SHIP OF THE FUTURE.

Bush Advocate, Volume XXI, Issue 94, 19 October 1908, Page 6

SHIP OF THE FUTURE.

NOISELESS AND SMOKELESS

NO STOKERS AND NO FUNNELS

A new era in sliip propulsion is foreshadowed : by, the successful working of a suction gas engine on board H.M.S. Rattler.

The principal advantages *)| the new engine, as explained by a Daily Mail special correspondent who visited the ship, are that no stokers are required, and that cheap coal, in place of best steam coal, can be used. With the same amount of coal consumption, 50 per cent, more power

is obtained. The ship fitted- with the suction gas engine has no boilers and requires iio funnels. -It moves noiselessly and smokelessly.

The special correspondent writes : Arriving at Greenock, I commenced my se'arcli for this famous ship. What I was not prepared to see was a vessel obsolete at least twenty-five years ago. However, "by this time I had become aware that she was the 'exercising ship of the Royal Naval Volunteers, commanded by that enthiTsiastic and practical seaman the Marquis of Graham. After some considerable difficulty, I got on board, to find that there was a hitch in the arrangements, or rather several hitches. In the first place, something was being dono to the novel suction gas engine which is on its trial here; and in the next, the noble commanded had not arrived . : But I was shown . over the ship, admiring speechlessly the hand-steer-ing gear under the bridge, where the" helmsman, ludicrously like the donkey pursuing a " bunch, of carrots suspended before him on the end of a stick" , steers" glaring into a meat safe containing viands for cabin consump^ tion: Surely extremes meet in that she has the latest form of propulsion and. such a primitive method of di-

rection. At 4.30 p.m. Lord Graham and the Bishop of Stepney arrived, having been since 5 a.m. getting here from Brodick Bay, a distance of fortyseven miles, constituting a record almost. We have now got under way, the volunteers skipping round the capstan in the genuine old nautical, style, and I felt inclined to tip them a stave of the old cajjstaal chanty "Sally Brown." But the great interest — iinmjense interest, I man say ■ — in this antiquated vessel lies in the . fact that Messrs Beardmore and Company have succeeded in demonstrating in her the entire practicability of •the suction gas producer engine for ship propulsion.

NO NEED FOR BEST COAL

Here is this clumsy old vessel, exceedingly foul, being driven by a 550---horse-power engine at the rate of nearly eleven knots at a cost of threepence per ton-mile. The old, horrible conditions of stoking are abolished. The necessity for using the best coal will one day no longer exist. Slack or dross coal will be utilised in the most complete manner, and in so easy a f ashiolT that a child may feed the producer.

There is another point that can by no" means be passed over, which is that no funnels are necessary, for draught is not needed, and the ex-

Mrs S. H. Walker, 230 Humfffay street, Ballarat, Vie, writes; "Have used Chamberlain's Cough Remedy for four years, and know it is excellent. Have found it most beneficial. Can recommend it to anyone. In fact have done so. many times, and it has accomplished good results in every case." For sale everywhere.

llSmst may be led outboard at the

side or under the stern of the ship, wherever it is most convenient. It does not need an engineer or a prophet to see the immense possibilities of this new power, and while, of course, it must not be forgotten that it is as yet, so far as ship-propulsion is concerned, only just out of the experimental stage, it may equally be borne in mind that the great fact of suction gas being perfectly adapted for this purpose has been abundantly demonstrated. ..

I feel the more gratified at being the first Pressman to ; gp to sea in a suction gasrpropelled ship, because of a conversation I had with the man who was chief engineer of the Ophir three years ago. I naively asked him what he considered would be the motive power of the future—electricity or steamy— and he answered without a mbment!s . hesitation,; ' 'Neither ; suction' gas," whereupon I had to learn what suction gas was. The next thing, of course, if this form of power goes steadily on _to perfection, will be the difficulty with the tilrbines, since it is as yet impossible to see how gas" could be : utilised in" them. But that does not in the least matter to the engineer nor to the seeker after cheap power.

I cannot close this despatch without adding- a word of admiration for the appearence of that place which is usually so terrible— the. stokehold. On board this vessel really there is no stokehold. There is a huge, airy compartment, with two or three great upright cylinders in it, not at all hot, and quite clean, and free also from many other objectionable concomitants of stokeholds generally, especially the hideous uproar.

Here there are only a deep, recurring cough — the exhaust — which, may be heard by putting the ear to the side of the cylinder, and a couple of men standing about, with a somewhat blase air, as if- really in need of occupation. ' Well, -if the suction gas engine only does away with the stoker it will desei-ve to rank with the most humane of scientific achievements, for I verily believe that such an occu-pation-.is unfit for any human being, white, black, or yellow. But there is the Rattler gliding noiselessly and smokelessly off into the sunset, and I wish her the best of luck in her scientific and humane mission.