PRESENT MARINE ENGINES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12663, 17 September 1904, Page 5 (Supplement)

PRESENT MARINE ENGINES.

DOOMED BY SUCCESS OP THE TURBINE. So gradually that the change is almost unnoticed the great marine engines which j shake the ocean liners from stem to stern in their transatlantic voyages are giving way to the swift and silent turbine. j _ It is only a matter of time before all the! big passenger steamships which traverse the ocean will be equipped with the more speedy, more economic and money-saving device. It is only ten years since the Hon. Charles Parsons kid down his first practical turbine boat, the Turbinia. She was first seen in public at the Jubilee Naval Review in the Solent in 1897, when her extraordinary speed as she easily outdistanced the fastest launches created a sensation. Since then the new record-breaking Cunarders have been equipped, with turbine engines, which marks an epoch in the history ol transatlantic traffic. The Turbinia. was practically all engines. She was merely a. hull intended to prove the power of'the new motor. But the ocean steamships equipped with the device" are palatial passenger craft, calculated to stand the wear and tear of ocean storms. Although the general public is ignorant of the tremendous change going on in ocean transportation, to shipbuilders this change has been a startling surprise. rt is expected that the 800 ft Curonia, nowbeing built, will be capable of a speed of 25 knots, or almost 30 miles an hour.;. Mr. Parsons himself never doubted the ultimate application of the turbine engine to the biggest ocean steamers. He showed what could bo done with it in the two torpedo-boat destroyers, Cobra, and Viper. These boats each made 32 knots an' hour. The engines worked , perfectly, and now the Parsons Company are putting turbine engines into two second-class cruisers, iof heavy tonnage for the British Admiralty. That these cruisers will be the speediest of their class is beyond question. -' But speed is only one cf the advantages that the turbine engine possesses. The almost complete absence of vibration is on© of its great points of superiority over the ordinary reciprocating engine. r : << Another advantage possessed by the turbine is the comparatively small space it occupies. There is no smell of heated oil or machinery. lrTfuture times the space.occupied by the engines in the ordinary steamer will be available for cabin accommodation.. • •: . - . . - The Parsons marine steam turbine consists of a cylindrical case with numerous rings of inwardly projecting blades. Within this cj'linder, which is of variable internal diameter, is a shaft or spindle, and on this spindle are mounted blades projecting outwardly, by means of which the shaft is rotated. . ■ The steam enters the cylinder by means of an annular port at the forward end. It meets a ring of fixed guide blades, which, deflect it so that it strikes the adjoining ring of moving* blades at such an angle'that it exerts upon them 'a* rotary impulse. The same thing occurs with succeeding rings of guide and moving blades until the ; steam escapes at- the exhaust passage. The various advantages of the steam: turbine may be enumerated as follows: — Small space occupied; low first cost, attendance and maintenance; automatic governing or lubricating: initial steam economy maintained : no cylinder lubrication; steam exhaust entirely free from oil.