Battleship Texas, Coal and Torpedoes Tom Scott, The Older One 2021-06-14 | A deep dive into the design and construction choices, difficulties, and improvements that were part of Battleship Texas' conversion from coal to oil fired boilers.
Battleship Texas, Getting The Most Out Of Filthy Fuel! Tom Scott, The Older One 2024-04-04 | The change from coal to oil burning boilers on Texas was likely the single most important change that saved her from the ship breakers in the early 1920's. Coal was difficult to transport, load on a ship and stoke into boilers. It was also filthy stuff who's dust covered everything, including sailors' lungs! No one grieved the change to oil, but in the process, a great piece of technology was lost that deserves our attention; the superb Babcock and Wilcox coal fired, small water tube boiler. Hull repair below the waterline on Battleship Texas are now complete! However, there are still a lot of projects to complete that have not been fully funded. These include restoring the 5" and 3" cannon, along with 40mm and 20mm weapons. This is where you can help by purchasing memorabilia or shirts and hats through the ship's online store. Visit the ship's store by using this link: store.battleshiptexas.org/collections/allYou can also make a tax deductible donation to the ship here: 112824a.blackbaudhosting.com/112824a/Operating
BB35 Going Analog, The Old School Way! Tom Scott, The Older One 2023-11-20 | Welcome to Interior Communications, a rarely looked at room on most warships that serves as the nervous system for the ship's communications and information systems. Because of that, it provided a number of critical functions that would cripple the ship if interrupted. Even though the current hull repairs on Battleship Texas are funded, there are many important repairs that are not. These include restoring all of her secondary and antiaircraft weapons, including the 5" and 3" cannon, along with 40mm and 20mm weapons. This is where you can help! You can make a purchase of memorabilia or shirts and hats through the ship's online store. You can also have the unique, once in a lifetime experience of walking around and under the world's last dreadnought battleship by taking a dry dock tour. However, make it soon! The ship will be going back the water at the end of February 2024.You can visit the ship's store using this link: store.battleshiptexas.org/collections/allMake a tax deductible donation to the ship here: 112824a.blackbaudhosting.com/112824a/OperatingMore information on the Dry Dock Tours can be found here: battleshiptdev.wpengine.com/plan-your-visit
Battleship Texas, To the Bottom of the Beasts Belly! Tom Scott, The Older One 2023-09-29 | This is the second of two videos that will take us below turrets 4 and 5, to the very bottom of the ship on the hold deck. You can directly help the current major hull repairs with a donation that will also give you the unique privilege of touring the dry dock and standing under this priceless 27,000 ton, 100 year old artifact. Do that by using the following link that will take you to instructions and reservations for tours. Be quick about it! There are only a limited number available and it is likely that they will be discontinued at the end of 2023! battleshiptexas.org/drydock
Battleship Texas, Diving Into the Belly of the Beast! Tom Scott, The Older One 2023-09-27 | We're going to climb ladders to deep inside the ship, beneath the turrets 4 and 5 handling rooms where we will see materials storage and ammunition magazine rooms. The best way to show your appreciation for these videos is to make a purchase at the Battleship Texas Foundation's online store or make a direct, tax free contribution to their repair and restoration efforts.
Battleship Texas and Her Mighty 5 Inch Guns! Tom Scott, The Older One 2023-05-25 | The 5”/51 caliber rapid fire canon on Battleship Texas usually take a rear seat to her big 14” main battery guns. This video will give these excellent weapons the due consideration they deserve. They were originally introduced into U.S. Navy service in 1910 as protection from high speed surface targets for battleships and cruisers. As newer guns and tactics changed, their simple design and operation combined with strong performance saw most of them move to transports, freighters and even shore emplacements during World War II where they continued to give outstanding performance.A big thanks to Tony DiGiulian for his support when he provided me with range tables for the guns that I couldn’t find on my own. I strongly recommend his website, NavWeaps. It has been my go-to site for information on not only U.S. naval weapons, but also those of most other countries. You can go there with this link: http://www.navweaps.comYou can show your support for the ongoing efforts by either buying merchandise from the Battleship Texas Foundation ship store or by making a direct tax deductible donation by going to one of these links:Ship Store- store.battleshiptexas.orgDonate- battleshiptexas.org/donate
Battleship Texas, Taking A Deep Dive Amidship Tom Scott, The Older One 2023-02-25 | Here's another spelunking session into rarely visited compartments deep in the ship. For a very limited time, you can walk the dry dock beneath Battleship Texas, and get up close and personal with the work currently being performed on the world's last dreadnought battleship. Go to the following link for more information and to make reservations: battleshiptexas.org/drydock
Battleship Texas, Making Fresh Water In The Ocean Tom Scott, The Older One 2023-02-08 | All steam ships require vast amounts of fresh water for their power systems and crew. While much is reused in a closed loop system, they still had to make 10's of thousands of gallons of it every day.
