The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-05-05
A BattleshIp Like a Watch,

Now. what sort of a structure is this?
(battle-ship) A huge steel honeycomb-
frames and ribs and plates and braces
in every direction. Look at the inextrica-
bic tangle OF them in the shattered Maine.
No more great expanse Of deck wisa the
tiers of guns in diminishing perspective,
such as one sees In the old wooden frigate
and three deckers. But compartments eT-
erywhere-272 of them in the Indiana.
Little steel boxes and big steel boxes
boxes enclosing engines. and box for the
helm and labyrinthiae passages in and
out Of and around them where daylight
never gets; and endless doors, doors, doors
-354 water tight doors and matches on the
Indiana every one of which somebody
must look after and see closed when the
ship goes into action. Else why COM
partments if you can not keep them sepa-
rate, so that if water comes in from a
ram-thrust or torpedo or shot, you can
confne 1t to one or two cells and SO pre-
vent the ship from filing. There are more
compartments in some of the smaller
crusers-the Cincinnati has 4S7; but cruis-
ers run and battle-ships do not
In this assemblage of cells is placed
damned is a better word-ons of the most
complicated aggregation Of mechanism
that have ever been brought together.
There are from hundred to q hundred
and fifty steam cylinders in the multifa-
rious engines; not SO many as in the cruis-
ers. perhaps. The Columbia has 1874; but
the Columbia keeps out Of the way CT
thirteen-inch shot The battie-ship Iowa
has 152. The New Ironsides. the most pow
erful lighting vessel In our navy. at the
close Of the last war had just three.
Wheat steam does not DO electricity will.
There are wires everywhere. The dyna-
mos are running constantly, for the closed
steel-boxes get no daylight and must be
lighted, while with equal constancy the
blowers draw out the foul and force in
the fresh air. But on all sides there Is
machinery Machines work the guns !:
machines turn the turTets; machines man
age the HEINZ machines propel and pump
the ship and feed the boilers and drive
the fires; machines hoist ammunition
boats and anchors: machines find the po-
sition Of the enemy; machines transmit
orders from the captain to every part OF
the structure: machines make the light;
machines condense the drinking-water
and cool It: machines, themselves propell-
ed by other machines on board, go out
under water to blow up the adversary.
That ls the thing-eleven thousand tons
chanism of extreme compIexity. and
which stays atioat only as long as a GER
TAM number OF the larger amidship cells
remain water-tight: that is the thing
which is the subject of the coming ex-
pertinent, upon the result Of which may
depend national victory or defeat
The moro complex any mechanical struo
ture, the greater the liability TO derange-
ent Like any chain, its strength or er-
ficiency is that of its weakest link; jus1
as in the animal organization the higher
the developments the more varied and
numerous Its diseases. 1t follows inevita-
bly,. therefore, that whether in a battle
ship or q bridge or a building, or any
other engineering linkage of many COOP
Grating parts, high specialization carries
with 1t increased liability to injury until
the latter overbalances. The battle-ship
experiment will determine whether or not
the lit In the war vessel has been pass
ed. Battle-ships are not designed as are
buildings and bridges. The sizes OF the
members of a viaduct property to resist
all foreseen strains and stresses can be
prehgured, and an abundant margin left
to cover all accidents by multiplying the
result by, say, "ten," the so-called factor
of safety. But battle-ships have no fac
TOT OF SdIety, nor WOuIQ Dr1QgeSp II any
one expected that a blow of several thou
sand foot tons concentrated In the space
Of a square foot would come crashing
against any part of them at random.
Who can predict where that shock VIII
expend itself as it travels over the struc-
ture searching for the weak places. Drop
your watch on the floor. and 1t loses five
minutes in the next twenty-four hours
Why7 The wheels seem TO you to be NOV
ing as usual Nor can the jeweler explain
the cause until he has dlssected the me-
chanism. When 1.150 pounds of STEEL
travelling at the rate OF 1000 feet per sec
ond, hits some hundred complicated me-
chanisms packed into 272 compartments
in what represents a steel shell eighty
five feet cube. set afloat, is there any
thing short of omniscience which can tell
what is going to happen, and for how
long the thing is going to be a useful
fighting machine before It becomes help
less target or takes It's plunge TO the bot
tom?