The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1920-08-04

I intricate machinery with which
these ships were propelled was
"bashed i'm, in the belief that the
Yanks never would be able to re-
pair these ships in time to turn
them against the fatherland. Book
ing over the "wrecks", some en-
gineers said it would take a year
or more to repair those ships and
put them back in commission. New
parts would have to be installed.
Then along came Wilson with his
electric welding needle. 1t is mat
ter of history, of course, that in
from three to four months every
single German liner was ready to
put to see again. Even while
Yankee troops were wiping out the
St. Mihiel salient and sweeping
clean the Argonne, those German
bships, led by the giant Vaterland,
were pouring American men and
munitions into Britain, France and
Belgium. Not only did Wilson and
his crew weld the Vaterland and
her sisters as good as new, but he
made them so fleet that our ."gobs"
were able to get three knots better
speed out of them than the Ger
mans ever had made!
This man Wilson, along with
"Wake-'em-up" Dudley of the
Chester Shipbuilding Company; B.
B. Chichester, the Virginian who
developed the science of electric
welding under water, and other au-
thorities on welding, say the grand
old Liberty Bell can be redeemed; ;
that it may have 'health glands"
transferred to it's body that will do
for it what the Fountain Of
Florida" was supposed to do for
decrepit Ponce de Leon. Transfu-
sion would be. the process involved,
jus as in the hospital an anemic is
wooed back to life and color again
by the injection of pure fresh blood
in his veins, only in this case it
would be emtal TRANSMISSION.
This would proceed in this fash
ion: Take first a grain of metal
from the crevice of the bell. Have it
analyzed by a board of expert me-
tallurgists. Reproduce in the
laboratories of the alchemist the
identical metal Of which the Liberty
Bell is composed. When you have
the proper alloy you are ready to
bring on the electric needle. -
Now for the process of welding.
Fashion the new metal to be ap-
| piled into wire or needle Of the
welding apparatus. Measure the re-
sistence of the bell andthe resist
ence of the wire after having es....-
mated the amount Of steel sufficient
to fill up the crack. Now to fill in
the crack. One electric contact i$
made on the bell and the other on
the needle that is composed of the
same metal substance as the bell It
self. Electricity leaps between the
two. points. 1t describes an arc,
since electricity travels in curved
rather than a straight line. Now the
process of vaporization is in full
blaze. The electric needle IS con.
suming itself and dcpositing its
own particles within the orifice Of
the split bell. Eighty per cent Of the
applied power is being consumed on
the wire side of the arc. Five per
cent of the current is in the arc it.
self, a burning glare of light that
makes the operator shield his eyes
behind heavily smoked goggles. Ten
per cent of the power is consumed
on the negative pole for the pur-
pose of heating the plate which re-
ceives the deposit. You simply
touch the electric needle to one on
the other side of the crack, with
draw It fraction Of an inch and
then roro:t lie process svc" and
Owe.
Yvur electric needle, or welding
wire, is giving it's own life, trans
ferring its very self through the
medium of the electric current to
| fill out the crevice in the Liberty