The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1894-01-11
THE MODEL OF a SHIP
BUILT FROM BLOCKS or WOOD AFTER
DRAWINGS ON PAPER.

Some OF the Details of Very Interestin,
Operation rs Told by Famous Con
struetor England behind the othe
Leading Nations Until Recently.
Who would ever have imagined thai
great ship-a modern wonder of thu
sea like the Paris or the Camperdowr
lis built as woman makes dress OF
tailor cuts out a suit of clothes? That
is the fact. Ships nowadays are BULL
from patterns, and those patterns do moi
greatly differ in appearance or in fact
from those which enable American wo-
men to copy the fashion in dress. To
be sure, q tailor's and dressmaker's pat
terms are made of paper and are laid
upon cloth or dress goods while ship
builders patterns are Of wood, and steel
and iron are made to follow them. That
IL perhaps the greatest difference be-
tween the methods of high grade tailor
ing and high grade shipbnilding, SO far
as their first steps go.
The English have only lately begun
to value the model as the basis of ship
building. A famous American ship
builder says that the model of the yacht
America was the first model he ever
saw in England. That accounts for the
absence OF beauty in English ships,
which even to this day possess varying
degrees of ugliness, but no beauty. For,
though they make models today, the
mere making Of them does not suffice.
The art and appreciation of model MAX
ing must be instructive.
The French and Spanish from the
earliest times made beautiful ships and
models, and when one of these ships
fell into the hands of the English they
adopted and used her if possible, or il
she was too much damaged they took
her apart, piece by piece, and built
new hip like her by copying the exact
shape Of each part Of her in new mate
rial. Curiously enough, we Americans
have always made beautiful ships-well
proportioned, artistic in every line,
while satisfactory in an equal degree
for all practical purposes.
- A model is made in way that seems
queer to theayerage layman, who doubt
less suspected that it was whitfield into
shape out Of block of wood, as we boys
psed to Rhittle our blocks at the age
Whe1 aha0f us were shipbuilders. 1t
IS not done so.-After an order has been
received for certain kind of ship the
plans of it are drawn upon paper. = Mr..
Lewis Nixon, the famous constructor
for the Cramps, tells me that very early
in the process he ma ; s picture of the
ship as he wants it to look, but though
he does so others may not consider it
essential.
At all events, apart from any draw
ing, the needed dimensions and lines are
developed upon paper, and then the
model is made, and the president of the
company begins to take very active in
terest in the work. The model is made
in the shape of BLOCK, formed of a
number of pieces of wood glued togeth-
er. These pieces represent the different
curves of one side of the ship, from the
keel to the gunwale-the different wa
ter lines is how the builders express it. |
To understand this the reader must i'm |
agine ship made of solid wood. I'M
agine that cut in half lengthwise, and |
then imagine one half laid on its side
and cut into slices , --s--.
The pen and ink calculations and
plans produce the shape of the ship, and
from these it is possible to obtain the
outline and dimensions of every slice or
plane between the bottom and the top. i
Each plane is measured and drawn in
outline on board, and the outline is
dented or cut In the board with sharp
tool. All the boards or pieces of wood
are then glued together, and simple
looking block is made-a block that
shows nothing OF its true nature except
hat the top Of it bears the craven out
line Of the top deck or gunwale line of
, ship. Out Of that simple square block
will come the egg which is to hatch
the splendid ship that is to be.
That block, made up of slices, each
With its dented outline of a different
plane Of the ship, is now cut away,
much as we boys used to cut our block,
out with this difference: Each board is
mt exactly to the denied OF craven
Inc upon its surface. The shape the
block will have when all the superhu-
'us wood i'd cut away will be the model
4 the ship that was designed by the en-
ineer on paper to ill the requirements
4 the customers order, but will that
model standi VIII the master builder
70 satisfied with its hnes2
Will it do to be enlarged in steel and
emit around the world as an example of .
That the Cramps consider the most !,
eautiful and artistic and useful shape
1ch ship should haye2 \ Such !
rst model next to never sui The mod :
Ter, who In this case is Mr.. { aarles r. :
ramp. He hacks into it VIII ,rvor. ,
70 tapers the bow. He digs aw ny the
ern. He shayes the whole mo with :
ne nice and dainty touches of i. sculp- !,
II at work upon statue on which is
, rest his boast that he is true artist. /,
The fate Of the wooden block alters :,
le figures Of the engineers plans. Per- :
aps the alteration is such that new :
awnings and a new model follow. !.
bus, by borrowing and lending, the :
70 soon agree, and upon the two-the =
odel and the plans-the ship will be =
ult. Sometimes model is on the
ale of a quarter of an inch to each r,
OF of the ship, but the scale differs :,
It'll different builders. - Harper's :,
eekly. e