Published Resources Details Journal Article
- Title
- On torpedo boats and light yachts for high speed steam navigation
- In
- The Engineer
- Imprint
- vol. 51, 25 February 1881, p. 336
- Description
Accession No.59
- Abstract
On the 10th of May 1881 John Isaac Thornycroft presented a paper on 'Torpedo boats and light yachts for high speed steam navigation.' to a meeting of The Institution of Civil Engineers, he divided the displacement of a vessel into three components: 1st, the structural hull; 2nd, the propelling machinery and apparatus; 3rd, the load. In considering how the two conditions of lightness and sufficient power might be obtained he directed his attention to the propelling machinery and apparatus and how their weight might be reduced with a corresponding reduction in the weight of the hull. Following the initiatives taken in perfecting locomotive engines as the embodiment of extreme lightness and concentration of power, Thornycroft concentrated on building lightweight, high speed engines with steam supplied at high pressures by locomotive boilers with forced draught systems and sub-divided flue-ways. Detailed descriptions of the construction and performance of the light yacht Gitana, and a first-class torpedo boat (length 87 feet, beam 10 feet 6 inches) and a second-class torpedo boat (length 60 feet, beam 7.25 feet, draught 12.5 inches forward, 3 feet 4 inches aft) were used to illustrate these points. See 'On torpedo boats and light yachts for high speed steam navigation.' Minutes of Proceedings of The Institution of Civil Engineers, paper No. 1788, vol. 66, 1881, pp. 87-178, for the full text of Thornycroft's paper and the discussion that followed his presentation.