Battleship Texas, Looking For Hidden Treasure! Tom Scott, The Older One 2023-02-03 | The ship was thoroughly stripped of supplies and parts by the Navy when she was retired. However, there are a few spaces where items are still where they were left more than 75 years ago!
Battleship Texas, How To Swing With A 5 Cannon Tom Scott, The Older One 2023-01-31 | This is a detailed look at what are called frictionless trunnion bearings that are part of the design for the 5"/51 caliber guns used on Battleship Texas throughout her entire career. It also answers the "What The Heck Is It" challenge offered about a week ago. Hats off and jazz hands to NNWALK8218 who was the first to give the correct answer an description of this clever design!
Battleship Texas: Rudder, Pintles and Gudgeons, Oh My! Tom Scott, The Older One 2022-10-14 | There's been a lot of concern and discussion about why the rudder on Battleship Texas is set at 14 degrees starboard and what it would take to straighten it. Because of that, we are going to take a look at the designs of both the rudder and its turning gear, and why it isn't such a good idea to mess with it.While you are here, click on one of the following links to become a valued member of a group of people who are helping restore Texas by either purchasing mementos and collector's items, or making a direct donation.Direct Monetary Donations- 112824a.blackbaudhosting.com/112824a/OperatingShip’s Store- store.battleshiptexas.orgDonate For Premium Gifts- battleshiptexas.org/donate
Battleship Texas, Getting 3,500 Shots Out Of A 250 Shot Barrel! Tom Scott, The Older One 2022-09-23 | We address two subjects in this last of the videos that describe the design, construction and operation of the 14" guns and ammunition on Battleship Texas. The first discusses an interesting point of history about the barrels and how their histories are actually marked on them. The other is a detailed look at how the barrels wear when fired and why they actually had little wear, even though they fired more shots than they were rated for.
Battleship Texas Tow Video Like Youve Seen Nowhere Else! Tom Scott, The Older One 2022-09-08 | Here is a very long, but unique video of Battleship Texas being towed to dry dock because we have gotten up close and personal with the tow boats and ship as she departs San Jacinto and starts her journey to Galveston. Later, we provide a detailed view of her being carefully pulled into the dock. Special attention was given to the ship's departure from San Jacinto, with a video length of about 1 hour for that portion. If you don't have the patience to watch all of it, start at the beginning, then use the slider to scan forward and see her back out into the channel. You can then jump straight to her arrival in Galveston by proceding to 1:00:54.As stated in the video, I have asked for donations for the very first time in any of my videos, but not for me. You can contribute to the effort of restoring Texas to her original glory with even the smallest donation. The following links take you to pages to make a cash donation, purchase shirts, hats, mementos, or even buy valuable collector's items that will help Battleship Texas Foundation perform the much needed work:Direct Monetary Donations- 112824a.blackbaudhosting.com/112824a/OperatingShip’s Store- store.battleshiptexas.org/collections/allDonate For Premium Gifts- battleshiptexas.org/donate
Battleship Texas, Locked, Loaded and Ready to Fire! Tom Scott, The Older One 2022-08-25 | In previous videos, we've discussed turret and loading operations, the movement of ammunition from magazines to the guns and even the construction of gun barrels and powder charges. All that is left is how to fire a loaded gun.
Battleship Texas, Fuel For 10 Giant Chemical Engines Tom Scott, The Older One 2022-08-18 | While it sounds a little odd, the big 14" guns were exactly that, chemical engines. They released the energy contained within the propellant's chemical compounds to create immense temperatures and pressure of up to 36,000 pounds per square inch. This huge release of energy was capable of accelerating a 1,500 pound shell from a complete standstill to more than 1,800 miles per hour in only 50 feet! This required a very precise balance between gun design and chemistry.
