The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

ee ee ee eee ee ee Fl fil HE Portland Cement association, Chicago, is calling attention to the possibility of using reinforced con- crete in ship construction. In a prepared statement, the association points out that a San Francisco firm of engineers is designing a ship with a length of 330 feet, a beam of 44 feet, and a depth of 31 feet and a capacity of 4500 tons, to be built of reinforced concrete. A concrete schooner was employed for some years in the north Atlantic coast- ing trade, having been constructed in about 1898. The London Times men- tions a small boat of reinforced con- crete built by a Frenchman in 1849 and still in service after a test of 68 years. Feasibility of the Plan The concrete ship is only a further development of the concrete barge and such craft have been in successful use for years. Concrete lighters have been used for the past six years on Chesa- peake bay, supplying coal and water to dredges, carrying loads of sand and gravel, etc. The accompanying illus- tration of a 500-ton lighter on the ways just before launching is typical of their appearance. With such a craft there is no necessity for caulking or painting, the upkeep is small and there is no danger of decay. Barnacles will not collect on a concrete hull. A concrete barge has been in service on the Welland canal since 1910 and has seen very hard usage. It has a length of 80 feet, a beam of 24 feet and a depth of 7 feet. The walls which were constructed between forms are 2% inches thick, reinforced with steel rods, yet the barge is used for carrying loads of stone, etc., with conspicuous success. Since 1910 reinforced concrete barges have been built for use on the various sections of the Panama canal and their experience has enabled the en- gineers to develop an efficient type of vessel. Recently concrete pontoons were constructed for service as land- ing stages for boats A Snappy Summary of the Leading Events of the Month in the Vessel Construction Field up to 65 feet in length. have a length of 120 feet, a beam of 28 féet and are 8 feet deep. They are very thoroughly reinforced. Vessels which are more like ships than barges have been built of rein- forced concrete in Norway.- A report from the American consul general at Christiania describes a plant at Moss, Norway, where vessels of 3000-ton dis- placement are being constructed. The following quotations from the report indicate the extent of the work under way at that time: “The inventor of this new style of vessel is said to be M. Nicolai Fougner, an engineer, who claims to be able to construct a ship of any size demanded. He is now building a lighter for a mining company at Sydvaranger for the oversea export of iron ore and the import of coal. The vessel, having a displacement of 3000 tons, is to be ready before the end of the current year. It is stated that these concrete ships can be sailed or engined like other vessels, and experts consider that a new epoch in shipbuilding has ar- rived. : “The ship, which arrived in Chris- tiania last month, resembles a_ large barge, and is constructed entirely of concrete with the exception of the ribs, which are of steel... This new method of constructing ships has attracted much attention. The Swedish minister of marine, M. Brostrom, one of Sweden’s largest shipowners, immediately ordered a lighter of some thousand tons dis- placement, and he was present when the craft was launched at Moss. He was accompanied by four experts, all satisfaction Two of whom expressed much over the success of the project. 500 TON REINFORCED CONCRETE LIGHTER READY TO LAUNCH 291 These pontoons: Activities NIAAA ——nniiinninintvv((i}:iii‘v itt iitciiiitGhts, : ipbui U additional lighters are now on the stocks, and a large slip for a 4000-ton craft is nearly completed. More than 200 men are now working in the new yards, and five lighters have been con- tracted for in addition to the one completed and the two on the. slips.” Launch Big Tanker The Virernta, last of a fleet of four oil tank steamers constructed by the Fore River Shipbuilding Corp., Quincy, Mass., for the Texas Steamship Co., New York, was launched recently. Two of the fleet, the Texas and the New York, were completed last year and are now in_ service. The PENNSYLVANIA was launched two weeks earlier. Mrs. Joseph W. Powell, wife of the presi- dent of the Fore River company, ecard tened the new steamer. | The | Vircinta_ has two continuous steel decks, a raised forecastle, open bridge and poop decks, with a lower deck in the package freight hold for- ward. The hold is divided by oil-tight bulkheads into 16 main, oil-cargo tanks, 16 summer tanks, fuel oil tanks, two pump rooms .and a cargo hold, with machinery space aft, deep trimming tanks both forward and aft, and a double bottom under the engine and ‘boiler. The length over all is 432 feet, the vessel having a dead-weight carrying capacity of 9100 tons. The capacity of the main cargo oil tanks is 67,930 bar- rels and of the summer tanks 8634 bar- rels. Her fuel oil capacity is 10,450 barrels. The Vircrnta has been designed to carry various grades of refined oil with- out danger of mix- ture. _ The cargo pumping system has, therefore, been worked out to an unusually high point of efficiency neces- sitating the use of 12 pumps—eight for the cargo in the main tanks and four for handling the oil in the sum-