The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1911-05-11
DRESSING A SHIP.
\ Man-Of-War Wears More Than
One Suit of Clothes.

~ han-Ol-N W an wears More IMAM
One Suit of Clothes.
BattlcshipS wear coats of stout
armor plate, as everybody knows,
but everybody does not know that
they wear undcrgarments which are
produced chiefly from CocOauuts.
Your most powerful man-Of-war is
really very delicate object and re
quiruS special Undertaking 50 that
some vital parts of its anatomy may
not become TOO cold and SO that
other equally vital portions may not
become too hot.
From stem to stern. which is an
other way of saying from head 10
toe, your enormous super-Dread-
naught is enveloped i'll an underSar-
ment placed Immediately behind its
topcoat or armOr plate This is its
macintosh, or, rather, waterproof,
which acts as protection from fire as
well as from water.
In the ordinary way if shot
pierced the side of battleship wa
ter would pour in at the hole and
possibly the ship might sink, but
this is obviated by providing Il
backing to the armor. Great SeCre-
cy is kept in the various navics re
garding the material used and its
arrangement
In many of the latest battleships.
however, the coating is made of
cellulose, which again is obtained
from the fibrOus cocoanut rind.
CelulOse possesses the peculiar prop
erty of swelling Immediately if it
comes in contact with salt water.
Therefore the moment that water
pOurS in at a hole at the ships side
the cellulose almost instantly cN-
"A. ~
course the cellulosc is especially
treated in order to render II fire
proof
a man-of-war has its vitality
enormously diminished if certain
| portions of it become too cold, in
much the same way as human
tenants. Accordingly its boiler and
steam pipes are clothed with "j&ck-
cts" III some cases the Jackets are
made OF ordinary blankcting, other
OF fibrous clay-like composition or
even OF close grained wood. In gen
eral the material used for ship 5
undertaking of this description
consists of mineral wool.
However. the great ship is more
| likely to suffer from the effects OF
of heat than from those OF cold
There is always the danger owing tC
the newer type OF machinery EN-
ployed that the powder magazine:
may get too hot.
In the latest man-Of-war tn,
stores are surrounded by IL thicl
coating of mineral wool. Minera
wool, by the way. has nothing what
ever TO do with wool, as it consist
of a mass of snowy threads OF
kind of glass. 1t is made by blow
ing jetSing jets of high preSsur
steam through the furnaces in tn
manufacture of iron and steel.
Enormous quantities of thi
strange variety of wool are used o
board for the purposes of under
clohting the bulkheads and the MOI
delicate portions of tn
ships body This invaluable sui
stance acts equally we'll as a pre-
tector from heat and from cold.
is such a remarkable nOncOnduCtO
of heat that it is used for coVcrin
the refrigerators and the cold stoI
age chambers and therefore the e>
plOsive stores.
In the dockyards all men who ar
employed in packing the minera
wool in the spaces on the ships ar
Obliged to wear masks. This is I
prevent the sharp needlelike part
cles from being inhaled and s
/ al
acter.
The ammunition rooms themselvt
are kept cool by a refrigerator plan
in addition TO being clothed in min
eral wool. the same applying to tn
ammunition passages. The wool i
also packed behind the double bulk
heads which seperate the boile
spaces from the other portions o
the vessel. Altogether the uses q
the mineral wool on board are eX
tremely numerous. Even rCindcc
hair is to be met with on board il
the capacity of particular sort q
undcrClothing. This material il
very considerably lighter THAI
cork, for inStance---and il is not 50
subject to decay. For this reason
among its many uses il is of great
value as Il filling for the life buoyS