154 SESSION OF FRIDAY AFTERNOON, DECEMBER 12, 1913. 



FOURTH SESSION. -- 



Friday, December 12, 1913. 



Vice-President McFarland called the meeting to order at 2.20 o'clock. 



The Chairman : — Before going on with the reading of the papers, let me say that the 

 Council has held a meeting and passed on the applications for membership of three per- 

 sons. The Council recommends the election of these gentlemen to the respective grades men- 

 tioned. The Secretary will announce the names of the applicants. 



The Secretary announced the following names: — 



Members (2) 



Frederic R. Harris, Civil Engineer, U. S. Navy, Navy Yard, New York, N. Y. 

 James Montgomerie, Surveyor, Lloyd's Register, 17 Battery Place, New York, N. Y. 



Junior (1) 

 Angel C. Hidalgo, Lieutenant, Ecuadorean Navy, P. O. Box 36, Philadelphia, Pa. 



The Chairman : — These applicants are recommended for election by the Council. You 

 have heard the names. Those in favor of electing these gentlemen to the grades for which 

 they have applied, and whose election is recommended by the Council, say Aye; opposed. 

 No. These gentlemen are duly elected. 



We will now go on with the reading of the papers, and we will take up paper No. 15, 

 "Notes on Chain Cables," by Assistant Naval Constructor John E. Otterson, U. S. Navy. 



Mr. Otterson then read the abstract of his paper, after which he said : — 

 "The history of large chain cables dates back a little more than a hundred years, and 

 during that time but little advance has been made in the process of manufacture, so that the 

 large bulk of the high-grade chain cable to-day is made exactly in the same manner as it 

 was made here one hundred years ago, namely, by the hand process. That is largely due 

 to the fact that the hand-made chain to-day is better than machine-made chains. In the 

 manufacture of cables at present we have got to the limit of hand work, we have reached 

 the limit of the size of cable which can be economically made by hand work, and as the size 

 goes up it will be necessary to do a part or all of the operations of making chain cables by 

 machines. 



"Because of the fact that we are looking ahead to the manufacture of sizes of cable 

 larger than three inches, experiments have been made at the Boston Yard to develop a ma- 

 chine process. I have made some sketches indicating the steps in the manufacture of chain 

 links." 



