October 1, 1912.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



15 



from their storage places and carried up to the breeches of the 

 waiting guns and rammed home in the bores by electric power. 

 The turrets are turned and the guns elevated and depressed by 

 electric motors. Electricity runs the groat cranes that raise the 

 boats from their resting places and lower them over the sides 



A Submari.sk in Surf.xce Trim. 



The Three Circular Hatch Covers — Two Light and One Dark — Show 

 Wliere Rubber Gaskets .Are .Absolutely Necessary to the Safety of the 

 IJoat Submerged. 



into the water. Electric winches do a manifold service in help- 

 ing to coal ship and load the stores aboard. Electricity provides 

 the energy for the arc li.^hts in the tirerooms and engine-rooms, 

 and the many hundreds of incandescent lamps both inside and 

 outside of our men-of-war. Masthead lights, the running lights 

 and the red and white Ardois signals that flash out their mes- 

 sages from ship to ship when darkness falls are all electric. So, 

 too, are the powerfully inquisitive searchlights and the decora- 

 tive strings of glow lamps with which the naval ship is dressed 

 upon occasions of festivity. 



Hut these are not the only ways in which electricity serves a 

 valuable end in the fleet. There are dozens upon dozens of call- 

 bells, buzzers, gongs, etc., which facilitate exchange of signals 

 ard which tell of the presence of hidden fire and unwelcome 

 water, and announce just where these troublesome elements have 

 appeared. Battle ranges are tnmsmitted from the masthead sta- 

 tions to every fighting position below among the guns ; orders 

 and signals are exchanged between the fire and enginerooms and 

 the bridge, as well as from the commanding officer's fighting sta- 

 tion and every important division of the throbbing craft below 

 him. There are electrical revolution indicators, indicators show- 

 ing the angle of the rudder, the heel of the ship, the action of 

 tiic turret hoisls. and a log which registers the speed of the ves- 

 sel — also electrically controlled. But these means of communi- 

 cation and information are not all — one of our big battleships 

 has an installation of soniething like si.xty telephones. Some of 

 these are in positions which require that they shall be water- 

 tight. In this widespread use of electricity and the many, many 

 miles of connecting wires and cables, rubber is the prime in- 

 sulating material, and rubber also serves the further end of in- 

 suring water-tightness in some of these fields of service. 



Where hard rubber is used in connection either with construc- 

 tion or installations, the Government requires a very high insu- 

 lating property, and the material must be capable of standing a 

 live steam test for one hour without changing shape or form. 

 We must recognize that insulation aboard a man-of-war is a 

 far more serious problem in its relation to the life of the craft 

 than upon a merchant vessel. Quite apart from the dangers of 



electrolysis, a grounded current may lead to a short circuit in 

 the neighborhood of a magazine, and it requires no imagination 

 to picture the dire consequences of such a misfortune. It is to 

 guard against this, as well as the consequences of a bursting 

 steampipe or the flames of battle, that the Government is so ex- 

 acting in its specilications. Thus we see how india-rubb;r not 

 nidy contributes to electrical efliciency, but how it alfo safe 

 guards the fighting ship. 



Down in the sick-bay of our dreadnoughts we have a mmia- 

 ture duplicate of a modern hospital and its associate clinic. 

 Here we find rubber in the various forms which the surgeon and 

 the physician demand in their day's work as well as for the uses 

 to which the nurse also puts it in the treatment of his patients. 

 It would merely mean the recital of a long list to cover rubber 

 in its different forms as here employed. The dispensary of a 

 battleship is virtually a drug store on a small scale, and wc must 

 leave to the imagination of the reader what this means s'l far 

 as india-rubber is concerned. 



There are two things on a fighting ship wliich no commanding 

 nfficcr can look upon with equanimity — these are fire and dirt. 

 That the decks may be kept clean, there arc hundreds of feet of 

 hose, and at numerous places throughout the craft there are 

 ■ ither roils hung ready to quench a conflagration. But these 

 ire not the only ways in which rubber hosing is employed on 

 shipboard. Every fighting craft has one or more suits of rubber 

 'living dress and its associate air lines. The work cut out for 

 ,'hc divers calls for their service in examining the vessel's bot- 

 tom, stopping leaks from without and examining the propellers 

 and other under-water fittings as well as searching lor lost 



Xavv DivtR Preparing for L'xder-Water Work. 



anchors and torpedoes. The Government will accept nothing 

 but the best in the equipment of these rubber suit^. 



For the comfort of the sailor and the deck officers, there are 

 rubber boots and rubber rain clothes ; and when the weather is 



