┌─────┬─────────────────┬─────────────────┬────────┬────────┐ │Date.│ Name. │ Propulsion. │Length. │Breadth.│ ├─────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────┼────────┼────────┤ │1838 │_Great Western_ │Paddles │236 ft. │ 36 ft. │ │1844 │_Great Britain_ │Screw │322 ft. │ 51 ft. │ │1856 │_Persia_ │Paddles │390 ft. │ 45 ft. │ │1858 │_Great Eastern_ │Screw and paddles│690 ft. │ 83 ft. │ └─────┴─────────────────┴─────────────────┴────────┴────────┘ [Illustration: FIG. 65.—_The s.s. City of Rome._ ] Several passenger ocean-going steamships have been built since the _Persia_, of still greater dimensions, and of higher engine power. These have generally been surpassed in late years by some splendid Atlantic liners, such as the sister vessels owned by the International Navigation Co., and now named respectively the _New York_ and the _Paris_. The _City of Rome_, launched in 1881 by the Barrow Steamship Co., is little inferior in length to the _Great Eastern_, although the tonnage is only about one-third. The _City of Rome_ is 560 ft. long, 52 ft. wide, and 37 ft. deep. Her engines are capable of working up to 10,000 indicated horse-power. Fig. 65 is a sketch of this ship, and shows that she carries four masts and three funnels. The main shaft measures more than 2 ft. across, and the screw-propeller is 24 ft. in diameter. She has accommodation for 1,500 passengers, and is fitted with all the conveniences and luxuries of a well-appointed hotel. The International Navigation Co.’s ship _Paris_, has made the passage across the Atlantic in less than six days, and appears to be the fastest vessel in the transatlantic service. In August, 1889, she made the run from shore to shore in 5 days, 22 hours, 38 minutes. The extraordinary increase in the speed of steamships that has been effected within the last few years depends mainly upon the improvements that have latterly been made in the marine engine—a machine of which we have been unable to give an account, because its details are too numerous and complicated to be followed out by the general reader. Suffice it to say, that the use of higher steam pressures with compound expansion (p. 18), condensers which admit of the same fresh water being used in the boilers over and over again, and better furnace arrangements, are among the more important of these improvements. But not only have the limits of practicable speed been enlarged, but a greater economy of fuel for the work done has been attained; the result being that ocean carriage is now cheaper than ever. The outcome of this will not cease with simply a greatly extended steam navigation, but appears destined ultimately to produce effects on the world at large comparable in range and magnitude with those that may be traced to the use of the steam engine itself since its first invention.