Telegraph system

[Matt Pereira]

Yep im not going to talk crap about anyone but I wasted lets see 14 years researching titanic, and around 12 years researching nazi technology and the fact that goverments like us, england, and russia stole the technology and claimed it as their own.

But i know the testomony will take time i just read something i didnt hear before about how Capt Smith helped lowered boat number 8 i mean physical is the way how the answer was given. But then again im on day 2 of the testomony i belive and its a steward that is giving the testomony right now.

 

[Jason D. Tiller]

quote:

i just read something i didnt hear before about how Capt Smith helped lowered boat number 8 i mean physical is the way how the answer was given. But then again im on day 2 of the testomony i belive and its a steward that is giving the testomony right now.

Well, you may get some conflicting information about that (including a lot of other events that were supposedly seen by some witnesses, but not seen by others that were in the same area) so I would take it with a grain of salt. You will encounter it many times throughout the inquiries.​

 

[Matt Pereira]

Well i expect to get alot of conflicting information and i pray for it to be exact. cause im planing on chooseing the middle ground between what the conflicting reports said. like right now it said he lowered the boat physcialy, well if another one comes along as to turning the crank to tilt the davit outboard im going to assum he was just standing on deck thinking bout what to all do and overseeing the launching of the boats. Also im not sure where i saw this but it i think parks was talking bout the gantry door on D deck being open and now its missing, well the reasion why its missing is cause it "supposedly" fell and r.m.s. titanic inc brought it up, bout 6 years ago i went to an exibit that was down here and they had that same door in a glass case. very impressive door seemed alittle smaller than i would have thought door appeared to be 6ft tall, i was thinking more or less 6 1/2 ft tall but i guess if it is really 6 ft tall i guess people werent as tall then as they are now by average.

 

[Andrew Collins]

There is an excellent article about Titanic's telegraph system here:

http://titanic.marconigraph.com/mgy_eotelegraphs1.html

 

[RJ Emery]

In the 1997 Cameron film, on Titanic's bridge are four Engine Order Telegraphs (EOTs). They are brass with big round dials and levers, two on the left or port side and two on the right or starboard side. The EOTs are used to signal the engine room as to the speed and direction of the engines/propellers (Full Ahead, Full Astern, All Stop, etc.). The best view of all four occurs when Capt. Smith enters the partially flooded bridge for the last time.

During the film, only two of the EOTs are ever used -- the rightmost EOTs of each pair, and only one EOT is shown in the engine room.

The ship had three screws and presumably one engine each to drive each screw. Therefore, why four EOTs on the bridge? Why only one (presumably) EOT in the engine room?

 

[RJ Emery]

Andrew, thank you for that reference. That source does answer some of my questions.

[Moderator's Note: This message and the two immediately above it, originally posted in two different new threads, have been moved to this pre-existing thread addressing the same subject. MAB]

 

[TitanicNerd]

Engine order telegraph - how did it work?

So, a lot of books/internet sites/exhibits say the engines were stopped, then reversed. How in the world could you do this with a telegraph golden round machine thingy (Titanic noob, sorry)

 

[TimTurner]

The device is called the Engine Order Telegraph. There's one on the bridge and one in the engineroom. The officer on the bridge will move the lever into position for the desired speed: Example: Reverse, Stop, Ahead 1/3, Ahead 2/3, Ahead Full. This would send an electrical signal to the Engine Order Telegraph in the engineroom. This rings a bell and an officer in the engineroom looks at the telegraph and see what position it's in. Now the engines may not be able to do what the bridge wants. Maybe the bridge wants Ahead Full, but the best the engines can do at the moment are Ahead 2/3. The engineering officer will ring up on the Engine Order Telegraph whatever speed the engines can do. The Engine Order Telegraph rings on the bridge, so know the bridge knows what they're going to get from the engines. Meanwhile, the steam valves are manually operated by men in the engine room to allow more or less steam through. I'm a bit fuzzy on this part, but some kind of electric signal was probably sent to the boiler rooms to tell the coal-shovelers to shovel more or less coal. I'm not sure about that part, perhaps it was a signal to shut the dampers.

