The Adair County news. [volume] (Columbia, Ky.) 1897-1987, 1912-08-21
BIG ship BUILDING
The Planning and Constructing
of an Ocean Liner.
FIRST A MINIATURE is MADE.
This Small Model Is Then Thoroughly
Tested, and the Story 1t Tells When
Perfected Will Be the Story of the
New Vessel When Launched

Building modern ocean liner is an
interesting and complicated operation.
The ships plan is first prepared in
sections from owners specifications, on
a scale of a quarter or half an inch to
the foot. One set of drawings. called
the 'sheer draft" is a plan of the
ships skeleton or framework without
and hold arrangements being indicated
by a series of detailed drawings.
Follows then the experimental stage.
A wooden block or casting of paraffin
wax is first made to scale from the
ships plans and tested in a large tank
about 300 feet in length and eight feet
deep The model. weighted to the load
line. is towed to and fro by an over
head traverser at varying speeds.
Delicate instruments register the eX-
act pull" the displacement, the stabil
ity and a host of other information.
The shape of the model is altered
again and again, pieces being shaved
off here and others there. The final re-
suits are carefully tabulated. and from
this ship in embryo the builders COM
plete their plans.
Inside the central shed. go yards
long and 80 feet in height, the ships
berth has meantime been prepared.
Thousands of wooden piles, about thir-
ty feet in length, have been driven by
pile drivers deep into the ground. On
these are laid huge beams and the
floor completed with stout planks.
Then in the center the keel blocks, sur
mounted by oak caps in groups of five,
are assembled on a falling gradient TO
the river of about half an inch a foot.
All is now ready for the reception of
the ponderous keel. Thistle back
bone of the ship-is of huge strength,
measuring four feet across, and is three
and a quarter inches thick. Parallel
with the keel. but above it and attach
ed by angle bars, is the central girder,
five feet high, the space between form
ing the double bottom. On each side,
at regular distances running length
wise. are seven other Orders, the out
err one called the margin plate.'
The water tight chambers are formed
by vertical partitions of plates extend
ing above and beneath the floors up TO
the margin plate on each side
After the great cast steel stern frame
and the stem bar for the bows have
been attached the plating begins. The
steel strips of varying sizes, but av-
eraging thirty-four feet in length and
about three tons in weight each. which
form the skin of the ship. are laid on
in strakes like the bricks in a wall.
Fitting these strakeS to the shape of a
ship is a critical business. thin
wooden pattern or template is first
prepared for each plate and clamped
in position on the ships side. With
minute care every detail is marked on
1.-THE size and shape, the overlap and
the rivet holes.
1t is then transferred to its proto-
type. the steel plate. which is cut,
punched and bent by wonderful ma
chinery that slices steel strips, punches
rivet holes and bends steel plate as
easily and clearly as though the ma
terial were paper. Nimble travelling
cranes on gantries under the roof pick
up the huge plates when ready and
convey them to their appointed place.
where the hydraulic riveter-a me-
chanical marvel-with irresistible force
and rapidity drives each rivet home.
In the building of q modern liner over
100000 rivets are used. Each joint
is rendered water tight by calking.
The outer shell finished and the in
side work far advanced. the builders
turn their attention to the problem of
the launch, the weight of the vessel at
this point on the keel blocks being
something like 5000 tons. The
launching ways. sloping gently to the
water, are prepared, and cradles, fore
and aft, to guide the ship, are erected
with huge wooden beams, the whole
being finally fabricated by tallOw and
train oil
Amid reclamation the ship receives
its baptism and, whether for veal or
woe, takes to its element. Still help
less, though. its motive power lacking.
1t is afterward moored to the works
wharf under a $50 ton titan crane,
whereby its boilerS-twenty-five of
them-are lowered into the abyss of
the hold and a multitude of fittings
connected with the engines.
Dwarfing all else for size come
next the four tunnels. towering 80
feet above keel level and large enough
for two tramcars to be drawn through
abreast These are fixed on the gi-
gantic "uptakes," connecting with the
boilers by a network Of fiues.
A hoist OF auxiliary machinery for
lighting. ventilating. pumping and
steering the ship. as well as the pas
senger lifts. is being installed at the
same time as a swarm of men work
Gay and night on the internal decora-
lions. Electricians encircle the ship
with a girdle of light and install a
telephone and electric call service with
BOO stations
In the chart room is fitted a wonder
full clock. which controls. synchroni-
cally. fifty other clocks in different
parts of the ship. The lofty Marconi