Milford chronicle., 1911-03-17
DRESSING A SHIP.
A Man-of-War Wears More Than
One Suit of Clothes.
INNER AND OUTER GARMENTS.

Besides It's Coat of Armor Plate II Has
a Special Set of UndereIothes to Pro
teet the Vital Parts Of Its Anatomy
Mineral Wool Mufflers.
Battleships wear coats Of stout ar
NOR plate. as everybody knows, but
everybody does not know that they
wear undergarments which are pro
duced chiefly from cocoanuts. Your
most powerful man-of-war is really a
very delicate object and requires
special underclothing so that some
vital parts of its anatomy may not be
come too cold and so that other equal
ly vital portions may not become too
hot
From stem TO stern. which is another
way Of saying from head to toe. your
enormous super -Dreadnought is envel
oped in an undergarment placed i'm
mediately behind its topcoat or armor
plate This is its special macintosh.
or. rather, waterproof. which acts as
protection from fire as well as water.
In the ordinary way If a shot pierced
AAAG oAAN VI q laAAANNAAB MaANA NChN
pour in at the hole and possibly the
ship might sink. but this is obviated
by providing a backing to the armOr
Great secrecy is kept in the various
navies regarding the material used and
its arrangement
In many of the latest battleships
however. the coating is made of cellu
T., 10 oh Cd Prom hn
fbrous cocOanut rind CellulOse pos.
sesses the peculiar property Of swell
ing 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 in
stantly expands and so closes the aper
ture. OF course the cellulose is es
pecially treated in order to render it
hreproof
A man -of-war has its vitality enOr
mously diminished if certain portions
Of it become TOO cold. in much the
same way as its human tenants. Ac
cordingly its boiler and steam pipes
are clothed with jackets" In some
cases the jackets are made of ordinary
blanketing. others of a 1brous clay-like
composition or even OF close grained
wood. In general the material used
for a ships underclothing Of this de
scription consists of mineral wool.
However. the great ship is more like
ly to suffer from the effects Of heat
than from those of cold. There Is al
ways the danger owing to the newer
type of machinery employed that the
powder magazines may get too hot
In the latest men-Of-war the stores
are surrounded by a thick coating of
mineral wool Mineral wool, by the
way, has nothing whatever to do with
wool. as it consists of a mass Of snowy
threads of a kind of glass. 1t is made
by blowing jets Of high pressure steam
through the furnaces in the manufac
ture of iron and steel
Enormous quantities of this strange
variety of wool are used on board for
the purposes of underclothing the bulk
heads and the more delicate portions
Of the ships body. This invaluable
substance acts equally well as pro
tector from heat and from cold. 1t is
such a remarkable nOncOnductor Of
heat that it is used for covering the
refrigerators and the cold storage
chambers and therefore the explosive
stores.
In the dockyards all men who are
employed In packing the mineral wool
I'm the spaces on the ships are obliged |
TO wear masks This is to prevent the |
sharp needlelike particles from being |
inhaled and so causing chest troubles |
Of fatal character.
The ammunition rooms themselves |
are kept cool by a refrigerating plant |
in addition 10 being clothed in mineral
wool. the same applying to the ammu
milton passages The wool is also |
packed between the double bulkheads |
which separate the boiler spaces from |
the other portions Of the vessel Alto
gether the uses of the mineral wool on /
board are extremely numerous. Even
hair is to be met with on |
board In the capacity Of a particular
sort Of underclOthing. This material
is very hght-considerabl lighter than
cork, for instance-and it is not so sub
ject to decay. For this reason among
its many uses it is Of great value as
filling for the life buoys. - Boston