AN ELECTRICALLY PROPELLED FIREPROOF PASSENGER 



STEAMER. 



By William T. Donnelly, Esq., and George A. Orrok, Esq., Members. 



[Read at the twentieth general meeting of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, held in 



New York, November 21 and 22, 1912.] 



Historically speaking, the marine transportation of passengers in power- 

 propelled ships commenced on the Hudson River in August, 1807, with the 

 voyage of the Clermont from New York to Albany. This vessel was 150 

 feet long by 13 feet beam and was propelled by an engine purchased by 

 Robert Fulton from James Watt, and the real invention of Fulton consisted 

 in the design and construction of the transmission machinery whereby the 

 power of the engine was applied to paddle-wheels, one on either side of the 

 boat. The amount of power thus applied was about 25 horse-power, and 

 the time required to make the trip from New York to Albany with this boat 

 was thirty-seven hours. 



It is perhaps worthy of remark that to-day there are on the Hudson 

 River passenger boats running from New York to Albany 384 feet in length 

 and using approximately 6,000 horse-power, making the run of 140 miles 

 from New York to Albany in nine hours and carrying 5,500 passengers. 

 This is the greatest number of passengers that can be carried on any vessel 

 in the world, and it is not too much to state that these boats represent the 

 very last word and the highest skill in naval architecture to which man has 

 attained. 



Having made this contrast so creditable to American invention and 

 skill, it is desirable to make another for which no credit can be claimed. 

 Within twenty-five years after the construction of the steamer Clermont, 

 there was fully developed the American type of walking beam engine, 

 comprising a single low-pressure steam cylinder, a connecting rod, walking 

 beam and pitman operating a crank-shaft across the boat with paddle- 

 wheels on either end. Steam was furnished by low-pressure boilers at 

 approximately 30 pounds per square inch and delivered from the cylinder 

 to a surface condenser, the air pump for which was operated from the walking 

 beam of the main engine. Strange as it may seem, in one particular class 

 of service this engine has persisted practically without modification to the 

 present day. We refer to the class of steamers used for the short summer 

 season, exclusively for carrying passengers and known as excursion boats. 



There are in this harbor, at the present time, twelve or fifteen steamers 

 of this class which are from thirty-five to fifty years old. The largest and 



