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TS ''King Edward'' was an excursion steamer built at Dumbarton for service down the River Clyde to the Firth of Clyde and associated sea lochs on the west coast of Scotland, as far as Campbeltown. The first commercial vessel to be driven by steam turbines, ''King Edward'' was remarkably successful for a prototype, serving as a Clyde steamer for half a century from 1901 until 1951, interrupted only by service in the two world wars. The success of the vessel quickly led to the adoption of turbine propulsion for all manner of merchant vessels, from channel ferries and coastal steamers to transatlantic liners. ==Background== In 1803, ''Charlotte Dundas'' showed the practicality of steam power for marine use, and in 1812 Henry Bell's PS ''Comet'' began the first commercially successful steamboat service in Europe, sailing on the River Clyde between Glasgow and Helensburgh. Others soon followed, and by mid century a large fleet of Clyde steamers competed for holiday and excursion traffic down the River and Firth of Clyde. By the end of the century paddle steamers had reached a peak of design, with a maximum economic operating speed of around 19 knots (35 km/h), but speed was at a premium, particularly on the longer routes such as sailings from Glasgow to Inveraray and Campbeltown. Up to this time, vessels had been powered by reciprocating steam engines. Steam was generated by boilers, and piped to cylinders wherein it drove pistons, the back-and-forth motion of which was converted to rotary motion by connecting rods. Early vessels were driven by paddle wheels, but at mid-century screws became more prevalent. Although increased boiler pressures and the reuse of partially expanded steam in compound engines greatly increased efficiency, the continual creation and destruction of momentum of their heavy reciprocating parts each turn of the crankshaft put great strain on the engines, which required constant maintenance.〔Baker & Tryckare, p. 98: "()ith reciprocating engines there was a limit to the speeds attainable within given weight and strength limitations. The breaking of connecting rods when operating at full power had caused severe damage."〕 The modern steam turbine, invented by Charles A. Parsons in 1884, overcomes these problems by having only rotating parts, and no reciprocating parts. In 1894 he formed a syndicate to build a small experimental steam launch, ''Turbinia''. In a famous publicity stunt, Parson's steam launch sped uninvited past warships in the Solent at the 1897 Review of the Fleet held on the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria's accession to the throne. ''Turbinia'' raced past them at the unheard-of speed of 34 knots (63 km/h), far outstripping the ships of the Royal Navy sent to intercept.〔Woodman, pp. 199–200.〕〔Baker & Tryckare, pp. 98–99.〕 In January 1898 the Admiralty ordered a turbine-powered destroyer, ''Viper'', and later that year a typical lightly built destroyer being built as a private venture was fitted with turbines. The Admiralty purchased this ship after requiring strengthening of the hull, and named the vessel HMS ''Cobra''. Both destroyers were launched in 1899, and both were soon lost for reasons unrelated to their machinery, and before the Admiralty could obtain substantial experience with turbine propulsion. Such experience was needed before the turbine could obtain wide acceptance, as there had been problems in its development. The reciprocating steam engine, for all its theoretical faults, had been perfected over eight decades of development. Its manufacturing and operating characteristics were widely known; it had attained a high degree of fuel efficiency, and functioned economically across a range of speeds.〔 In contrast, the turbine was new; the seagoing prototype ''Turbinia'' experienced engine problems in its expensive development; and its theoretical advantage in low vibrations had not been realized, as turbine blades had failed due to vibrations, as well as contacting the casing, leading to catastrophic destruction within the turbines.〔 In short, it was an expensive and unproven technology. From a records of a later discussion, it appears that Archibald Denny, a partner in the shipbuilders William Denny and Brothers, had already been impressed by a technical paper by Parsons and had approached him with the suggestion of using steam turbines to power a merchant vessel. Denny apparently invited Clyde railway steamboat owners to sponsor the venture, but nothing came of these exploratory informal approaches. It was left to one of the owners of private steamer fleets to take on this challenge. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「TS King Edward」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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