Battleship Texas, Making the Rounds! Tom Scott, The Older One 2022-08-05 | We've shown turret operations that include moving powder and shells into the turret gun house and loading them. We've even shown how the massive gun barrels were constructed, but we haven't talked about the components that actually make up firing one of the big 14" rounds. This video describing the projectiles is the first of two that will cover that.
Battleship TEXAS Hoops, Sleeves and Rings Tom Scott, The Older One 2022-07-14 | As promised, here's another video that describes another aspect of the big 14" guns on Battleship Texas. It isn't very obvious to the casual eye, but these guns were assembled from a number of forged castings and in many cases, miles of steel wire wound around the barrel. It not only took an amazing amount of sophisticated knowledge of metallurgy, chemistry, engineering and physics, it required a huge investment in production facilities to create them. Gun factories required furnace and shrinkage pits up to 80-90 feet deep, overhead cranes capable of lifting 70 ton barrels up to 100' in the air, and giant lathes and other machinery capable of forming, cutting and measuring pieces of steel weight more than 50 tons to levels of precision as small as 1/1000th of an inch! Sadly, none of this exists anymore, but we can still look back and marvel at the genius and skill that went into producing these giant guns.
Battleship TEXAS, What The Heck Is The Recirculate System? Tom Scott, The Older One 2022-07-02 | Pull your geek hats back on. I keep going back to the fuel system because of its shear size and complexity. It also required a high degree of skill and attention to detail to operate properly. When describing it in previous videos, I intentionally left out half of the fuel system in order to keep the message fairly simple. I will be largely righting that wrong here.
Battleship Texas, Getting Ready To Fight! Tom Scott, The Older One 2022-06-04 | Damage Control is far more than fighting fires and flooding. Extensive preparations were made prior to battle to make the ship better able to survive and keep fighting, even if heavily damaged. We are going to talk about what the engineering department did to assure that the ship didn't loose steam and power in practically any condition.
Battleship Texas, Firing The Guns Step-By-Step Tom Scott, The Older One 2022-05-17 | This is the introductory video for a series that takes a detailed in depth look at the design and fabrication of the components that were part of the 14" guns used on Battleship Texas.
Battleship Texas, In With The Good Air... Out With The Bad! Tom Scott, The Older One 2022-04-06 | The ship's boilers required vast amounts of fresh air and a means of safely getting rid of exhaust gasses when in operation. Let's take a tour of how that happened!
Battleship Texas, Holding Back The Flood Tom Scott, The Older One 2022-03-25 | It's pretty surprising how much water can come through a relatively small hole in a ship's hull. Keeping it from overwhelming the ship is done by creating hundreds of very small holes in the water instead of one very large one!
Battleship Texas- Armor Armor Everywhere.... Well Almost Tom Scott, The Older One 2022-03-16 | Armoring a capital ship involved a series of choices that were based upon type, thickness and placement. Besides its massive costs, difficult decisions had to be made in the face of severe constraints posed by its incredible weight that affected both buoyancy and stability. Beginning with Battleship Nevada, the U.S. Navy made a radical change from incremental protection to "All Or Nothing" designs that remain somewhat controversial more than 100 years later. Built immediately before Nevada, Texas was the last to U.S. battleship to use an incremental layout, making her protective scheme obsolete even before she was commissioned. This makes her worth looking at in order to better understand some of the problems that must be overcome when protecting a ship.
Battleship Texas, Not Completely On The Level Tom Scott, The Older One 2022-02-23 | It's time to clear up a misconception regarding an odd feature on the ship.
Battleship Texas, When All Else Fails! Tom Scott, The Older One 2022-01-09 | This is a second trip to the generator that gives it the attention it deserves.
Battleship Texas, Feeding The Big Guns Tom Scott, The Older One 2021-12-11 | The video, "Battleship Texas, Getting Loaded in a 14" Turret", explained how the guns were loaded, but not how powder and shells got from the magazines to the turrets. This video fills that gap with a video walk-through of the magazines, handling rooms and hoists used to move them from their storage locations.
Battleship Texas Engine Room Tour Redux Tom Scott, The Older One 2021-11-21 | The series of three engine room videos that I recently posted are entirely too long. I can't even make it through all of them myself! So, here's new, much shorter video that hits the high points. If you decide that you plow through the details, then by all means watch the original videos:Upper Grate- youtube.com/watch?v=2rNlA7NR6iIMid Grate- youtube.com/watch?v=TsoFvg7ZsEs&t=783sLower Grate- youtube.com/watch?v=6O59WT-yS1s&t=8sIf you want to get another look into the guts of the engine down in the crank pit, go here- youtube.com/watch?v=GcLRcqt7C_4As always, thanks for watching!
