Abstract
IN taking office, for a second term, as president of the North-East Coast Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders, Prof. C. J. Hawkes delivered an address in which he reviewed some recent history of the engineering branch of the Royal Navy,, established by Orders in Council just a hundred years ago. He referred in particular to the period of his own service, dating from 1900, when great difficulties were being encountered with large water-tube boilers of the Belleville type. Small-tube Thornycroft boilers had given good results in H.M.S. Speedy in 1893. The decision in 1894 to install Belleville boilers in the 25,000 h.p. cruisers Powerful and Terrible was a momentous one and raised a storm of protest. The trials were satisfactory and demonstrated the weight-saving advantages, but later performance was disappointing, breakdowns were frequent and leakage was excessive, thus giving point and momentum to the attacks in Parliament and Press. The committee set up to investigate, however, confirmed the advantages and greater suitability of the water-tube as compared with the cylindrical boiler for use in the Navy. Improved methods of construction and the installation of special machinery in the dockyard enabled the Belleville boilers to give good service, but owing to inherent defects, including the long water and steam course of about 170 ft., some irregularity in water circulation and the deformation of tubes by local heating, it ultimately gave place to more modern designs.
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Engineering Progress in the Navy. Nature 140, 1024 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/1401024a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1401024a0