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

taken off it leaves the walls of the hull
inside and out as smooth and clean as
the walls of your paror The inside
framework, including the partitions, the
grders and beams, are all made of re-
nforced concrete. The steel rods are put
in bent to the shape the framework re-
quires, and a box is made around them,
into which the concrete is poured The
cement mortar begins to set almost as
soon as 1t is in place, and within a short
time it is as hard as though the whole
were of stone. There is no structure,
! steel in the ship. Every bit of the frame
work is of this concrete reinforced with
steel rods, and this is true of the bulk
heads, the decks and the matches There
are no rivets whatever and the whole shin
| is for all the world one huge structure
of solid stone. with these steel bars run
ming this way and that everywhere
through it. AS it floats on the ocean it
looks just like one of the steel steam
ers. and it could hardly be distinguished
from the smaller greyhounds of the At
lantic.
! l asked Mr.. Wig as to whether these
ships would not be very much heavier
than other vessels of the same size now
on the ocean. He replied that the weight
of a vessel of reinforced concrete viii
be from Is to % per cent heavier than
| one of tie same tonnage constructed of
steel, but that the cost of the concrete
ship will be only two-thirds or three
| fourths as much as that of the steel
ships. 1t will take as long or longer to
build the concrete ships as steel ships.
but the plant for erecting can
be constructed more quickly and
lit will be much less expensive. A
steel shipbuilding plant costs in the
Ineighborhood of $4,000 and upward.
whereas one for concrete ships can be
erected for $1,000 or less.
Moreover continued Mr.. Wig, "the
materials used in making the concrete
fleet are such that shipbuilding plants
can be erected almost anywhere along
our coast. All that we need is some
Portland cement, some steel rods and a
{ gravel bank. or one might use clay
bank and kiln and make terra Gotta in
stead of stone. They are now using
crushed terra Gotta in the concrete YES
sells being built in San Francisco The
terra Gotta if properly burned becomes
as strong as the stone when mixed with
cement 1t is full of pores and all
spaces and consequently is much lighter
1t is very important to reduce the weight
!; of the hull as far as possible consistent
with the strength of the ship. 1t is esti-
mated that for every pound per cubic
foot that we can cut down the weigh
, of the concrete we can reduce the weigh
: of the ship from 10 to 20 TONS dependins
upon the size of the vessel. If thu
weight is reduced 20 pounds per cubic
foot, the ship will carry from 200 to 4O
! tons more of cargo. 1t is therefore i'm
portant that the concrete be made a:
light in weight as possible"
ii / here asked as to the amount OF stee
lin the big ships. and was told that eacf
! of the larger vessels will have more thar
! 1900 steel rods of the larger size weigh
, ling 750 tons and an equal number o.
, more of steel rods ranging from one
, half an inch upward IN diameter. Eacl
, / of these rods is GO feet long and II al
were Joined together they would MAX
one great strand of steel so long tina
lit would reach from Boston to New Yorl
and thence on to Washington. The large
steel rods are bigger around than ho
I. handle.
another advantage to the government
! in building concrete ships in this tim
J OF great need" continued Mr.. Wig, y
, that the work can be done by class 0
< men which is not now employed in wa
4 work. and by men who cannot be used i
$ the building of ships of steel and wooc
D lone of the chief difficulties in our hur
t ried shipbuilding construction just nov
+ is the lack of skilled labor. We canno
d find the skilled men, and 1t takes TIM
e to train them into the work. This con
1 crete construction brings in new elias
\ lof labor. as we'll as of material. an
: thereby adds one more factor to our sid
q Eof the equation in winning the war.
!, "IIaye concrete ships any advantag
over ships Of steel and wood?" | asked
). "They have some advantages and som
6 disadvantages, replied Mr.. Wig. 'bu
!, 1.-THE chief reason for the concrete shi
IS just now is that we need more vessels