The morning call., 1893-02-26
WASTE IS PAID FOR.
The Cost of Bad Workmanship in
ShipbuiIding.

Iron Age.
A well-known Scotch shipbuilder, Robert
Card. in carefully prepared address de-
livered recently on the occasion Of the
annual congress of the Educational lnsti-
tute of Scotland, illustrated the impor lance
of thorough technical training by presenting
an estimate of the outlay now required on
the part OF British shp-owners over and
above what would be necessary ii the
factor due to ignorance and carelessness on
the part of workmen could be eliminated.
While carelessness will always occur to some
extent, yet fewer men are willfully dis
honest than ignorantly careless and hence
ii follows that the more man knows OF his
work the more careful will he be about 1t.
The opinion was expressed that the dis
habit Of scientific method. is OF itself per-
haps the best means of fostering the faculty
Of taking care. of painstaklng. and 1t was
added that no one not engaged in actual
constructive work can form any adequate
conception OF the enormous waste to the
world caused by inaccurate, or to speak
plainly. by bad workmanship.
Mr. Card pointed out that Lloyd's Reg
istry practically determines the scantliDgs
to which vessels are built in Great Britain.
and in doing this factor of safety is fixed
by the committee in excess of the theOret-
TO resist any strains that may occur. In
this II is not even the average that rules,
but the worst that the society Will pass.
In view of these considerations it was as
serted that the exercise OF greater amount
of carefulness on the part of workmen. not
such as TO increase cost, but something
quite feasible and reasonable, would war
rant a reduction of scantlings to the extent
of at least 10 per cent.
Taking this assumption as a basis. Mr..
Card stated that he had made calcnIa-
ton which showed that in the mercantile
marine of Great Britain there is invested
over SIS. 600 in excess iron and steel en-
plOyed in the construction OF steamers,
an excess which is required and carried
about simply as an allowance for bad work
manship. The calculation showed further
that over 100000 worth of coal was
burned annually in propelling this surplus
material which should be quite unnceces-
sary.
Another point touched upon was that the
relative Importance of good workmanship
Is constantly increasing Every day the
testing OF materials is becoming more
thorough and complete, and as a result Of
the progress of metallurgical science and
practice, materials are becoming more homo
geneons and more uniformly reliable. Now
alloys. such as nickel, steel and others,
promise in the near future to furnish ma
terials of greater strength and reliability
than are available at present, so that the
element Of workmanship in the factor of
safety will assume even greater Importance.
If full advantage Is to be taken of the su-
perior qualities of strength and ductility OF
the new substitutes for steel and iron, the
workmanship. the fitting and securing OF the
parts must keep pace with the materials in
Improvement
The shipbuildiDg establishment with
which Mr.. Card Is identified has turned
out number of very fine. large and we'll
known ocean steamships, and he is, there
fore, well qualified to express an opinion on
questions connected with shipbuildng.