OIL-DRIVEN BATTLESHIPS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25, 30 January 1912, Page 3

OIL-DRIVEN BATTLESHIPS.

REMARKABLE AMERICAN DJESIGN. The two battleships, Texas and Now York, which have recently been laid down for the United States Navy will, wrjfes the London Telegraph's naval correspondent, bo unique vessels of their sizo and power, in that they will be driven by means of oil, and no coal will be carried. Unlike most of the new men-of-war of other fleets, those ships will not bo fitted with turbines, but will have reciprocating engines of a new typo, which, it is calculated, aro about; 30 per cent, more economical at cruising speeds than turbines, and cost about the same to run at high speed. > The Engineering Department of the United States Navy expresses itself highly pleased -with the results whioh have been obtained during a long series of trials. The machinery designed for these tvo battleships marks, it is claimed, a_ distinct advance over ' any previous machinery in America* or any other country. fAs com. pared with the new United States battleship Delaware, of equal power, tho machinery weights in the boiler compartments have been reduced by 300 tons, o^ about 30 per cent. The length of iho space required for boilers has been reduced by one-half, and tho fire-room forco is one-half that_ required for the Delaware. Tho tactieul qualities of the -vessels have been improved by diverging tho shafts from aft forward, this being made possible through a radical change in the arrangement of engine-room^ auxiliaries. Each main engine will bo fitted with two condensers, instead or one, as heretofore, and provision is made for running on one condenser. By reducing the weights in the boiler-rooms it has been possible greatly to inorease tho armour protection of these b&tloships, and the boilers will be grouped under one funnel, thus clearingtho upper deck and improving the aro of train of the turrets. It is thus evident that the new vessels, with only one funnel, will be remarkable additions to the American fleet. Moreover, each ship will mount ten 14-in gunsthrowing a shell of 14001b— and twenty sin quickfirers. The former will bo placed in five elliptical turrets on tho centre line, so as to enable them all to be trained on either broadside, while ahead or astern four guns will bear. These ve&sels, owing to the economy of weight in tho enginerooms, will be well protected by armour, behind which the sin guns will be carried.

By the death of General Hutte and his wife a fortune of twelve millions sterling is waiting to be claimed. Mrs. Hutte, who is a French woman by birth —her maiden name was Marmaudin— died in France, and the fortune is in Canada. There are «aid to be threa heivt, *ud thcte urs now to ptMauute , thfiir claintJ. ■ - ,