scientific aftermath of the "titanic" disaster

8/3/2019 SCIENTIFIC AFTERMATH OF THE "TITANIC" DISASTER

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1096 T H E L I T E R A R Y D I G E S T M a y 2 5 , 1 9 1 2SCIENTIFIC AFTERMATH OF"TITANIC" DISASTER TH E

Q ES TIO NS in appl ied science, especially in engineer ing, suggested by phases of the Titanic disaster ,cont inue to agi tate the soient i f lo press, both here andabroad. Forem ost among these, perhap s, are quest ions connected with the vessel 's st ructure, and with the ar rangement andefficiency of the bulkheads that were supposed to render her"un sink able ." Some of the chief engineer ing aspects of thedisaster are discust in the leading article in Engineering (London). Quest ions that press for immediate discussion andsettlement are, first, the effect of center-line or longitudinal wingbulkhead s. Such have obvious adva ntage s, bu t have imperfectstabi l i ty under disast rous condi t ions. The effect of impact onthe superst ructure of very large ships is another point that

A L I F E - R A F T T O F O R M P A R T O F T H E D E C K .Th is d ev ice p r o p o sed b y t i io Lo n d o n Sphere would be par t of t l ie decls : ord inar ily , butin case of wrecli i t would f loat off as a raf t h o ld in g hund red s of the pass eng ers a nd crew

LEngineering thinks wi l l hav e to be considered. In such shipsthere are now usual ly two or three decks above the moldedstru ctu re. Wou ld inertia have effects similar to those experienced in railway collisions, in which the body of the carriage isdr iven f rom the unde r f rame? As the boats and launching-gearare carried on these decks, there is a possibility of damage tothem under such condi t ions. I t is qui te evident , thinks Th eEngineering Record (New York, Apri l 20), "that the enormousiner t ia of such a great vessel contr ibuted to her dest ruct ion."A leading article in The Engineer (London) is also devoted to theloss of the Titanic, and raises other quest ions, par t icular ly regarding arrangements for secur ing water- t ight subdivision,comprizing not only the number and disposi t ion of bulkheads,but also the height to which they extend, and the water- t ightnessof the deck at thei r uppe r extremity. Safety pontoons for oceanvessels are suggested by Henry R. Towne, President of theYale and Towne Manufactur ing Company. He wrote t o t heN e w Y o r k Times on the subject (Apri l 25), and fol lows up thisiirst suggestion with an article in Engineering News (New York,Ma y 2) . Mr . Towne 's pontoons would be i ndependent s t ructures, so built on deck as to float off if the vessel should sink.A single one might be large enou gh to hold 1,000 persons. Hewr i t es :

"Exper i ence has shown tha t t he mod em l arge s t eamship wh eufatally injured sinks slowly. This would afford amp le time inwhich to assemble the passengers and crew in the pontoons-(except possibly a portion of the crew which might be assignedlto life-boats as scouts), and to close the doors and port-holes.-I t also impl ies that each pontoon as i t became immersed would.automatically release itself and float away"In the designing of a new ship, thejncorporat ion of 'safetypontoons' would involve no dif f icul t ies, and probably wouldenta il li t t le, if any , add itiona l cost. In the case of ma ny , if notall, existing vessels, i t would be possible to remodel their Upperworks, so as to incorporate these pontoons, i f this change weredeemed advisable.' ' The interior of each pontoo n would be as availab le for normal dai ly uses as the present superst ructure of the ship, whichi t would replace, and a reasonable am ount of inter ior decoration could be adopted without at all impairing the efficiency ofthe pontoons for thei r ul t ima te purpose in case of disaster . I twould even be possible to include in th e emergency pow er-equipm ent provision for modera te l ight ing of the inter ior . Ina heavy sea the hatches in the deck or- [ roof of the pon toon would need to be closed,.but in a moderate or smooth sea, i f protected-by proper combings, they could be opened, ,and at t imes the occupants of the pontooncould safely emerge upon the upper deck,,which, of course, would be surround ed by aproper rai l ing. . The p ontoon would thus be-#sirnply an 'isle of safety,' in or on which the-passengers and crew could remain dur ing the-few hours which elapse before the arrival ofsuccor , whereupon they would be t ransferredby life-boats to the rescuing ship or ships."

In a later issue (Ma y 9) the sarae paper-cal ls at tent io n to the fact tha t the wa tert ight bulkhea ds on the Titanic were so const ructed tha t the margin of safety was verysl ight , the top of the af ter bulkheads beingonly just above the water- l ine:

"As the filling of some of the compartmen ts would raise the water- l ine on the hul l ,i t i s evident tha t the margin of safety o b tained by bulkhead di-vision is soon exhausted." I t i s of much interest to note tha t theAmerican Line steamer New York, al tho bui l ttwenty-four years ago, has al l her bulkheadscarried up to a deck which is 14 to 16 feetabov e the ve ssel 's wate r-line, while some ofthe vessels b ui l t in recent ye ars have their-bulkheads carr ied to a deck only 10 feetabove the water- l ine. The New York w a s d e signed at a t ime and under condi t ions whenprovision of safety ag ainst collision was ve ry much, desiredby ship-owners. Each com par tm ent of the vessel was self-conta ined ."

