Tom Scott, The Older One | Battleship Texas, Passing Steam @tomscotttheolderone364 | Uploaded April 2021 | Updated October 2024, 56 minutes ago.
This is a quick walk through compartment B-24-P, one of two steam passages on Battleship Texas. Unlike the later treaty and fast battleships, the boiler rooms were well forward of the engine rooms on Texas. As a matter of redundancy, steam was divided and sent aft to the engine rooms through compartments almost 60 feet long that ran on either side of the ship.
These compartments got really hot. In fact, so hot that they were normally uninhabitable. The reason for this is that the large, 14" diameter main steam lines contained steam at pressures of up to 295 lbs. This meant that the steam was at a temperature of about 420 deg. F! In spite of this, the rooms also served as engineering store rooms for parts that could withstand the elevated temperatures.
The temperatures inside the steam passages created yet another problem. The compartments in between the engine rooms and aft boiler room and immediately inboard of the steam passages were powder magazines for turret 3. Even though these rooms were well insulated and were also air conditioned, they apparently experienced temperatures higher than those in the magazines for the other 4 turrets. This wasn't a safety issue, but the concerns were that propellant stored at elevated temperatures could change their burning characteristics enough to create inaccuracies.
This is a quick walk through compartment B-24-P, one of two steam passages on Battleship Texas. Unlike the later treaty and fast battleships, the boiler rooms were well forward of the engine rooms on Texas. As a matter of redundancy, steam was divided and sent aft to the engine rooms through compartments almost 60 feet long that ran on either side of the ship.
These compartments got really hot. In fact, so hot that they were normally uninhabitable. The reason for this is that the large, 14" diameter main steam lines contained steam at pressures of up to 295 lbs. This meant that the steam was at a temperature of about 420 deg. F! In spite of this, the rooms also served as engineering store rooms for parts that could withstand the elevated temperatures.
The temperatures inside the steam passages created yet another problem. The compartments in between the engine rooms and aft boiler room and immediately inboard of the steam passages were powder magazines for turret 3. Even though these rooms were well insulated and were also air conditioned, they apparently experienced temperatures higher than those in the magazines for the other 4 turrets. This wasn't a safety issue, but the concerns were that propellant stored at elevated temperatures could change their burning characteristics enough to create inaccuracies.
