Design of Lusitania's turbines

[danny perry]

Does anyone know anything about the design of Lusitania's turbines, or indeed where such information might be found?

As best I can tell, there was no gearing between the turbine and propellor, thus leading to the shuddering at high speed because the propellors were running too fast, while the turbines running too slow. Can anyone confirm this?

I'm not clear on how the ship was reversed? Was there a separate turbine system for running the engines backwards? If so, was it less powerful than the forward turbines?

Ballard has it that the turbines contained 3 million blades. Quite a lot. Can anyone confirm this?

 

[Georgia Rinker]

Hello Danny!

I'm no real expert on the design of steam engines and turbines, but I tried to search a little bit for you. Wikipedia has some awesome, crisp deck plans of the RMS Lusitania and is really good for zooming in.

I also found another website that mentioned the "stats" for her and although I'm not one for believing everything I see on the internet these days, it claimed to have "Four direct-acting steam turbines, of the Parsons type."

Here's the actual website: RMS Lusitania

I have also found an engineering Journal published in 1912 that can be found for free download on google. I don't know if this will help or not, but on page 94, it explains the marine turbine and how to build one (which I actually find fascinating).

Journal of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers

books.google.co.uk

I'm unsure if it will help answer your questions! Good luck finding an answer!