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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. L. No. 1293 



has surpassed it in tlie economy of coal, 

 and it realizes to the fullest extent "Watt's 

 ideal of the expansion of steam from the 

 boiler to the lowest vapor pressure obtain- 

 able in the condenser. 



Among the minor improvements which 

 in recent years have conduced to a higher 

 efficiency in turbines are the more accurate 

 curvature of the blades to avoid eddy losses 

 in the steam, the raising of the peripheral 

 velocities of the blades to nearly the 

 velocity of the steam impinging upon them, 

 and details of construction to reduce leak- 

 ages to a minimum. In turbines of 20,000- 

 30,000 h. p., 82 per cent, of the available 

 energy in the steam is now obtainable as 

 break-horse-power; and with a boiler effi- 

 ciency of 85 per cent, the thermodynamic 

 efficiency from the fuel to the electrical 

 output of the alternator has reached 23 per 

 cent., and shortly may reach 28 per cent., 

 a result rivalling the efficiency of internal- 

 combustion engines worked by producer- 

 gas. 



During the twenty years immediately 

 preceding the war turbo-generators had in- 

 creased in size from 500 kilowatts to 25,000 

 kilowatts, and the consumption of steam 

 had fallen from 17 pound per kw.-hour to 

 10.3 pound per kw.-hour. Turbines have 

 become the recognized means of generating 

 electricity from steam on a large scale, 

 although they have not superseded the 

 Watt engine for pumping mines or the 

 drawing of coal, except in so far as it is a 

 means for generating electricity for these 

 purposes. In the same period the engine- 

 power in the mercantile marine had risen 

 from 3,900 of the King Edward to 75,000 

 of the Mauretania. 



As regards the Royal Navy, the engine- 

 power of battleships prior to the war had 

 increased from 12,000 i.h.p., to 30,000 s.h.p., 

 wliile the speed advanced from 17 knots to 

 23 knots, and during the war, in ships of the 

 Queen Elizabeth class, the power amounted 



to 75,000 s.h.p., with a speed of 25 knots.- In 

 cruisers similar advances were made. The 

 i.h.'p. of the Po7verfid was 25,000, while the 

 s.h.p. of the Queen Mary was 78,000, with 

 a speed of 28 knots. During the war the 

 power obtained with geared turbines in the 

 Courageous class was 100,000 s.h.p., with a 

 speed of 32 knots, the 'maximum power 

 transmitted through one gear-wheel being 

 25,000 h.p., and through one pinion 15,500 

 h.p.; while in destroyers speeds up to 39 

 knots have been obtained. The aggregate 

 horse-power of war and mercantile tur- 

 bined vessels throughout the world is now 

 about 35,000,000. 



These advances in power and speed have 

 been made possible mainly by the suc- 

 cessive increase in economy and diminution 

 of weight derived from the replacement of 

 reciprocating engines by turbines direct- 

 coupled to the propellers, and later by the 

 introduction of reduction gearing between 

 the turbines and the propellers ; also hy the 

 adoption of water-tube boilers and of oil- 

 fuel. With tliese advances the names of 

 Lord Fisher, Sir William White, and Sir 

 Henry Oram will always be associated. 



The Work of Sir William White— Wiih 

 the great work of the Royal Navy fresh in 

 our minds, we can not but recall the prom- 

 inent part taken by the late Sir William 

 White in its construction. His sudden 

 death, when president-elect for 1913, lost 

 to the nation and to the association the 

 services of a great naval architect who 

 possessed remarkable powers of prevision 

 and dialectic. He was Chief Constructor 

 to the Adimiralty from 1885 to 19t)l, and 

 largely to him was dne the efficiency of our 

 vessels in the great war. 



White often referred to the work of 

 Brunei as the designer of the Great 

 Eastern, and spoke of him as the originator 

 of the cellular construction of the bottoms 

 of ships, since universally adopted, as a 

 means of strengthening the hull and for ob- 



