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20 MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE RECORD. wrecks were: Montpelier, 3,483 tons, Las Palmas to Montreal, wrecked on Duck island in May, 1900, and Lusitania, 3,912 tons. Liverpool to Montreal, wrecked on Cape Ballard in June, 1901. OBSERVATIONS ON A SUBMARINE. I hear that a series of experiments is taking place at Brest, with a new apparatus for taking observations on board a sub- marine, when totally immersed. It is claimed by the inventor that this apparatus will avoid the necessity for submarines to come to the surface. It is designed on magnetic principles. Nobody knows yet, however, whether the experiments have been successful. The sighting apparatus supplied to the five British submarines is considered to be superior to the French periscope. Something, however, must be done to perfect this particular de- partment, as it is obvious that a submarine must be able to sze ahead while remaining below water. The necessity which ex- ists for the vessel to come to the surface constitutes now the greatest danger that menaces this class of warship. -- - The admiralty are so satisfied with the experiments made with the submarines built at Barrow that they have determined further to strengthen their flotilla of the Holland type of boat, for which Vickers, Sons & Maxim hold the British rights and patents. Further experimental work will, however, be neces- sary with these submarines before the admiralty adopt a big building program, but they are proceeding with caution and are adopting all improvements which science and experience suggest in order to make these new fighting machines thoroughly effective for the purpose in view. Two submarines are now ready for delivering to the admiralty, to supplement the two already at Portsmouth. ENGINES OF THE KAISER WILHELM II. We present herewith, reproduced from Engineering, a photo- graph of two sets of the main engines as coupled to one of the two shafts of the twin-screw steamship Kaiser Wilhelm II. of the North German Lloyd Line. In order to keep the watertight compartments, utilized for accommodating the machinery, as short as possible, for the greater safety of the vessel in case of collision and fracture of the skin plating of the vessel in their neighborhood, it was decided to divide the machinery into four sets, and to place each in separate rooms formed by transverse and longitudinal bulkheads. ~'his necessitated a particular construc- tion of the engines and the arrangement is such that in each room there is fitted a self-contained four-cylinder quadruple engine working on three cranks. he construction of each double set, which is balanced on the Schlick system, is clearly shown in the engraving on the opposite page. The high-pressure cylinder is placed above the first intermediate, the arrangement resembling the Wolff system. Next to the first intermediate comes the second intermediate, and next the low-pressure cylinder. But for balancing purposes the double set is arranged so that the two tandem cylinders adjoin each other, although with the bulk- head between. Each 'high-pressure cylinder is provided with a second stop-valve, in addition to the main stop-valve. The levers for working the auxiliary valves and the reversing engines are so arranged that the two engines on each shaft can be 'worked from either of the two engine rooms; but when the engines are working under normal conditions the engineer's plat- form will be in the forward engine room. Should the forward engine room be filled with water through misadventure, it is possible to drive the after engine separately and the same can be done with the forward engine in case of the after engine being out of order. The principal dimensions of the main engines are: Diameter of high-pressure cylinder, 37.4 in.; first intermediate, 49.2 in.; second intermediate. 74.8 in.; low-pressure, 112.2; 'common stroke, 70.8 in. 'The boiler installation consists of twelve double-ended and seven single-ended boilers. The arrangement of these boilers is as follows: Starting aft in the first boiler 'room there are three double-ended boilers; in the second boiler room, three double-ended and three single-ended boilers; in the third room three double-ended and three single-ended boilers; 'while in the forward boiler room there are three double-ended and one single-ended boiler. This distribution is adopted in order to facilitate the transport of coal to the boilers. French naval authorities are beginning to devote great atten- tion to the rapidity with which new ships can be built in the gov- ernment yards, for it is found that the time required for building armored cruisers and battleships in Great Britain is nearly 20 per cent. less than in France. The battleship Republique, the largest vessel ever constructed for the French navy, which was dJaunched on Sept. 4 at. Brest, was built more rapidly than any vessel of her class vet constructed in France. The Republique was ordered on June 28, 1901. The keel was laid on Dec. 2, 1901, -and she was launched on Sept. 4, 1902, or upon the thirty-second birthday of the third republic. The Republique has a displace- ment of 14,800 tons and is the first of a new type of six vessels which have been ordered by the French ministry of marine. She '#8 said to resemble the new type adopted for the United States navy, of which the Connecticut and Louisiana are the first exam- ples. Forty-two months, however, are allowed for the construc- tion of the Louisiana. The present naval program will give France a navy of twenty-eight battleships, fourteen coast- defence battleships, twenty-four armored cruisers, thirty-five protected cruisers, seventy-two destroyers, sixty-eight sub- "marines and 