C A MB RI DG E U N I VE RS I TY PRES S

iL nn uo n : FE TTE R L AN E , E C

. .

C . F . CL AY, MA N
AG E R

(S h i n b ur g b : 1 00 , P R I N CE S S TREET

B a lm: A .
AS H ER A N D 0 0
1 6m i n : F . A . B ROC K HAUS

{a r m g m P U TN A M S S ON S

: G . P .

'

B um b a g a nb c a lm t t a : MACMI L L AN AN D 00 , Ln ,

A ll r i g ht r r s ese v ed
 FOR t h e use o f t h e b lo cks to i llust r a t e S i r C h a r les

o le c t ur e, t h e U n i v er si t y P r ess, C a m b r i dg e,

Pa rs ns

g ra t efully a c kn o w ledg es t he ki n dn ess o f t h e Edi t o r s

o f En g i n eer i n g a n d Mr Alex Ri ch a r dso n

.
, a ut h or o f

Th e Ev o lut i o n f
o t he P a o
r s n s St ea m Tur b i n e a

w o r kw hi ch dea ls c o m pr eh en si v ely wit h t he sub !ec t .

 TH E S TE A M TU R B I N E

I n modern ti m es the progress of science

has been phenomenally rapid The old
.

methods of research have given place to new .

The almost innite complexity of things has

been recogniz ed and methods based on a
,

co ordination of data derived from acc u rate

-

observation and tabulation of facts have ,

proved most successful in unravelli ng t h e

secrets of N ature ! and in this connection
I cannot but allude to the work at the
C avendish Laboratory and also to that at
the E ngineering Laboratory in C ambridge ,

and to the association of P rofessor Ewing

with the early establishment of records in
steam cons umption by the turbine .

I n the practical sphere of engineer ing the

same systematic research is now followed ,

and the old rule of thumb methods ha ve been

2 THE VA L UE OF DA TA B Y P H YSI C I STS

discarded The discoveries and data made

.

and tabulated by physicists chemists and , ,

metallurgists a r e eagerly sought by th e engi

,

neer and as fa r as possible utilized by him in

,

his designs I n many of the best equipped

.

works also a large amount of experimental

, ,

research directly bearing on the busin ess is

, ,

carried on by the staff .

The subj ect of our lecture today is the

S team T urbine and it may be interesting to
,

mention that the work was initially com

m en ced beca use calculation showed that ,

from the known data a successful steam ,

turbine ou ght to be capable of construction .

The practical development of this engine was

th u s commenced ch iey on the basis of the
d ata of physicists and as giving some idea
, ,

of the w ork involved in the investigation of

the problem of marine propulsion by turbines ,

I may say th a t abo u t was spent

before an order was received H a d the .

system been a failure or unsatisfa ctory ,

nearly the whole of this sum woul d have

been lost .
 THE FIRST T URBINE 3

F urther in order to prove the a dv a n

,

tage of mechanical gearing of turbines

in m ercantile and war vessels about
has been recently e x pended and consi derable,

nancial risks have been undertaken in

relation to the rst contracts .

With these prelimin a ry rem arks I

come to the subj ect of our lecture .

Fig . 2
. H ero s

Re actio n S team Wh eel .

The rst turbine of which there is any .

record was made by H ero of A le x andria ,

yea r s ago and it is probably obvious

,

m e
4 WI LSON S T URBINE
,
1 837

to most persons that some power can be

obtained from a j et of steam either by the
reaction of the j et itself like a rocket or by ,

i t s impact on some kind of paddle wheel .

