How Titanic's Engines Sounded

Very impressive an engine like that must have created an amazing amount of acceleration for a ship of that age. I have a sound clip from a reciprocating engine simalar to that one if you email me i can send it to you via attachment.
Regards
Keith
 
A summer excursion on the UK coast in the Waverley - vaunted as 'the last seagoing paddle steamer in the world' - will enable you to experience the sight and sound of triple expansion diagonal engines in operation.

I have no details as I write but I seem to recall that the terrestrial reciprocating engines for pumping the west London water supply at Kempton Park waterworks were supposed to be the world's largest such.

Noel
 
WEll, in fact of a triple expansion engine, Kempton is one of the largest, that's true. Also, that the engine at Kempton Park is still operationalable, as most steam engine freaks consider.
But, if large, then there were several other steam engines to consider: One 6000 PSi Triple (or Quadrouple?) Expansion engine in Germany, running a rolling mill.
http://www.hfinster.de/StahlArt2/archive-VoelklingerHuette-BW-240-2-21.02.1994-de.html


And there were the double twin (douple Tandem) Engines. These engines were the largest ever build, and are above the 10.000 PS mark. The largest for europe is the engine in the museum Tobiashammer:
http://www.tobiashammer.de/tob2.htm

The engine was dismounted at the iron works factory. Unfortunately the boilers were not surviving, but the engine gives a view, how huge steam engines could have been.

In the eastern germany in antother factory, make large glas plates, antoher douple twin engine is running for museam purposes, also more than 10000 PS:

http://www.heinrichshuette-wurzbach.de/Dampfmaschine/dampfmaschine.html

Also in the marxhütte, a today not operational steel and ironworks, were you can find impressive pictures about another douple twin engine:
http://www.dubtown.de/huette_maxhuette.htm

And from the pit Adolf there is the large double twin engine, which was used for the pit lift:
http://www.hfinster.de/StahlArt2/archive-Adolf-BW-5830-1-11.09.1990-de.html


So large isn't the point, power isn't the point. Titanics engines were the engines build fpr power and efficiency! Less coal consumption and more power output, and of course: Large had those 4 cylinder triple expansion engines been!
But as shown: Large isn't the point....
so Kempton maybe large, but is incompareable to Titanic, because one cylinder is missing ;) and for power, well other engines had more power output, and here the double twin engines ruled!
I have nevers seen or hear about triple expansion engines with more than 8000 PS, but I found many double twin engines with more than 10000 PS.... Guess this is compareable to brittain and elsewhere...
 
But bearing in mind that titanic's engines were a great example of modern engineering and to create an engine so powerful in the early 1900's is very impressive. Titanic's design was in my eyes a remarkable step forward that was cut tragicly short. Or maybe overconfidence was the mistake here. But there is one thing we have to get clear there is no such thing as an unsinkable ship. and the phrase "even god could not sink this ship" that is the most ridiculous phrase i have heard in my life. Basicly the hull was like a sheet of paper and the iceberg was like a stanley knife.
 
>>But bearing in mind that titanic's engines were a great example of modern engineering and to create an engine so powerful in the early 1900's is very impressive.<<

I think you're going to find it was more a question of economy then anything else. Viewed critically, the Olympic Class asa whole was more evolutionary then revolutionary with their chief claim to fame being their sheer size. (And even that was soon to be eclipsed by the giants building in the German yards.) In terms of amenities, they were far more restrained then a lot of the competition.

The Lusitania and Mauratania were both faster and had much more powerful engines on smaller and finer hulls, all of which made it possible for them to break speed records, but they paid a price in this in terms of higher rates of fuel consumption. They were also livelier boats in heavy seas compared to the Olympics.

The Olympic class featured the triple expansion engines with the waste steam being used in a centreline turbine and this made it possible for these ships to maintain a reasonable speed without breaking the bank. Had all three ships been able to operate together as intended, it wouldn't have been a problem to keep to weekly sailings.
 
And i remember bruce ismay stating that titanic was not built for speed but for steerage capacity. But why would a ship see the need for 29 boilers if she was not built for speed. Having 29 boilers on board not to mension the 1200 tonnes of the riciprocating engines must of added an enormous amount of weight to this vessel.
 
>>Having 29 boilers on board not to mension the 1200 tonnes of the riciprocating engines must of added an enormous amount of weight to this vessel.<<

Indeed it would. That's why all that power was needed. To move these ships at a useful speed.

>>And i remember bruce ismay stating that titanic was not built for speed but for steerage capacity<<

Eh? Where did he say that?

A high steerage capacity was the norm for a lot of these ships and was one of the driving forces behind the size of ocean liners steadily increasing over time. There was a lot of immigrant traffic going to America at this time and the shipping lines wanted the business. Since the competition was always trying to offer something a little bit better in the way of accomadations and amenities, the space requirements increased accordingly. This applied in equal measure to the 2cnd and 1st class accomadation. They paid the premium rates for better and expected to recieve it. If one line didn't give the customers what they wanted, others were all too willing to step up to the plate.
 
If they where greased up correctly, they would probably just say 'WHOOSH-WHOOSH-WHOOSH' or something like that when the crankshaft revolves. Steamengines are very silent. The loud SHOO-SHOO-SHOO heard from steam locomotives on films coms from the 'used steam ejector' inside it's funnel. Or so I've been told
 
Anders, I beg to differ. A steam tug of my acquaintance makes a very loud noise in its engineroom. It's a sort of regular thudding sound. A sort of "Womp womp womp". The engine puts out about 1,000hp.

It's not very noticeable from alongside or even on deck but I wouldn't work in the engineroom without ear protection.
 
That has to do with the size of it, sometimes a small engine tends to be more noizy than a big one. Just compare a grassmower with a carengine. (with the bonnet open) And if they where 'ear-protection-noisy', where wouldn't bee need for a bell on the telegraph since no-one ever would hear it. My daddy-o worked as a volonteer on a museum-railroad during the 1970-something, stoaking engines in the 60 ton (130,000 lbs) -class, and he said taht you easily could converste with eachother in the cabin, even if a locomotive is more noisy than a boat. But I dunnow...
 

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