Last capital ship ever built without any electricity?

Theemile wrote:But lighting is still an issue.

Carbide lamps ? They don't need electicity if I remember correctly, only calcium carbide and water.
They give bright omnidirectional light. The problem is that they cannot be turned on and off very easily. Or at least no one has invented a practical way to do it. But no one had an OBS system flying above his head either. Some continuous carbide delivery and slime removal system might do the trick (instead of water dropped on a simple bloc of carbide). Maybe the carbide coud be made into powder or something.

The only real problem I can see is the production of calcium carbide. On earth the necessary high temperature was reached with arc furnaces, which is obviously a no no on Safehold. But there are other ways such temperatures could be attained (arguably not as good as arc furnaces where practicality is concerned, but still possible).

And of course there is the problem of explaining to suspicious people how someone came up with the idea of producing something like carbide to use it to produce acetylen to burn when no one on Safehold even know what acetylen is, or that calcium carbide actually exists in the first place.

Anyway, I think it's high time Charisians get hands on experience with actually inventing something from scratch without knowing beforehand what will work and what will not. As a famous queen once said :

I’ve always liked a challenge.

Ships of the line built during the age of wooden sailing ships had similar issues, the lower gun decks, magazines and bilge were not in the path of direct sunlight. For the magazines, at least, ordinary lanterns were placed "outside" the magazine space, but a sealed glass window (actually more similar to a bay window) protruded into the space so it could be illuminated while the "powder monkeys" filled charge bags and did their work within.

Some similar system probably exists already on the various wooden warships already in use on Safehold, and would probably be adapted by naval architects and designers since they already know and understand it.

saber964 wrote:I do know that USS Olympia C 6 has skylights

Olympia carried a modern electric plant based on the equipment proven in service on the "ABCD" ships. Four individual plants were powered by compound direct acting inverted cylinder engines. Specifications indicate the engines had cylinder diameters of 7 and 12 inches in diameter with a stroke of 6 inches. The 16 kw marine dynamos had their armatures directly connected to the crankshaft. General Electric Company, the manufacturer, designed a machine with four poles projecting inwardly from an octagonal frame. Running at 400 rpm, the units produced 80 volts of direct current at 400 amperes. Gongs, bells, buzzers and annunciators for fire and water alarms were powered by batteries of Leclanche cells, a nonrechargeable dry cell invented in 1868. Power for the search lights which drew 100 amps at 4 7 volts, came through a set of voltage dropping resistors in the dynamo room.

Two large steam driven blowers located in the after end of the crew space on the berth deck powered Olympia''s ventilation system. They pumped fresh air to all parts of the ship. Small steam engines did a variety of hoisting and hauling tasks (but a electric hoist pulled shells into the turret) and reduced the need for manual labor.

Source: "The American Steel Navy" by John D. Alden, Naval Institute Press, 1972

Mmmm yea PeterZ is right, you can always just improve the ventilation system. Is it as easy as using electricity? Of course not. Nor will it be as clean. Buy hey a lack of impact craters is always a big plus.

Direwolf18 wrote:Mmmm yea PeterZ is right, you can always just improve the ventilation system. Is it as easy as using electricity? Of course not. Nor will it be as clean. Buy hey a lack of impact craters is always a big plus.

Pity Shan-Wei and her Terraformers didn't develop any plants that give off light...

-- Bob G

niethil wrote:

Theemile wrote:But lighting is still an issue.

Carbide lamps ? They don't need electicity if I remember correctly, only calcium carbide and water.
They give bright omnidirectional light. The problem is that they cannot be turned on and off very easily. Or at least no one has invented a practical way to do it. But no one had an OBS system flying above his head either. Some continuous carbide delivery and slime removal system might do the trick (instead of water dropped on a simple bloc of carbide). Maybe the carbide coud be made into powder or something.

The only real problem I can see is the production of calcium carbide. On earth the necessary high temperature was reached with arc furnaces, which is obviously a no no on Safehold. But there are other ways such temperatures could be attained (arguably not as good as arc furnaces where practicality is concerned, but still possible).

And of course there is the problem of explaining to suspicious people how someone came up with the idea of producing something like carbide to use it to produce acetylen to burn when no one on Safehold even know what acetylen is, or that calcium carbide actually exists in the first place.

Anyway, I think it's high time Charisians get hands on experience with actually inventing something from scratch without knowing beforehand what will work and what will not. As a famous queen once said :

I’ve always liked a challenge.

My understanding is electrisity was important for giroscopes to stablize guns on big gun battle ships.

You can always power the gyros with hydraulics or pneumatics. I remember hearing stories of hydraulically powered computer hard drives for 1960s vintage mainframes.