Battleship Texas, What The Heck Is It? It is a Tramming Block! Tom Scott, The Older One 2021-11-17 | Here's what the tramming blocks are and what they do. We are also deep diving into what it took to align guns and turrets along with the remote directors used to aim them.
Battleship Texas, Getting Loaded in a 14 Turret Tom Scott, The Older One 2021-10-28 | We are going inside the turrets to discuss manning and loading procedures for one of the ship's big 14" guns.
Battleship Texas, a look around Boiler Room 3. Tom Scott, The Older One 2021-09-24 | We're going to take a deep dive into one of the very complicated boiler rooms on Battleship Texas. It's on the long side, but it should be well worth your time if you are a battleship geek!
Battleship Texas, Starboard Engine Room Lower Grate, Video 3 of 3 Tom Scott, The Older One 2021-09-11 | In video three of three, you will be introduced to the lower grate in the starboard engine room where you will see the equipment located on it along with the crank pit, jacking engine and thrust bearing.
Battleship Texas, Starboard Engine Room Mid Grate and Controls, Video 2 of 3 Tom Scott, The Older One 2021-09-11 | This is video two of three that describe the ship's reciprocating engines in detail. Because of its size and complexity, the walk-around has divided the starboard engine room into three levels. In this one, you will be introduced to the mid grate to see the equipment located on it and the engine controls.
Battleship Texas, Starboard Engine Room Upper Grate, Video 1 of 3 Tom Scott, The Older One 2021-09-11 | This is the first of three videos that describes the ship's reciprocating engines in detail. Because of its size and complexity, the walk-around has been divided into the three levels within the starboard engine room. In this one, you will be introduced to the engines and see the upper grate in the room.
Battleship Texas, Climbing A Turret Tom Scott, The Older One 2021-08-14 | Here's a climb up through the entire structure of turret 1, beginning in its handling room on 1st platform and ending outside on the main deck.
Battleship Texas, How To Train Your Turret Tom Scott, The Older One 2021-08-06 | What it takes to train a turret and elevate the 14" guns on Battleship Texas.
Battleship Texas, Spelunking Deep In The Belly Of The Beast! Tom Scott, The Older One 2021-07-19 | Here is an opportunity to travel down to the hold deck and see some compartments never seen by the public, even on Hard Hat Tours. There are some preliminary slides and descriptions to help you get your sea legs. Go to about minute 4 if you want to take the plunge without being briefed.
Battleship Texas, Making Steam Tom Scott, The Older One 2021-07-16 | This is the first of two videos that will show the boilers and boiler rooms on Battleship Texas. Today, we will take an up close and personal look at one of the boilers to give you some understanding of how it worked. Like just about everything else on the ship, its technology is long obsolete and largely forgotten. However, that doesn't mean that it wasn't extremely complex and that it wasn't the result of exceptional engineering. Another video will follow in the near future that will walk us through its boiler room where we will see the extreme complexity of the fuel and water feeds and steam pipes that were required to reliably propel the ship and resist battle damage.
Battleship Texas, Castings That Hold The Hull Together Tom Scott, The Older One 2021-05-01 | The heavy corrosion on the castings is superficial and has only wasted a very small percentage of the castings' strength. The corroded hull shell plating is going to be replaced in the upcoming hull repair project. So, things aren’t nearly as bad as they appear.We are going to take a look at three locations on the inside of the ship’s hull where stresses are so great, that it requires the use of large steel castings to hold things together. Use the following link to spot their locations by looking for Cofferdam A-41 at the bow, Trim Tank D-13 at the rudder, and Void D-107 at the stern. battleshiptexas.info/images/Drawings/DeckPlans/1944/ProfileInner.htmlThe first is the stem casting that forms the bow. It starts immediately below the half deck level, about 10 feet above the waterline and extends down and curves to tie into the keel and form the foot of the bow. The bow above the casting sees much less stress than the casting, and is formed from heavy steel plating that was bent to form the "V" of the upper bow.The second casting is referred to as the stern casting on the 1911 builder’s plans, only it really isn’t at the stern. Instead, it ties into the hull framing about 40 feet ahead of the actual stern. The keel, forming the backbone of the ship runs along the bottom of the ship and ties into the casting. The casting creates a large vertical offset to both give clearance for the rudder and serve as the rudder mount. This is arguably the strongest point on the entire hull and takes the greatest stresses. It has to be considering that it is the focus of the massive forces exerted by the rudder when it is used to lever a 29,000 ton battleship into a turn at up to 20 knots.The last casting is referred to as the hook casting by the builder’s plans, and is what one would think of as the stern casting. It is at this point that the hull framing and shell plating come together to form the stern.