210 torpedo boats. [Oct. 9, TURBINE-DRIVEN VELOX. When the British torpedo boat destroyer Viper went ashore off Renonquet rock near Alderney in a fog and was totally wrecked a year ago the critics were loud in their condemnation of turbine-driven craft. A month later the Cobra, a sister vessel foundered in the North sea, and out of seventy-nine persons aboard only thirteen escaped. The remarkable speed of the tur- bine-driven vessels had attracted the attention of the whole world and their untimely loss left the question of the steam turbine as a means of propulsion for naval craft still undetermined. Now it is to have a further test. The Parsons company has built the Velox, outwardly a substantial duplicate of the Viper, and she is now the property of the British government. The Velox is promised a performance equal at full speed to that of her unfor- tunate pioneers and also the assurance of economical running at moderate speed. This is accomplished by a combination of steam turbines and small auxiliary engines of the ordinary triple-ex- pansion type. The steam turbine, like the electrically-driven motor, can be run most economically at full speed, intermediate rates of running resulting in loss of driving power in ratio to steam or electricity used. Now, everybody knows that a warship, unlike a merchant craft running upon a regular route, must frequently vary her speed, and seldom in peace time is she called upon to make her maximtum speed for any lengthened period. The turbine, there- fore, is not primarily fitted for naval craft, because it must either be run at very low speed or the very highest speed. But Mr. Parsons has undertaken to meet these objections and the forth- coming trials of the Velox are awaited with keen interest by the engineering world. If he succeeds in his present endeavor he will not only establish firmly a place for the steam turbine in the engine room of a large share of the world's warships, but he will have gone a long way toward solving the vexed question of economy of coal consumption at all running rates. It isn't necessary to live in the midst of a time of coal strikes to appreciate the value of that fuel, for the pound saved on ship- board mean not only money saved to the people running the vessel, but the lessened demands for fuel space means more room for cargo of one sort or another, and on a naval craft that much less deadweight to be driven through the water. Only one famil- iar with the scheming of the naval architect and the marine engi- neer realizes how jealously he apportions every pound in the vessel's get-up and with what discouragement he views the slightest increase of weight. From the popular descriptions given of the Turbinia when she was first built the public has a fair understanding of what the steam turbine means. It is an adaptation of the modern wind- mill in principle, but there the likeness ceases. Where the farm- er's helper has a dozen blades, the turbine has several thousand. In the turbine there are none of the familiar piston rods, shifting valve gears, revolving cranks, sliding parts and balance wheels. The propeller shafts become the balance wheels, the casings of the turbines become the cylinders and the thousands of little blades studding the shaft collars become the pistons. These blades stud the collars as thickly as porcupine quills and are turned at just the proper angle to receive the maximum impulse of the entering steam, which passes spirally from one end of the casing holding the turbine to the other. The steam, still full of life, then passes into another, or low-pressure, casing, where it finally expends itself before going on to the condenser, to be turned again into water for use in the boilers. In the ordinary engine steam is exhausted at a pressure of 7 or 8 lbs., which means 7 or 8 lbs. of propulsive force sent waste- fully into the condenser. With the turbine, steam is ultimately exhausted with the pressure of 1 Ib. absolute--meaning a saving in coal, for coal means steam. The simplicity of the turbine removes many of the dangers present in fast moving reciprocating engines; breakdowns are few and far between; and the engines themselves require less attention. Compared with the usual type of torpedo boat destroyers' engines, the turbines for the same power are 30 per cent. lighter, and while occupying about the same floor space, do not demand the same head room--thus per- mitting the machinery to lie lower in the boat, something that adds not only to the stability of the craft, but keeps the motive power much better hidden from an enemy's shot. The Velox is 210 ft. long and has a maximum beam of 2r ft. Special attention has been given to the feature of longitudinal strength. She will have two high-pressure and two low-pressure turbines--the high-pressure turbines will drive the two outer shafts, and the two low-pressure turbines will turn the two inner shafts. Each shaft will carry two propellers, one forward of the other. Here comes the novel feature. There will be two triple- expansion engines of moderate power which are coupled by the two high-pressure turbines; When running at cruising speeds, steam will be fed directly from the boilers to these engines, which, in turn, will exhaust into the turbines, where the remaining power of the steam will be fully utilized. When it is desired to make the 30 odd knots of which the Velox will be capable steam is fed directly from the boilers to the high-pressure turbines and the auxiliary engines are disconnected, for it would not be safe to have them working at anythine like the number of revolutions thoroughly possible and safe for the turbines; in fact, a recipro- cating engine would be racked to pieces long before it attained such velocity.