AN IMPROVED TURBINE

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13546, 6 October 1909, Page 7

AN IMPROVED TURBINE

CABLE NEWS.

SAVES COST AND INCREASES

POWER

UaitfrJ Frees Association— By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.

NEW YORK. October 4

The "New York Times'' announces that Rear-Admiral Melville, lato Chief Engineer of the United States Navy, Mr A. McAlpino and Mr Georco Westinghouse, have jointly invented a reduction gear which will enable marine turbines to run at full speed while the propellers revoh-jj at the nrojier rate to produce the greatest driving power, thus reducing tho wastage of steam. The invention enables the stccm to accomplish 15 per cent, more work than under previous conditions. The saving will amount to £400,000 in the engine and boiler rooms of a single 40,000-ton vessel, and 5000 tons will bo freed for cargo space. The invention overcomes tho diiiiculty of correctly adjusting the gear teeth, by means of n steel floating frame on which the pinion is mounted. This frame is sufficiently elastic to enable the pinion to adjust itself instantaneously to any changes of alignment.

Several marine engineers, with a great deal of experience witn turbinepropeilcd vessels, when shown the above cable message, were very sceptical regarding several of the bald statements and "bold assertions contained therein. They said that the statements opened up a vast problem in marine engineering. There was no <lata to enable them to express a definite opinion. Snorn of all technicalities, the chief point was that turbines were efficient and economical at high speeds. The "reduction gear" was for the purpose ot enabling the turbines to be driven at the fiigli speed, and the propeller, by means of the gearing, to be driven at a slower speed, in which case a propeller with greater diameter and pitch could be employed. For example, a turbine running at, say, 600 revolutions per minute could bo geared to a shaft driving a screw at, say, 100 revolutions per minute, in which case a larger propeller with a greater pitch could be used than if the turbine at GOO revolutions drove, directly, the shaft and propeller at the same speed. Marine engines driving geared shafts are not by any means a new idea, but th-* difficulty which lias always arisen is that the gearing would not withstand the uneven strains experienced at eea owing to "racing" and other causes. The cable message states that the- new invention overcomes this difficulty. The engineers, questioned by the reporter, said that the inventors were doubtless working with models, but tho results and data thus obtained did not always apply in practice, and they were -therefore sceptical regarding the statement as to the savins which is claimed in the case of a 40,600-ton vessel. One of the engineers said that if the invention is all that is claimed for it, it should be especially suitable for cargo steamers and vessels of moderate epeeds, in that it would bo possible to have the combination of an efficient and economical high-speed turbine driving a slow-moving propeller and. ship.