Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-06-16
The HdSkin Letter
UNCLE SANS BUSINESS.

Washington, June. 13.-America's
real work in the naval disarmament
program is being started in earnest.
The conference itself is history and
the men who reduced to writing the
agreements are engaged in other at
fairs. The actual scrapping of the
ships of war is just beginning. 1t is
the seat of the biggest junk industry
the world ever has known.
Dismantling a ~battleship+ is a task
second only to building one. A battle
ship is designed to Withstand destruc-
ton. In war It Is it's function to en-
dure the pounding of the heaviest
shells which the ingenuity of man has
invented. to say nothing of the pound
ing of the seas. And now, under the
disarmament treaties, a whole fleet
is to be destroyed.
Practically all Of the work is to be
done in private yards of junk men or
shipbuilders. A Philadelphia firm
made the government a proposal to
take over the entire fleet strapped by
the treaty. but as a matter of public
policy it was decided not to give the
entire job to n company. However.
this company has obtained the job of
scrapping several battleships and a
hulipCAs VI SuldiIcT tSkSSIS. kAtiOuS
the important warships to be strapped
at Philadelphia are the battleships
Missouri. Wisconsin and Maine. the
cruiser Columbia, the cruiser Raleigh.
which was with Admiral Dewey at
Manila bay, and the monitor Monterey.
The junk %company's yard is on the
waterfront and it now is dredging a
channel deep enough to receive these
great ships.
The most useful implement in the
destruction of an armorclad battleship
is the oxy-acetylene torch. This is a
device which shoots a flame of ex-
tremely high temperature into a mass
of steel and cuts it as a knife cuts
bread. These torches are used in cut
ting the huge plates into COM
mercial shapes and sizes. The pneu-
matte drill and the chisel are used
in the dismembering Of lighter parts
and a ponderous Misunderstanding
between a trip-hammer and a pile
driver-is used to crush and break up
large blocks of metal into smaller, more
workable chunks.
Material for Automobiles
Battleships are made of the best
quality Of material and therefore have
a large value as junk. Armor plate is
made Of the finest nickel steel. This
is cut into billets and sold to automo-
bile manufacturers, who remake the
material into engines, springs and
other parts requiring great strength.
The heavy machinery used in operating
gun turrets is sold to manufacturers
of farming implements or to iron foun-
dries. There is much copper. brass.
gun-metal. bronze. lead. zinc and man
ganese or a battleship. These are all
used in shipbuildinz. as we'll as in other
lines of manufacturing. When taken
from the battleship they are sorted and
sold to dealers or direct to manufac-
turers.
All the material is AS carefully sort
ed and graded as new metal. IT is
stacked in neat piles and classified by
shapes and sizes. Experience has
taught the junknen the best forms
into which to convert their materials
to attract buyers and the big modern
junk-yard looks more like a depart
ment store than the ordinary back
yard junk piles of small dealers. To
make the required sizes. crocodile
shears are used. These have Jaws
which cut with a lotion pressure. Also.
tangled fragments of lighter material
are pressed into blocks in a sort of
mold on which an enormous pressure
is exerted.
While great fighting ships Of the
Navy will be reduced absolutely to
scrap some of the lesser craft will! be
dismautled only so far as fighting
equipment is concerned. The, bulls
will be used for merchant ships. new
interior arrangements being effected
to make them suitable for the carry