TO SHIP CONSTRUCTION. 223 



ELCTRICALLY WELDED VESSELS. 



The first vessel to be electrically welded, so far as the w^riter is aware, was the 

 Dorothea M. Geary, a small launch 42 feet o inches by 1 1 feet o inches by 6 feet 6 

 inches, built by the Geary Boiler Works at Ashtabula Harbor, Ohio, in 19 15. The 

 shell, which is of 8 pounds plating, is electrically welded throughout, the joints being 

 butted and metallic arc bare electrode used. The frames and bar keel are riveted to 

 the shell. 



This little boat has been in service in the harbor since her completion, and no 

 signs of distress or leakage have yet been noticed in any of the welded joints. 



The Richborough Barge. — The barge recently completed at Richborough on 

 the southeast coast of England, and referred to in the daily press as "The first rivet- 

 less ship," has attracted widespread attention. The construction of this barge, 

 which is shown in Fig. 2, Plate 150, was the sequence to a long series of successful 

 tests on electrically welded joints carried out in England at the Admiralty dock- 

 yards and elsewhere, and will doubtless prove to be the stepping stone between the 

 laboratory test stage and an actual full-powered ocean-going steamer yet to be built. 



The barge in question is a non-propelled standard cross-channel trans- 

 port barge 125 feet between perpendiculars and 16 feet beam, with a displacement 

 of 275 tons. It differs in no way from the standard riveted type with lapped joints 

 excepting that the seams of shell plating are arranged clinker fashion and joggled 

 to permit of horizontal downward welding as much as possible. The hull is rectan- 

 gular in section amidship with only the bilge plates curved. The shell plates are J4 

 inch and 5/16 inch thick. 



It was erected in the ordinary manner with service bolts spaced from 10 inches 

 to 15 inches apart, and after the joints were welded the bolts were removed and pins 

 driven into the holes and welded up, as it was desired to complete the structure 

 entirely without rivets. 



Five welders of considerable experience were employed on the work, using the 

 "Quasi Arc" process with flux-covered electrodes. After a few initial difficulties 

 had been overcome, an average speed of welding of 7 feet per hour was maintained, 

 including overhead work which averaged from 3 to 6 feet an hour. Altogether there 

 were from 7,000 linear feet of welding and 3,066 holes to be filled, the total cost 

 of welding being made up as follows: — Electrodes, £178; current, £60; labor, £62, a 

 total of £300. It is anticipated that the large proportion of this amount, represented 

 by cost of electrodes, could be reduced by some . 60 per cent with an increased 

 output. 



Careful check was kept of the total cost and the total man-hours of work in- 

 volved, but a comparison with that of a similar riveted barge would be misleading, 

 since the welded vessel was purely an experimental demonstration and no attempt 

 was made to save material or to economize by the substitution of rivets in parts 

 where, this might have been cheaper or quicker than welding. Nevertheless it is es- 

 timated that 246 man-hours were saved over the riveted barge. 



