The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-09-27

ner helm and taurn in different direc-
lions IN order to provide the necessary
data OF course the department of
naval architecture cannot be steered
now In one direction and now in anoth-
en- put the same effect is produced by
providing on the roof of the building a
circular platform that swings the COM
pass exactly as it would be moved by
the swinging of big ocean greyhound
or ponderous battleship The new
Dulldlng, therefore, not only contains
peloW decks, as one might say. a
| crew OF young constructors studying
the making of every possible kind of
sailing craft, but Theoretically sails
the seas" of municipal Boston-the
only building in the city that. even
theoretically, can be steered bv COM
pass.
The new building of the technology
naval architects will be devoted only to
the thlrd and fourth year work of stu
dents, the actual planning of vessels
peIhs only part of the equipment nee
eSsdry 10 the naval architect who has
now so thoroughly supplanted the old
time shlpbuilder. For naval architect
ure deals not only with the ship itself
put with the engines that have turned
the modern vessel in what lovers of the
Old regime have sometimes contemptu-
ously designated as floating machine
snop' and the man who is profession
ally acquainted with the vessel Of to
day must know as much about bars
driving eranks, and piston rods as he
would nave had to know some twenty
years ago about SparS and rigging: and
this is additional knowledge. too. for
spars and rigging are still essential TO
many OF the slower going ocean craft
anu must be taken into account in their
design The naval architect must
n fa,. L.,
dple 10 test such material as has been
furnished him to see whether it comes
up TO standard requirements. In other
words, he must have gone through the
engineering laboratories of the insti-
tute before he reaches the big drafting
room or the new building and begins
studying the hundreds of drawings
that are necessary to make the first
plans of an up-to-date steel vessel.
Naval architecture as a profession 10
or very recent date in America. In
fact, 1t is less than a decade since
American shipbuilders began to see the
value of men trained I'm such special
schools as had already been establish
ed, first at the institute of Technology
then at Cornell university. and about
year later at the University of Mich
fgan. Before these establishments spe-
cfal training could be found ONLY at
one or the other of the three great
foreign schools at Greenwich, England,
at Paris, and at Glasgow. At these
institutions number of our present
American naval constructors obtained
their education, and it is only within
the last few years that the govern
ment has changed its policy of sending
men abroad for instruction.
comparing the schools of naval arch
ltecture as they now exist, however.
the new building of the American in
stitution here in Boston, together with
the immediate neighborhood of an i'm
portant navy yard and one of the four
great sh1pbuilding plants in the coun-
try, provides what is probably the best
equipment in existence for the teach
ing of naval architecture; and the
course given under these auspices is
a year longer than the similar courses
at Greenwich, Glasgow or Paris and
about equal in length to the new course
recently established by our thorough
gong German cousins in their own
great center of technical education at
Charlottenburg.