The present steam steering gear is pretty good. Breakdowns, however, are far from rare. The cause of breakdown is nearly always found in the transmission rope between the deck and the steering engine, or in the "floating lever" mechanism of the steering engine itself.
Steam steering gear has the disadvantage that the steam pipes and the cylinders of the engine heat the after part of the ship, including the magazines.
Electric steering gear would not have this disadvantage.
Practically all efforts to develop electric steering gear have included the floating lever. As applied to electric apparatus, the floating lever necessitates the use of a great many more parts than as applied to steam apparatus, brings about undue complication, and is the principal cause of the non-success of all electric steering gear.
The writer believes the floating lever unnecessary in any steering engine, and begs leave to cite a few examples, to show that the floating lever has been carefully tried for several kinds of electric work, and found to be both complicated and unnecessary.
About 1889, the Sprague Company installed in the Atlanta an electric ammunition hoist, in which the floating lever principle was used. This was the first electric ammunition hoist ever put into any ship, in any navy, and it remained in successful operation for three years. But the complication was so great that the floating lever was discarded, in subsequent hoists, and has never been used in them since.
About 1889, the Sprague Company installed an electric training apparatus on the starboard after 8-inch gun of the Chicago. The same remarks apply to this as to the ammunition hoist in the Atlanta.
From 1894 to 1896, the General Electric Company was engaged in developing an electric system for training turrets, with the encouragement of the Bureau of Ordnance. Many plans were tested, some of them including the floating lever. But it was found, not only that the complication was enormous, but that the floating lever would not do; for the simple reason that, although the motor followed the operator's hand, it could not be made to follow fast enough.
In the early spring of 1907, the Department ordered that the electric steering gear of the Arkansas be tested carefully. A competent expert was sent from the contractors, and he went with the ship on a trip from Annapolis to Norfolk, and remained on board for several days. He was an exceedingly able and enterprising man, and went over the whole subject most laboriously. At the end, the expert declared that if anybody could see a way to apply electricity satisfactorily to the steering of a ship, using the floating lever, he would have to be a great deal smarter man than he himself was.
So, why adhere to the floating lever? We hoist our ammunition without it; we train our turrets and elevate our guns without it; elevators are managed without it; and builders raise enormous masses of steel and stone to the tops of the highest buildings without it. All these things are harder to do than to move the rudder of a ship, and require more precision.
When steam steering gear came into use, many years ago, the inventors used the floating lever, in order that the sailors might use the wheel just as they had learned to do, in steering by hand. But haven't we got beyond that stage now? In those days there were no helm indicators, to tell the helmsman the position of the helm. Now there are plenty of them, and they are very reliable. They get out of order much less often than the steam steering gear, and can be more quickly repaired, if they do get out of order.
Why not have a simple controller, like those in all our trolley cars and ships, which we all know how to use? It need not be placed near a compass. The helm indicator will tell the helmsman where the helm is; and this is all he wants to know. Duplicate or triplicate leads can be used as standbys, if desired.
This would get rid of a good deal of heat and complication.
The simplest plan of all, and the one giving the maximum protection to the steering gear in battle, would be to steer by a controller and electric motor in the steering engine room itself. This plan is not advocated by the writer; but, as we have found it perfectly practicable to steer from the steering engine room, using a compensated compass there, the idea is suggested as one of the possibilities of the future.
The only rival of the steering engine room seems to be the central station; and it may be pointed out that, if the steering engine room were designed with the idea of having a compensated compass in it, there would be more free space around the compass than in the central station, and the compass would be less liable to disturbance by moving masses of iron and changing electric circuits.