THE SHIP'S FUNNELS.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18398, 3 June 1925, Page 13

THE SHIP'S FUNNELS.

I Two which have just been , launched have been fitted with threo | funnels each instead of the one- fun» ncl which was fitted in their sister j ships. The-change is curiously interesting, because it is mainly dictated ■by the human element and not by any special engineering necessity (writes a correspondent in the London "Daily Mail"). : Shore-living citizens who go to sea, like plenty of funnels in their ships. There is a queer idea abroad that the more funnels a ship has the faster she steams. The Central European emigrants have a deeply rooted belief that the safety of thb ship js determined by the number of funnels. It is a well-known fact in the shipping world that emigrants have refused to sail in certain ships because there were not enough funnels. The literature that had been shown to them in Cracow, P.rzcmysl, and Nijni showed a ship with three funnels, and they were not going by any other ship, by any ship that was not important enough to have more than one funnel. Modern engineering practice has ! made it possible, and indeed advanti ageons, to lead all the uptakes from [ the boiler-rooms up to one funnel. There is more than one modern liner i that has been equipped with extra funi nels that are simply dummies, put in/ ["by the architects for the sake of appearances or to meet the views of prospective passengers. There are only six four-funnelled merchant ships "in the world. The French -nary held the record for funnels with the armoured cruisers lienan and Miehekt. which had six funnels each. Several navies have four-fun-nelled cruisers, but the tendency has been to reduce the number. Motor-ships, contrary to expectation, are nearly all equipped with at least one funnel. This is because there are boilers, even though no steam is required to propel the ship. The boilers are used for the central heating system, for providing running hotwater throughout the ship, and as they arc oil-fired there must be a means of tarrying away the fiimcs.