Chapter XIV: Engines of War

The phrase which I have used for the title of this chapter is often given a very wide meaning which includes all kinds and varieties of devices used in warfare. In this case I am giving it its narrower sense, taking it to indicate the steam-engines and oil-engines which are employed to drive our battleships, cruisers and destroyers, our submarines and our aircraft. They are inventions of the highest importance, which have played a large part in shaping modern warfare.

The type of engine almost invariably used on ships of war other than submarines is the steam turbine. Great Britain, for the most part, uses that particular kind associated with the name of the Hon. Sir C. A. Parsons, while the United States rather favour the Curtiss machine. Other nations have adopted either one of these or else something very similar.

All turbines are very simple in their principle, far more so that the older type of steam-engine, called, because the essential parts of it move to and fro, the "reciprocating" steam-engine.

In these latter machines there are a number of cylinders with closed ends and with very smooth interiors, in each of which slides a disc-like object called a piston. The steam enters a cylinder first at one end and then at the other, thus pushing the piston to and fro. The movement of the piston is communicated to the outside by means of a rod which passes through a hole in the cover at one end of the cylinder, the to and fro motion being converted into a round and round motion by a connecting-rod and crank just as the up and down motion of a cyclist's knees is converted into a round and round motion by the lower leg and the crank. The lower part of a cyclist's leg is, indeed, a very accurate illustration of what the connecting-rod of a steam-engine is.

As is evident to the hastiest observer, some arrangement has to be made whereby the steam shall be led first into one end and then into the other end of the cylinder: also that provision shall be made for letting the steam out again when it has done its work. Moreover, such arrangements must be automatic. Hence, every reciprocating engine has special valves for this purpose and such valves need rods and cranks (or something equivalent) to operate them. Further, to get the best results the steam must not simply be passed through one cylinder but through several in succession. Engines where the steam goes through only one cylinder are called "simple," where it goes through two they are "compound," where three "triple-expansion," where four "quadruple-expansion." Generally speaking, each cylinder has its own connecting-rod and crank, also its own set of rods, etc., for working its valves. Hence, a high-class marine reciprocating engine is of necessity a complicated mass of cylinders, rods, cranks and other moving parts continually swinging round or to and fro at considerable speeds, all needing oiling and attention and all liable at times to give trouble.

And now compare that with the turbine, which has TWO parts, only one of which moves. That part, moreover, is tightly shut up inside the other one, being thereby protected from any chance of damage from outside and likewise rendered unable to inflict any damage upon those in attendance upon it.

At first sight it seems very strange that the turbine should be the newer of the two, for it is simply an improved form of the old time-honoured picturesque windmill which used to top every hill and grind the corn for every village and hamlet.

The old windmill had four sails against which the wind blew, driving the whole four round as everyone knows. The new turbine has a great many sails, only we now call them blades, and the steam blows them round. The old windmill had to have another smaller set of sails at the back for the purpose of keeping the main sails always in that position in which they would catch the full force of the breeze. In the turbine we need not do that, for we shut the windmill up in a kind of tunnel and cause the steam to blow in at one end and out at the other.

The difference between the various kinds of turbine lies simply in the manner in which the steam is guided in its passage through the machine.

After that general description we can take a more detailed view of the Parsons turbine. The casing or fixed part is a huge iron box suitably shaped for standing firmly and rigidly upon the floor of the engine-room. It is made in two halves, the upper of which can be easily lifted off when necessary. Often, indeed, this upper half is hinged to the lower, so that it can be opened like the lid of a box.

Inside, the casing is cylindrical, comparatively small at one end but increasing by steps till it is very much larger at the other end. At each end is a bearing or support in which the rotor or moving part is held and in which it can turn freely.

The rotor or part which rotates is a strong steel forging shaped somewhat to follow the lines of the inside of the casing. It does not entirely fill the casing but leaves a space all round and all the way along, which space is intended to accommodate the blades. The ends of the rotor are smaller than the body since they are intended to fit into the bearings, and one of the ends is prolonged so as to be available for coupling to the propeller-shaft of the ship.

