Union jacks.-The size of the jack shall be the size of the union of the national flag with which it is flown. Position and size of stars.-The position and size of each star for the union of the flag shall be as indicated on a plan which will be furnished to the departments by the Navy Department. From this plan can be determined the location and size of stars for flags of any dimensions. Extra blue prints of this plan will be furnished upon application to the Navy Department. Order effective. All national flags and union jacks now on hand or for which contracts have been awarded shall be continued in use until unserviceable, but all those manufactured or purchased for Government use after the date of this order shall conform strictly to the dimensions and proportions herein prescribed. Boat flags.-In order that the identity of the stars in flags when carried by small boats belonging to the Government may be preserved, the custom holding in the Navy for many years, of thirteen (13) stars for boat flags, is hereby approved. President's flag.-The color of the field of the President's flag shall be blue. THE WHITE HOUSE, WM. H. TAFT. The U. S. S. Porter is hereby stricken from the Navy Register. NAVY DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., November 6, 1912. BEEKMAN WINTHROP, Acting Secretary of the Navy. GENERAL ORDER No. 239. } NAVY DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., November 7, 1912. 1. General Order No. 224, dated October 9, 1912, is rescinded and the following order is substituted: 2. When a submarine is exercising singly, she shall be attended by a tender, launch, or other submarine, and a careful watch shall be kept by the attending craft. 3. If impracticable to detail an attending craft, the submarine thus acting singly shall leave with the proper officers a full knowledge of her proposed movements, so that she can be followed if it becomes necessary. 4. When exercising with an inexperienced personnel, the work of submarines shall be carried on in comparatively shoal water and with such additional precautions as circumstances may demand. 5. Submarines, after commissioning, shall not be exercised at depths greater than would be needed for the operations ordinarily required in time of war, and under no circumstances shall submarines of the A class be submerged voluntarily to depths exceeding 60 feet, nor shall submarines of the B and subsequent classes, after commissioning, be submerged voluntarily to depths exceeding 100 feet. 6. The permission of the department must be obtained in every instance before submerging submarines, in commission, voluntarily to depths greater than above limits. 7. In every instance, when a submarine is operated singly, or when the stated limits of submergence are exceeded, report in full of all attendant circumstances will be made to the department. BEEKMAN WINTHROP, Acting Secretary of the Navy. This reorganization has already resulted in better cooperation, more effective instruction, and more general use of the facilities of the Naval Academy and experiment station. Both the Bureaus of Navigation and of Steam Engineering are alive to the necessity of the student officers entering into close association with the outside engineering world, and deriving the benefits therefrom, and to the necessity imposed by the shortness of two years' course of using only the most effective methods. To this end, it has been decided to conduct the course at Annapolis for the first year, the students being under the direct instruction of specialists engaged from various universities and of Naval Academy instructors and having the facilities of the Naval Academy and of the Engineering Experiment Station for practical work and research work. At the end of the first year, the student officers are sent for one year to such of the leading universities as may offer the best course in the specialties undertaken by the student officers (i. e., for steam engineering marine-engine design, shop practices and management, electricity, and radio). During the summer months the students are assigned to inspection districts or to special industrial works in order that they may absorb the methods used at various successful industrial plants. In addition to the efforts made by the department to bring the student officers into close contact with the outside world and to give them an opportunity of observing outside engineering practices, the head of the post-graduate department makes it a practice to invite various authorities to lecture at Annapolis on matters bearing on the subjects in hand. For example, the following gentlemen have lectured during the three years of the school's existence: Mr. Charles D. Mosher, Mr. Walter M. McFarland, Mr. Lawrence Y. Spear, Mr. W. L. R. Emmet, Mr. J. L. Leslie, Mr. C. B. Edwards, Mr. Arthur West, Mr. Ernest H. B. Anderson, Mr. E. W. Graef, Mr. Charles P. Wetherbee, Dr. Edgar Buckingham, Dr. Burton McCollum, Dr. L. W. Spring, Prof. Sidney A. Reeve, Mr. Henry Fay, Mr. W. R. Hulbert, Mr. G. C. Davison, Prof. Ira N. Hollis, Mr. J. G. Callan, Mr. Henri G. Chatain, Mr. Maxwell W. Day, Mr. J. H. Nicholson, assisted by Messrs. Dunn, Holinger, and Spellar; Dr. D. S. Jacobus, Dr. William H. Tolman, Dr. Rudolf