
Turbinia – An Uninvited Guest (2014) - herendin2
http://drewgrant.info/Pages/Turbinia.htm
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Animats
Yes, that's a well-known story. Probably the best demo of all time.

How did Charles Parsons get away with it? He was a Peer of the Realm, in an
era when only the House of Lords could try a peer. The story is that when the
Admiralty sent some people over to his offices to chew him out, the Prussian
naval attache was just leaving. The Admiralty then decided they had better
make a deal rather than let the Prussian Navy get ahead.

Parsons was originally shooting for 45 knots or so. The turbines had the
power, but they couldn't couple it into the water effectively. No reduction
gears, so the props turned too fast. Turbinia had three prop shafts with three
props on each shaft, trying to keep the load per prop under control. If they
applied too much power, they just bored a hole in the water. That's
cavitation.

Transmissions for turbine ships are a big problem. It's one of those things
that gets little public attention and is really hard to get right. High-
precision double helical gears work, but are hard to make, and were hard to
make through WWII. There was a fad for turboelectric drive, like a Diesel-
electric locomotive, in the 1920s. No need for reduction gears. That idea
comes and goes; the Zumwalt class destroyers are turboelectric drive.

~~~
stcredzero
_There was a fad for turboelectric drive, like a Diesel-electric locomotive,
in the 1920s. No need for reduction gears. That idea comes and goes; the
Zumwalt class destroyers are turboelectric drive._

Lately, I've been wondering about hybrid electric turbochargers. The batteries
would be a lot of extra weight, but it might make sense for hybrid cars that
have the batteries anyways. Shouldn't that yield turbocharging with very high
boost, but zero lag?

~~~
mark-r
Might work, but unnecessary - the electric motors coupled to the wheels
directly already give you the equivalent of turbo. I have no problem squealing
the tires on my Hybrid Camry.

~~~
semi-extrinsic
I have no problem squealing the tires on my old french car with its formidable
1.6L naturally aspirated inline-four that produced 109 horespower when new.
It's not a very telling metric.

~~~
mark-r
My 1981 Renault couldn't even dream of squealing its tires.

~~~
semi-extrinsic
So mine is a 2001 Peugeot, it's "old" but not "veteran". Probably it has twice
the low-end torque of the equivalent 80s car, and 50% more power.

In the 80s French cars, 110 horsepower was "high performance" versions like
the 205 GTI, which could definitely make some noise.

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mrec
There's an entertaining LindyBeige video on the subject:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrZ5IE-1GJ4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrZ5IE-1GJ4)

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tobylane
While the popular museums are all down south [1] there's a decent museum in
most northern towns focused on their industry, often the birth of that
industry [2]. I will go to this if I'm in Newcastle.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_visited_museums_i...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_visited_museums_in_the_United_Kingdom)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derwent_Valley_Mills](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derwent_Valley_Mills)

~~~
amiga-workbench
If you're in the area, check out the Ryhope pumping station.
[http://www.ryhopeengines.org.uk/](http://www.ryhopeengines.org.uk/)

I can remember going as a kid, they had the engine fired up and let me shovel
coal into the boiler.

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jabl
An interesting detail frequently overlooked is that the introduction of
turbines depended on another recent innovation, namely the switch from fire
tube boilers to water tube boilers, enabling higher steam temperature and
pressure. Case in point, the quintessential marine three drum boiler:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-
drum_boiler](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-drum_boiler)

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microtherion
An object moving faster than anything previously known? I'm sure the
Unidentified Swimming Object enthusiasts at the time had a field day with that
sighting.

~~~
michaelt

      faster than anything previously known?
    

Turbina went at 40mph in 1897 - but in at that time there were already steam
trains going twice as fast [1].

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_speed_record#Steam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_speed_record#Steam)

~~~
wavefunction
Trains don't really swim though, at least not very well.

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wyldfire
It took a little bit of re-reading because of the peculiar style of the
article. But it was an interesting read.

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csours
Pretty far off topic, but what would you call a smaller version of the
Chevrolet Corvette, if you had to name it?

This sparked my imagination because of the two ships called Viper and Cobra,
classic sports car names.

The Corvette started as a smallish roadster sports car (similar to a modern
Miata in footprint), but it's footprint has grown over the years. If you kept
to the nautical theme, what would you call a baby Corvette?

~~~
thecount122195
I would say sloop maybe? Traditionally that was the next size down from
corvettes but the corvette is the smallest warship. Maybe PT boat? GM tried to
evoke the corvette name with the chevette but that thing was about as far from
a sports car as you could get.

~~~
PhasmaFelis
I thought of PT boats too! It's not a great name for a car, but it's short for
"patrol torpedo boat," so maybe Patrol or Torpedo? I dunno, Torpedo might
sound too explodey to be trusted.

~~~
csours
Hmm also PT Cruiser... not a great connotation at this point.

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mark-r
We tend to think of disruptive innovations as requiring software and the
internet. How refreshing to see a story on HN of another kind.