Special attention is devoted to the electric-engineering side-of the disaster by The Electrical World (New York, A.pril 27).This paper notes that two deduct ions stand out clear ly, namely, ,the importance of constant wireless watch on board large-steamers, and the importance of maintaining incandescentlighting on large vessels und er all cond itions of eme rgenc y. It ,goes on:' ' I t was by great good for tune th at the single operator carr iedon the Carpathia happened to catch the Titanic's signal of dist ress. On board smal l ships the expense of wireless watch-and-watch becomes excessive, but on large ships this expense is wel lwarran ted. Closer comm unicat ion between the wireless room.and the navigat ion room than now ordinar i ly exists would alsoseem warranted, so as to avoid unnecessary loss of t ime incarryin g emerge ncy signals to the officer in charg e. In rega rdto l ight ing, i t appears that i t was for tunately capable of beingmaintained on the i l l - fated Titanic unt i l only a few moments-before her funnels were submerged, and long af ter water hadreache d the engine-room on the injured side of the ship. It is to-be supposed that this was due to the cont inuat ion of generat ing-plant operat ion on the uninjured side. I f the ship had beemplunged in darkness ear ly in the history of the accident , the


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May 25, 1912 T H E L I T E R A R Y D I G E S T 1097confusion and ter ror would probably have been beyond thepower of the -offioers and men to control, so that what will evers t and out i n h i s tory as an in t ernat ional t r i umph might havebecome an intern at iona l disgrace. I t i s , therefore, wo r th consider ing wheth-er a storage-bat tery plant , for keeping the pr in-eipal incande scent lamps l ighted for several hours in emergency,mig ht not wel l be instal led on al l large passenge r-steamers. Th estimulative effect of adequate artificial lighting, in cases of sudden nigl i t emergencies, on bot h intelHgence and nerve, i s a factorin -certain classes of illuminating engineering that can not beignored ."

In addi t ion, the wri ter bel ieves, everything points to the absolute necessi ty of a control l ing power to regulate wirelesst e l egraphy. He says ;" Dreadful as was the loss of life, it is not unlikely that withou t wireless


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May 25, 1912 T H E L I T E B A R Y D I G E S T 1 0 9 9le t t e r s ; t he groups A 'an d P* have only thr ee each . The groupsA^ and P' ' have o nly a dozen let ters, and th e four middle groupstwen ty each. In one and the same group we f ind somet im.esthe sam.e lette r repea ted se veral times, to facilitate fingering.Each group is commanded by a given f inger ."The moving forward of the paper by a number of spacescorresponding to the number of letters in each syllable is effectedby a very ingenious mechan ism of rema rkable simpl ici ty. Thesyl labic keyb oard includes, of course, the spacing-bar of theordina ry wri t ing-mach ine, and a capi tal izat ion lever . We maywri te wi th i t ei ther syl labical ly or let ter by let ter , providedthe let ters are take n successively in the groups correspondingto syl labic wri t ing."Besides t he ord inary a t t achment s of wr i t i ng-machines t hesyl labic typewri ter includes var ious improvements, for example,an au tom at i c r e turn ing-mechani sm which , whenever a word i scut in two by the end of a l ine, . . . places a hyphen automat i cal ly. Another ar rangement , independent of the syl labicpr inciple, i s regulable inter l ineat ion at any height f rom 0 to 1)^inches."A very shor t apprent iceship suff ices to become famil iar wi ththe manage men t of the syl labic typew ri ter . Af ter three month s'pr ac t i se , young women havingno famil iar i ty wi th typewrit i ng , and wi th only a pr imaryeduc at ion, ha ve been able toexceed a speed of a hund redwords a minu te. This is evident ly far f rom necessi tat ing agreat st riking-speed. To wri tea French word with a commonmachine requires on an average five mo vem ents, whi lewith the syl labic keyboard i trequires only one and a half,or 150 mo tions for 100 word s,corresponding to the speednecessary to wri te thi r ty wordsa minute Avith an ordinarymachine . A typewr i t er capable of doing 50 words a minu t e on a common machinecould, w i th t he same numberof move men ts, wr i te over 175words a min ute on th e syllabic keyboard." Transla t ionmade for T H E L I T E R A R YD I G E S T .

- l! ljf--;vt^ .TJ:^. rtJSBMBJA'-*-^ -f ?ii?i7r-'- - h^--

on the ends, similar to a wind gage. The rapidi ty wi th whichthe cups revolve is propor t ional to the veloci ty of the water inwhich they are suspended. In addi t ion, there is a device forregister ing the number of revolut ions. The inst rum ent is cal i brated so that the operator knows that a cer tain number ofrevolut ions, in a minute say, represents a f low of a def ini te nu mber of feet per minute or per second."

