May 2, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



419 



ing, New York, the Nonsol Glass manufactured 

 by Whitall, Tatum & Company at Milville, 

 New Jersey, the especially fine physical con- 

 trol of the Kimble Glass Company at Vine- 

 land, New Jersey, and the production of fine 

 special apparatus by Eimer & Amend of New 

 York City — all show what can be done in this 

 country in an emergency. If these conditions 

 continue to be fostered we may in time lead 

 the world in the production of scientific 

 tilings. Certainly interest in this subject is 

 growing and a movement is now on foot to 

 interest manufacturers, jobbers and buyers in 

 the possible publication of a journal devoted 

 to chemical apparatus. 



Undoubtedly the time will come, however, 

 when some qualifying clause should be em- 

 bodied in the tariff laws by which the defects 

 of the proposed high protective tariff laws 

 will be overcome, in order to assist especially 

 qualified men to procure from abroad articles 

 of great scientific merit though of little com- 

 mercial value, which of necessity must be 

 produced by the genius who devised the ap- 

 paratus or prepared the compound. Prob- 

 ably this clause would necessarily be admin- 

 istered by some committee of scientists ap- 

 pointed by the government. Whether these 

 defects to the proposed law are to be remedied 

 by allowing certain things to come in duty- 

 free as indicated, or by a system of bonuses 

 to scientific institutions or members using 

 material, is a debatable question. 



To sum up the whole matter, it would seem 

 to the authors that a method should be de- 

 vised whereby all essential scientific material 

 should be manufactured by the nation and 

 while a general protective duty will probably 

 be secured from Congress, it is our opinion 

 that care should be taken that no obstacle be 

 put in the way of the scientist doing con- 

 structive research. 



Thomas B. Freas, 



Department or Chemistry, 

 CiOLUMBiA University 



W. L. ESTABROOKE 



Department op Chemistry, 



College of the City or New York 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



THE USE OF REINFORCED CONCRETE IN 

 SHIPBUILDING 



Reinforced concrete was first used in making 

 a boat in France in 1849, but its use laa- 

 guished from 1849 until 1887 when a small 

 concrete boat was built in Holland. This boat 

 was first used by duck shooters on account of 

 its high stability, and in 1918 it was still in 

 use by a cement-products company in Amster- 

 dam. Italy, Germany and England next fell 

 in line, and a revival of concrete boat con- 

 struction in France took place in 1916. Con- 

 crete boats were constructed also in New 

 South Wales, Canada, China and Spain. 

 After the outbreak of the war, as her ships 

 were destroyed by submarines, Norway lost 

 no time in building concrete ships. At the 

 Fougner plant, at Moss, the Nannsiffiord, a 

 200-ton concrete cargo vessel was built and, 

 after a successful trial trip, engaged in traffic 

 between Norway and England and along the 

 Norwegian coast. This was practically the 

 pioneer seagoing self-propelled concrete ship. 



In 1918 the construction of two fleets of 

 concrete barges, each barge measuring 20 by 

 130 feet and of 550 tons capacity, was begun 

 at New Orleans, La., and at Seattle, Wash. 

 In 1918 the Faith, a concrete self-propelled 

 merchant vessel of 5,000 tons dead-weight 

 capacity, was launched at San Francisco, 

 Cal. 



In the stress to supply new ships reinforced 

 concrete was adopted as a building material 

 mainly for the following reasons: First, the 

 concrete materials required are easily ob- 

 tained, and the steel needed is employed in a 

 form and quantity which make no strain on 

 the rolling mills; second, the labor is leas 

 skilled and is recruited from a class totally 

 different from the ordinary shipyard labor, 

 so that the work does not increase the stress 

 on the existing shipyards; third, a concrete 

 ship costs no more than a steel ship and re- 

 quires less expenditure for its upkeep; fourth, 

 the time of construction is shorter. 



When these facts are coupled with three 

 considerations which make reinforced concrete 

 most valuable for shipbuilding there seem to 



