The mirror., 1919-03-27

While this is being done other fit
ters are laying in the bottom franz
ing; these are small girders varying
in length according to the shape of
the ships bottom and set 81 or 4
feet apart, being placed on each
side of the keel and securely
bolted. The bottom framing also
forms what is known as the bilge,
and double bottoms can also be
made by making every fifth one of
these girders water-tight. While
these filters are laying in the ships
bottom, other filters are beginning
to adjust heavy angle irons to these
small girders that are already
bolted fast to the keel. These are
held in place by bolts and ribands
until riveted and are known as
ribs, forming part of the ships
sides. Now then, you have the
keel completely laid, the bottom
framing partly set in and the ribs
being erected. While the ribs are
being erected and securely bolted,
1 will take you back to the keel
and introduce you to the riveter's
crew and the pneumatic hammer.
A riveter's crew is composed of
four men, namely the riveter, the
holder-on, the rivet-sticker and the
heater-boy. Occasionally the rivet-
sticker is omitted, as the holder on
fills that billet. While the filters
we're laying the last section of the
keel the riveters were not far be-
hind, driving the heavy rivets used
to assembled these large girders.
The question of riveting is not on
ly a matter of taking a pneumatic
hammer and making any old kind
of a head on a rivet. If you take
notice you will find that an mex
perienced riveter will drive rivets
in a zig-zag line and half of them
will not be driven in solid, where
an experienced riveter will drive
most every rivet in solid and in a
straight line. In shipbuilding care
full riveting is necessary; the rivets
must be driven in solid; the parts
to be assembled must be drawn up
tight, and if the first rivet does not
draw the parts together, it is cut
out and another driven in. To find
if a rivet is solidly driven the finger
is placed at the edge of the rivet
which is tapped with small piece
of iron on the opposite side to
which the finger is placed. By so
doing the loose rivets are detected,
marked, cut out and others driven
in.
The work of riveter is not al
ways on decks and bulkheads as
you may have seen in magazine
illustrations. The boss riveter may
come around at any moment and
give instructions to finish a job
where some one else left off. It
is often that he has to work in
cramped positions. He may be
compelled to crawl into some
cubby-hole in which it is most
difficult to handle the pneumatic
hammer. Such places as these are
not to the fancy of the riveter.
In order to make perfect head
on rivet. the riveter must keep
the hammer in operation until the
rivet begins to get black, and as
the rivet draws to a head the
riveter, by making complete cir
cles or by maneuvering the ham,
mer from side to side with the
hand uppermost, will cause the die
to cover the entire rivet head,
bringing it down to a natural head
and solidly driven.
In briefly describing the pneu-
matte hammer l will say that it is
one of the most constructive pieces
of machinery ever invented for
shipbuilding. structural iron work
and for the conservation of human
energy. The hammers are made
lin various sizes, ranging from