ordinary ship to permit of 



Top of stiftener 



r 



Weld groove 



Bottom of ships 

 shell casting 



692 



the thickness of the shell portion of the 

 castings for greater rigidity, but the greater 

 part will be eliminated, thereby reducing 

 the dead weight of the vessel to below that 

 of the ordinary fabricated type. Besides, 

 there will be no interstices between the 

 plates of the 

 corrosion. 

 The outer or 

 skin side of 

 the castings 

 in contact 

 with the wa- 

 ter will be 

 smoothed off 

 by means of 

 liquid cement 

 and finally 

 painted. 



According 

 to Mr. Hill's 

 plans, the 

 castings will 

 be made by 

 the machine 

 method of 

 block mold- 

 ing which 

 does not re- 

 quire any 

 great amount 

 of skilled 

 help and in 

 which the 

 casting loss 

 is said to be 

 only two and 

 one-half per 

 cent. Of 



course the 

 castings will 

 have ribs, as 

 required in 

 the molding 

 process, but 

 these ribs will 

 serve the 

 dual purpose of providing for the longitudi- 

 nal and transverse strength of the hull 

 itself. 



The inventor plans to weld the castings 

 together by the Wilson process in which 

 special V-shaped grooves along the welding 

 edges will be filled with a manganese alloy 

 by means of an electric arc across the end 

 of the alloy rod held by the welder, and the 

 casting itself. The method of keeping the 

 melting current uniform as secured by the 

 Wilson process is said to make it possible 



Popular Science Monthly 



for a joint to be made which has a strength 

 of one hundred and twenty-five per cent of 

 the casting itself or a joint actually stronger 

 than the parts joined. 



As Mr. Hill has laid out his plans, he 

 would have big foundry-shipyards at deep 

 water where castings could be made and 



then placed 



Rolled-steel double-bottom 

 ^"plates welded to tops of stiffeners 



Weld groove 



'^L= 



Stiffeners between 

 transverse castinos- 

 welded here 



J 



hs 



<*J 



I 



Water ballast or fuel oil 

 carried here 



A Longitudinal Cross-Sectional View 



This was taken in the double-bottom of the cast-iron ship looking toward 

 the centerline and showing the transverse I-beam members and the manner 

 in which the stiffeners cast integral with one I-beam section are welded 

 to those adjacent to it. Note also the lightening hole in the stiffeners 

 and the manner in which the rolled-steel plates are welded to the tops of 

 the stiffeners to provide a water-tight floor. It is also seen that the 

 bottom of each section forms the shell or hull of the ship with V-shaped 

 welding grooves at the ends of each section as shown. There are no inter- 

 Fuel oil or water ballast may be carried in the double-bottom 



/Transverse stiftener 

 or web . 



Ship's side 



Welding Grooves 



Looking Down on the Top of One of the Side Sections of the Ship 



This view shows two of the transverse stiffeners corresponding to the 

 ribs of a wooden vessel. Note also how each section is welded to that 

 adjacent to it, and the special V-shaped welding grooves in the ship's side. 

 These grooves will be rilled with a specially prepared manganese alloy 



directly on 

 the launch- 

 ing ways by 

 means of the 

 usual travel- 

 ing crane 

 outfits. After 

 the various 

 sections were 

 set up in or- 

 d e r and 

 welded to- 

 gether, the 

 ship could be 

 launched 

 and out- 

 fitted with 

 engines and 

 boilers ac- 

 cording to 

 present - day 

 practice . 

 The yards 

 would have 

 open-hearth 

 furnaces 

 capable of 

 turning out 

 five-hundred 

 thousand 

 tons of ships 

 a month. If 

 blast fur- 

 naces are to 

 be used until 

 the open- 

 hearth type 

 are ready, 

 the supply of 

 According to 

 one gang can 



pig iron can be drawn upon, 

 the inventor's further plans 

 build an open-hearth furnace in forty-five 

 days; two blast furnaces have just been 

 built by the Cambria Steel Co. in fifty-seven 

 days, the electric crane outfits can be built 

 in two months ; the launching ways in from 

 four to five months, and the welders and the 

 workmen trained to handle machine mold- 

 ing in from two to three months. The 

 plants could*be located at launching points 

 readily accessible to railways. 



