The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-10-02
SHIPS ARCHITECTS
How Mammoth Battleship Is De-
 signed and Built

Talk of a Chinese puzzle, it is noth- ing to the problem set before a naval
 designer who has to build a battleshils says London Answers.
 Here he has steel structure of such and such a length and breadth and depth, and into this space, which Is
 ments. he has to fit so much coal, so much armament. room for so much ammunition, quarters for so many men, space for engines of certain power, and also allow for an immense weight of armor.
 Take the original dreadnaught for instance The task which was given to Sir Philip Watts was to plan a
 battleship capable of steaming 1000 miles at 21 knots. with room for 500 officers and men, and able to carry 10 12-tnch guns with 80 rounds of ammu- njtion for each.
 She had also to be enormously heav-I fly armored. This armor alone, wherf the sum was worked out was found to weigh nearly 10000 tons and the necessary coal to weight 2500 tons. The guns and their mountfngs weighe r600 tons their ammunition 450 tons When you add to this that the boil- CTS and machinery of the first dread nausht were calculated to weight not less than 1200 tons, the reader may be- gill to get some faint idea of the dif- faculties before the designer.
 We have not even mentioned the smaller but quite important details. such as boats-some of them large steam launches 60 feet long-anchors and cables of gigantic size and weight, torpedps. etc. To ha must be far more than mere naval, architect He must have the most ex- tensive Knowledge of all sorts of crafts. and be blessed with large share of ina eination into the bargain. Now. take the dreadnaught again. She IS 4S0 feet long. If her hull had been built of the same shape as pre- vious battleships, she would have been very unhandy. Her great length would |have prevented her from turning quickly as is always necessary in a Sea fight.
 Sir Philip got over this difficulty by. shortening her keel base. Under water she Is very like a racing yacht, being much shorter below water Chan above. Another clever dodge of her designer, was to fit two rudders abreast well unI der the stern. The Same dodge has been adopted in all the dreadnaughts, with the result that they are wonder lulty qulck to answer tnelr helms.
 Quite apart from the marvellous in- tcrnal fittings of a great warship, and the utilization of every inch of space inside the hull the hull itself Is a. nerve straining problem. A battleshixs must not only be fast. she must also be n good sea boat.
 This Is all important-and so we shall certainly see during the gales of this coming autumn--for if she is not steady in n heavy sea fight she is mt q rood gun platform
 To gain the requisite combination of speed and steadiness each new war ship. as soon as her plans are complete' is built up in model and these models arc tested in big tank 500 or 500 feet lons. The models. which are built ab- solutely to scale. are drawn through the water at certain speeds. and the waves which they make are measured by clever apparatus too technical to be here described
 The designing of new type of bat tleship Is not one man job. When a new departure Is to be made. the mem hers of the board of admiralty call to- gether a number of naval experts and the opinion of each is asked and dis cussed. When the general design has been approved. then the director of na- val construction and his assistants get to work. The extraordinary accuracy of such work may be gathered from the fol- lowing:
 The Majestic, of 15,ooo tons. was de- signed by Sir William White. When finished and armed. she was exactly. to very few pounds. the weight which he, had estimated beforehand, while her center of gravity was within two inches of tNe point which he had previously fixed on.