for handling asphaltum. Each pump can deliver 
350 gallons per minute against a total head of 350 feet at 200 revolutions per min- 
ute. The pumps are secured in the bottom of each compartment of the vessel, port 
and starboard, to brackets that are integral with the tanks, and are driven by 40- 
horse-power, 3-phase, 60-cycle, 220-volt motors. The discharge line for the three 
small tanks forward have nine 4-inch discharge gates, while the separate discharge 
line for the remaining tanks have fourteen 6-inch discharge gates. 
The motors are located on the upper deck contained in a watertight and gas 
proof casing (Figs. 10 and 11, Plates 118 and 119). The drive to the pumps is 
through a set of bevel reduction gears and a vertical shaft which transmits the 
power through flexible couplings to the pumps. 
The shaft is entirely enclosed in a casing which serves as an oil reservoir, so 
that all of the shaft bearings and the pump gears are operated in an oil bath. 
The pumps are each fitted with enclosed carbonized spiral gears, top and bot- 
tom, and operate with a minimum of noise. The vertical-drive shaft is hung on a 
ball thrust bearing contained in the gear case. They are fitted with 6-inch suctions 
and 6-inch discharges, so arranged that each pump can take suction from either or 
both compartments, port and starboard, at the same time, or independently. Cargo 
may also be discharged with one pump or as many pumps as can be put into oper- 
