Patience and Science.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVI, Issue 1, 5 July 1911, Page 58

Patience and Science.

One of the most wonderful things about the* scientific man is his patience. How

careful he is, how precise, how patiently he waits. The inventor of the turbine gave an instance of this the other day. He was telling how turbines are being geared for destroyers, and of the experiments necessary. A cargo boat, the Vespasian, of 4350 tons displacement, was purchased in 1908; her engines were replaced by geared turbines, the propeller, shafting, and boilers remaining the same. The economy thus realised over the original machinery was 15 per cent, which was increased to 22 per cent by subsequent minor altera-

tions. There were two turbines, one high' and the other low pressure, each driving a, pinion at 1400 revolutions geared into a main wheel on the screw shaft making 70 revolutions a minute. This vessel had been carrying coal from the Tyne to Rotterdam for about a year, and had covered about 20.000 miles. In that time a pinion, which had been removed from the vessel and was exhibited on the table, showed a wear on the teeth of under two-thou-sandths of an inch, so that its life would be equal to or greater than that of the vessel.