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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



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Photograph from U. S. Navy Department 



A CLASS IN ENGINEERING AFLOAT 



The navy as a training school in peace times is a great institution. It brings discipline to 

 the untrained and world views to the untraveled. It drives home the lesson of good citizen- 

 ship, creates respect for constituted authority, and fosters the improvement of head, hand, 

 and heart. A little world within itself, often for weeks with only sea and sky around and 

 above, the personnel of a modern battleship's crew develops an esprit de corps seldom equalled 

 on land. 



men from civil life, with the result that 

 in time of war the relations between the 

 naval doctor and the civilian doctor are 

 even closer than in time of peace. Many 

 of the special problems which the naval 

 doctor has to deal with are found in civil 

 life, and his knowledge and results are 

 available for their solution. 



For instance, not in the most crowded 

 portions of our most congested cities will 

 there be found so many souls living, 

 breathing, and having their being in a 

 given space as on a large naval vessel, 

 with its crew of more than one thousand. 

 Yet on battleships the health and comfort 

 of the crews are at a maximum. 



In the mechanical field, as already 

 indicated, the navy handles many prob- 

 lems whose solutions are of value in civil 

 life. At the Experimental Model Basin, 

 for instance, at the Washington Navy 



Yard, though devoted primarily to im- 

 proving the shapes and lines of naval 

 vessels, a large number of tests have been 

 made for private shipbuilding companies, 

 who have made free use of this plant in 

 the preparation of designs for merchant 

 vessels. 



There is a Navy Experiment Station 

 at Annapolis, with a mechanical and en- 

 gineering laboratory, and just before the 

 war began Congress authorized a large 

 research laboratory which, though pri- 

 marily for navy use, will, of course, give 

 much information on engineering sub- 

 jects generally. 



BY-PRODUCTS OE NAVAL ACTIVITIES 



As this partial summary indicates, the 

 navy as a by-product, so to speak, of its 

 regular work makes progress in the arts 

 and sciences which is of use (and made 



