14 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[October 1, 1912. 



upon the target, ami that they may do this they are provided with 

 telescopic sights against which one eye of each pointer is pressed 

 during the active working of the rifle. Despite the utmost eiifort 

 to reduce shock and vibration, when tiring, still these telescopes 

 are forcibly jarred by each discharsjc and the attendant recoil. 



R.\rn)-l-iRE Gi N, Showing RuBncR CrsHinx on Shol-lder Piece. 



To protect the gun pointer's eye from injury, a soft rubber cup 

 is fitted to the telescope, and against this his brow and cheek bone 

 rest in action. But for this cushioning it would be dangerous if 

 not impossible for him to hold to his work for any length of 

 time. On more than one occasion this rubber cup has become 

 detached in the heat of rival target practice, and the gun point- 

 ers have stuck to their task even though the harsh eye piece of 

 the telescope cut to the bone upon their brows and cheeks. It 

 is easy to see how important is the role that rubber plays in the 

 fighting perfection of our modern dreadnoughls and. in fact, all 

 of our battle 

 fleet. 



The bulkhead 

 doors in a battle- 

 ship — even those 

 above the water 

 line — are of steel 

 and are heavy, 

 and in a rolling 

 sea they are hard 

 to control unless 

 one be sure upon 

 one's feet; there- 

 fore rubber 

 treads are placed 

 on the deck each 

 side of the door 

 to give the passer 

 a better hold. 



Deep down in 

 the bowels of tht 

 ship where the 

 engines have 

 their place safe 

 from the reach 

 of an enemy's 

 shot and shell. 



klEBF.R l-.VE (ilARD ON TELESCOPIC SiGHT, 



and throughout the branching leads of the steam pipes from the 

 boilers, india-rubber has many fields of usefulness. The layman 

 must not forget that coal and fresh water on a fighting ship are 

 at a higher premium than they arc ashore, and every effort is 

 made to conserve these factors, vital not only to the mobility. 



but to the very life of a man-of-war. In factories and commonly 

 ashore, e.xhaust steam is freely vented into the surrounding air, 

 and a leaking stuffing box or a dripping joint in a steampipc is of 

 but little concern. For the factory both coal and water in plenty 

 are generally near at hand and refinemoms of economy are not 

 essential. 



In the navy, however, on the other hand, things are quite to 

 the contrary — escaping steam means energy w-asted and a loss 

 of so much coal and fresh water. To make up for this dissipated 

 heat and moisture, coal must be burned in order to distil fresh 

 water from the sea. and an actual monetary prize is now of- 

 fered to the engineering force for all savings in the consumption 

 of fresh water and coal. One very important means to this end 

 is seeing that all sliding parts are steam-tight and that no leaky 

 joints in either the feed or exhaust systems shall permit the es- 

 cape either of precious water or still more precious steam with its 

 charge of heat. Rubber packing finds, therefore, valuable employ- 

 ment in pistons, valve stems, stuffing-boxes and pipe joints in 

 every direction, and only the best products of this descripition are 

 acceptable for this service in the navy. Steam pipes are led 

 everywhere throughout the organism of a modern battleship, and 

 manifold auxiliaries with their moving parts demand the use of 

 rubber packing in one form or another. Nothing else has yet 

 been found capable of assuring the same degree of efficiency. 



But steam is not the only source of power aboard ship, even 

 though it is the fundamental fountain of energ}-. Compressed 

 air is used for various purposes, such as supplying the r.'.otive 

 force for the dreaded automobile torpedo, for blowing the smoke 

 and the burning fragments of powder bags out of the big guns, 

 and for refrigerating service in the various cold storage compart- 

 ments. Compressed air has a very penetrative habit, and only 

 good joints will keep it within proper confines. Here, again, 

 india-rubber helps out. 



But the type of energy which best indicates the remarkable 

 up-to-dateness of the modern righting ship is electricity in its 

 wonderfully varied applications and uses in the fleet. There is 



no other single 

 structure in the 

 world — not even 

 excepting the 

 best-e quipped 

 technical insti- 

 tute that has 

 electricity 

 in daily employ- 

 ment in as many 

 ways as one 

 will find aboard 

 our dread- 

 noughts. and 

 even upon craft 

 of lesser military 

 might. F.iectric 

 auxiliaries d o 

 quite 90 per cent, 

 of the work that 

 used to be done 

 by the brawny 

 s a i 1 o r m a n of 

 years ago, and 

 do it far better; 

 and in addition 

 do many other 

 things which are quite beyond either manual power or 

 human agency. Electric wires spread from keel to truck 

 and from end to end of a man-of-war like a veritable net- 

 work of sentient nerves, carrying energy and speeding 

 directive messages of many kinds. Powder and shot are trollied 