A bou t the year 1 8 3 7 several reaction steam

wheels were made by A very at S yracuse ,

N ew York and by Wilson at G reenock for

, ,

driving circular saws and cotton gin s F ig 3 . .

shows the rotor of Avery s machine : steam is

F ig . 3 . otor
R o f Av e yr s T urbi n e

.

introduced into it through a hollow shaft a n d ,

by the reaction of the j ets at the e x tremities ,

c a uses rotation The rotor was 5 feet across

'

.
,

and the speed 8 8 0 feet per second These .

wheels were inef cient and it is not so obvious

,

that an economical engi ne could be made on

this principle I n the year 1 8 8 8 Dr de La val
.

of S tockholm undertook the problem w ith a

co n siderable measure of success H e caused .
 THE DE LA VAL T URBINE , 1 8 88 5

the steam to issue from a tr umpet shaped -

j et so that t h e energy of e xpansion might

,

be utilized in giving velocity to the steam .

Recent e x periments have shown that in such

Fig . 4 . Dr de L av al s T urbi n e

.

j ets about 8 0 per cent of the whole of the

.

available energ y in the steam is con v erted

into kinetic energy of velocity in a straight
line the velocity attained i n to a v acuum
,
6 DE LA VA L S SP I R AL HEL I C A L GEARING

being about feet per second D r de

.

Laval caused the steam to impinge on a

paddle wheel made of the stronges t steel ,

which revolved at the highest speed con

sistent with safety or about half the velocity
,

of a modern rie bullet for the centrifugal

,

forces are enormous U nfortu n ately mate

.
,

rials are not strong enough for the purpose ,

and the permissible speed of the wheel

can only reach about two thir ds of th at
-

necessary for good econom y as I shall

,

presently explain D r de La v al also intro

.

duce d spiral helical gearing for reducing the

enormous speed of rotation of his wheel!

(which needed to be kept of small diameter

because of skin friction losses ) to the ordinary
speeds of things to be driven and I sh a ll
,

allude to this gear later as a mechanism

likely to play a very i m porta nt part generally
in future turbine developments .

I n 1 8 8 4 or fou r years previously I dealt

,

with the turbine problem in a diff erent w a y .

I t seemed to me that moderate surface

velocities and speeds of rot a tion were
8 THE PRINCIP L E OF THE

essential if the turbine motor was to receive

general acceptance as a prime m over I .

therefore decided to split up the fall in

pressure of the steam into small fr act ional
e x pansions over a large number of turbines
in series so that the velocity of the steam
,

nowhere should be great C onsequently

.
,

a s we shall see l a ter a moderate speed of

,

turbine sufces for the highest economy .

This principle of compounding turbines in

series is now un i v er sa llv used in all e x cept
very small engines where economy in steam
,

is of secondary i m porta nce The arrange.

ment of small falls in pressure at each

turbine also appeared to me to be surer to
give a high e fciency because the steam
,

owed practically i n a non expansive manner

-

through each individual turbine and couse ,

quently in an analogous way to water in

hydraulic turbines whose high e fciency at
that date had been proved by accurate tests .

I w a s also anxious to a void the well

known cutting action on m etal of stea m at
high v elocity .
 SYSTEMS OF B LA DI NG ll

improved as a result of e x periments and

some of these are shown on page 1 0 C urved .

blades with thickened backs were intro

du ced The blades were cut o ff to length
.

fr om brass hard rolled and drawn to the

,

required section and inserted into a groove

,

with distance pieces between and caulked

up tightly .

Figs . 18 a n d F orm rs
e fo r maki n g gme n ts
Se o f B lades .

D ummy labyrinth packings of various

types were introduced Two of these are .

illustrated in F igs 1 6 and 1 7 on page 1 0 . .

The design was improved generally so as to , ,

reduce steam leakages and t o provide for

greater ratios of e x pansion .
 -
THE DESIGN OF T URBINES 13

The diagrams on page 1 1 show the latest

method of forming segments of bl a des by
stringing blades and distance pieces alter
n a t ely on wire withi n a groove formed of

two castings bolted together and correspond

ing to the groove of the turbine rotor or
casing The engr aving on page 1 2 illustrates
.

these segments being made The view on

.

page 1 5 shows segments being tted in a rotor .

