Mature reciprocating engines and the turbine gap

German shipbuilders had pushed triple-expansion machinery to a high level through repeated naval and merchant use. The 1904 Scharnhorst liner itself used the same mature type of machinery. Turbines demanded a different research base, production experience, and private investment. The Kaiserliche Marine lacked the Royal Navy's research budget and volume of construction orders. British demand could keep three or four turbine companies at work and support partnerships with firms in the United States, Switzerland, and Italy. The contrast separates the skill of an individual yard from the depth of the national industrial system behind a new propulsion technology.