STANDARDIZATION AS AFFECTING THE SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY IN 
THE UNITED STATES. 
By E. H. Rice, Esg., MemBer or Councit. 
[Read at the thirtieth general meeting of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, held in 
New York, November 8 and 9, 1922.] 
During the last two decades there have been many converts to standardization; it has 
made stronger headway in fields other than shipbuilding, and there is almost no one today 
who will deny the value of the general principle. It is when you come to apply it to con- 
crete cases that difficulties arise. Without standardization, shipbuilding, as we knew it dur- 
ing the war, would have been impossible; the question is therefore on the extent to which it 
shall be carried rather than on whether or not standardization shall be adopted. 
Engineering standards have been a recognized necessity for many years, though it is only 
comparatively recently that they have reached their present status and extent in the engineer- 
ing world. 
We are partly taken care of in shipbuilding standardization by such bodies as the Fed- 
eral Bureau of Standards, the American Bureau of Shipping, the U. S. Steamboat Inspec- 
tion Service, the American Society for Testing Materials, the American Engineering Stand- 
ards Committee, also the Treasury and Navy Departments. The Navy Department is men- 
tioned here last merely because this paper mainly deals with merchant shipping. On navy 
work, navy standards are naturally paramount, and their influence also extends into merchant 
work in yards doing both kinds. Owing to the service conditions under which warships op- 
erate, these standards are generally more exacting than those governing merchantmen. 
Apart from the well-known and long-established classification societies, there is a rela- 
tively new body of this nature that bears on our business to a considerable extent, namely, 
the British Engineering Standards Association, whose work in standardizing specifications 
for structural materials, products and fittings entering into ship construction is decidedly 
more far reaching than anything we have; however, as noted above, we are by no means 
without similar bodies. 
Standardization is a large subject. The deeper one gets into it the larger the possibili- 
ties, and, as would be expected, the more impressive the difficulties. 
A paper on this subject read before the North East Coast Institution of Engineers and 
Shipbuilders by Mr. C. leMaistre, secretary of the British Engineering Standards Associa- 
tion, in March of this year, is both interesting and informative. One among many interest- 
ing points brought out is to the effect that standardization has reduced steel costs of produc- 
tion by at least 5 shillings (nominally $1.25) per ton; such points effectually nailed down 
as proven will do more than many sermons to convert the skeptical. A study of this paper 
will well repay those interested and will also show the standing which standardization has al- 
ready attained in shipbuilding abroad. 
An extremely interesting test of the value placed on standards is to ask one of our 
yards to build a vessel using Whitworth standard screw threads throughout. It looks fairly 
