The Speed and Power of Ships

SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping

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Taylor's first years were spent on a farm in Virginia, but at the age of 13 he went to RandolphMacon College, graduating in 1881, and from there to the US Naval Academy, Annapolis. He graduated at the head of his class, had some sea time, and then went to the Royal Naval College in Greenwich, England, where in 1888 he again came top of the class with the highest-ever marks of any student, British or overseas.

On his return to the United States he held various posts as a constructor, ending this period at the Mare Island Navy Yard in California. In 1894 he was transferred to Washington, where he joined the Bureau of Construction and started to interest the Navy in ship model testing. Under his direction, the first ship model tank in the United States was built at Washington and for fourteen years operated under his control. The work of this establishment gave him the necessary information to write the highly acclaimed text The Speed and Power of Ships, which with revisions is still in use. By the outbreak of the First World War he was one of the world's most respected naval architects, and had been retained as a consultant by the British Government in the celebrated case of the collision between the White Star Liner Olympic and HMS Hawke.

In December 1914 Taylor became a Rear-Admiral and was appointed Chief Constructor of the US Navy. His term of office was extremely stressful, with over 1,000 ships constructed for the war effort and with the work of the fledgling Bureau for Aeronautics also under his control. The problems were not over in 1918 as the Washington Treaty required drastic pruning of the Navy and a careful reshaping of the defence force.

Admiral Taylor retired from active service at the beginning of 1923 but retained several consultancies in aeronautics, shipping and naval architecture. For many years he served as consultant to the ship-design company now known as Gibbs and Cox. Many honours came his way, but the most singular must be the perpetuation of his name in the David Taylor Medal, the highest award of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers in the United States. Similarly, the Navy named its ship test tank facility, which was opened in Maryland in 1937, the David W. Taylor Model Basin.

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SUBJECT AREA: Electricity, Ports and shipping, Public utilities

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Mavor came from a distinguished Scottish family with connections in medicine, industry and the arts. On completion of his education at Glasgow University, he joined R.J.Crompton \& Co.; then in 1883, along with William C.Muir, he established the Glasgow firm which later became well known as Mavor and Coulson. It pioneered the supply of electricity to public undertakings and equipped the first two generating stations in Scotland. Mavor and his fellow directors appreciated the potential demand by industry in Glasgow for electricity. Two industries were especially well served; first, the coal-mines, where electric lighting and power transformed efficiency and safety beyond recognition; and second, marine engineering. Here Mavor recognized the importance of the variable-speed motor in working with marine propellers which have a tighter range of efficient working speeds. In 1911 he built a 50 ft (15 m) motor launch, appropriately named Electric Arc, at Dumbarton and fitted it with an alternating-current motor driven by a petrol engine and dynamo. Within two years British shipyards were building electrically powered ships, and by the beginning of the First World War the United States Navy had a 20,000-ton collier with this new form of propulsion.

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SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping

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From 1844 until 1962, the Clyde shipyard of William Denny and Brothers, Dumbarton, produced over 1,500 ships, trained innumerable students of all nationalities in shipbuilding and marine engineering, and for the seventy-plus years of their existence were accepted worldwide as the leaders in the application of science to ship design and construction. Until the closure of the yard members of the Denny family were among the partners and later directors of the firm: they included men as distinguished as Dr Peter Denny (1821(?)–95), Sir Archibald Denny (1860–1936) and Sir Maurice Denny (1886– 1955), the main collaborator in the design of the Denny-Brown ship stabilizer.