Battleship Texas, Passing Steam Tom Scott, The Older One 2021-04-29 | 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.
Battleship Texas, A View of the Turret Holding Down Clips Tom Scott, The Older One 2021-04-29 | Here's a very short video of one of the most difficult spots on the ship to access. It required squeezing through a very small hatch in the turret structure, just outside of the chain falls and laying on my side against the sharp edges of structural steel that supports the turret. That explains the poor camera position and grunts and groans close to the end. Holding down clips are used to retain turret structures against their turret rollers (bearings) and roller path so that they cannot shift or bounce against the bearings in heavy seas or from the recoil effects of gunfire. The upper portion of each clip is solidly bolted to the outside of the portion of the rotating turret assembly that forms the walls of the turret pit. The bottom of the clips have an under turned lip that extends below the bottom of the stationary turret roller ring that is solidly mounted to the turret support structure and the ship. While the clip must retain the turret structure to the roller ring, it must do so without actually touching the ring. That is because the turret would not be able to rotate properly if the clips came in firm contact. Therefore, each clip had rows of large bolts that were used to adjust a bearing bearing surface sandwiched between the clip and roller ring lip. You can see it in the form of a gray insert between the under turned edge of the clip and the bottom edge of the turret ring. That allowed a gap of only a few thousandths of an inch that permitted free turret rotation, or training, while preventing unwanted vertical movement, or bounce, of the turret structure. The curved outer wall surface is the inside surface of the barbette, a heavy armor tube that extends down through several decks to just above the handling rooms on 1st platform to protect the turret structure from penetrating shell hits. In the case of Battleship Texas, it consists of 12" thick Class A surface hardened steel from the bottom of the turret house down through second deck level. It reduces in thickness to 5" the height of 3rd deck and stops at deck level.I want to thank Travis Davis for telling me how to access them after weeks of fruitlessly studying old plans and climbing turrets, and James Thomas for going with me on an inherently hazardous climb.
Battleship Texas, Making Fresh Water Tom Scott, The Older One 2021-04-22 | The ship's crew of 1,800 required a great deal of water for sustenance, bathing and cooking, but there was an even more important need. The engines, along with scores of pumps and other devices, ran on steam that obviously had to be produced from huge amounts of fresh water. Even with a closed loop steam cycle, where waste steam and condensate is captured and reused, system losses required replacing 1,000's of gallons of water a day. Unlike train steam engines that could periodically replenish at water tanks spaced along the tracks, ships only had salt water readily available. You can't drink or cook with the stuff, and the salts and carbonates in it will clog and destroy the boilers in short order, so it was necessary to produce fresh water from it using distillers or in our case, evaporators. Distillers were used in the late 19th century through the turn of the 20th, but they required constant maintenance to scrap and chip deposits off of them and frequently required replacement of their tubes. Fortunately, good engineering and design came up with evaporators. In them, water is not boiled, it is allowed to heat almost to the boiling point so that it throws off large amounts of steam, or evaporation that can be condensed into fresh water. In order to improve efficiency, they realized that by dropping air pressure, they could drop the boiling point of water. That allowed them to use low pressure, cooler steam in progressive stages that greatly improved efficiency and output. Even better, the lower temperatures were below what was required to create scale on the tubes, so they could run far longer without serious maintenance.
Battleship Texas, One Good Turn Deserves Another Tom Scott, The Older One 2021-04-21 | In order to steer the ship, steering inputs were made using either mechanical wheel helms, or electric controllers primarily located on the Navigation Bridge or in the Armored Conning Tower. The steam steering engine could also be controlled in Central Station or at the steering engine itself. However, most of the heavy work required to turn the ship's large, single rudder happened in Aft Steering and the Steering Gear Room. The video takes us down to the first platform, four levels below the main deck, aft past turret 4 and 5 handling rooms, then into the compartments located far in the stern of the ship.
