Some critics contend that the loss of the boat was due to the gyroscopic action of its turbine engines. They believed that the turbine at the stern of the little ship held that portion of the craft in a rigid plane, while the anterior portion of the ship, caught in the trough of a wave, broke away. That the ship broke in two is certain; but competent engineers have denied that gyroscopic turbines could have had any share in its destruction. According to their view, the turbines of a ship are powerless to exert the gyroscopic action in question, because their axes are fixed and they thus have not the opportunity for secondary oscillation to which I have referred. Meanwhile there are other equally competent mechanicians who believe that the vibration or oscillation of the body of the ship itself may suffice, under certain circumstances, to give the turbine precisely such freedom of motion as will enable it to exercise a powerful gyroscopic effect. Dr. Schlick himself contends, and seems with the aid of models to demonstrate, that such a gyroscopic action is exercised by the wheels of a side-wheel steamer, which revolve on a shaft no less fixed than that of a turbine. If such is the case, there would seem to be no reason why a turbine-engine may not at times exercise the power of a tremendous gyroscope, such as it obviously constitutes. The question must find practical solution at the hands of the naval architects of the immediate future, as turbine engines are now in use in several of the largest steamships afloat, and others are being installed in craft of all descriptions.
THEORETICAL DANGERS OF THE GYROSCOPE
It should be said that engineers disagree as to the practical utility of the Schlick gyroscope. No one questions that it steadies the ship, but some critics think that its use may not be unattended with danger. It has been suggested that under certain circumstances—for example, the sudden disturbance of equilibrium due to a tremendous wave—the gyroscope might increase the oscillation of the ship to a dangerous extent, though ordinarily having the opposite effect.
The danger from this source is probably remote. There is, however, another danger that cannot be overlooked, and which marine architects must take into constant account. What we have already seen has made it clear that the revolving wheel of the Schlick gyroscope, to be effective, must bear an appreciable relation to the mass of the entire ship. Such a weight, revolving at a terrific speed and oscillating like a tremendous pendulum, obviously represents an enormous store of energy. It was estimated by Professor Lambert that a gyroscope of sufficient size to render even a Channel steamer stable would represent energy equal to fifty thousand foot-pounds—making it comparable, therefore, to an enormous projectile. Should such a gyroscope in action break loose from its trunnions, it would go through the ship with all the devastating effect of a monster cannon ball.
The possibility of such a catastrophe is perhaps the one thing that will cause naval architects to go slowly in the adoption of the new device. We can hardly suppose that the difficulties represented are insuperable, but undoubtedly a long series of experiments will be necessary before the Schlick gyroscope will come into general use. The apparatus has been tested, however, on a German coast steamer. It may not be very long before craft of the size of Channel steamers and boats that go to Cuba and the Bermudas are equipped with the device. Naturally enough, this prospect excites the liveliest popular interest. Visions of pleasant ocean voyages come before the mind's eye of many a voyager who hitherto has dreaded the sea.
But whatever the future of the gyroscope as applied to pleasure-craft, there can be little doubt about its utility as applied to vessels of war. It seems a safe enough prediction that all battle-ships will be supplied with this mechanism in the not distant future. Amid the maze of engines of destruction on war-vessels, one more will not appal the builder; while the advantage of being able to fling a storm of projectiles from a stable deck must be inestimable.
IX
NAVIGATING THE AIR
IF it were possible to regard all medieval literature without more than a grain of doubt, we must believe that aerial flight by human beings was accomplished long before science had risen even to the dignity of acquiring its name. Thus, it is recorded by a medieval historian that during the reign of Charlemagne some mysterious persons having acquired some knowledge of aerostatics from the astrologers, who were credited with numerous supernatural powers, constructed a flying-machine, and compelling a few peasants to enter it, sent them off on an aerial voyage. Unfortunately for the unwilling voyagers, so the story runs, they landed in the city of Lyons, where they were immediately seized and condemned to death as sorcerers. But the wise bishop of the city, doubting the story of their aerial journey, pardoned them and allowed them to escape.