I have said that steam behaves alm ost

like an incompressible uid in each turbine
of the series b ut because of its elasticity its
,

volume gradually increases with the succes

sion of smal l falls of pressure and the
,

succeeding turbines consequently are made

lar ger and larger . This enlargement is
secured in three ways : ( 1 ) by increasing the
height of blade (2 ) by increasing the di ameter
,

of the succeeding drums and (3 ) by altering

,

the angles and openings between the bla des .

A ll three methods are generally adopted

(page 1 7 ) to accommodate the expanding
v olume of the steam which in a condensing
turbine reaches one hundredfold or more
14 BL A DE SPEED A ND S TEA M VE L O CIT Y

before it issues from the last blades to the

condenser .

N ow as to the best speed of the blades ,

it will be easily seen that in order to obtain

as much power as possible from a given
quantity of ste a m each row must w ork
,

under appropriate condition s . This has

been found by experiment to re q uire that
the velocity of the blades relatively to the
guide blades shall be from one half to -

three quarters of the velocity of the steam

-

passing t hrough them or more accurately

,

equal to one half to three quarters of the

- -

velocity of i ssue from rest due to the drop o f

pressure in gui des or moving blades for in ,

the usual reac t ion turbine the g uides are

identical with the moving blades .

The curve for e fciency in relation to the

velocity rati o has a fairly at top so that
,

the speed of the turbine m a y be varied

considerably about that for maximum efci
ency without materially aff ecting the result .

I n compound land turbines the efciency

of the initial rows is about 6 0 per cen t and ,
16 EFFICIEN CY

of the latter rows 7 5 to 8 5 per cen t and ,

considering the whole turbine approximately ,

7 5 per cent of the energy in the steam is

.

delivered on to the shaft The expansion .

curve of the steam lies between the adiabatic

and isothermal curves but nearer the former
, ,

because 7 5 per cent is converted into work

.

on the shaft and only 2 5 per cent is lost by .

friction and eddies in the steam and therefore

converted into heat .

I n turbine design the expression of the

velocity ratio between the steam and blades ,

may be represented by the integral of the

square of the velocity of each row through
t h e turbine and if for instance this inte g ral
, , ,

is numerically equ a l to a usual

allowance for land turbines then we know ,

that w ith a boiler pressure of 2 0 0 lbs and a

, .

good vacuum the velocity of the blade swill be

,

a little over one half that of the steam and ,

the turbine will be working close up to that

speed which gives the maximum e fciency .

I n large marine t urbines where weight and

space are of importance the integral may be
 D YNA MO F OR T URBINE DRIVE 19

from to o r more With the

.

rst gure a loss of efciency of about 1 0 per

cent below the highest a ttainable is accepted
.
,

a n d with the latter gure the decit is only

a bout 3 per cent .

The construction of a s uitable dynamo

to run with the turbine involved nearly as
much trouble as the turbine itself : the chief
features were the a doption of very low
magnetic densities in the armature core a n d
small d iameters and means to resist the great
centrifugal forces as shown in t h e views on
page 1 8 The dynamo was also mounted in
.

elastic bearings N ow that the turbine has

.

found its most suit a ble eld in large powers

to which we always looked forward and as
the speed of revolution has been co use
quently reduced elasticity in the b ea r i n g s i s
,

less essential and in large land plants and in

,

marine work rigid bearings are universal .

There are many form s of turbines on

t h e market . I t is only necessary however
, ,

for us here to consider the four chief types

which are
2 2
20 flI UL TI P L E IMP UL SE T URBINE

F irst the compound reaction turbine with

,

which we have been dealing representing ,

over 9 0 per cent of all marine turbines in

.

use in the world a n d about half the land

,

t urbines driving dynamos .

S econd the de Laval which is only used

, ,

for small powers .

Third the multiple impulse com ,

po unded or C urti s which has been chiey,

used on land but which has been tted in a

,

few ships .

Lastly a combination of t h e compound

,

reaction ty pe with one or more multiple

impulse or C urtis ele m ents at the high
pressure end to replace the re a ction blading .

We m a y dismis s the other varieties as

simply modic a tions of the origin a l types
without possessing a n y originality or scienti c
interest .

