Category Archives: New

A look back at one of your favorites, USS Shenandoah ZR-1, The First American Made Rigid Airship – http://wp.me/p1MLkF-19V

I’ve been working on another “Paul Harvey” style historical story for you. But I didn’t finish it. This month I have my daughter. She lives 1,000 miles away and I don’t get to see her often. This week I spent most of my time sightseeing & clowning with my daughter, so I did very little writing. My daughter did get some writing done and I broke the number one rule of living with a writer. ‘Don’t disturb the writer while he/she is working. Yup she gave me the ole evil-eye for disturbing her work as you’ll see.

We also saw The Keeper of the Planes (a forty foot high steel statue of a planes Indian praying to the Great Creator), several trains, Hatman Jack’s, and we even got in some pool time.

“Dad I’m writing! Geez.”

At the museum on a caboose.

At the Keeper of the Planes.

At the base of the Keeper of the Planes.

Trying on hats at Hatman Jack’s.

Elizabeth in the workshop at Hatman Jack’s learning about hat making from Jack.

Elizabeth with her new cousin Gracie.

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This week’s article is compliments of my daughter’s love of steam engines. This engine is what is known as a 4-8-4, believe me as you will see it is a very large steam engine.

Another look back at one of your favorite articles for 2016, Napoleon’s Best Friend (Bessieries part Four).

You have probably heard of nuclear powered submarines. They are called that not because they carry nuclear missiles (some do and some do not). They are called that because their propulsion is supplied by a nuclear reactor. But to be perfectly honest they are actually steam submarines. The nuclear reactor provides the heat to create steam to drive a turbine which powers the submarine (though there are several types of drive trains which can be used with a nuclear reactor).

The first nuclear powered ship in the world was the American submarine Nautilus SSN-571, commissioned 30 September 1954. But the Nautilus was not the first steam powered submarine. You need to go back 54 years to find the first steam powered naval submarine. The French submarine Narval Q4 was commissioned 26 June 1900.

The Narval did not use a steam turbine though, it used one triple expansion reciprocating steam engine. You will remember the Titanic had two triple expansion steam engines the size of a three story house. The Narval’s engine was no where near as large. The steam power was not the only innovation of the Narval. It was one of the first submarines to have a duel propulsion plant (steam on the surface and electric motors submerged. It was also one of the first submarine to have a double hull. An inner hull which was pressurized and an outer hull that was not pressurized but housed air banks, fuel tanks, ballast tanks and an area open to the sea. This outer hull was streamlined and made the Narval handle much better on the surface.

The Narval was a prototype, there was only one. The Narval was taken out of service 9 March 1909. However the French built many more steam powered submarines using the lessons they learned from the Narval.

French Narval Submarine, 1900.