SILENT WARSHIPS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3010, 6 October 1908, Page 3

SILENT WARSHIPS.

NEW ERA PREDICTED.

The war vessel of the future will "be a swift, smokeless, noiseless craft lying low in the water, with every vulnerable part below the water-line, the entire deck being given over to the work of the guns. There will be no smoke, because there will be no smoke stacks. In the night there ■will be nothing to betray the presence of this invincible fighting demon to the enemy. This prediction was made on August 2nd by Robert Heywood Fernald, mechanical engineer, who has for several years been connected with the fuel investigation of the United States Geological survey. Mr Fernald believes that the gas engine or internal combustion machine, as it is called, will be installed in naval vessels of the United States witnin the next few years. "I expect to see the United States ahead of every other nation in this innovation," said Mr Fernald. "The gas engine, in my opinion, is feasible on any vessel because of its economy over the steam engine, but it is desirable on the fighting 'ship for the reason that it makes no smoke. The gas is generated by a producer. The coal is turned directly into gas which goes straight to the engine. "The elimination of the smoke is sufficient to call for the installation of the gas engine, yet there are many other features in its favour. The vessel would have a free deck fjr the play of its big guns. There would be no towering stacks to puncture or destroy, thus perhaps crippling the boat. Then it would be unnecessary to carry as much coal, for the same power can be developed with one-third less than the steam engine uses." The Government through the GoDlogical survey has been experimenting with the gas producer and gas engine for several years and has demonstrated that this type of engine in a stationary plant is capable of generating from twica to three times as much power from' a given a.nount of coal as the steam engine; It also has shown that the gas engine can develop more powkr from a low-grade coal, such as the lignite of North Dakota, than the steam engine could with the same weight of the bes f . bituminous coal. The tests in the gas producer at the Gavernment plant have shown that many fuels of such low grade as to be practically valueless for steam furnace purposes including slacK coal, coal and ligt-ite, may be econ omically converted into producer gas. In this way lignite beds underlying from 20,000,000 to 30,000.000 acres of public lands are shown to have a large value for power development.