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

+
structor - England Behind the othe
Leading Nations Until Recently.
Who would ever have imagined tina
a great ship-a modern wonder of th
sea like the Paris or the Camperdowl
lis built as woman makes a dress o
tailor cuts out suit of clothesp Tha
is the fact. Ships nowadays are bull
from patterns, and those patterns do no
greatly differ in appearance or in fac
from those which enable American wo
men to copy the fashion in dress. T,
be sure, tailor's and dressmaker's pat
terms are made of paper and are lail
upon cloth or dress goods, while ship
builders patterns are of wood, and stee
and iron are made to follow them. Thai
10 perhaps the greatest difference be
tween the methods of high grade tailor,
ing and high grade shipbuilding, so ia,
as their first steps 60.
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 If
she was too much damaged they took
her apart, piece by piece, and built q
new Ship 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 a way that seems
queer to the average layman, who doubt
less suspected that it was whitfield into
shape ont Of block of wood, as we boys
used 10 whittle our blocks at the age
Waan aAeof us were shipbuilders. 1t
as not done so.-After an order has been
received for a 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 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.
The pen and ink calculations and
plans produce the shapeof 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.
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 a simple |
looking block is made-a block that |
shows nothing Of its true nature except |
that the top Of it bears the craven out
line Of the top deck or gunwale line of
q ship. Out Of that simple square block
viii 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,
but with this difference: Each board is
,ut exactly to the denied or craven
inc upon its surface. The shape the
block will have when all the superfu-
BUS wood is cut away will be the model
It the ship that was designed by the en-
,ineer on paper to fill the requirements
Il the customers order, but will that
model stand? VIII the master builder
70 satisfied with its hnesp
Will it do to be enlarged in steel and
emit around the world as an example of
What the Cramps consider the most
eautiful and artistic and useful shape
UGH ship should have2 \ Such a
rst model next to never sui The mod
Ter, who in this case is Mr.. { aarles Fl.
ramp. He hacks into it VIII yrvor.
[e tapers the bow. He digs aw ~ the
'ern. He shaves the whole mo with
he nice and dainty touches of I sculp- 3,
" at work upon statue on which is
rest his boast that he is true artist. J
The fate Of the wooden block alters :
le figures of the engineers plans. Per- =,
APPS the alteration is such that new
rawlings and 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 =
tilt. Sometimes a model is on the
ale of quarter of an inch to each r
OF Of the ship, but the scale differs !,
it'll different builders. - Harper's .
eekly. g