Diesel, Prof. H. G. Sadler, Mr. Leo Loeb. To show the continuity of lectures, there is quoted the following schedule of lectures to be followed next month, when the subject of "Fuels" will be taken up (in addition to the regular scholastic course): Monday, February 3, 13. Friday, February 7...... Saturday, February 8. Tuesday, February 11... SCHEDULE. Dr. David T. Day, of the Geological Survey, on "Fields and production." Messrs. Connelly and Dowling, of the Texas Co., on Messrs. Smith and Thompson, of the Texas Co., on Rear Admiral J. R. Edwards, United States Navy, on Mr. E. H. Peabody, of the Babcock & Wilcox Boiler Wednesday, February 12......Lieut. Commander J. J. Hyland, United States Navy, on "Oil burning at testing plant installed in Philadelphia Navy Yard. Thursday, February 13... Friday, February 14. Tuesday, February 18.. Thursday, February 20... .....Mr. Angelo Conti, of Bureau of Steam Engineering, on "Evaporative tests and trial trip records in substantiation thereof." .\Practical work at the testing plant in Philadelphia Navy Yard. .Dr. J. A. Holmes, Director Bureau of Mines, on “Coal Monday, February 24. Messrs. Ray and Kreisinger, formerly of Bureau of The bureau has every reason to believe that the post-graduate course will be of far-reaching benefit to the naval service. The interest evinced in it by educators and engineers of the country is a source of gratification to the bureau, and the results already attained insure most excellent results. The CHAIRMAN. What investigations, if any, have been undertaken as to the Diesel oil engine as a marine power and what were results of such investigations with special reference to the development of some type of this engine for economical use in naval vessels? Admiral CONE. Under investigations the bureau has kept in touch with all published reports concerning the development of the Diesel engine abroad. Where news concerning any special development has been received our naval attachés have been directed to ascertain the facts and make special report concerning it. In November, 1910, an officer of the bureau was sent abroad with the fleet and visited various establishments in Belgium, France, Italy, Germany, and Switzerland, where the Diesel engine is being developed, and made reports concerning it. Another officer from the bureau was sent subsequently to follow up lines of information that had been opened and visit other places, so that the bureau was placed in possession of full information concerning the progress that had been made. In October, 1911, contract having been made with one of the leading European builders of machinery of this type for Diesel engines to be installed in one of our submarines, an officer was sent over to inspect this machinery. This officer has taken up his residence in Winterthur, Switzerland, where the engines are being built. In addition to his regular inspection duties, he has kept in touch with European progress in the development of the Diesel engine, has visited other works, and has attended trials of oil-engine ships. His residence at one of the leading centers of progress and his knowledge of the local language has enabled him to pick up much valuable information, and he has made numerous reports which have kept the bureau well informed of the progress made. INFORMATION. Diesel engines are being installed in submarines of all first-class navies. For this purpose it is well adapted, since it is possible to employ small rapidly revolving propellers with numerous engine cylinders, each of low power, successfully. Engines of larger sizes for heavier vessels have been installed in a number of merchant vessels, the largest installation that has been tried being that in an oil carrier of 2,600 tons, 114 knots speed, with a single-screw 6-cylinder engine of 1,500 brake horsepower, at 130 revolutions per minute. The largest engine being actually installed is for another oil carrier of 7,500 tons' capacity. This is also a single-screw vessel, and the engine is to be 6-cylinder of 1,800 brake horsepower, at 100 revolutions per minute. In spite of the newspaper reports it seems certain that no large war vessel has been laid down with Diesel engines. One Government has had under construction for it by two different firms separate designs of double-acting 2-cycle engines in which weights and dimensions were reduced to the minimum. One of these engines had been completed and was undergoing shop tests when it was irreparably damaged in a fire which occurred in the shop as the result of an accident to the engine. One cylinder of the other engine is being tested, but it has been impossible to obtain definite information concerning it. Both these experimental engines were intended to develop 2,000 brake horsepower in each cylinder. Our information indicates that after they had passed shop tests successfully they were to be installed on the center shaft of a triple-screw vessel for trial afloat. Reports indicate that another Government has undertaken to install a Diesel engine on the port shaft of an old second-class cruiser. The vessel was twin screw, developing 5,000 indicated horsepower on each shaft. The port engine and afterhalf of the boiler plant was to be removed and a Diesel engine