392 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



draught the stoke-hole of an Orient steamer is rendered the coolest 

 place when the ship is in the tropics. The electric fan has vastly 

 improved the conditions of the worker in the tropics. I would suggest 

 that each clerk should have a fan just as much as a lamp on his desk. 

 It will pay the employer to supply fans. 



In the modern battleship men are confined very largely to places 

 artificially lit and ventilated by air driven in by fans through ventil- 

 ating shafts. The heat and moisture derived from the bodies of the 

 men, from the engines, from cooking-ranges, etc., lead to a high degree 

 of relative moisture, and thus all parts of the ironwork inside are 

 coated with granulated cork to hold the condensed moisture and pre- 

 vent dripping. 



The air smells with the manifold smells of oil, cooking, human 

 bodies, etc., and the fresh air driven in by fans through the metal con- 

 duits takes up the smell of these, and is spoken of by the officers with 

 disparagement as " tinned " or " potted " air. This air is heated when 

 required by being made to pass over radiators. Many of the officers' 

 cabins and offices for clerks, typewriters, etc., in the center of the battle- 

 ship, have no portholes, and are only lit and ventilated by artificial 

 means. The steel nature of the structure prevents the diffusion of air 

 which takes place so freely through the brick walls of a house. The 

 men in their sleeping quarters are very closely confined, and as the 

 openings of the air-conduits are placed in the roof between the ham- 

 mocks, the men next to such openings receive a cold draught and are 

 likely to shut the openings. To sleep in a warm moist " fugg " would 

 not much matter if the men were actively engaged for many hours of 

 the day on deck and there exposed to the open air and the rigors of sea 

 and weather. In the modern warship most of the crew work for many 

 hours under deck, and some of the men may scarcely come on deck for 

 weeks or even months. Considering the conditions which pertain, it 

 seems to be of the utmost importance that all the men in a battleship 

 should be inspected at short intervals by the medical officers so that 

 cases of tuberculosis may be weeded out in their incipiency. The men 

 of every rating should do deck drill for some part of every day. In the 

 Norwegian navy every man, cooks and all, must do gymnastic drill on 

 deck once a day. In the case of our navy, with voluntary service, the 

 men should welcome this in their own interest. 



In a destroyer visited by me twelve men occupied quarters contain- 

 ing about 1,700 cubic feet of air. There was a stove with iron pipe 

 for chimney, from which fumes of combustion must leak when in use, 

 and a fan which would not work. When the men are shut down the 

 moisture is such that boots, etc., go moldy, and the water drips off the 

 structure. The cooling effect of the sea-water washing over the steel 

 shell of the boat is beneficial in keeping down the temperature in these 



