198 THE APPLICABILITY OF ELECTRICAL PROPULSION TO 



with it. If this test applies to the Jupiter's machinery it certainly is an unqualified 

 success. In particular is this true if the matter is referred to the coal passers in 

 the fireroom, who have to handle much less coal than do the men on sister ships. 

 The ship can make her contract speed of 14 knots without using forced draft at all. 



DISCUSSION. 



The Chairman : — This most interesting paper is ready for discussion, and I trust 

 there will be a very full and free expression of opinion. (A long pause.) It looks very 

 much as if our engines of discussion needed warming up. I see before me a gentleman who 

 has been most closely identified with this work, and greatly interested in it. He is also gen- 

 erally accredited as the sponsor for this mode of ship propulsion and entitled to most of 

 the credit for results achieved. If he does not volunteer to come forward, I am afraid we 

 will have to call on him by name. At other meetings of this Society, when questions of elec- 

 tric propulsion have been under discussion, much of our best information and most illumina- 

 ting discussion has come from a member of this Society, whose career began at the U. S. 

 Naval Academy, and whose subsequent successful work in civil life has shed luster on his 

 alma mater. I think I may safely call on Mr. Emmet to give us an expression of opinion 

 on the matter covered by the paper before us. 



Mr. W. L. R. Emmet, Member of Council: — My recent utterances before this Society 

 on the subject of electric propulsion have consisted largely in railings at the officials of the 

 Navy and others for not adopting it. But I no longer have that ground for complaint, inas- 

 much as the Navy Department has come out very handsomely in favor of electric propulsion 

 lately. The officers of the Bureau of Steam Engineering have proceeded with great care and 

 thoroughness to study the operations of the Jupiter. Admiral Griffin has sent his principal 

 officers of the Bureau to see the Jupiter, one as commander and another to inspect her trials, 

 and ever)d:hing possible has been done to bring out the facts and all the interesting compari- 

 sons, and having made this investigation. Admiral Griffin has acted with positiveness and 

 without reservation in his recommendations to the Department concerning the adoption of 

 this method of propulsion for the battleship California. 



The use of electricity for the propulsion of a ship is suggested simply by the superiority 

 of the high-speed turbine, superiority not only in economy but in simplicity and in weight. 

 It was about six years ago that I first advocated electric propulsion of warships, but long be- 

 fore that I and many others had thought of it as a possibility which might or might not be 

 worth pursuing. I have always thought that there are thousands of possible engineering en- 

 terprises which a skilful engineer can develop to a high state of usefulness. The merit lies 

 not in thinking the idea, but in bringing it to a thoroughly practical and useful application. 



It was about the year 1897 or 1898 when we first made our arrangements with Mr. 

 Curtis to build the Curtis turbines, or at least begin to experiment with the Curtis turbines. 

 When the contract was drawn with Mr. Curtis, Mr. E. W. Rice, of the General Electric Com- 