N ow let me further explain the multiple

impulse type and commence by s a ying that
,

it is the only substanti a l innovation in

turbine practice since t h e compound reaction
and the de L a v a l turbines came into use .
 THE C UR TIS T URBINE 21

I t was proposed by P i lb r o w in and rst 1 8 4 2,

brought into successful operatio n by C urtis
in 1 8 9 6 S ome consideration should be
.

given to it as i n volving several characteristi c

points of difference from what has been said
about the compound reaction type C urtis .

in the rst place used the de Laval divergent

CHI S ?

N OZZ L

N OV ! 6 B L A D ES

TA T I ON A R Y DL A DS S

MOVDN O B L A D D

S TA '
'
I CON A RV B L AD E S

OVI N O B L A D ES

Fig . 27 . Diagram of C urtis B lades a n d N o zzl es .

nozzle and he also used compounding to the

,

limited e x tent of only 5 to 9 stages as ,

compared with 5 0 to 1 0 0 i n the compound

type With these provisos the same principles
.

i n the abstract as regards v elocity ratio

now apply and the steam issuing from
,

the j ets reboun ds again and again between

22 THE IMPUL SE REA CTION T URBINE -

the x ed and movi n g buckets at eac h

velocity compounded stage : the best velocity
ratio i n a four r o w multiple impulse is only
one seventh a n d the e fcie n cy about 4 4 per
-

ce n t and therefore much lo w er th a n that of

,

reaction blading which as we have stated i s

,

under favour a ble conditions 7 5 to 8 5 per cent .

The advantages however to be derived

, ,

from the use of some m ultiple impulse ele

ments at the commencement of the turbine
are that because there is very little loss in
them from leakage therefore in spite of th eir
,

low intrinsic efciency one or more multiple

,

impulse wheels can i n cer t ain cases usefullv

replace reaction blading The e x planation i s
.

that in tu rbines of the compound reaction type

of moderate power a n d slo w sp eed of revolutio n
the blades are often very short at the com
m en cem en t and consequently there is in such
,

cases excessiv e loss by leakage through the

clearan ce space which brings the e fciency
,

below that of impulse blading I n most .

cases one multiple impulse wheel is pre

ferred followed by re a ction blading S uch
, .
28 THREE T URBINES IN SERIES

replaced by three turbines in series (on the

steam ) on di fferent shafts (page and it is
ado p ted in a ll the largest liners and almost
all large war vessels I n marine work this
.

division of the turbine has the additional

a dvan t age that owing to the power being

subdivided over three shafts smaller screws ,

a r e admissible and the speed of revolution

,

may be increased in the case of three turbines

in series in the ratio of 1 to J 3 G enerally .

the turbines are placed two in series as in ,

cross channel boats the M auretania and

-
,

Lusitania torpedo craft battleships and

, , ,

crui sers (page or sometimes three in series

(p a ge 2 9 ) a s in the liner L a F rance and the
latest a n d largest C unard liner now bu i lding .

F our turbines in series have been proposed ,

but have not as yet been constructed .

A war vessel in com mission is working

a t red u ced power for most of the time and ,

on long voyages economy of fuel is of great

importance To attain this en d additional
.
,

turbines are tted in front of the main full

power turbines They are of small size and
.
,
THE PHE NOME NON O F CA VI TA TION 31

in separate casings or they may form an

,

i ntegral portion of the main high pressure

turbine which is then len gthened by the
,

a ddition of the cruising portion (page

They are partially b y passed as more power is

-

required and at full speed they are entirely

,

b y passed or whe n in separate casings are

-
, , ,

completely isolated from the steam supply by

s uitable v alves and are generally connected
,

to the condenser and rotate in vacuum so that ,

there is no appreciable resistance to rotation .

I n some instances of modern naval construe

tion one or more multiple impulse wheels
have constituted the cruising element .

