No. 1184

CHARLES HARDING LORING

IN MEMORIAM

BY WALTER M. MCFARLAND

Member of the Society

The death of Admiral Charles Harding Loring (Chief Engineer, U. S. Navy, retired) on February 5, 1907, removes a man who had been a prominent figure in engineering circles and in our Society for many years. He was a member of the Society almost from its organization and had filled its highest offices, being a Vice-President in 1885-1887, and President for the term 1891-1892. However great a man's professional ability, his free election to such high offices is a strong testimonial to his worth as a man, and is, indeed, the highest tribute of the personal regard in which he is held by his fellow-members. As will appear in this brief sketch of his life and work, he had filled all the highest offices to which a man in his branch of engineering could aspire, and he had been privileged to take a very active part in furthering the progress of marine engineering.

He was born in Boston, December 26, 1828, and received his education in the public schools of that city. As his educational period was before the day of technical schools, he followed the usual course of preparation for mechanical engineering and served a regular apprenticeship in the machine shop. At its close, in 1851, he entered the navy as a third assistant engineer, attaining, by competitive examination, the highest place in a class of fourteen.

His entrance was just too late to give him an opportunity for participation in the Mexican War, and by the time the Civil War broke out he had passed through all the junior grades and had become a chief engineer. During his service in junior grades he had been laying the foundation for his more important work when an older man and in higher positions, a portion of his shore duty having been as assistant to the engineer-in-chief of the navy, M. Samuel Archbold, in which capacity he had charge of the experimental work and tests of engineering devices coming before that office. It is interesting to note that while engaged in this duty he made a test of the first injector which came to this country.

During the Civil War he was in active service the whole time and during the first eighteen months was fleet engineer of the North Atlantic Station, being attached to the fine old steamer Minnesota. He was on board this ship during the attacks of the Merrimac on the Northern fleet in Hampton Roads on the eighth and ninth of March, 1862, when the Cumberland was sunk and the Congress burned and when the Minnesota also was attacked.

A little later he was detached from sea duty and sent to Cincinnati to supervise the construction of three river and harbor monitors and also of some light-draft sea monitors building there. Subsequently he was made general inspector of all the iron-clad steamers building west of the Alleghanies, having in charge at one time eleven monitors building at Pittsburg, Cincinnati, and St. Louis.

During the Civil War a number of excellent engines had been accumulated for hulls which were in process of construction, but with the close of the war all work was stopped, and after a time a board was appointed to recommend the best disposition of these engines which were stored in the various navy yards. It was about this time that the compound engine was coming into general use, and the same board was directed to make a study of the compound engine, with a view to its introduction in naval vessels. Of this board Admiral Loring was senior member, and associated with him was the late Chief Engineer, Charles H. Baker.

After a very exhaustive study of the subject, they recommended the introduction of compound engines and the abandonment of the simple form, and the conversion of a number of the engines which were on hand into compound engines. Four sets of these simple engines were so converted and were fitted to the Vandalia, Marion, Quinnebaug, and Swatara. The tests of these engines were very satisfactory and showed a coal economy for short runs of not much over two pounds of coal per horse-power hour.

This study of the compound engine made it natural that Admiral Loring should be selected as the representative of the Navy Department when, in 1874, he and the late Dr. Charles E. Emery made an elaborate series of trials of the engines of the revenue cutters Rush, Dexter, Dallas, and Gallatin, to determine by actual test the relative economies of compound and simple engines, designed for the same work in similar hulls, and also to secure reliable and authoritative data with respect to the economy of steam jacketing. These tests were the first of the kind conducted under circumstances of entire reliability, with the result that the report of the trials was re published all over the world and is still quoted in all the textbooks on steam engineering.

Admiral Loring's next tour of sea duty was as fleet engineer of the Asiatic Station on the U. S. S. Tennessee, where he had as his chief assistant, George W. Melville, who later became his successor as chief of the Bureau of Steam Engineering. There was nothing specially eventful in this cruise, and at its end, in 1880, he was assigned as the head of the steam engineering department of the New York Navy Yard.

