The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-05-04

brought together. There are from 100 to
150 steam cylinders in the multfarious
engines; not so many as in the cruisers,
perhaps. The Columbia has 1884; but the
Columbia keeps ol-S of the way of thir-
teen inch shot. The battle ship Iowa
has 1852. The new Ironsidcs, the most
powerful fighting ship 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 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 tur-
rets; machines manage the helm; ma
chimes propel and pump the ship and
feed the boilers and drive the fires:
machines hoist ammunition, boats and
anchors; machines find the position 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 pro-
PEELED by other machines on board, go
out under water to blow up the ad-
versary.
That is the thing-11 900 tons mainly
of steel shells Crammed with meChan-
ism of extreme CompleXity, and which
stays ahoat only as long as a certain
number of the larger amldship shells
remain water tight: that is the thing
which is called a battleship, and that
is the thing which is the subject of
the coming experiment, upon the re-
suit of which may depend national vic
tory or defeat
The more complex any mechanical
structure, the greater the liability to
arrangement. Like any chain. its
strength or efficiency is that of the
weakest link; just as in the animal or
ganization the higher the development
the more numerous and varied its di-
| scascs 1t follows inevitably, therefore,
that whether in battleship or a bridge
or q building or any other engineering
/ linkage of many cooperating parts,
| high specialization carries with it in
/ creased liability to injury, until the lat
| ter oVerbalances. The battle ship ex-
! pertinent will determine whether or not
! the limit in the war vessel has been
! passed. Battle ships are not designed
! as are buildings and bridges. The sizes
! of the members of ViaduCt properly
/ to resist all fOreSeen strains and stress
es can be prefigured, and an abundant
margin left to cover all accidents by
multiplying the result by, say ten,
! the SO-called factor of safety. Blu;
| battlc-ships have no factor of safety
nor would bridges, if any one expected
that a blow of several thousand foot
tons concentrated in the space of d
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, -seckiaC for the weak places
| Drop your watch on the floor it loses
! five minutes in the next twenty-foul
hours. Why? The wheels seem to yol
to be moving as usual. Nor can the
| jewelcr explain the cause until he has
dissected the mechanism. When 1l5C
pounds Of steel travelling at the rate o
| 1000 feet per second, hits some hundred
( complicated meChanisms packed into
272 compartments in'what represents &
steel shell eighty-five feet cube, Sc
ahoat, is there anything short of ON.
nisCience which can tell what is gOinG
to happen, and for how long the thint
is going to be a useful fighting machin,
before it becomes a helpless target ol
takes its plunge to,the bottom?