236 THE APPLICATION OF ELECTRIC WELDING 



all-welded ship. People familiar with the present state of the art agree that the time is ripe 

 for the project. 



Lloyd's Register, American Bureau of Shipping and other classification societies have 

 already authorized the use in this country of an enormous amount of arc welding. There are 

 thousands of authorized fittings on which arc welding can profitably be used by shipyards 

 to-day. Many of the unimportant structural members of a ship can be welded, and it seems 

 a sham^, in some ways, that welding has! not been further used in the shipyards. The ship- 

 yards have, of course, been working at war-time speed, and it is inadvisable to interrupt the 

 orderly course of their work. On the other hand, a saving of time and money by the use of 

 arc welding, where already authorized, and where no chances are taken in its use, would 

 certainly seem to warrant its immediate introduction. 



Its further introduction is limited by apparatus, perhaps, and the training of welders, 

 but above all by the training of the engineers I first spoke of. While we can train welders 

 in six weeks or three months, we cannot train the engineers in any such time, and the greatest 

 problem confronting the shipbuilders to-day is the training of the men higher up. 



Constructor Commander S. V. Goodall, Royal Navy, Member: — Mr. Cox is to be 

 congratulated on his paper; its interest is shown by the length of the discussion. I think, 

 too, that the registration societies, especially Lloyd's, are to be congratulated on their progres- 

 sive attitude towards the application of electric welding to ship construction. 



I would like to emphasize more particularly the remarks on page 212 of this paper and 

 to say that electric welding is already established as a valuable accessory to shipbuilding in 

 the manner described therein. In Great Britain electric welding has been found to be in- 

 valuable during the war. Ships that ordinarily would have been out of service for many 

 months have been repaired in a few days and have returned to the fleet. I have noticed with 

 regret, in many of the shipyards I have visited in this country, that welding as an accessory 

 to shipbuilding has not been adopted as extensively as it could be. I am sure that ship- 

 builders would find that a gain in time and cost would result from a greater application of 

 electric welding. 



With regard to the electrically welded ship, the policy of the British Admiralty, as the 

 result of some experience, is to proceed with caution. The Richborough Barge referred to 

 in this paper has done useful service successfully, but the plating of that vessel is com- 

 paratively thin, and it is with thicker plating' that difficulties have been experienced. 



The heaviest work so far done has been in the construction of what I might call a "false 

 side," which has been added to several battleships as additional precaution against torpedo 

 attack. The added structure was similar to that of an ordinary ship's side, the plating was 

 generally about one-half inch thick, and arc welding was employed to a considerable extent. 



These ships have been carefully watched on service, and the troubles that have arisen 

 have not been greater than might ordinarily be expected with such a drastic change in pro- 

 cedure. However', there have been troubles, and it is advisable that they should be known 

 and analyzed in order that, both in Great Britain and America, we may benefit by them. In 

 that respect. I should like to say, in passing, that the co-operation which has existed between 

 this country and Great Britain has been invaluable; in a letter only recently received from 

 England my chief expressed his appreciation of the mutual benefits resulting from an inter- 

 change of information on this subject, and I trust that after the war such co-operation will 

 be continued. 



