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QUEEN ELIZABETH II
BIGGER and faster ocean liners have been built in the intervening years, but
from its launch to the present day, fewer ships have enjoyed such iconic status as
the QE2
Reporting on the launch of the vessel from the John Brown shipyard in
Clydebank, Scotland, The Engineer remarked that as well as being the largest
86
THIS WEEK IN… 1967
PRIZE CROSSWORD For The Engineer Brainteaser subscribe to our email newsletter at www.theengineer.co.uk
When completed rearrange the highlighted squares to spell out an alkali metal. The
first correct answer received will win a £20 Amazon voucher. Email your answer to
jon.excell@centaur.co.uk
Across
1 Safety device in an electrical circuit (4)
3 Having parts that slide one within another (10)
9 Flowing in drops (7)
11 Makes certain of (7)
12 Study of fluids in motion (13)
14 Article that is fragile (9)
16 Large stringed instrument (5)
17 Substance that causes recuperation from an acute disease (5)
19 Gaining with effort (9)
21 Variable that has zero as its limit (13)
24 Pigment mixed with egg yolk (7)
25 Medieval steel helmet (7)
26 Uttered with a spitting sound (10)
27 Transparent optical device (4)
Down
1 Be good enough for what is required (3, 3, 4)
2 Piece of wood that has been turned on a lathe (7)
4 Dark mineral used as an abrasive (5)
5 Current queen of England (9)
6 Negative feature of the credit crunch (4, 9)
7 Handheld collapsible source of shade (7)
8 Object formed by a mould (4)
10 Secondary or incidental outcome (5-2, 6)
13 Changes from a liquid to a thickened state (10)
15 Clear and sudden understanding of a complex situation (5, 4)
18 Caused by an earthquake or earth vibration (7)
20 Unusually great in size (7)
22 Set of data arranged in rows and columns (5)
23 Units equal to 1,000 watts operating for one hour (4)
passenger liner to be built in Britain, QE2 ‘is also the most powerful twin-screw
merchant ship afloat and the first passenger ship to adopt six-bladed screws. ‘
With a gross tonnage of 70,327, the 963ft-long vessel had, until recent years,
a top speed of 32.5 knots. This, wrote The Engineer, was thanks to a steam turbine
power plant consisting of ‘a twin-screw set of turbines — each consisting of an HP
and LP turbine driving the propeller shafting through double reduction, double
helical, dual tandem gearing. The maximum combined output is 110,000 shp at
174 rev/min.’ This top speed was increased to 34 knots when, in 1986, the steam
turbine power plant was replaced by a diesel electric power plant and variable pitch
propellers.
The article also draws attention to the vessel’s sophisticated data logging
system, a computer-based system built on Ferranti’s Argus 400, one of the first
industrial computers to use silicon transistors. ‘This will provide monitoring, logging
and alarm facilties for machinery and services on a scale hitherto only found in
shore-based installations.’
Next month, in a repeat of its maiden voyage, the vessel will travel from
Southampton to New York, before finally heading off to Dubai, where it will be
decommissioned and converted to a luxury hotel that will be moored alongside the
Palm Jumeirah, one of Dubai’s new artificial islands.
Jon Excell
Last issue’s solution
Across: 1 Goods truck, 6 Loom,
10 Ruled, 11 Gas fitter, 12 Gradual,
13 Shuttle, 14 Acetaldehyde,
18 Acceleration, 21 Ignores, 23
Re-enact, 24 Fire drill, 25 Gland,
26 Lack, 27 Stay-at-home.
The solution to the Prize Crossword will appear in the next
issue of The Engineer. Last issue’s winner is Brian Wood who
wins a £20 Amazon Voucher
Down:1 Garage, 2 Oil can, 3 Sodium
chloride, 4 Regulator, 5
Cases, 7 Outstays, 8 Marketed, 9
Figures of eight, 15 Laterally, 16
Basinful, 17 Acentric, 19 Had a
go, 20 Stodge, 22 Shift.
Highlighted solution: LIMESTONE.
the EnGIneeR 15–28 SEPTEMBER 2008
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