The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1918-04-21

also done something in concrete ship
building, but no statistics as to their
progress are, for obvious reasons. avail
able just now.
Last year concrete ship construction
was going on in Denmark, France.
England. Norway, Spain. Canada ana
the United States. Our consul at Chris-
tiania has lately described a plant at
Norway, where concrete vessels of 5000
tons displacement are being built. and
it is stated that the Swedish minister
of marine has recently ordered
lighter of 1000 tons of plant where
they are now erecting ways for TIE
building of ships of 1000 tons.
The largest concrete vessel ever
planned was launched last month By
the San Francisco Shipbuilding COM
many at a California port. This is a
steamer to be used In the transpa-
| c;fic service. 1t has displacement or
| 1000 tons and will carry 5000 tons of
| lightweight cargo. The ship is $50 feet
| long, over As feet wide and 80 feet
| deep. When fully loaded it will draw
| "a feet of water. The ship is a mono
| 18th. or vessel of continuous stone.
/ Her floor is four and one-half inches
| thick and the walls of the hull are
/ four inches thick with a great steel
L
! concrete is a basketry of steel mesh,
consisting of heavy iron bars, which
| weighs altogether more than 500 tons.
| The boat will be equipped with triple
| expansion engines of more than lien
horse power. and it will be moved
| through the water by screw propcl-
Ter at 10 or IL knots per hour | have
photographs of the exterior and in
terror taken during the construction
III rt,, ciz n
huge boat of stone.
1t was with the photographs before
me that I talked with Mr.. Wig, the
chief engineer of the concrete ship
building branch of the emergency flee
corporation, about, the vessels which
Uncle Sam will construct. They vii
be built after much the same methods
as those employed in making the Cali
| fornia steamer and some of them viii
be even greater in size. The larges
ships will be about 410 feet long, {,
, feet beam and SO feet in depth, aat
; their draft will be % feet. These biz
ships are to be of 1900 tons, and tn,
: vessels it is proposed to construct vii
! range from that size down to 500
tons. The ships will have reciprocal
! ing steam engines and each will b'
moved by means of shaft and screw
rropel1ers The largest ships will b.
equipped with steam turbines. and tn
machinery all told will be much thu
same as that of the fabricated stee
vessels or wooden vessels now beins
constructed
II The walls of the bulls will range il
| thickness from four to ten inches
They will be made of concrete AM
steel, the steel being in the form 0
q bars, from one-half inch to one incl
r and a half in diameter The bars ar
/ arranged in a network, SO that eacl
carries a certain carefully estimate,
!. proportion of the load.
! In the building of ship like thi
nothing is left to guesswork. Their
s has to be just SO much concrete
y mixture of gravel, sand and Portlan
d cement, and just so much steel, run
y ming here and there through 1t, he'll
together by the cement and this stee
must be placed in just the right spor
: for every bit of it has its own worl
. to do. The whole is carefully planne
! by the naval architects and designer
ard everything is done according t
i the plans and specifications. The frs
! thing that is done is the building O
a wooden mold of the exact shape an
, size of the outside of the vessel TIL
Z steel bars are then laid in the exac
u places set down in the plans. The
It are placed in crisscross or baskc Ell
# shaped network. and are tied in plac
by small pieces of wire. so that eac
bar stays where it is put.
After the whole network has been az
= curately fixed an inside wall of board
II is built up and the concrete poured il
J. When it has hardened and the frame