installed in its place. This work was to be undertaken by a private firm, but no information has been obtainable concerning the actual details. Experiments are in progress elsewhere with large single-cylinder engines for test. These were designed with a view to adding other eylinders to make up an engine suitable for a vessel after the single cylinder had passed the shop tests. Reports indicate that these tests have not yet passed to the point where further work is warranted. OUR OWN PROGRESS. We have installed Diesel engines in 5 submarines which have been tried and are in service. They are being installed in 14 others now building and will be installed in the 8 that were authorized by the last Congress. One of the submarine tenders authorized by Congress is to have a 6-cylinder engine, developing 900 brake horsepower at 260 revolutions per minute. This engine is of the light high-speed type similar to the engines installed in submarines and is the largest Diesel engine that has been undertaken in the United States. It is of the trunk-piston type with scavenging cylinders carried under the working cylinders. Engines for heavy vessels will necessarily be of more rugged design. Commercial Diesel engines, such as are being installed in merchant vessels, are exceedingly heavy and of large dimensions. Engines of this type will, if practicable, be installed in one of the fuel carriers authorized by Congress. Experience with this engine will enable us to progress toward the design of an engine suitable for a battleship installation. In my opinion the shipbuilding industry in the United States is not so profitable as to induce extensive experimental work by private enterprise in the development of a new motive power for the Navy. The Navy Department has at all times stood ready to encourage any such enterprise, but it seems probable that if we are to ultimately adopt the Diesel engine for our capital vessels we must wait for it to come to us from abroad or for the department itself to take up its development. The committee at 1.15 p. m. adjourned until to-morrow, January 7, at 10.30 a. m. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 1913. STATEMENT OF HON. STEVEN B. AYRES, A MEMBER OF CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW YORK. The CHAIRMAN. Gentlemen of the committee, Mr. Ayres, of New York, is present. Mr. AYRES. I do not know how fully Admiral Cone went into the question of the Diesel engine. The CHAIRMAN. He discussed it and said that he would submit in his hearing a fuller statement than he made to the committee. He said that he was giving the matter very careful consideration, but that as you were not here he would submit a full statement. Mr. AYRES. What I want to say is that some 18 or 19 years ago what is called the Diesel type of internal-combustion engine was invented by Dr. Diesel, of Germany. It has not been developed very fully. In the preliminary experiments which led to the successful operation of the Diesel engine two or three different kinds of carbon fuel were used, and finally the experiment settled down to the use of crude petroleum, which is in use now. This engine uses oil. It does not use oil in the way it is used in our fuel-burning steam engines on the west coast. There they burn oil to produce steam, but in this internal-combustion engine the oil is injected directly into the cylinders, so when the combustion takes place all the heat units are used. You can readily see that you get the full power of the fuel, whereas in any kind of fuel burner under a boiler it disperses a great deal of the heat units. The CHAIRMAN. Admiral Cone so stated in his hearing, and said that it was his desire to develop very fully that particular line of experiment and work. Mr. AYRES. Then I will not take your time with an explanation of that; but the fact is this, that the Diesel engine has now been so fully developed that three or four merchant vessels Mr. ROBERTS (interposing). In this country or abroad? Mr. AYRES. Abroad; have had their power installed with Diesel engines, one of which is the Christian X, which has entirely navigated the globe, and curiously enough it was able to run something like three or four times as far as any installation of power with the ordinary coal-burning engine. The reason is this, that the oil is in such a condensed form that the bulk necessary to go a particular distance is very much reduced. Therefore, by the use of thus engine in merchant or naval vessels, it reduces the space used, and there is more room for the cargo. The German admirality is just now building one of their battleship cruisers with a Diesel engine. The Diesel engine so far has not been developed beyond 12,000 horsepower. In this new battleship cruiser which they are building the main engine is Diesel, which they propose to use entirely for their cruising because it is inexpensive, and the side installations are to be very powerful turbines, so when they need very great speed they will have a combination both of the turbine and the Diesel. The great Krupp yard at Kiel has practically given up the building of reciprocating steam engines, and they propose in the future to make a combination of turbine for great speed and Diesel for cruising. |