THE MARINE TURBINE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 13, 28 December 1911, Page 4

THE MARINE TURBINE.

The rapid advance of tho marine steam turbine, whether independently or in combination with the reciprocating engine, is made abundantly clear by the report of the Parsons Company. The Cunard Company, with the experience gained with the Lusitania and the Mauretania, intend that their new leviathan (the Aqnitania) shall bo propelled by turbines. So also will the two very big liners which are being built for the Ham-burg-Amcrican Co., the now French Trans-Atlantic liner La Franco, and

he two new steamers ordered by the Janadian Pacific Railway lor their hicific trade. On the other hand, lie combination system adopted in the Hympic is also to be followed in the titanic, and these vessels are referred ;o as the largest and swiftest of its examples. In addition, the new

French Trans-Atlantic intermediate steamer Rocbambean has combination engines, and they are likewise to Ire furnished to the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company’s now liner Arlanza, and to steamships building for the Spanish Trans-Atlantic Company. In the cross-Channel services the turbine is now in quite general use. In this direction a new departure is the arrangement that the two new passenger steamers for the London and South Western Railway Company shall be driven by geared turbines. The decision represents assured progress in the solution of what the Parsons Company speak of as the numerous and difficult problems which influence the efficiency of marine steam turbines and screw-propellers. In this relation something is naturally said with reference to the experiment with the Vespasian, a vessel intended to demonstrate the advantages of geared turbines in cargo steamers of moderate or low. speed. The hope is expressed that this “costly but successful experiment” will lead before long to an extensive use of geared turbines in cargo boats. It may be added that the Parsons Company is steadily continuing the experiments to which its advance is so largely attributable.