One of the most influential of this shipbuilding family was William Denny, now referred to as William 3! His early education was at Dumbarton, then on Jersey and finally at the Royal High School, Edinburgh, before he commenced an apprenticeship at his father's shipyard. From the outset he not only showed great aptitude for learning and hard work but also displayed an ability to create good relationships with all he came into contact with. At the early age of 21 he was admitted a partner of the shipbuilding business of William Denny and Brothers, and some years later also of the associated engineering firm of Denny \& Co. His deep-felt interest in what is now known as industrial relations led him in 1871 to set up a piecework system of payment in the shipyard. In this he was helped by the Yard Manager, Richard Ramage, who later was to found the Leith shipyard, which produced the world's most elegant steam yachts. This research was published later as a pamphlet called The Worth of Wages, an unusual and forward-looking action for the 1860s, when Denny maintained that an absentee employer should earn as much contempt and disapproval as an absentee landlord! In 1880 he initiated an awards scheme for all company employees, with grants and awards for inventions and production improvements. William Denny was not slow to impose new methods and to research naval architecture, a special interest being progressive ship trials with a view to predicting effective horsepower. In time this led to his proposal to the partners to build a ship model testing tank beside the Dumbarton shipyard; this scheme was completed in 1883 and was to the third in the world (after the Admiralty tank at Torquay, managed by William Froude and the Royal Netherlands Navy facility at Amsterdam, under B.J. Tideman. In 1876 the Denny Shipyard started work with mild-quality shipbuilding steel on hulls for the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company, and in 1879 the world's first two ships of any size using this weight-saving material were produced: they were the Rotomahana for the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand and the Buenos Ayrean for the Allan Line of Glasgow. On the naval-architecture side he was involved in Denny's proposals for standard cross curves of stability for all ships, which had far-reaching effects and are now accepted worldwide. He served on the committee working on improvements to the Load Line regulations and many other similar public bodies. After a severe bout of typhoid and an almost unacceptable burden of work, he left the United Kingdom for South America in June 1886 to attend to business with La Platense Flotilla Company, an associate company of William Denny and Brothers. In March the following year, while in Buenos Aires, he died by his own hand, a death that caused great and genuine sadness in the West of Scotland and elsewhere.

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SUBJECT AREA: Agricultural and food technology, Electricity, Mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering, Steam and internal combustion engines

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Gustaf de Laval was educated at the Stockholm Technical Institute and Uppsala University. He proved to have an unfailing vigour and variety in his inventive talent, for his interests ranged from electric lighting and electrometallurgy to aerodynamics. In the 1890s he employed over one hundred engineers to develop his inventions, but he was best known for two: the cream separator and a steam turbine. In 1877 he invented the high-speed centrifugal cream separator, which was probably the greatest advance in butter-making up to that time. By 1880 the separators were being successfully marketed all over the world, for they were quickly adopted in larger dairies where they effected enormous savings in labour and space. He followed this with various devices for the dairy industry, including a vacuum milking machine perfected in 1913. In c. 1882, de Laval invented a turbine on the principle of Hero's engine, but he quickly turned his attention to the impulse type, which was like Branca's, with a jet of steam impinging on a set of blades around the periphery of a wheel. He applied for a British patent in 1889. The steam was expanded in a single stage from the initial to the final pressure: to secure economy with the steam issuing at high velocity, the blades also had to rotate at high velocity. An early 5 hp (3.7 kW) turbine rotated at 30,000 rpm, so reduction gearing had to be introduced. Production started in Sweden in 1893 and in other countries at about the same time. In 1892 de Laval proposed employing one of his turbines of 15 hp (11 kW) in an experimental launch, but there is no evidence that it was ever actually installed in a vessel. However, his turbines were popular for powering electric generating sets for lighting textile mills and ships, and by 1900 were available in sizes up to 300 bhp (224 kW).

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корабль; судно; летательный аппарат, ЛА; дирижабль; самолет, вертолет; команда корабля; грузить(ся), принимать на борт; транспортировать; перевозить; отправлять; см. тж. craft

