Imperial Valley press., 1916-10-02
CONCRETE SHIPS"

Some little time ago news came to hand from Sweden
of strange craft that had put into Christana. "A new
type of ship" the message from the Swedish
capital "has arrived here from the shpyards OF the
Chrstianiafjord. The ship, which resembles huge
barge constructed entirely of concrete except for the
ribs which Steel and is the first stone vessel ever
1oated"
So is the long line of development in shpbulding,
stretching back to the followed of the stone age
pushed forward another step. 4 hundred years or so
ago. when first began to be propounded by shpouders
here and there Of greater daring than their fellows
that ships might be built entirely of iTon such ideas were
received with something like angry scoln by the great
mass of contemporaries lhen when scoln gave place
to calm pronouncement, they said that from its
weight iron could be expected float and was there
fore unsuitable for the construction of floating body
This was calculated to be final The pioneer shpbullder
however, went with his Work until one DAY, IN tEe
year 1918 the lighter Vulcan, built entirely OF iron,
oaed down the Monkand canal into the waters OF the
Clvde Then came other objections. Iron ships that
went ashore would suffer than wooden snps they
could not be preserved from foulng by weeds ana
barnaces finally, iron would affect the compass making
It untrustWorthy, if not useless. One by one all tnese
objections proved either taaclOuS or
Iron vessels certainly oated they proved themselves very
much stronger than wooden vessels; the difficulty OF foul
inc could be met by frequent cleaning and painting and
finally Sir G. B. Airy, after experimenting with the Ram
bow at Deptford, and with the Ironsdes at Liverpool
devised rules for the correction OF errors IN the compass
caused bv it's metal surroundings. Thus after hard
eight iron as material for construction struggled trst
Of all into the place Of recognition and thence 10 the place
of being taken for granted
Snve then changes OF vast, revolutionary charac-
ter have come in with less and less commnet Steel
was introduced as material for shpbuildng under mod
ern conditions between the years 1870 and 1872 and this
time an interested public received calmly enough such
apparently anomalous and irresponsible statements as
that the structure of the steel ship had less weight than
hat of the wooden They Weie no longer IN fact,
surprised to find that there after ALL difference
in weight between pound of lead and pound OF feath-
ers, incredible such fact at time seemed And
SO it comes about that the ordinary ayman in such mat
ters reads the specifications Of the OF modern
war vessel with calm and cheerful acceptance. lt IS
mildly interesting TO him to know that its belt
has maximum thickness OF eleven inches, tapeIng to
six inches at the forward and four inches the GfteT
extremity Of the vessel" He glad to know that the
redoubt varies in thickness from eleven to eight
inches" that te trretS and fore coming towers
steven inches thick and the after coming eight
inches thick and that the protective deck Vaiea + ON
and thTeeQuareTS to two and threequartofo inches
in thickness lie is grateful for all such infor atom it
is doubtful of course whether ne realizes just what 1t
all means but at any rate 1t ills MIN with wonder
much less with incredulity
There is story told Of a farmer who, after many
years strict application to duty once visited travelling
inenage1ie He had never seen anything Of the kind
-ore, and as he went from cage to another, his
.ncreduy steadily deepened. At length he to the
hippopotamus He gazed its amorphOus bulk in
silence for moment and then, turning away, murmured
rritaby, NAY! there such a beast" So it
was at one time with everywhere in regard to iron
ships just at it is still Of many other things. But the
times are changing coming to that they have
not dreamed in their philosophers Of everything '@n
heaven and earth" And So today the ''concree ship
Of Christania is subject for than passing
Monitor