FIREPROOF PASSENGER STEAMER. 171 



By referring to the general design elevation it will be seen that the vessel 

 is to have three full decks and that the pilot-house and officers' quarters 

 comprise a fourth. 



The propelling device or paddles of the Grand Republic are 38 feet in 

 diameter by about 14 feet face and occupy a space extending through three 

 decks on each side of the boat of about 40 feet by 16 feet. The plan here 

 submitted makes this additional space available for passengers and also 

 makes a much superior interior arrangement possible. 



The boiler space is divided by watertight bulkheads into two fire-rooms 

 and the boiler casing is carried up through the center of the superstructure. 

 The engine-room space is also surrounded by steel housing in such a way 

 as to prevent the possibility of steam escaping into the passenger space. 



The superstructure and decks are to be built entirely of light steel, no 

 wood being used except as a guard strip on the outside, and with this con- 

 struction it will be practically impossible to start or maintain a fire in any 

 part of the boat. 



The matter of fire risk on passenger steamers has been previously 

 discussed in this Society. At that time it was contended by some of our 

 members that the combustible nature of cargo would always prevent the 

 possibility of fireproof construction. In this connection we wish to point out 

 that the class of steamers herein referred to carries no cargo whatever and 

 that there is not the slightest practical or engineering difficulty in making 

 the construction such that the creation or maintenance of a dangerous fire 

 will be impossible. 



Attention is called to the detailed design for the steel deck in which 

 very light plates are used running across the vessel, with their edges flanged 

 and united to steel carlins. The upper surface of the plating is to be covered 

 with canvas which makes a watertight and weather-proof joint where the 

 plates meet. The carUns are to be supported by 6-inch steel I-beam stringers 

 carried on steel pipe stanchions. It should be here mentioned that these 

 steel-pipe stanchions and steel stringers under carlins are now in use on the 

 highest class of river passenger boats. 



Regarding the turbine electric power generating plant and the adapta- 

 tion of electric motors for the propulsion of this steamer, it is very apparent 

 that this marks but the beginning of the broadest application of electricity 

 to marine transportation. It took from 1765, when the steam-engine was 

 perfected by James Watt, to 1807 to adapt it to the propulsion of ships, and 

 it is not in any way surprising that it has taken from 1876, about the time 

 of the invention of power transmission by electricity, to 191 2 to realize the 

 possibilities of its application to marine propulsion. 



