Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1903-08-27

Row a BattIesbip is Built On Paper.


EaSAlEcItl2 SsSIgS fsa[sSHS1
Eoston, Mass, August 23.-When
Uncle Sam decides to build a warship
there must be something over 1900
plans drawn and approved by the gov
eminent before the vessel can be con-
structed. These plans alone, in the
case of first-class battleship such as
the Vermont, the contract for which
has been recently awarded to the Fore
River Ship and Engine company near
this city, cost the builders $4,000. For
the steel plates of the hull, to take a
single large item, 500 distinct and
separate plans are necessary. The 500
or 900 plans necessary for the hull as
whole range from a small sheet of
paper twelve inches square to a big
sheet IL feet long by two feet and a
quarter wide; and each plan must be
duplicated in at least dozen blue
prints to facilitate the work of the
shops and save the original drawings
from being worn out by constant
handling.
At rough estimate this means that
over 1860 square feet of paper will be
covered with drawings before the yard
begins hull construction-to say moth
ing of over 10000 square feet of paper
that will be used in preparing the
schedules of materials by which the
yard will order the various supplies
for construction. To make the hull of
a war vessel more paper is used than
would serve to wrap it up afterward.
Meantime the engine department and
the electrical department must pre-
pare their own plans on a similar scale
of detailed munifcence, the result
being, all told, that about twelve hun
dred separate drawings will be neces-
sary before the battleship has been
accurately made on paper.
These hundreds of plans do not con
sist, as one might at first imagine, in
plan after plan of the vessel until
Uncle Sam smiles approval and says:
Go ahead. That suits me exactly
AS matter of fact Uncle Sam has a
very complete notion of what is going
to suit him exactly before the con-
tracing shipbuilders touch pencil to
paper, and the shipbuilder's work is
based upon yet another series of mys-
FERROUS looking blue prints that come
from the government. The first plans
for every class of war vessels, with
the single exception of the lively little
torpedo boats and their equally lively
hnCfpnUnTC dr0u hu hn
government before either Fore River,
Newport News, the Cramps, or any
other shipbuilding establishment is in
vited to bid for the task of finishing
them. But these first plans, although
they represent the labor of three gov
Construction and Repair, the Bureau
of Equipment and the Bureau OF
Ordnance, are simply statement of
the kind of vessel wanted and are
supplemented by bound volume OF
specification that covers between 200
and 300 pages. 1t is this interesting
volume that the management of the
shipbuilding establishments has to re-
duce to terms of profit and cost before
it decides upon the minimum plice for
which it can build the vessel, pay
about four years wages to a thousand
the bank on it's own account. In the
case of the Vermont the final cost per
pound is estimated at Is cents, or
three times the cost per pound of a
thoroughly modern steel schooner.
No object, either on land or sea,
its every detail than a modern war
vessel. When the government orders
q canvas gun cover, for example, the
specifications state definitely how
many stitches to an inch are to be
taken in sewing the canvas and these
stitches are not to be averaged up bui
there must be just so many of them
H. every inch, no matter at what point
the government inspector who super
vises the making of the cover may
choose to count them. If the number
is not parallel with the specification
the right number of stitches must be
put in-at the expense of the company
This small example is an exact illus
tration of what specifications" mean
as they apply to war vessel, although
as a rule the specifications that reach
the modern shipyard concern them
selves only with the hull and machin-
cry of the vessel. But they include
every bolt that goes into the hull,
every beam that supports her decks
and platforms, and every inch of the
miles of pipes and wire that connect
her engines, dynamos, and coming
towers with the various mechanisms
that they are designated to operate.
In the Vermont there are more than
10000 of these bolts, and electric
wires alone sufficient to distribute an
amount of power that would supply
light to the streets and houses and
run the trolley cars for a city of $4,000
inhabitants
Putting these specifications into
actual plans-in other words, building
the warship on paper with rule. T.
square, and compass-takes about II