The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-02 00:00:00

BOAT-BUILDING BY STEAM.

The power of steam labour would seem to be capa-
ble of an almost indefinite expansion. No matter
how special and intricate are the mechanical difficul-
ties of the task—no matter how entirely its com-
pletion, as we think, may depend on the employ-
ment
ofskilled labour of the highest class, there
is hardly
any possible branch of manufacture which
steam machinery is not capable of bringing to its
greatest perfection at a mere tithe of the time and
cost consumed by hand labour. The ingenious
combinations of mechanism which are termed
" labour-saving machines" have become a distinct
class of invention, claiming to accomplish nothing
new, but merely to do better, quicker, and cheaper
what has before been done by costly, slow, and
sometimes bad, though always uncertain, handwork.
With scarcely an exception, all the most important
of these labour-saving machines have come from
America, The want of skilled labour and the
almost exorbitant price it commands, have driven
our Transatlantic cousins to the invention of these
beautiful mechanical aids ; just as the demands on
our own manufacturing skill have led our engi-
neers to almost confine their attention to the
greatest and simplest developments of steam machi-
nery, as applied to locomotive and marine engines.
In England steam is a power—in America it is
rather a slave, always driven at high pressure ; or
a domestic household drudge, hemming the towels,
pumping the water, washing the linen, or even
sending up the plates and dishes at all large hotels
and very many private houses, too. These self-
acting machines were thought to have attained
their perfection in the superb collection of auto-
matic implements manufactured in America, and
now set up at Enfield, and employed in making the
rifles by thousands weekly. Lately, however,
another and still more curious and profitable com-
bination of steam machinery has been brought to
this country by the inventor, Mr. Nathan Thomp-
son, for the purpose of building boats by steam.
Now, if there is any class of work which espe-
cially demands the most skilled artisans, it is
boat building. The curves in the shears or
planking have to be so truly made, the edges of all
parts so carefully beveled and fitted, that it has long
been regarded as hopeless to expect further aid from
steam than that of merely turning the curvilinear
saws by which the simplest of the curves are cut.
All else is of necessity done by hand, and the cost
is in proportion to the labour and delay. Thus to
make a line-of-battle ship's launch, 32 foot long,
requires at the least from eight:to 10 days, andrcosts
for labour alone, exclusive of material, from £l2 to
£l6. By Mr. Thompson's machinery the same boat
can be completed from the rough timber in five
hours and a-half, and at a cost for labour and
machinery of from £1 15s. to £2.
The combination of machinery by which this
enormous saving of time and money is effected is in
some details merely a novel application of old prin-
ciples, though as a rule all the chief implements are
perfectly new, and of their kind the most wonder-
ful samples of mechanical skill probably ever seen
in this country. The factory at which the specimen
machines have been erected is near Victoria Park,
and half the most distinguished naval and military
authorities and our foremost mechanicians have
seen their operation',with perfect astonishment. It
is very difficult indeed by mere verbal description
to convey to the public anything like a clear idea
of the modus operandi of complicated pieces of
machinery. The reader, therefore, will best realize
the nature of Mr. Thompson's valuable inventions
from a brief account of the chief processes of manu-
facture, and of the machine by which each is
effected. The first step is to take the rough timber,
which is cut either straight or in taper form into
the various requisite shapes by an ingenious im-
provement on the circular saw. A number of
planks, afterwards to be cut up into ribs, are
steamed into a semi-flexible state, and in this con-
dition are bent over iron frames representing the
outer sections of a boat's side. Held firmly in
this shape they are dried, and retain for ever
the curve or form to which they have been moulded.
In the workshop are kept certain standard patterns
of boats of all sizes made by the machinery, each
part of which is numbered, and perfect accuracy
with the outline and form of which is required in
all portions of boats of the same size. In fact,
these parts form in some portions of the manufac•
ture the models, as in the celebrated copying
machines at Enfield and Woolwich, the only novelty
in these machines made by Mr. Thompson being
tah:lttaetilhife;wearktsitdrhaeether quicker, and the principle on
which the implements act is capable of such an
osfa ma
Thamese
outrigger
ewrhiisc h
capable, bevels .
by the mostwtielciotlhing alteration of the angle of incli-
nation at
for
knives work, to fashion a 50-
feet oak plank the side of a 100-ton yacht or a
Margate fishing smack. rs
the ribs in parallel liatzedsz
The machine for sawing
itnheaartrsuaewl:egvievlinags toto
simple ; one of the most
cc
uu
rr
ivoeu,
i
r epl planking nn ke iwn
sisisenthtie
the inner and outer side planks the varied local
curvature required for each different part of a boat.
The plank is sawn to wit th, and
marked in chalk
8 from the numbers
figures from 1 to , onthe stan-
dard boat in the workshop. This passes through a
double cutting and planing machine. The cutters
are conical in shape, the upper being convex, and
therefore grooving out the plank concave, and the
-
lower vice versa. These are laid horizontally, but
on a moveable axis, capable o, being turned back-
'
wards and forwards on an index scaled from 1
to 8, according as the chalk figures in the plank
enter the machine. Thus, by keeping the cutters
•
tranverso to the plank the curve is slight, but
turning them longitudinally gives the whole
depth, and so a rough board passes rapidly in
at one end and emerges at the other curved
and outward with mathematical certainty, and
not only curved but planed and beveled at the
edges. Such a machine up to the present time has
been deemed almost a mechanical impossibility, and
the search for its discovery as futile as that for the
philosopher's stone. By the present hand method a
skilled workman would turn out four such streaks
1 of planking a day. Tne machine completes 30 feet
of oak plank in four minutes, or 150 streaks for the
day of 10 hours. On the same scale, a workman
only completes 20 beveled ribs a day, while the
machine turns out 500, with only two persons to
superintend it, who, so far from being skilled work-
men, may be mere boys, to stop start the steam.
The diagonal cutters for forming the irregular
bevels of any angle, for the stern-pieces, stem, &c.,

