German Ship Gauge Question

[RichieB16]

OK, I have a question for those of you who either can speak/read German or know a lot about German ships.  

Today, we were moving out a lot of my Grandma's stuff (she is moving into an assisted living place) and she gave me a couple things she thought I might like.  One was this gauges from a German ship.  She said it came from a WWI German ship that had been capsured by US forces at some time (perhaps taken after the war) and put into service in our Navy.  Anyway, my grandfather (or maybe my great grandfather-she didn't say) served as a cook on this ship at some point and along the way he aquired this gauge from it (I don't know if he stole it or what-but I have it now  ::)).  Anyway, its in German (I think) so I can't read it.  I was just curious if anyone might know what its function was or what kind of ship it may have come off of.  I know that the ship may be hard to figure out-but I would like to know at least what the gauge is for.

[Woodlouse2002]

Looks like a pressure gauge of some description. It say's Kg.P.qcnt. Kilograms per cubic centemeter prehaps? Or just Kilograms per centemeter (squared).

As in those days most ships were steam powered (oil only just coming into use I believe) it could come off anything from a motor gun boat to a battlecruiser.

[RichieB16]

I would imagine it was at least a medium sized ship because he was a cook.  But, I have no idea.

[Woodlouse2002]

Probably a destroyer or something similar. All the German heavy gear got scuttled in Scapa Flow in early 1919.


I assume you'd know if your Grandad served in submarines?

[myshelf]

it's prolly a hydraulic pressure gauge

the scale is in kg/cm

[H]

Don't know as I'd be of much help.
My guess would be that  GELSENKIRCHEN is a name (the "kirch" part is equivelent to kirk [=church] in Scottish-English names).
Westphalia is an area in Germany bordering (Lower) Saxony, Holland and Belgium.
For that much it's time to find an interactive map of Germany, guys.

The pointer-needle is in the way of some of it and I don't speak German; I'm only guessing by what I know of geography and the well disgorged relationship of English to its German roots (and my download of German into the CFS radio chatter). The "Dictionary.com" link above also links to a translator but I'll soon be pressed for time; better would be one of our German-speaking forum members. Deutsche, hilfe!!

[Flt.Lt.Andrew]

Hey,

You guys are pretty much right! Its apressure gauge made in a  factory called Westphalia in s town called Gelsenkirchen. I'm not sure about the other bit, but that gives away its use.


A.

[Woodlouse2002]

[quote]
the scale is in kg/cm

[myshelf]

You underestimate the power of steam.

well, at 150 bar the boiling point is about 450

[Woodlouse2002]

It takes more than 40 bar to move a battleship. Where a steam engine is made up of 40 boilers and with turbines the size of houses, I would easily expect one to exceed 150 bar.

[myshelf]

It takes more than 40 bar to move a battleship. Where a steam engine is made up of 40 boilers and with turbines the size of houses, I would easily expect one to exceed 150 bar.

well, since steam engines were outdated when i learned my proffession i only got some general knowledge. but if it's anything like pneumatic, then in order to produce more power the pistons are enlarged rather than the pressure.

you shouldn't forget, in order to use higher pressures with steam, the temp has to be higher as well.

[Hagar]

I know very little about ships but I used to specialise in pneumatics on aircraft systems. How much air pressure is required to blow the ballast on a submarine?

[myshelf]

I know very little about ships but I used to specialise in pneumatics on aircraft systems. How much air pressure is required to blow the ballast on a submarine?

i'd say depending on water dept, 1 bar per 10 metres
plus some to actually get the air into the tanks

[myshelf]

i found this on a site about the Titanic:

Steam from the boilers, at 215 p.s.i., enters the small high pressure cylinder, moving the piston in the cylinder.
The steam exits the HP cylinder, and is routed to the next cylinder along, the slightly larger intermediate pressure cylinder, moving the piston in the cylinder.
The steam exits the IP cylinder, and is routed to the next cylinder along, the much larger low pressure cylinder, moving the piston in the cylinder. (On Titanic, each engine actually had TWO LP cylinders.)
The steam, at 9 p.s.i., was then passed to the turbine that powered the center propeller.
The steam is then passed to the condensers, where it is cooled, turning it back to water, ready to be passed to the boilers, where the whole process starts all over again.

http://www.titanic-titanic.com/engine%20room.shtml

215 psi = 14.8 bar

[Woodlouse2002]

Meh.


I just can't see where they would have had hydraulics on those ships. Only the rudders and turrets moved and the turrets for certain were mechanical.