The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-05-02

THE TRIAL OF THE BATTLE-SHIP.
Now what sort of structure is this?
(battle-ship). A huge steel honey
comb-frames and ribs and plates and
braces in every direction. Look at the
inextricable tangle of them in the shat
tered maine. No more great expanse
of deck with the tiers of guns in di-
minishing perspective, such as one sees
in the old wooden frigates and three
deckers. But compartments every
where-two hundred and seventy-two
of them in the Indiana. Little steel
boxes and big steel-boxes-boxes en-
closing guns and boxes enclosing en-
gines, and a box for the helm and lab
yrinthine passages in and out of and
around them where daylight never
gets; and endless doors, doors doors
three hundred and fifty-four 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 compartments
if you cannot keep them separate, so
that If water comes in from a ram
thrust or torpedo or shot, you can con-
fine 1t to one or two cells and so pre-
vent the ship from filling. There are
more compartments in some of the
smaller cruisers-the Cincinnati has
four hundred and eighty-seven; but
cruisers run and ships do not.
Tn this assemblage of cells Is placed
TANNED is better word-one of the
most complicated aggregations of me-
chanism that have ever been brought
together. There are from hundred
hundred and fifty steam cylinders In
the multifarious engines; not so many
as in cruisers, perhaps. The Columbia
has one hundred and eighty four; but
the Columbia keeps out of the way of
thirteen-inch shot. The battle-ship
Iowa has one hundred and fifty-two.
The New Ironsides, the most powerful
fighting vessel in our navy, at the close
of the last war had just three.
What steam does not do, electricity
does. There are wires everywhere.
The dynamos are running constantly,
for the closed steel-boxes get no day
| light 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 turrets; machines manage the
helm; machines propel and pump the
ship and feed the boilers and drive the
| fires; machines hoist ammunition,
| boats and anchors; machines machines
| find the position of the enemy; ma
| chimes transmit orders from the cap
| tain to every part Of the structure; ma
chimes make the light; machines con-
dense the drinking water and cool it;
| machines, themselves propelled by 9TH
er machines on board, go out under wa
| ter to blow up the adversary.
That is the thing-eleven thousand
| tons mainly of steel cells crammed
| with mechanism Of extreme completely,
and which stays afioat only as long as
certain number of the larger amid
| ship cells remain water tight; that is
| the thing which is the subject of the
| coming experiment, upon the result of
| which may depend national victory or
| defeat.
The more complex any mechanical
| structure, the greater the liability to
| arrangement. Like any chain, it's
strength of efficiency is that of it's
weakest link; just as in the animal or
| ganization the higher the development
| the more varied and numerous it's dis
eases. 1t follows inevitably, therefore,
| that whether in a battle-ship, or a
| bridge, or a building, or any other engi-
| neering linkage of many cooperating
parts, high specialization carries with
| it increased liability to injury, until the
| latter overbalances. The battle-ship
experiment will determine whether or
not the limit in the warvessel has been
passed. Battle-ships are not designed
as are buildings and bridges The
sizes of the members of a viaduct prop
erly to resist all foreseen strains and
| stresses can be prefgured, and an
abundant margin left to cover all acct
dents by multiplying the result by, say,
| ''ten," the so-called factor of safety
| But battle ships have no factor of
| safety, nor would bridges, If any one
expected that 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 will expend itself as it travels
over the structure searching for the
weak places. Drop your watch on the
|