B efore passing to the consideration of

o ther applications of the turbine I should

like with your permi ssion to repeat an e x

, ,

p er i m en t which illustrates the phenomenon

o f cavitation The chief di f culty in apply ing
.

t h e turbine to marine propulsion arose in the

breakin g away of the water or the hollowing ,

out of vacuous cavities when it was attempted

to rotate the screw above certain limits The .

phenomenon was rst observed by S ir J ohn

32 EX PERIMENTS ON CA VI TA TI ON

Th o r n y cr o ft a nd M r S ydney B arnaby
They .

designated this phenomenon by the appro

p r i a t e name C avitation and

it entail s by,
!
,

Fig . 35 . pparatus
A p erim e n ts o n
fo r Ex C av itatio n .

the way a great loss of power The remedy

, .

lies in using very wide blades covering about

36 ECONOMY O F T UR B INES

two thirds of the disc area of the propeller so

-
,

as to present a very large bearing surface on

the water and this expedient eff ectually pre
,

vents its giving way under the force necessary

to propel the vessel .

In models and in vessels of m oderate ,

speed the forces are not sufcie n t to tear

,

f o r m a n ce of P a r son s Tur b o

TA B L E I . P er

G en er a t o r s a t D i er en t Ep o ch s .

S up er h e at S t am pr ssur
e e e
p er sq . i n ch

D eg . F .

Th e s e we r e n on -
o n d n s i n g t u r b i s u s i n g s a t ur a t
c e n e ed s te a m .

the water asunder but if the pressure of the ,

atmosphere is removed by an air pump, a

model screw will cavitate at a comparatively
moderate speed .
 ECONOMY O F MARINE T URBINES 37

The improvement in efciency resulting

from the successive modications and i m
p r o v em en t s in the proportions of turbines ,

a n d also arising from the increase in the

s ize is shown by the particu lars given in the

Table opposite .

Table II on this p a ge gives corresponding

d ata in regard to marine turbines .

TA B L E I I . P erf o r m a n ce of No t a b le Sh ip s of
D ier en t Ep o chs o

Tur bi n es

wi th P a r s ns .

S t ame co n sum p S p eed

t
L en g h R P t i o n p er S E P p er in
purp s s ts
. .

h r fo r
. a ll o e kn o

Tur b i n i a . 2 300

Ki gn
Edw d ar 20 4 8

E M S. .

t t
Am e h y s 3 000
H MS . . .

r a n ou t
De d gh 21 2 5

M u t m
a re a a

L u si ta n a i .

Many warships are now being tted with

i nstallations with dou b le and treb le turbines
i n series on the steam and exceeding the
38 T URBINE -
P R OP E L L E I )
WA RS H IP S 39

C :
u
40 T U RB I N E
PROPELLED
42 COMBINA TION O F PIS TON

power developed by the M auretania a n d

Lusitania The aggregate power of P arsons

.

turbines tted for marine propulsion up t o

date is si x million sh aft hors e power Thi s .

embrace s ships of practically all nationalities .

The power of turbines of the same type

made for generating electricity and other
du t y on land is also about six million shaft
horse po w erconsiderably more than the
-

available power of N iagara F alls The .

diagrams on the four preceding pages i h

d i ca t e the size of ships tted at di fferent
successive periods for the Royal N a vy and
for the merchant m a rine .

The m a rine turbin e with the modications

,

we have so far described is only suitable for

,

vessels of over 1 6 knots speed and to e x tend

,

its use to vessels of a less speed tha n this ,

which comprise two thirds of the t o n n a g e o f

-

the world has been our constant a i m The r st

, .

plan for the attainment of this end is some

what i n the nature of a compromise and is ,

called the combination system b ecause the

,

reciprocating engine is used to take the rst

 A ND T UR BINE ENGINES 43

part of the e x pansion and the turbine t h e

last F rom what we have said it will be
.

apparent that this coalitio n of the r eci p r o

cati n g engine and turbin e is a good one ,

because each works under favourable con

di t i o n s The reciprocating engin e expands
.

F ig . 41 . First set o o bi n atio n

fC m Mac h i n eryi n H M S
. . .

