CHAPTER 1 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF NAVAL SHIPS 



The story of the development of naval ships 

 is the story of prime movers: oars, wind-filled 

 sails, reciprocating steam engines, steam tur- 

 bines, internal combustion engines, gas turbine 

 engines. It is also the story of the conversion 

 and utilization of energy: mechanical energy, 

 thermal energy, chemical energy, electrical 

 energy, nuclear energy. Seen in broader con- 

 text, the development of naval ships is merely 

 one fascinating aspect of man's long struggle 

 to control and utilize energy and thereby re- 

 lease himself from the limiting slavery of 

 physical labor. 



We have come a great distance in the 

 search for the better utilization of energy, 

 from the muscle power required to propel an 

 ancient Mediterranean galley to the vast re- 

 serves of power available in a shipboard nuclear 

 reactor. No part of this search has been easy; 

 progress has been slow, difficult, and often 

 beset with frustrations. And the search is far 

 from over. Even within the next few years, new 

 developments may drastically change our pres- 

 ent concepts of energy utilization. 



This chapter touches briefly on some of the 

 highlights in the development of naval ships. 

 In any historical survey, it is inevitable that a 

 few names will stand out and a few discoveries 

 or inventions will appear to be of crucial sig- 

 nificance. We may note, however, that our 

 present complex and efficient fighting ships 

 are the result not only of brilliant work by a 

 relatively small number of well known men but 

 also of the steady, continuing work of thousands 

 of lesser known or anonymous contributors who 

 have devised small but important improvements 

 in existing machinery and equipment. The primi- 

 tive man who invented the wheel is often cited 

 as an unknown genius; we might do well to 

 remember also the unknown genius who dis- 

 covered that wheels work better when they turn 

 in bearings. Similarly, the basic concepts 



involved in the design of steam turbines, internal 

 combustion engines, and gas turbine engines may 

 be attributed to a few men; but the innumerable 

 small improvements that have resulted in our 

 present efficient machines are very largely 

 anonymous. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF STEAM 

 MACHINERY 



One of the earliest steam machines of record 

 is the aeolipile developed about 2000 years ago 

 by the Greek mathematician Hero. This ma- 

 chine, which was actually considered more of a 

 toy or novelty than a machine, consisted of a 

 hollow sphere which carried four bent nozzles. 

 The sphere was free to rotate on the tubes that 

 carried steam from the boiler, below, to the 

 sphere. As the steam flowed out through the 

 nozzles, the sphere rotated rapidly in a direction 

 opposite to the direction of steam flow. Thus 

 Hero's aeolipile may be considered as the 

 world's first reaction turbine.^ 



Giovanni Battista della Porta's treatise on 

 pneumatics (1601) describes and illustrates a 

 device which utilizes steam pressure to force 

 water up from a separate vessel. In the same 

 treatise, the author suggests that the condensa- 

 tion of steam could be used to create a vacuum, 

 and that the vacuum could be utilized to draw 

 water upward from a lower level— a remarkably 

 sophisticated concept, for the time. 



Throughout the 17th century, many other de- 

 vices were suggested (and some of them built) 

 which attempted to utilize the motive power of 

 steam. In many instances the scientific princi- 

 ples were sound but the technology of the day 

 did not permit full development of the devices. 



Hero's aeolipile is illustrated in chapter 12 of this 

 text. 