Deep In The Heart of Battleship Texas, Getting Electrical Power Tom Scott, The Older One 2021-04-20 | The ship's 1910 design included four 300,000 watt dynamos that produced 120 volt d.c. power. While she received new 400,000 watt dynamos later in her career, 120vdc main power never changed. While there were plenty of reasons to go to alternating current at a higher voltage, the cost to do so was likely prohibitive, plus, there were compelling reasons to not change. Hundreds of motors on board ran on 120vdc and because of that, they were ridiculously easy to control. Do you want to reverse the motor? Easy! just reverse polarity. To slow it down, just throw some resistor banks on the line. It's a lot harder than that on a.c. motors.Even with the 400,000 watt upgrade, power was at a premium as additional large electrical loads such as more radios and radar were added. One very effective solution to the problem was to remove the original crew galley electric stoves and ovens, which were major power hogs, and replace them with similar equipment that burned fuel oil.The four dynamos are paired in fore and aft dynamo rooms located immediately forward and aft of the boiler rooms. They were well protected, deep down on the second platform level. Above each room was a distribution board and beneath a condenser room. Besides the two big reciprocating steam engines, these dynamos were the only other large steam operated devices on the ship with their own condensers.Two 100,000 watt emergency diesel generators were added in the early 1940's to provide critical power to pumps and emergency lighting in the case steam was lost.
Battleship Texas, Shooting the 14 Guns The Old School Way. Tom Scott, The Older One 2021-04-10 | Beginning in 1926 when Texas was modernized, the big 14" guns were aimed by the pointer and trainer in the turret using information shown on needle matching equipment fed from Main Battery Plotting Room. The guns were also remotely fired from that location. While they aimed the gun, they never saw their target or even fired it. Before 1926, the pointers and trainers had to see their target through periscopic sights that peeked out of the gun port in the frontal armor just below the barrel. Once on target, pointer could locally fire his gun from his position. At close ranges, 10,000 yards and less, a good pointer's aim was consistently deadly. In fact, the guns were used in this fashion on D-Day when Texas steamed within 3,000 yards of the beach and fired six high capacity shells to obliterate enemy mortar and machine gun positions at exit D-1. Every shot hit and saved the lives of hundreds of soldiers.Some of the gunners were the stuff that legends were made of. In 1914, gun pointer William Ruf set a world record with EIGHT consecutive hits on target at a range of 12 miles, or 21,000 yards!
Battleship Texas, Climbing In An Engine Crank Pit Tom Scott, The Older One 2021-04-08 | Here's a unique view of one of the two massive engines on Battleship Texas shot while standing inside the crank pit of the starboard engine. There's plenty of room to move around because these are perhaps the largest surviving marine reciprocating steam engines in the world. Only one other battleship, Oklahoma, was built after Texas with similar engines and they were smaller! While it is easy, and correct, to say that turbines were far superior, that wasn't the case in 1910, when the New York class was being designed. Previous ships were built using turbines, but they proved to be very inefficient at cruising speeds and suffered from materials and design shortcomings that made the use of reciprocating engines a reasonable choice. However, it was recognized at the time that improvements in turbine design, and the development of reliable reduction gears, would put turbines well ahead of these engines in succeeding classes. These engines are the ultimate expression of reciprocating steam design and are the result of 100 years of design evolution. A lot has been said about their complexity and lack of reliability. The former statement is correct, but the latter is not. Proper preventative maintenance and a well trained crew resulted in reliable operation and engines that could run at high speeds for extended periods of time. The downside was that there were certain speed ranges that produced vibrations that traveled throughout the ship. Unfortunately, one of those speeds fell within standard cruising speed. Operating the two engines at slightly different speeds greatly reduced harmonic vibrations to resolve some of the problem, but not all.As you can see in the video, the mechanical design is amazingly complex. First, they have four cylinders that provide three stages of expansion. This is a preferred choice for large marine engines that gave the greatest practical amount of work from the expansion of steam. While that in itself created a lot of moving parts, there is a particularly good reason for additional complexity that practically doubled the number of parts. Unlike the great majority of internal combustion engines, these are dual action, meaning that steam is applied on both the down stroke and up stroke of the piston movement. Because up to 265psi of steam was applied beneath the piston to push it up, the piston rod had to be sealed to prevent steam leakage, meaning that it could only be allowed to move up and down, but not side to side like a gasoline or diesel engine. This required a crosshead, or