Velo x
.

the steam to about atmospheric pressure ,

and the turbine carries on the expansion

with high efciency down to the pressure in
the condenser N ow though a large and.
,

high speed turbine can be made to deal with

the high pressure portion of the expansio n
 44 FIRST A P P LI C A TI ONS I N THE

Fi g 42
. . Th e First T urbi n e Commercial S team erTh e
Ki n g Edw ard .
 MERCHANT SERVICE 45

as economical ly as a reciprocating engine a ,

slow speed turbine cannot be made to do so ,

but o n the other hand a slo w speed turbine

expands low pressure steam m uch fur ther a n d
more economically than any reciprocating
engine . U nder this sy s tem the turbi n e
generally is made to develop about o n e third -

of the whole power .

A bo ut 1 5 years ago this plan was worked

out and the B ritish A dmiralty destroye r
V elox was so tted in 1 9 0 2 (page but
no further practical steps were taken toward s
i t s application until about three years ago .

M essrs D en n v of D umbarton who i n 1 9 0 1

,

built the rst mercantile turbine vessel the ,

K ing E dward in 1 9 0 8 built the rst com
,

bination vessel the Otaki of
, tons and

1 3 knots speed S he has ordinary twin

.

screws driven by triple expansion engines

which exhaust into a turbine drivi n g a cen
tral screw as illustrated on the next page
. .

The initial pressure at the turbi n e is 9 lbs .

absolute and it develops one third of the

,
-

whole power This combination v essel w a s

.
 WHITE S TA R LINERS 47

found to consume 1 2 per cent less coal .

than her sister vessel on the s a me service ,

the Orari tted w ith quadruple r eci p r o

,

c ating engines The next combination vessel

.

was the L a ur e n t i c of

tons built by
M essrs H arland and Wol ff, a sister vessel to

the M egantic tted with quadruple engines

, ,

and on service at the same speed the saving

i n coal by the com bination is 1 4 per cent .

The combination system has also been

adopted in the White S ta r liners Olympic

a n d Titanic of tons displacement ,

a s well as in some other vessels at home and

abroad .

There is a n other promising solution of

the problem for applying the turbine to
s lower vessels which will exte n d its eld
,

s till further over that of the reciprocating

e ngine I mentioned before that de Laval

.

had in the eighties introduced helical tooth
g ear for reducing the speed of his little
turbines F or 23 years it has w o rked a d
.

m i r a b ly on a s mall sc a le Recent exp er i

.

m ents however have led to the assurance

, ,
48 THE GEA R E D T U RBINES I N

of equal success on a large scale for the

transmission of large powers .

P reliminary experiments were m ade som e

years ago on helical reduction gear which ,

showed a mech anical efciency of over 9 8

a n d a 2 2 feet l a unch was constructed in 1 8 9 7

the working speed of the turbine was

revolutions per minute which was geared i n ,

one reduction of 1 4 to 1 to the twin scre w s .

The speed attained w a s 9 miles per hour ,

and this little boat was many years in use

as a yacht s gig S he was the rst geare d
.

turbine vessel Th e next step was to tes t

.

geared turbines in a typic a l cargo boat and ,

the V espasian was purchased in 1 90 8

.

S he is of tons displacement and w a s ,

propelled by a good triple expansion engine

of 9 0 0 horse power A fter thoroughly o v er
-
.

hauling and testing her e xisting machinery

for coal and w a ter consumption to mak e ,

sure that it w a s in thorough good order t h e ,

engine was taken out and replaced by geare d

turbines the propeller shaftin g and boilers
, , ,

remaining the same On again testing fo r

.
50 THE ECONOMY O F GEARED T URBINES

the old consists of a high pressure and a l ow

,

pressure turbine each driving a pinion at

,

revolutions gearing into a spur wheel

,

on the screw shaft making 70 revolutions per

minute (page The gearing is entirely
enclosed in a casing and is conti n ually
,

S prayed with oil by a pump .

