Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1913-03-08
DRESSING 4 SHIP.
A Man-of-War Wears More Than
One Suit of Clothes.

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 mRn-of-war is really
very delicate object and requires
special undertaking 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 envei-
oped in an undergarment placed i'm
mediately behind its topcoat Ir armor
Slate. This is its special macintosh,
o.. rather. waterproof, which acts as
protection from fire as well as water
In the ordinary way If shot pierced
the side OF a battleship water would
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
It's arrangement.
In many OF the latest battleships,
however, the coating is made of cellu-
lose which again is obtained from the
ibrous 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
| 6reproof.
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 flbrous clay-like
! composition or even of close grained
wood. In general the material used
! for q 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 4 thick coating of
/ mineral wool. Min eral 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 Undertaking 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 II 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
in the spaces on the ships are obliged
10 wear masks. lHlS IS 10 prevent inc
sharp needlelike particles from being
Inhaled and so causing chest troubles
of fatal character
The ammunition rooms Themselves
are kept cool by n 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
reindeer hair is to be met with on
board il the capacity of a particular
sort of 4nderclothing. This material
Is very ight-considerab lighter than
,Ork, for instance-and il is not so sub.
ject TO decay. For this reason among
its many uses it is Of great value as a
filing for the life buoys. - Boston
Transcript.