FUTURE OF FUNNELS

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 71, 25 March 1933, Page 24

FUTURE OF FUNNELS

ELIMINATION POSSIBLE

CHANGES IN DESIGN

The progress of shipping marks the sacrifice of beauty to utility. One cannot expect shipowners to mark timeso that poets, novelists, writers of special articles in newspapers, and shipping reporters can rave over white, sails, or the delicate effects made by smoke from ship's funnels merging into : the clouds, but what lover of the sea can remain unmoved and see graceful ships giving plaeo to vessels in which economy of running is all important, and the appearance nothing. .When sailing ships began to go out of fashion steamers were very, ugly 'affairs, but since then they have been changing, so that now in many cases they' have fine lines-. Some of the Union Company liners, for instance, have graceful lines. Those in a position to know consider that the Marama is the "prettiest" vessel from, a seaman's point of view, thai enters port. Somo of the older steamers have liner lines than the more modern motor-ships. The lines of tramp steamers have also become more graceful of late years, and the really ugly'"tramp"/is disappearing from the seas. '-"..', •

une 01 me most attractive features of steamers and motor., ships is undoubtedly their funnels. ' It is always.] interesting to stroll round the water-

front, and notice; the colour of the funnels of the'various lines., The.more cosmopolitan the port, the more interesting is the occupation. Funnels have a great attraction to children. The 1 writer can remember how, at the,ago of nine years, he used to race to tho gate to get the morning paper to- see- • how many ships with yellow funnels wero in port. The rcasfln for this was that his brother -used to bo 'a keen supporter of ships; with ;erl "arid black funnels, and' it would never do for brothers to agree. The end of funnels is perhaps' in sight.' It is said that funnels w.ere never really necessary for motor ships, but they had them because they would ■ look strange without them. Now, it has been found,,steamers, as the result of research, can do without funnels, as smoke is eliminated, and wasto gases can be sent through a pipe projecting above the waterline: Vessels without funnels arc expected to be built shortly.

■>; SHORTER AND BROADER. Aa a matter of fact, the Holmglen,. a local trader, has only .a;,pipe for a funnel. Some of the Swedish .motor ships that have been at Wellington have had funnels similar to the Holmgleri's, and the Brunswick's funnels arc really only pipes. Some,of the older ships round Wellington/— the lonic is onehave tall funnels, but moderai ships, and -the motor ships are I the best examples, have comparatively shurt and broad -funnels. The Wanganella's funnels are. fairly squat. Ships of some Trench-lines favour funnels of a: fairly square shape. One could go on writing indefinitely about the shapes of funnels, but this is the age of photography par excellence, and when in years to come writers are yearning for the return of the days of the - ships with funnels—■ they will then, possibly, be considered .models of beauty—they will not be •without means of showing what ships looked like in 1933.