— AA ship

— ABM ship

— active fleet ship

— administrative ship

— air defense control ship

— air defense ship

— air-capable ship

— air-control ship

— aircraft carrying ship

— aircraft direction ship

— air-cushion landing ship

— air-cushion ship

— all-nuclear ship

— all-purpose landing ship

— alternative packaged systems standard ship

— ammunition replenishment ship

— amphibious cargo ship

— amphibious command ship

— amphibious dock ship

— amphibious fire support ship

— amphibious heavy lift ship

— amphibious troop transport ship

— amphibious warfare ship

— antiland target action ship

— antimissile missile ship

— armament support ship

— armed surface ship

— assault command ship

— assault ship

— ASW air control ship

— ASW air cushion ship

— ASW helicopter carrier ship

— ASW ship

— aviation-capable ship

— barge transport ship

— BM carrier-decoy ship

— BM ship

— break-bulk ship

— cadre ship

— cargo container ship

— cargo replacement ship

— cargo-landing ship

— cargo-transport ship

— catamaran small waterline area ship

— central control ship

— coast defense ship

— combat stores ship

— combatant ship

— command ship

— commando ship

— communications relay ship

— communications ship

— control ship

— conventional displacement ship

— countermine measures ship

— decoy ship

— deep-sea miniature ship

— defense-equipped merchant ship

— depot ship

— direct fire support ship

— displacement-type ship

— dynamic displacement ship

— dynamically-supported ship

— early-warning ship

— ECM escort ship

— ELINT ship

— escort hydrofoil ship

— escort ship

— fast cargo container ship

— fast combat support ship

— fast deployment logistics ship

— fast general-purpose supply transport ship

— fast replenishment ship

— fast speed transport ship

— fast troop landing ship

— field ration issue ship

— fighting ship

— fire support ship

— flare ship

— fleet BM resupply cargo ship

— fleet BM ship

— fleet striking ship

— follow-on ship

— frigate research ship

— general purpose amphibious assault ship

— general purpose ship

— general stores issue ship

— GM escort ship

— GM ship

— guided weapon ship

— gunnery drill ship

— heavy-lift ship

— helicopter support ship

— helicopter-capable ship

— helicopter-equipped ship

— HQ landing ship

— HQ ship

— hydrofoil GM ship

— hydrofoil ship

— infantry landing ship

— landing craft repair ship

— landing force support ship

— landing ship

— landing transport ship

— large assault command ship

— large infantry landing ship

— large transport ship

— launch area support ship

— lead ship

— lift ship

— lift-on/lift-off ship

— lighter carrier ship

— lighter ship

— logistic landing ship

— low-physical field mine countermeasures ship

— major amphibious ship

— major surface ships

— military transport ship

— mine barrier breaching ship

— mine countermeasures ship

— mine hunter coastal ship

— mine search and sweep ship

— mine warfare ship

— minelayer ship

— mines-hunting ship

— minor amphibious ship

— miscellaneous command ship

— missile carrier ship

— missile range instrumentation ship

— missile support ship

— monitoring ship

— multimission ship

— multipurpose ship

— multirole sea power ship

— multirole ship

— national command ship

— NATO pool ship

— naval manned ship

— naval ship

— notional ship

— nuclear reactor recharging ship

— ocean surveillance ship

— offshore patrol ship

— open ship

— over-the-beach unloading cargo-transport ship

— patrol hydrofoil missile ship

— patrol ship

— power-projection ship

— pre-package cargo ship

— provision stores ship

— radar barrier ship

— radar control ship

— radar picket ship

— repeater ship

— replenishment ship

— rocket assault ship

— rocket landing ship

— roll-on/roll-off ship

— salvage and rescue ship

— scout ship

— screening ship

— sea control ship

— sealift ship

— ship of war

— sister ship

— slick ship

— small ammunition ship

— small tank-landing ship

— small waterline area single hull ship

— sonar picket ship

— sonar ship

— special armament and ammunition transport ship

— special support ship

— standby HQ ship

— stores support ship

— strategic control and communications ship

— strategic warfare ship

— submarine ship

— supply transport ship

— support ship

— surface effects ship

— surface ship

— tactical command ship

— tanker ship

— tank-landing ship

— task fleet command ship

— tender ship

— transport ship

— troop lift ship

— troop-cargo ship

— underway replenishment ship

— vehicle cargo ship

— vehicle landing ship

— vertical assault ship

— VTOL support ship