I t is interesting to compare the working

of t h e new and the old machi nery The .

appended diagram (F ig 4 8 ) show s the com

.

p a r a t i v e water consumption with r eci p r o

ea t i n g and turbine e n gines Everyone w h o
.

has experienced a rough sea i n a screw

vessel knows the disagreeable sensation of
the racing of the engines whenever the scre w
comes out of the water I n the turbine
.

vessel nothing of the kind occurs and the ,

reason is very simple I t is because of the

.

great angular momentum of turbines which ,

is about 5 0 times that of ordinary engines ,

consequently they ga ther speed so slowly

that before they have appreciably accelerated
the screw is down aga in in the water .

Ordinary engines often accelerate up to

A D VANTA G E S OF GEA RE D T URBINE S 51

three times their ordinary speed in a heavy

sea and what shakes the ship and breaks
,

48 .Water C o n sumptio n o f Vespasia n i n s erv i ce w it h

Recipro ca ti n g E n g i n es a n d wit h Geared T urbi n es t h e pro

,

peller bei n g t h e same i n bot h cas es .

the scre w shafts is the shock on the plunging

of the m adly whirling propeller into the sea .

The Vespasian has now co vered

44
DE VE L OP /lI E N TS I N GEARED T UR B I NES 53

miles in all weathers and carried tons

of coal from N ewcastle to Rotterdam .

The pinion on the table was removed

from the vessel a month ago for the purpose
of showing it at this lecture A s you can see
.

it sho ws no sign of wear The gearing is

.

illustrated on page 5 2 .

G earing promises to play a very i m

portant part in war vessels for increasing
.

the economy at reduced speeds I ex .

plained the difculty in obtaining good

economy under such conditions and by means ,

of geared high speed turbines the e f ciency

will be greatly increased The Tur b i n i a
.

C ompany are now constructing two 30 knot -

destroyers of horse power with this

-

arrangement (page The high pressure

portion and cruising elements are geared in
the ratios of 3 to 1 and 5 to 1 respectively
to the main low pressure direct coupled
turbine and their use will increase the eff ec
,

tive radius of action at cruising speed by

nearly 5 0 per cent over that of a similar
.

destroyer without gearing .

54 GEA RED T URBINES IN DES TR O YER
 GEARED T URBINES IN CR UISER 55

G earing is also applicable to warships of

the largest size (F ig I t is also nding
.

a place in cross channel boats and two such

-
,

vessels for the S outh Western R ailway C o .

are bei n g tted with all ge a red turbines like

the Vespasi a n

The greatest material
.

gain however will be found in extending

, ,

the use of turbines t o vessels of slow speed .

ARRAN G EMEN T OF MAC HI N f R Y

(W
'

i B /NEJ I OR 6 0 0 0 0 S HAF T/U? CRUI S ER

I TH GEARED0 0 0 /S ING f l

Fig . 51 .

H alf a century ago nearly all screw

vessels had mechanical gearing one element ,

being composed of wooden teeth because the ,

screw revolved at too high a speed for the

56 T UR B INES USING EX HA US T S TEA M

engines S ubsequently it was found pra ctic

.

able to increase the speed of the engines up

to that of the screw and gearing was con
,

sequently abandoned N ow very slow speed

.

turbines are found to be incompatible with

e fciency and probably will always be so !
,

accurately cut steel gearing comes to th e

rescue and I think will be a permanent i n
,

st i t ut i o n as long as steam is used to propel

our ships .

When we pass through the colliery or

iron districts we often see clouds of steam
blowing o ff to waste but t here is much less
,
'

than was fo r m er ly t h e case because low pres

,

sure turbines worke d by the e xhaust steam

from other engi nes are coming into exten d ed
us e for utilizing what was formerly a waste

product They are ge n erally employed for th e

.

generation of electricity or for working blast

,

furnace blo w ers a n d centrifugal pumps and

gas forcers but recently an exhaust turbine
,

of 7 5 0 horse power has been applied to

-

drivi ng an iron plate mill in S cotland I t i s

.

especially i nteresting because it is the rst