FIREPROOF PASSENGER STEAMER. 177 



gives for the machinery weights a figure of between .20 and .25 tons per 

 indicated horse-power. 



The coal consumption of vessels of the type of the Grand Republic is 

 not far from 3.25 pounds per indicated horse-power under test conditions. 

 With the ordinary running it would necessarily be larger. The vessel here 

 described should, under test, give results approaching 1.5 pounds of coal 

 per indicated horse-power hour, and under ordinary operating conditions the 

 saving in coal alone would probably amount to about 2 pounds per indicated 

 horse-power hour. 



Allowing steaming thime of ten hours at full power per day for one 

 hundred days, corresponding to the summer excursion season, the saving 

 in coal would amount to 3,000 tons, which at $3 per ton would mean a saving 

 of $9,000, and this amount capitalized at 10 per cent would warrant an 

 additional investment of $90,000, which, it is believed, would more than 

 cover the difference between the cost of the present type of boat and the 

 one here presented. 



Besides this saving in fuel there would be an additional economy in 

 the matter of oil and general maintenance charges incidental to operating 

 marine engines. 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. Andrew Fletcher, Member of Council:— VJ^ all should thank Mr. Don- 

 nelly for his progressive thought and the time that he has put on this paper. But 

 this is not, however, an entirely new subject. It has been under thought for some 

 time, and the nearest approach to an electrically propelled vessel of any large 

 power is the Jupiter that is yet to be tried. 



It seems to me that Mr. Donnelly, in what he has just stated as to the coal per 

 horse-power per hour, is basing his cost of power entirely on land practice, and when 

 that power is applied to revolve three screws on a boat as described in his paper, 

 I do not believe the electrical propulsion will work out, economically and commer- 

 cially, as well as a much simpler installation of motive power, and it will take more 

 power per ton of displacement to drive this excursion boat than if it had well-designed 

 feathering paddle-wheels. 



Mr. Donnelly has particularly spoken of the excursion class of steamers, and 

 made a slap at the old beam .engine, stating that there has not been any advance 

 since twenty-five years after the Clermont was built; in other words, that the engine 



