The advantages of the steam turbine have been proved by the performances of a small experimental vessel lately built at Newcastle, and appropriately named the _Turbinia_. She is only 100 feet in length, and 9 feet in breadth, with a displacement of some 44 tons. Now the highest record speed for any vessel of that size is 24 knots per hour; but the _Turbinia_, in a heavy sea, showed, at a measured mile, the speed of 32¾ knots, which is believed to be greater than that of any craft now afloat, being nearly 37¾ miles an hour, or equal to that of an ordinary railway train. Besides that, it has been found by experiment, that an arrangement of the blades of the screw propeller more suitable to high velocities will enable a still greater speed to be obtained. The weight of the turbine engines of this vessel is only 3 tons, 13 cwts., and the whole weight of the machinery, including boilers and condensers, is only 22 tons, with an indicated H.P. of 1576, and a steam consumption of but 16 lbs. per hour. The weight of the turbine is only one-fifth of that of marine engines of equal power; the space occupied is smaller; the initial cost is less; not so much superintendence is required; the charges of maintenance are diminished; reduced dimensions of propeller and shaft suffice; vibration is eliminated; speed is increased; and greater economy of fuel is secured. _THE RIVER AND LAKE STEAM-BOATS OF AMERICA._ The chapter on “Steam Navigation,” in the foregoing pages, has dealt mainly with the progress of the ocean-going steam-ship, from the establishment of regular transatlantic services down to the building of the splendid liners, the _New York_ and the _Paris_, and we have recorded, in addition, the performances of the pair of hitherto unsurpassed sister ships, the _Campania_ and the _Lucania_. The importance and interest attaching to steam navigation is, however, by no means confined to ocean-going vessels, and the chapter demands a supplementary notice of the great developments of the steam-ship in other parts of the world than Britain, more particularly where great rivers, navigable for hundreds of miles, and lakes, spreading their waters over vast areas, present conditions of traffic and opportunities for adaptation to an extent that could not be required within the range of Britain or British oceanic lines. [Illustration: PLATE IX. THE “MARY POWELL.” ]