The Washington herald., 1912-10-13

The new 3o,0o1on baftleship Pennsyl.
vania, the keel Of which is about to be
laid, will be. for a while at least. the
biggest and most powerful fighting crafs
anoat, and by all odds the most COM
pletely equipped.
One gets a better notion Of the size Of
her when 1t is explained that her per-
sonnel will number 1,oos. including sixty
three commissioned officers. She Will. a.
a matter Of course. be fitted up as .
flagship. with separate living quarters Tor
. fleet commander.
Perhaps, however. the feature OF her
outfit that will possess the greatest inter-
est for everyday folk is the food depart
ment-not SO much because Of the i'm
portance attaching to the feeding problem
as by reason Of the remarkable, up-to-
date. and almost ahead-of-date ideas and
con,rivances to be utilized in this con-
nection.
Not even the most modern and most
palatial hotel equals In this respect bat
tleship such as the Pennsylvania To
say that ali the cooking on board OF her
will be done by electricity IL merely to
make a descriptive beginning. Practical
ly the entire business OF preparing the
edible supplies for mess consumption Will
be accomplished by the use Of series
of ingenious machines, most OF them
Of them electrically operated.
For example, there will be the potato
peeler. To peel by hand enough pota-
toes 20 feed 1.009 people would be big
task. but the problem Is easily solved
by this remarkable mechanical contriv-
ance. II Is simple enough. consisting
Of a large sheet-ron cylinder. in the bot
tom Of which a horizontal disk revOlves.
The 'op Of the disk and the inside OF the
cylinder are lined with the abrasive sub
stance called "carborundum." which. with
a surface like sandpaper. serves the same
purpose much more effectively.
The potatoes are poured into the cy-
Under through a hopper at the top. and.
an electric motor being started. the disk.
geared to it by shaft and belt. rapidly
revolves Whereupon the "murphies' are
thrown violently about. and In less than
minute they have lost every particle
Of their skins. II is not exactly a peel
ing. but a scraping process. and decided
" more economical than hand-peelng.
When the potatoes have been removed
from the cylinder the eyes are dug
cut Of them with a knife. II should lie
further explained that while the DISK
whirIs and the 'spuds' bounce about,
water pours into the receptacle in a
number Of Jets. under pressure-passins
out at the bottom through a pipe.
foamy puIr. and carrying with II the
debris Of the skins.
Mnrhine-mnde Bread.
All of the bread eaten on board OF the
Pennsylvania will he made by machine.
The -four and other ingredients, poured
into hopper. will fall down into the
electric dough- mixer below. All that re-
mains TO be done is TO turn on the
Juice" meat-grinder. similarly oper-
ated. consists of hopper, to receive the
raw materials. with keen-edged knives
revolving beneath. This latter contriv-
ance will he used for many purposes.
such as sausage-ma king. preparing STUFF
fling for turkeys and chickens. grinding
Hamburger steak, chopring carrots for
SOUP. &c.
All the bread will he cut by an elec-
tricaIly-drive knife. Think OF the snor-
nous quantity of bread consumed daily
by l.0o9 hungry men-at least loaf a
day for each prrson-ard of the time and
labor required to cut all those loaves
into slices in the ordinary way. But
the machine does IL automatically and