At one end of the casing, the smaller one, is the steam inlet and the steam after emerging from it passes along till it finds its way out at a very large outlet formed at the bigger end. On its way it has to pass thousands of small blades so that the progress of each individual particle of steam is not a straight line but a continual zigzag. There are rings of blades round the rotor, tightly fixed to its surface. There are likewise rings of blades affixed to the inner surface of the casing, the rings upon the casing coming in the spaces between the rings on the rotor.

Let us imagine that we can see through the casing of a turbine at work and that looking down upon it from above we can trace the progress of a particle of steam. It rushes in from the inlet and at once makes straight for the outlet at the further end. Suddenly, however, it encounters one of the guide blades (those on the case) and by it is deflected to one side, we will suppose the left. That causes it to rush straight at one of the blades upon the rotor against which it strikes violently, giving that blade a distinct and definite push to the left. Rebounding, it then comes back towards the right but quickly is caught by another guide blade and by it hurled back upon a second rotor blade, giving it a leftward push just as it did to the first. Thus it goes zigzagging from one set of blades to the other until, tired out, so to speak, it finally flows away forceless and feeble through the outlet, having given up all its energy to the blades of the rotor against which it has struck in its course.

That, then, is the journey of one single particle. Multiply that by an unknown number of millions and you have a description of what takes place in the interior of a steam turbine. The blades are so proportioned, so arranged and so placed that it is very difficult indeed for a particle of steam to creep past without doing its share of work. Practically every one is made use of and while, of course, the action of a single particle of steam would have but a negligible effect, the vast number engaged cause the rotor to be powerfully blown round.

The reason why the casing and rotor are made larger and larger as one proceeds from the inlet towards the exhaust or outlet is that the steam must, if all its energy is to be extracted, expand as it goes and the enlargement provides room for this expansion.

One of the great advantages of the turbine is that the steam is always entering at the same end. In the cylinder of a reciprocating engine the steam enters alternately. It comes in hot but as it does its work and finally goes out it becomes very much cooler: the next lot of steam which enters, therefore, is chilled by the cool walls of the cylinder which have just been cooled by the departure of the previous lot of steam: so heat is wasted. Wasted heat means fuel lost, and as any given ship can only carry a limited quantity of fuel, wasted heat means less range and more frequent returns to the base to coal or to "oil."

Also let me remark again upon the simplicity of the turbine as opposed to the other sort. The latter consists of a mass of moving and swaying rods and cranks, to work among which, as the engineers have to do, is a terrifying and nerve-racking experience. The turbine, on the other hand, has its only working part enclosed. It is difficult to tell, by looking at it, whether a turbine is at work or not, so silent and still is it, so self-contained. The reciprocating engine-room is noisy and full of turmoil: the turbine room is weirdly still by comparison.

On the whole, too, it makes better use of the steam which it uses, but it has one decided drawback. It will not reverse, which the other type of engine does readily.

This means that two turbines have to be coupled together, one with the blades so set that the steam drives it round correctly to produce motion ahead and the other set the opposite way so that it drives the vessel astern. The steam can be sent through either turbine at will and so motion can be obtained in either direction. Whichever turbine is in use the other revolves idly.

Unfortunately it is impossible to make a turbine to go slowly and yet be efficient. Consequently, slow steamers cannot use turbines, but for warships, which are nearly all fast boats, it has almost displaced the older type of engine.

The Curtiss turbine is different from the Parsons in that the steam encounters periodically, in its passage through, a partition perforated with funnel-shaped holes. Between the partitions it passes blades upon which it acts just as already described. The chief effect of this is to permit the machine being made of a rather more convenient shape and size. Other varieties of turbine are more or less combinations of the two ideas underlying these two.

When we look at a locomotive in motion we always see steam coming out of the funnel, but we never see that in the case of a steamer. That is because all the energy of the steam is taken and used in the latter case, while in the former much valuable energy goes off up the funnel, making a puffing noise instead of doing useful work.

On the steamship the steam is led not to the open air but to a vessel called a condenser the walls of which are kept cool by a continual circulation of cold water. The steam on entering the condenser at once collapses into water, leaving a vacuum. A pump called the "air-pump" removes the water (which was once steam) from the condenser and also any air which might get in, with the result that the engine is always discharging its steam into a vacuum. Thus to the pressure of the steam is added the suction of the vacuum.

