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496 Mr. Anderson raised the question about the difficulty of starting with iilat turbine in a cold state. The conditions that actually exist would be these--the turbine would be cool from one end to another, it would be filled with vecuum pressure from "one end to the other in all stages, and it would be entirely cold, it would be acting simply the part of a con- denser. We keep the steam sealed on the idle ends of all the apparatus and keep the air from getting in. That is a certain condition of loss which has been calculated--the diffi- 'culty of turning hot steam into the turbine successfully with the type proposed. In our power station at Schenectady we have five turbines standing idle all the time, two 9,000 kw. and the others 15,000 kw., and we run with water power from the Hudson river, and sometimes. the water power fails, and we immediate- ly pull the throttles wide open and throw the machines on the govern- ors and synchronize them and _ the time of cutting in is the time in syn- chronizing them. That is done with "Curtis turbines everywhere, and there is no reason why you should not blow all the hot steam into them you want to, and there is no possibility, from that course, of any practical difficulty. That applies to Mr. Curtis's marine turbine as well as it does to ours, _ if they are built right. Question of Thrust. The question of thrust is just ex- actly the same in their scheme as it would be in a direct turbine driven at the same speed. It is a question of putting thrust collars on the shaft in the ordinary way. These thrust col- lars in my drawing, I have not taken under consideration as to their weight, as in my drawings. I have shown them as they are shown in the Fore River design, in point of fact I think they. ave exactly like those. on the North Dakota, and they have not giv- en us any trouble. As to the question of shaft horse- power assumed--that is in accordance with estimates which I derived from various sources of comparison. I did not undertake to pass at all upon the 'practicability of the efficiencies of power required for these ships, I sim- 'ply toqk what is said in that respect, made various comparisons, particular- ly with the Delaware and North Da- 'kota, and showed that my assumptions are not seriously wrong. Steam Pressure. The question of steam _ pressure, THE MerRineE REVIEW which Mr. Anderson brought up is a very important one, because while in- crease of steam pressures are our only means of increasing the theo- retical economy of the steam engine, by increasing the steam pressure we work in a wider range with available energy, the turbine provides for the low pressure end to go to its ex- treme, and our limit there is the tem- perature. The limit at the other end is not the temperature, because we can use high temperatures with im- punity, as we do with superheat. pressure is the practical limit. One of the advantages of the type of tur- bine I am proposing for this is that we can use any pressure. Question of Weights. I think in the case of Mr. Ander- son, it is not only a question of not wanting to, but not being able to. If: turbine 'could use high the Parsons pressures advantageously, they would undoubtedly avail themselves of all the increased economy incidental thereto, but it is due to the fact that they fill the inner spaces with high pressure. Of course, turbines using low pressures are sometimes more convenient, and a turbine which will produce the same result at lower pres- sures, is more desirable than one which will take high pressures to produce it. Of course, the one with the higher pressures is working in the larger field, and has that possibility. Now, as to the question of weights, I have carefully eliminated, as well as I could, all weights that could not be compared in this matter. The list of weights which I got from the navy department concerning this fast drive they designed, which may be different from that as actually built, gave these weights segregated in a good deal of detail, and gave the weights for shafts and bearings, and valves and pipe, and 'various things, all of which I struck out. I took simply the weight of the main turbines, and, as against those, I have taken the weight of our turbine alone, and compared generator and motors." Now, our turbine ts lighter and smaller-then theirs--all of our turbine motors and _ generators are lighter and smaller in dimensions than theirs. The pillow blocks are smaller and must necessarily weigh less, with equally good construction. Furthermore, the structures on which they must be mounted can be made lighter. All of these things have been feft out 'of the comparison, and I think if the bearings are included, it would be decidedly in my favor. Then the most important thing I have left But December, 1909 out is the question of piping. If you will look at my figures you will see what the piping means in the Parsons sheet. In the actual drawing of that sheet--I did not have time to trace them, although they would have made a tbeautiful illustration for my own paper--the engine room space is a tangle of pipes, and large pipes, to connect the stages together, and all of these pipes were radiating good heat, and that heat was carried away, and when it is carried away it cannot be used to drive the ship, and in my. apparatus that loss is saved. From Fireboat to Battleship. The question has been raised whether in such matters we could make such a jump from a fire boat to a battle- ship. My experience in engineering has shown me that the very best of the -greatest successes have been at- tained by just such jumps. A man wants to be sure he is right, and then he wants to go ahead. The longer he jumps the higher he can put his aim, the more useful the accomplish--- ment. I went to Chicago in the year 1900, when the largest turbine in the world was 1,000 kw., and the largest we built was 500 kw., and that only one, and not too efficient, and I made a contract for three 5,000 kw. units, and they began to deliver power about six months later and have been doing. it. ever? since. =You can'. go: right through the science of engineering and find just the same things. When big things have to be done, they must be done on the strength of calcula- tions and demonstrated possibilities. Take, for example, today they are rolling steel rails with motors such as I have proposed for the ships. Until six months ago they never rolled rails by motors. Rolling rails is one of the biggest mechanical jobs in the world. _The value of the material handled is so great that the cost of lost time is enormous. The value of the apparatus is nothing compared with the loss or gaining of time. If you go to Gary and see these big rolls running by electric motors, and know it was done on paper before it was done mechanically, you can under- stand that the battleship job is a small undertaking, especially as the apparatus could be taken out and replaced by turbine machinery if it did not work. As to what Mr. Sperry. said, the gyroscopic action in this 'case need not be considered at all. I think there will be some gyroscopic motion pro- duced, but the calculations show it would not affect the bearings at all. As to the question of voltage and Sie tag as os yee Stk ee toe