hinge that connected it to a lower piece, the crank rod, that could be pushed up and down by the piston rod and move side to side as it rotated the crankshaft. Unfortunately, extreme lateral forces exerted on the crosshead would make it buckle and fail without a means of holding it in perfect vertical alignment. This was the job of the crosshead shoe attached to the crosshead that rode up and down in a crosshead guide that was firmly attached to the engine frame. This guide contained massive flat bearings that were constantly flooded with oil to provide a sliding surface for the crosshead shoe that was practically friction free. Lastly, the engine could only work if valves were used to precisely control the input of steam at precisely the right time and for the right duration. There were a total of 7 large valves in the engine that did the work. One for the high pressure cylinder, two for the intermediate and two for each of the two low pressure cylinders. Their control and operation was accomplished using two eccentric rods per valve, one for forward and the other reverse, that attached between the valve rod and eccentrics on the crankshaft. Changing the engine from forward to reverse was accomplished through the Stephenson linkages that could move either the forward or reverse eccentric rod beneath the valve rod. As you can see, these engines are stunningly complicated and it made complete sense to get away from their use once turbines became more efficient and reliable. However, even though they became obsolete, they still stand out as monuments to design and engineering!For a more detailed look and description of these engineering masterpieces, go to: battleshiptexas.info/images/EngineRoom/EngineRoom.html
Battleship Texas, In The Chainfalls Tom Scott, The Older One 2021-04-07 | If all power was lost to a turret, it was still possible to train (rotate) the turret and point (elevate) the guns. There is an narrow, elongated compartment nested below the forward end of the turret house, directly beneath the pointer and trainer positions. In order to manually train and point, you and 15 of your closest friends grabbed chains and pulled them as fast as you could.
Weighing Anchor on Battleship Texas Tom Scott, The Older One 2021-04-01 | Welcome to compartment A-47, the windlass machinery room. Inside the room is a Hyde Windlass Company steam engine, used to drive the windlasses that raised the anchors. This is by far one of my favorite spaces and pieces of machinery in the ship. Despite the room's flaking paint, the engine, thrust bearing and windlass gears are in excellent condition. Through the worm gear on the far end of the engine's output shaft and two massive worm wheels, enough torque was generated to lift the ship's massive anchors and tons of anchor chain. The less obvious key to making the assembly work is the thrust bearing located on the shaft between the engine and gears. As the engine turns the shaft, the worm gear will try to push itself out of the wheels. The thrust bearing blocks that motion with its series of lubricated, highly polished disks that ride in shoes attached to the ship's framing. This allows the shaft to freely turn the gear without it moving out of the wheels. Thus, the wheels are turned and anchors are weighed.
Deep In The Heart of Battleship Texas Tom Scott, The Older One 2021-03-23 | Everything below the third deck is highly compartmented to limit flooding and maintain ship stability if flooding does occur. However, there are exceptions. There were a large number of 5" magazines grouped into four areas along the 2nd platform when the ship was originally built. Most of them were re-tasked over the years to be 20mm, 40mm and 3" magazines. It was possible to move between the port and starboard magazines within any one group through passages and watertight doors. The climb down trunks and through two heavy armored hatches to get to them is pretty difficult. For that reason, they are rarely visited, except for occasional condition and safety inspections. This video is a walk from the port to starboard magazines located immediately behind the boiler rooms. My first visit required a lot of studying plans and wrong turns to get from one side to the other, so I was proud of myself when I made the walk error free on my second, and last, visit that is shown here.
Battleship Texas, Finding The Turret Centering Pin Tom Scott, The Older One 2021-03-16 | The centering pin is a small, but important detail found in all cruiser and battleship gun turrets. The pin is used to lock a turret in place when not in use so that slight movements caused by the ship moving in heavy seas don't stress the training gear that rotates the turret. I had no idea what it looked like or where they were on Battleship Texas. After weeks of frustration, dedicated searching documents and drawings, and help from Travis Davis, I finally determined where it was. It turns out that the pin location was clearly visible once I knew what to look for. I may have even stumped my toe on it sometime in the past! Like other design features on Texas' turrets, the beauty is in its simplicity. Other centering pin arrangements on other turrets are complex and have mechanical indicators to show how deep they are sitting. On Texas, it is nothing more than a large steel pin that you pick up and drop in the hole. If it drops all of the way in, you know it is set, if it sticks up some, you know it isn't.