In turbine ships the cooling water for the condensers is circulated by powerful centrifugal pumps driven by subsidiary engines.

The steam is obtained from boilers of that special variety known as "water-tube."

The boilers with which most people are familiar are either Lancashire or Cornish, both sorts being large steel cylinders with two steel flues in the former and one in the latter running from back to front. The fire is made in the front part of the flue and the hot gases from it pass to the back and then along the sides and underneath through flues formed in the brickwork in which the boiler is set. Locomotive boilers, however, have no flues, but the hot gases from the fire in the fire-box pass through tubes which run from end to end through the cylindrical shell, each tube starting from the fire-box behind and terminating in the smoke-box in front. Thus we have tubes with fire inside and water outside: hence such boilers are called "fire-tube" boilers.

On many ships of the merchant type cylindrical boilers are used which combine the features, to some extent, of the Cornish and the fire-tube, since there is a flue running from front to back in which the fire is made and the hot gases return from back to front through a number of tubes which occupy the space above the fire. Arrived at the front the gases pass upwards to the chimney.

Water-tube boilers are different from all of these, since in them the water is inside the tubes while the fires play around the outside. This enables steam to be got up very quickly, a matter of much importance for a warship which may be called upon to undertake some operation at a moment's notice.

The boilers are fed with water from the condensers, so that the same water is used over and over again. When coal is burnt it is put on the fires by hand, for although mechanical stoking is a great success on land, there are special difficulties which prevent its use at sea. It is becoming more and more the fashion now to burn oil instead of coal in several types of ships and in those cases the oil is blown in the form of spray into the furnace. This has many advantages, some of which are exemplified on a small scale by the difference between using a coal fire and a gas stove. Like the latter, the oil spray can be quickly lit when needed and as quickly extinguished. It can be regulated and adjusted with equal facility. Oil can be taken on board too through a pipe, silently and quickly and without the terrible dirt and the exhausting labour involved in coaling a big ship. Oil, too, can be taken on board at sea, from a tank steamer, almost as easily as it can be taken in ashore, whereas the difficulty of coaling at sea despite many ingenious efforts has never been solved quite satisfactorily. Finally, oil can be stowed anywhere, for the stokers do not need to dig it out with a shovel. Therefore it can be carried in those spaces between the inner and outer bottoms which have to be there in order to give strength to the ship's hull but which would be quite useless for carrying coal. The advantages of oil fuel, therefore, are many and no doubt it will be used more and more as time goes on.

For Great Britain, oil fuel has the disadvantage that it has to be imported whereas the finest steam coal in the world is found in abundance in South Wales, but the difficulty may eventually be overcome by distilling from native coal an oil which will serve as well as that which is now imported.

So much for the turbine, the engine of the big ships: now for the Diesel oil-engine which drives the submarines. It belongs to that family of engines called "internal-combustion" since in them the fuel is burnt actually inside the cylinder and not under a separate contrivance such as a boiler. There have been oil-engines, so called, for many years, but they were really gas-engines since the oil was first heated till it turned into vapour and then that vapour was used as a gas. The Diesel engine, however, actually burns oil in its liquid state.

To understand how it works let me ask you to conjure up this little picture before your mind's eye. A hollow iron cylinder is fixed in a vertical position: its upper end is closed but its lower end is open: inside it is a piston, free to slide up and down: by means of a connecting-rod hinged to it and passing downwards through the open lower end the piston is connected to a crank and flywheel. At the upper end of the cylinder are certain openings which can be covered and uncovered in succession by the action of suitable valves.

Now let us assume that that engine is at work, the piston going rapidly up and down in the cylinder. As it goes down it draws in a quantity of air through a valve which opens to admit the air at just the right moment. The moment the piston reverses its movement and starts to go up again that valve closes and the air is entrapped. The piston continues to rise, however, with the result that the air becomes compressed in the upper part of the cylinder.

