15th October 1914, Gosport.
Sir Alfred Yarrow was back from a meeting at Gosport, the meeting was attended by Percy Ludgate, Admiral Scott, Eustace Tennyson d’Eyencourt and Lord Rayleigh. They had been visiting the Admiralty Experimental Works at Haslar, whilst he was there, to discuss the new Ludgate devices that were to be installed. Lord Rayleigh was to chair a new committee which was to investigate the use of the Ludgate Machine to enable successive approximations of partial differential equations, this would enable both faster and better calculations for a variety of engineering problems.
The first Ludgate device was going to go into the offices at No 1 Ship Tank. This would device was to be used to speed hull design calculations, with the intention of improving the speed, seakeeping and efficiency of new hulls. The engineers and operators who would use this system were being trained in its operation and it was intended to have it fully operational by the end of November.
The second machine would be installed in the Admiralty Fuel Experimental Station, this machine would be used much like the hydrodynamics machine, in that it would be used to speed various boiler design calculations. In addition to these two machines a third machine would be used to develop better mathematical solutions for both Hydrodynamics and for thermodynamics, this machine would be controlled by the Admiralty and report to Lord Rayleigh’s committee.
Sir Alfred was fascinated by Lugate’s design, he had been made aware of the Ludgate device in August, with several devices promised to his various businesses, Yarrow realised that faster calculations would completely revolutionise engineering allowing for designers who embraced the new methods to eschew the previous rules of thumb needed to ensure safety. He was absolutely determined that his own companies would be at the forefront of this new field. He would summon his son down from the shipyards in Glasgow tomorrow, they would plot a course to develop their own device, rather than simply depend on Ludgate for further innovation and supply.
Sir Alfred had also taken the opportunity to champion the newest Yarrow Small tube boilers, he had spoken to both Admiral Scott and the Tennyson d’Eyencourt about them. Stating that he was going to deliver a new prototype for testing that would give a higher operating pressure with the speed and efficiency improvements that would entail. He went on to discuss how these higher-pressure boilers would have a smaller footprint that the current boilers, with higher power output and higher efficiency.
The Admiralty had suspended the construction of new large vessels, with materials and personnel reallocated to other work, d’Eyencourt was taking advantage of this delay to reconsider certain design elements of ships under construction. It was rumoured and he did nothing to dispel it that the two R class battlecruisers might be scrapped on the stocks. Events at Thornton Bank having weakened the Admiralties faith in the Battlecruiser concept, even Admiral Fisher was rethinking his previous support. The crushing of the East Asia Squadron by a Japanese squadron was also sending shock waves through the Admiralty, Japan was a valued ally, but they had just defeated another European navy in an even more one-sided manner, than that suffered by the Russians.
Looking into the future it was obvious that the Royal Navy would have greater obligations in the Pacific as trade and rivalries grew. Their ships would need the range and speed to operate in those vast waters so distant from support and Yarrow would build those ships if he could. Sir Alfred was confident that his yards and factories would be busy after this war, but his company was renowned for building fast ships and he wanted to use every technological edge he could to maintain that reputation. Civilian ship building would also demand improved range and speed as markets in Asia developed further.
Other than in specialised ships engineering, the other area in which Yarrow could see a real role for these devices was in general business operations, and he would ensure that his development team consider these applications in their design work. The biggest barrier to general operation of the machines, that he could see was in entering information into them. They were equipped with a punch card system for both data recording and reading, this was a complexity which slowed down their use and would restrict the spread of the devices into the mundane non-engineering world. They would need to be easier to use if they were to gain widespread acceptance.
Sir Alfred would summon his son down from Scotland in the morning, he would need to be aware of his plans and he would have his own opinions on what could and should be done to capitalise on this opportunity.