864 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 413. 



Annual Report of the Chief of the Bureau of 

 Steam, Engineering of the Navy Depart- 

 ment, 1902. Washington, D. C, Gov't 

 Print. 1902. 1 vol. 8vo. Pp. 192; 

 many plates, illustrations and tables of 

 data. 



Eear-Admiral Melville, over whose signa- 

 ture this report- appears, as for a number of 

 years past, presents to the Secretary of the 

 Navy a statement of the progress of his de- 

 partment of the navy during the preceding 

 ofHeial year which, as usual, gives an ad- 

 mirable exposition of the extent to which 

 scientific method and scientific processes and 

 the apparatus of applied science find place in 

 that now complicated and imislicated machine, 

 the modern war-vessel. 



The inspection and test of materials for the 

 machinery of the navy have come to be so 

 large and important a division of this work 

 that two laboratories, one at Bethlehem, the 

 other at Pittsburg, are occupied constantly in 

 the chemical and physical analysis and tests 

 required by the bureau. The young officers of 

 the navy are given systematic training in this 

 work. Sixty millions of pounds of steel were 

 inspected and tested last year for use in con- 

 struction. 



A large laboratory for engineering is called 

 for, a plan already eiidorsed favorably by the 

 Department and by the naval committees of 

 Congress. Such an organization has been 

 established by the German Admiralty at Char- 

 lottenburg, and it has been found an impor- 

 tant auxiliary, both as an aid in work in 

 progress and as affording facilities for impor- 

 tant researches in the applied sciences auxil- 

 iary to the work of the naval establishment. 

 Experience shows that only systematic and 

 scientifically expert work in investigation can 

 be relied upon to insure the government 

 against serious errors and large wastes and 

 in maintenance of the navy in a maximum 

 state of efiiciency. ' The time has come, when 

 the Naval Academy should be primarily an 

 engineering school,' and particularly as post- 

 graduate work is coming to be more and more 

 important. The Director of the Laboratory 

 is expected to be one of the members of the 

 old Naval Engineer Corps, several of whom 



have had large experience, both as practi- 

 tioners and as members of faculties in tech- 

 nological institutions and in universities sus- 

 taining professional engineering schools. In- 

 vestigations are already imperative regarding 

 utilization of liquid fuels, the availability of 

 the steam-turbine, the form and size of pro' 

 pellers, the special adaptations of electric 

 energy and of electric machinery to naval 

 purposes, the use of the storage battery,, the 

 corrosion of boiler- and condenser-tubes, the 

 best forms of water-tube boilers, the use of 

 systems of transmission of energy by use of 

 compressed air, the balancing of marine en- 

 gines, the adaptation of the gas-engine to 

 marine work, and a multitude of minor mat- 

 ters. 



A post-graduate course of instruction at 

 the Naval Academy is urged as an advance 

 of steadily and rapidly increasing importance, 

 mainly in scientific and professional engineer- 

 ing departments. The naval ' War College ' 

 and the army schools of artillery and of 

 other branches of the service are examples of 

 already organized courses of this nature. The 

 extension of the system is as important for 

 the navy as has proved to be its long-estab- 

 lished operation in civil professional schools 

 for the industries of the nation. 



A considerable amount of experimental in- 

 vestigation has been carried on by the Bureau 

 during the past official year, and, in the study 

 of the problem of adaptation of the water- 

 tube boiler to naval purposes and of that of 

 employing oil as fuel, especially interesting 

 and fruitful work has been done. The water- 

 tube boiler is evidently needed as a constivuc- 

 tion peculiarly well fitted for war- vessels, be- 

 cause of its comparatively small volume and 

 weight for a given power, its safety under the 

 high steam-pressures now coming into use 

 and its fitness for use under emergency condi- 

 tions of naval conflicts. Several forms are 

 now employed and others are being tested as 

 to safety, durability and reliability, with a 

 view to the enlargement of the limitations 

 now hampering choice. The use of fuel-oils 

 is found to be entirely practicable and eco- 

 nomical for general purpose, but there still 

 remains a question whether the structural dif- 



