Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 149, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 June 1915 — Foretelling Battleship Speed [ARTICLE]

Foretelling Battleship Speed

In a long, low building, down near the river in Washington, there is a man who plays with toy ships on a toy ocean. And as a result of his play, he can foretell exactly how the big battleships of the United States navy will behave in a storm at sea, and he can predict to a nicety how" much horsepower will be needed to drive the great transatlantic liners laden with their pasengers and freight. He does this before even the keels of the ships have been laid down. He is Lieutenant Commander D. W. Taylor, naval constructor in the United States navy, and the toy ocean on which he works is the United States experimental model basin. The sheet of water in the is five hundred maximum depth of fourteen feet. But, in this limited space, Commander Taylor, working with a wave maker, a dynamometer, a towing bridge, and other apparatus, can solve all the mechanical problems connected with the construction of a ship, its probable roll when struck by giant waves, and the horsepower needed in its tremendous engines to drive it through the water. He works with wooden models twenty feet long. Some of them weigh a thousand pounds, none of them more than two thousand. The other countries of the world use paraffine models, but he works entirely with the minature ships of wood. For this substitution there was a very good reason. In the summer time It is so hot in Washington that a model made out of even the best paraffine showed signs of melting. If it did not melt entirely, it changed its shape in ah alarming degree. One of the most important things in experimenting with the models is to be sure that in the beginning they have the exact lines and dimensions proportionately of the big ships, and that the lines and dimensions shall not change a hair’s breadth. The drawings and plans of the battleships to be built by Uncle Sam are turned over to Mr. Taylor by the navy department’s bureau of construction and repair. In a little shop adjoining the building which covers the model basin the models are made and pointed. Bags of shot, each weighing 25 pounds, are kept on hand to bring the model up to the corresponding weight of the big Bhlp. The final tests are made In the “toy ocean” near by.—The Popular Magazine.