This was the period of greatest inactivity in the history of the navy, and there was little to do, even for a very active man, except routine work. During this tour, however, Admiral Loring was senior member of a board which made a test of the machinery of the Anthracite, a little yacht with a triple expansion engine working with 600 pounds pressure. The experiments were valuable as showing that, with the form of apparatus on board the Anthracite, there was no such gain in economy as to warrant the tremendous pressure carried, while it involved numerous practical difficulties.

In 1881 he was a member of what is known as the First Naval Advisory Board, appointed by Secretary Hunt to formulate a shipbuilding program for the navy which he might submit to Congress. The personnel of this advisory board was distinguished in all its branches, and the work they did made possible our splendid fleet of today, as they definitely decided, against strong professional opposition, to abandon wooden hulls for those of iron and steel, and for general progress in every respect. In 1882 he was a member of another important board known as the Navy Yard Board, of which Admiral Luce was senior member. The duty of this board was to visit all the navy yards of the country for the purpose of determining which of them might with advantage and economy be closed. It was a delicate task, but the report, when finally approved, gave general satisfaction, and its recommendations were carried out. On the retirement of Engineer-in-Chief Shock, only two successors were thought of, one of whom was Admiral Loring, and his merit and thorough qualification for the position were so well recognized that the appointment came to him entirely unsought. This was in 1884, during the administration of President Arthur. Secretary Chandler was presiding over the Navy Department at this time and it was under his supervision that the four vessels, commonly known as the Roach cruisers, the Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, and Dolphin, were built.

Part of the scheme of the building of the new navy was the organisation of what was known as an Advisory Board, composed of two civilians and a number of naval officers. Owing to this regime

the bureaus were not given the same free hand that has obtained since the Advisory Board was discontinued, although they did valuable work in the details of designs. Forced draft was used on these new vessels, after having been tried on two others-the Alliance and Swatara under Admiral Loring's direction.

The change of administration in 1885, when Mr. Whitney came in as Secretary of the Navy, brought additional trouble for Admiral Loring. The Democrats had been so long out of power that they came in prepared to find everything wrong, and there were busybodies to throw out hints and insinuations against Loring. It is probable, too, that he and Whitney were naturally incompatible. Whitney was a nervous pushing man, who wanted everybody around to appear to be hustling. Loring was a man of great dignity with none of the arts of the courtier or politician. Instead of running to Whitney with every detail of his work and thereby becoming, at least, intimately acquainted with him personally, he was content to conduct his work by written reports. He worked just as hard, but Whitney did not appreciate it. The backbiters, who had Whitney's ear (and it is sad to relate that there were naval officers among them), led him to believe that Loring was not abreast of the times or capable of providing the best machinery. Indeed, the attack was upon the whole Engineer Corps, and it is a fact that negotiations had been conducted with a prominent British engineer to come over and do our designing for us. This was only prevented by the law officers pointing out that it violated the contract labor law.

It may be mentioned in this connection that the Anglophiles persuaded the Secretary to buy a number of plans abroad. They were not purchased by experts, with the result that we were undoubtedly "done" in the transaction. It would have been a safer thing to purchase complete ships, which would, at least, have had to make successful trials. The history of the Texas is too well known to engineers to need repetition here.

The result of all these conditions was to convince Loring that he did not have Whitney's confidence and that for the sake of his corps, he had better give up his office as engineer-in-chief. Accordingly, in 1887, he tendered his resignation.

After leaving the Bureau of Steam Engineering he was made senior member of the Experimental Board of Naval Officers at the New York Navy Yard, which board, under his direction, conducted many exceedingly valuable experiments. Among the most important were the competitive tests in 1889 of water-tube boilers to determine the type that should be used on the coast defence vessel Monterey, and