are equally quick with their work, doing in one
minute what requires two hours to accomplish by
manual labour. The gratings are cut out of any size
or width by the motion of what is called a " drunken
saw." This is simply a circular saw fixed at what-
ever angle with its axis it may be required, and
which, with its teeth arranged in four different
ways, cuts at any inclination, either simply sawing
through a plank when straight or making :a gap
two inches wide if necessary. In fact, the whole
machinery possesses the same superiority over
hand labour that the power-loom has over the
bygone system of knitting. It is a locomotive
versus stage coaches—the now old story of a man
working 10 hours on wages against a machine
that works day and night and costs nothing but
a little oil. Of course, therefore, before long
all boats will be built by steam machinery ;
and, making every allowance for wear and tear of
plant, cost of setting up material, and hire of labour,
it is computed that a saving of at least from 40 to
even 50 per cent. will be effected to consumers at the
very outset. Beyond this, however, the invention
possesses other advantages, such as that of making
any number or size of boats in a few hours, making
duplicate pieces of those parts of the craft most ex-
posed to wear and injury, and above all enabling every
vessel to carry complete boats in pieces, capable of
being easily stowed away, yet put together in half
an hour in case of emergency. The number of boats
built in the United Kingdom each year amounts
to upwards of 21,000. By this new machinery,
erected in a building 100 yards long by 50 wide, it
is stated 60,000 boats of all sizes, from an outrigger
up to a line-of-battle ship's barge, could be com-
pleted in one year. Whether the increased facili-
ties in the way of cheapness and quick manufacture
will stimulate the boat consumers to a larger con-
sumption remains to be seen. Whether it does or
not they must be immense gainers in getting
stronger boats at less than half the present prices.
This much Mr. Thompson's beautiful machinery
seems certainly able to effect, and such a profitable
result in itself almost repays the 18 years' hard la-
bour he has had in gradually bringing his mecha-
nism to its present perfection.