Now it is necessary to remind you at this point that compressing air or indeed any gas, raises its temperature. This air, therefore, which was drawn in at the temperature of the outer atmosphere, by the time the piston has reached the top of its stroke has attained a temperature well above the ignition point of the oil fuel.

The piston, having arrived at the top of its stroke, the upper part of the cylinder is filled with hot compressed air: the next moment the piston commences its descent, but at precisely that same moment a valve opens and there is projected into the cylinder a spray of oil. Instantly it bursts into flame, heating the air still more, so that as the piston descends the air, expanding with the heat, pushes strongly and steadily upon it. The amount of that push can be varied by varying the duration of the jet. The longer the jet is injected the more heat is generated and the more sustained is the push. On the other hand, if the jet is cut off very quickly the push is only a gentle one.

The power of the engine can thus be adjusted to suit varying circumstances by a slight variation in the valve which controls the jet.

The piston having thus been driven down to the limit of its stroke, it commences another upward movement, at which moment another valve opens and lets out the hot waste gases which have resulted from the burning of the oil. Thus the cylinder is cleaned out ready for a fresh supply of pure air to be drawn in on the next ensuing downstroke.

The engine thus works upon a series or cycle of operations which are repeated automatically over and over again. First comes a downstroke, drawing in air: then an upstroke, compressing it: then a second downstroke, during which the fuel burns and the power is generated: and, finally, a second upstroke during which the waste products of the burning are ejected. Power, it will be noticed, is only developed in one out of the four strokes: the other movements having, in single cylinder engines, to be performed by the momentum of the flywheel.

In most cases, however, the engine has several cylinders in which the cycles are arranged to follow in succession. Thus, if there are four cylinders, there is always power being developed by one of them.

The valves are operated automatically by the engine itself just as is the case with steam-engines. The engine also works a small pump which provides the very highly compressed air necessary to blow the oil jet into the cylinder.

Arrangements are often provided whereby the engine when working stores up a reserve of compressed air which can be used to start it. From the very nature of its working such an engine cannot develop power until it has accomplished at least four strokes or two revolutions, so that it cannot possibly start itself. If, however, compressed air be admitted to the cylinders to give it a vigorous push or two and so get it going, it can then take up its own work and go on indefinitely.

In some cases this is not necessary and that of an engine in a submarine is one of them. In that instance, the electric motor, which drives the boat when submerged, can be made to give the engine a start.

By altering the rotation in which the valves act the direction can be reversed. A very simple mechanism can be made to effect this change, so that reversing is quite easy.

Aircraft are mostly, if not entirely, driven by petrol engines, some of which are very little different from those of a motor-car or motor-cycle.

These motor-car engines are so well known that little need be said about them. It may be well to explain, however, that they, like the Diesel engines, work on a cycle of four strokes, as follows:--

First stroke (down) draws in a mixture of air and gas.

Second stroke (up) compresses the mixture. Just at the top of this
stroke an electric spark fires the mixture, causing an explosion
which drives the piston downwards, thus making the

Third stroke (down), during which the power is developed.

Fourth stroke (up) expels the waste products of the explosion.

Although all of them work on this same cycle, in which they resemble the engines of the motor-car, there are several much-used types of aero-engine in which the mechanical arrangement of the parts is quite different. Of these the best known is the famous Gnome engine which has a considerable number of cylinders arranged around a centre like the spokes of a wheel. The centre is in fact a case which covers the crank, and the cylinders are placed in relation to it just as the spokes are placed around the hub of a wheel.

There is only one crank and all the connecting-rods drive on to it. Owing to their position around it they thus act in succession, giving a nice regular turning effort.

Further, these engines differ from all others in that the crank is a fixture while the rest of the engine goes round, exactly the opposite of what we are accustomed to. The engine, in fact, constitutes its own flywheel. Rushing thus through the air, the cylinders tend to keep themselves cool, doing away with the need for cooling water and radiators. Consequently engines of this type are the very lightest known in proportion to their horse-power. A fifty horse-power engine can be easily carried by one man.

It would be possible to go on much longer with this most interesting subject of engines, but having treated the three types which are most used in warfare, it is now time to pass on to something else.