I think each engine had an Engine Order Telegraph, one for the port reciprocating engine, one for the starboard reciprocating engine, and probably one for the turbine engine.

 

[TitanicNerd]

So there is no way to stop, then reverse?

Moderator's note: [Edited post to remove unnecessary quote-back of Tim Turner's entire message. JDT]

 

[TimTurner]

Yes, you can. I don't know specifically how the mechanism on the Titanic worked, but you'll notice when they use it in movies there is always a double movement (e.g. They will pull all the way back on the lever, then push it forward). The first movement must make sure the ring is clearly heard at the other end by moving it as far as possible across the dial, the second movement moves the dial to the desired position.

So the receiving end will get a ring, then look to see where the dial has moved to.

 

[TitanicNerd]

So the ship did stop, then reverse the engines and it was indeed possible?

This is how I think you would order stop, then reverse.
Pull the handle to stop, then pull it all the way back
Then push the handle forward to full astern, and pull it back.

Moderator's note: [Edited post to remove unnecessary quote-back of Tim Turner's entire message. JDT]

 

[TimTurner]

That's basically the idea, but the order is wrong.

1. Pull the handle all the way to one side, then push it to Stop.
2. Wait a few minutes for the engineers to stop the engines. The ship would still coast forward for a while when the engines stopped.
3. Push the handle forward, then pull it to Full Astern.
4. Wait for the engineers to engage the reverse on the engines, then bring the engines up to speed. It will take a while for the engines to change the ship's momentum.

Remember the last position that the telegraph is in is the one that the engineers will see. Whatever you do, if you want Full Astern, the lever needs to end up in the Full Astern position

PS. You should probably remove the quote part when you reply, unless it is necessary.

 

[TitanicNerd]

So stop full astern was given?

 

[TimTurner]

I don't know what orders were given on the bridge, but if they stopped then went full astern, it would have happened in the sequence above, one step at a time.

There is no "stop full astern" order. there is a "stop" order and a separate "astern" order.

 

[TitanicNerd]

Exactly. Thank you.

 

[HighAndMightyBrightness]

Questions about chadburns might have been asked before on this forum, but I think my questions will require a ginormous amount of details (basic or otherwise).

I have just begun re-learning and expanding my knowledge on fundamental highschool/college physics again. Ever since I was a child, however, I could not figure out the inner workings of chadburns. Since the Titanic likely has generic chadburns like any other ships at the time, I would like to try my questionings here.

This is very basic, I know, but were the general chadburns mostly connected electrically or mechanically? Of course, even in electrical chadburns, the result would still be the conversion of magnetic impulses to mechanical gears and readings. What I meant is: were electrical wires used to communicated between the chadburns or metallic gear-shafts/ chain-links/ etc?

If the engine masters were trying to reaffirm their received orders by ringing back while a new order was arriving from the bridge at the same time, what would happen?

What is the evolutionary pathway of the chadburns? Did they use bells tied to ropes before chadburns when we are talking about ranges beyond the speaking tubes?

Do any of you have easy-to-read diagrams of the inner workings of Titanic/generic chadburns? And if you are an engineer by study, can you - in layman terms- roughly describe the workings of each major parts?

Thank you in advance!!

 

[B-rad]

Your best bet would be to read this article.

Titanic's Engine-order Telegraphs

 

[HighAndMightyBrightness]

Oi, thanks for the moving my post! I see that several of my questions have already been answered. So they were connected by chains? How archaic! O_O

 

[HighAndMightyBrightness]

Your best bet would be to read this article.

Titanic's Engine-order Telegraphs

Thanks!

 

[TimTurner]

So they were connected by chains? How archaic!

My '82 coupe uses a timing chain for the engine. It's basically a bicycle chain, which, come to think of it bicycles still use chains.

Thing about old technology is: it works.