M E A S U R I N G S T R E A M -FLOW Th e f i rst thing to bedetermined when a water -power electric plant is to be constructed is the flow Of thest ream in cubic feet per minute or per second. The volume off low, together wi th the speed, determines the power whichma y be developed. Also, in the case of plan ts al read y establ ished, careful invest igat ion of the power avai lable, madein this way, wi l l of ten show tha t al l i s not being used and tha tmore turbines and generators may be added, increasing theearnings of the plan t . In an ar t icle on "T he Flow of LargeSt r eams," cont r ibut ed to Popular Electricity (Chicago, May) , weare told th at w hile the tim ing of a float in its progress d own st ream is a sat isfactory plan for measur ing the veloci ty of smal lst reams, larger r ivers have many elements such as undercurrents,eddies, whir ls, rapid and slow por t ions of the st ream, etc. , whichmake th i s method cumber some and inaccura t e . We r ead:

"In order to gather accurate records of the veloci ty of al lpor t ions of the st ream, var ious types of current-m eters areemployed. One typ e is know n as the Pr ice meter , extensivelyexper imented with and improved by the Uni ted States GeologicalSurvey. I t is highly interest ing to watc h the measurem entsbeing made with this sensi t ive bi t of mechanism, half -elect r ical ,which swims in the st ream l ike a minnow"A series of vanes, similar to the tail of a fish, keeps the headof the device pointed up-st ream, and a weight permits i t s suspension at any depth. The moving par t comprizes a l i t t le vert ical revolving shaf t carrying four hor izontal arms with cups

R EA R V IEW O F TH E SY LLA B IC MA C H IN E.

ART VERSUS SMOKE PREVENTIONy ^ R T A N D H Y G I E N E h a v e b e e n o p p o n e n ts m o r e t h a n

/-\ once in these mode rn days. The ar t ist loves decaying-*- - ^ cot tages, huddled together in disregard of al l sani tat io n.He would much prefer to paint a ragged and dir ty urchin thanthe same boy af ter he had been t reated to a bath and a new sui tof clothes. And whi le our boards of heal th and smoke -prevent ion associat ions are t rying to clear the ai r , our ar t ists prefertha t i t should be gr imy. P i t t sburg , wi th i t s Rem brandtesqueeffects of glare and blackn ess, excites the ir adm iratio n. Arnold Ben net t f inds more " at mosp here" in Chicago than inNew York meaning morecoal - smoke, whose reek reminds him of his dear F iveTowns. Even the adver t i s ingar t ist must have his smoke; achimney without plenty of i t i sfor him no chimne y at al l . Hea rthe complaint of an Engl ishman, voiced in a let ter wri t tenfrom Sheffield to The American Machinint (New York,Apri l 25) . He say s:

"T he re is a fur ther reasonfor the int roduct ion of smokychimneys into those wonderfulviews of the vas t factories th atone so often sees. Th e following incident discloses it:" M y f irm was asked by oneof i t s Cont inental agents forsome pictu res of itself w herewith prospect ive customersmight be imprest . No t having had i ts picture paintedsince bab yho od (it is now 134years old) , a wi l l ing ar t ist was commissioned to make the bestof a poor job. Whe n the f inal 'was h-dra wing ' ( I think tha tis wha t he cal led i t ) was produced for inspect ion, ' th e f irm'declared that i t had never before real ized wha t a beaut i fuland big thing' i t was. Bel ieve me, si r, tha t pictu re wouldhave awa kened ' th e glad eye ' of the president of the Sm okeAbatement Society, for there was no smoke!

"W ith th e haste of expectant praise ' the f irm' hurr ied off theproof to the agent for his formal approval before int roducingthe picture to the admirat ion of the publ ic."B ut , alas! Tho the reply was formal enough, however carelessly read, i t could not be construed into approv al . In indignant , bi t ter , and broken Engl ish i t asked ' th e f irm':"D id i t expect him to show his respectable custom er th atpicture?"If so, wh at sor t of opinion did i t think the custom er wouldhave of a place where the chimneys gave for th no smoke?"Did i t not know that the bigger and more honorable thefactory, the greater the amount of smoke required?"What were t he ch imneys for , anyway?"And so, in def iance of the smoke- inspectors and factory acts,the now unwil l ing ar t ist was inst ructed to give to every chimneyits full quota of smoke, and where no chimneys existed to fill inthe blanks wi th clouds of beaut i ful whi te steam that made the;agent happy, but near ly caused the death of the engineer whenhe was subsequent ly int roduced to his copy."The story is founded on a t rue and recent occurrence andexplains why one firm has fallen from the smokeless ideal in its'view of the works. '"

scientific aftermath of the "titanic" disaster

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