208 DISCUSSION ON TWO PRECEDING PAPERS. 
Mr. Emmer:—In the case that I mentioned we made a proposition on the 
equipment of this vessel—it was made without knowledge as to whether it was to be 
seriously considered or not—but we made it in good faith, exactly as we would 
if we had to contract for it. Our price for this 17,500 horse-power equipment was 
$220,000, and from the best information I can collect concerning the cost of recipro- 
cating engines in such a ship, I think it is at least $50,000 less than they could be 
built for. 
Mr. WETHERBEE :—I ask whether the price named was a special price, in view 
of introducing the machinery, or actually based on the cost? 
Mr. Emmet :—That price was at a rate of profit considerably better than the 
average profit of the General Electric Company on the turbines manufactured for 
the past three years. 
Mr. WILLIAM T. DONNELLY, Member:—There are reasons, business and other- 
wise, for the installation or non-installation of turbines, and I should like to add just 
a little information to what Mr. Emmet has said. Though my business is somewhat 
different, I have given a great deal of study to the application of electricity to marine 
work, and I believe we will all see the ultimate triumph of electricity as a motive 
power at sea. 
Sometime ago I designed a floating dry-dock and was negotiating with an 
engineer in Paris, who thought he could put his hand on an order for one and I 
took the matter up with the steel people here. They said, ‘‘ Yes, we know the cost 
abroad and think we can handle the business, but we have put in figures to handle 
similar business and failed to get it when the price was right. Will you ask your 
engineering friend if the business will be placed strictly on the price?’’ The pre- 
liminary negotiations for the transaction were completed on that basis and the 
engineer in Paris frankly admitted that he had obtained information that it would 
not be placed strictly according to the price. We know that here and in foreign 
countries there are large business aggregations that are manufacturing and con- 
structing many of these appliances and they push them on the business end some- 
times to the exclusion of engineering considerations. 
I think that the building of the ships referred to and the introduction of steam 
turbines for propulsion in contradistinction to electric motors was strictly a busi- 
ness enterprise, and as such was perfectly legitimate. On the other hand, it is 
entirely proper for engineers in a society such as our own, to criticize such business 
methods, particularly when they are brought forcibly before us in engineering papers 
which would seek to make them strictly engineering matters. As to the ultimate 
outcome, I have not the slightest doubt. The steam turbine as a generator of 
power will probably never be excelled, and it is equally or more positively a fact 
that, as a means of utilizing power, the electric motor will come to its own in marine 
work as it has for nearly all other purposes. 
