A BACKGROUND OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 289, 4 September 1942, Page 4

A BACKGROUND OF THE WAR

Henry J. Kaiser MIRACLE-MAN OF WAR ENGINEERING Revolutionary methods of shipbuilding introduced by Mr. Henry J. Kaiser, the United States Pacific Coast contractor and industrialist, have brought remarkable reductions in the time taken to produce vitallyessential tonnage of cargo vessels for the United Nations. In the piping days of peace 100 days from keellaying to launching would have been looked upon as a miracle. Today vessels slide down the ways in Mr. Kaiser’s yards as early as 24 days after the keels have been laid, and he promises that this time will soon be reduced to 18 days. The story of this man is one of revolutionary engineering. Boulder Dam, at the time the world’s biggest hydroelectric undertaking, was completed by Mr. Kaiser and his associates in four years, two years less than the time provided by the United. States Government’s contract. Bonneville Dam, across the wide, deep channel of the swift Columbia River, was also his work, while last year he completed and dwarfed both these big undertakings with the huge Grand Coulee dam. Shipbuilding When the Japanese -attacked Pearl Harbour, all Mr. Kaiser knew of shipbuilding was the experience he had gained since December, 1940, when he signed his first contract for the building of 30 cargo vessels for the United States Government. Exactly one month later he began the construction of his first shipyards near San Francisco. After 85 working days, on April 14. he laid his first keel. Now he has five more yards, and was expected to deliver a ship a day during August. Speed of construction is achieved in his yards by prefabrication. Sections of ships—complete forepeaks, deckhouses, double bottom sections —are built separately and then swung into place by co-operating cranes. These sections weigh up to 100 tone apiece. Mr. Kaiser has based bis revolutionary changes on the hypothesis that to get speed of production and so cut down expensive manpower in construction it is necessary to provide “facilities” for the workers. One of his first constructional moves was to put rubber tyres on his wheelbarrows. Then his wheelbarrows grew up and were hitched behind caterpillar tractors, in which he was the first to install diesel engines. All his work'has not been confined to the United States. His biggest highway Job was a 300-mile road across Cuba, but he struck a snag in that it took the Cubans, loading gravel a cubic foot at a time, a week to pile up enough material for one day’s work of a Kaiser concrete-mixer. That deal didn’t show much profit.

Sidelines ■Mr. Kaiser is not satisfied with the construction side of engineering either. He is one of the world’s greatest gravel suppliers, lie has the world's biggest cement mill, he is on the way to be the United States’ biggest steel producer, and he is pioneering hugescale production of magnesium, a metal lighter, and in some alloys stronger, than aluminium. How he came into some of these projects is full of romance. When he had completed his three big dams, he tendered for a fourth—and lost it on a margin of 200,000 dollars in a 42,500,000-dollar contract. He immediately contracted to supply all the gravel needed-by his successful competitor, and, to dodge rail freight, set up an outdoor conveyer belt 10 miles long over the top of‘a mountain and across three highways. He tendered for the cement supply, too, though he was, at the time, not producing a hag of cement. He signed the contract in August, 1939, and on December 25 the same year delivered the first bag. Henry J. Kaiser, who is carrying out one-third of the United States’ shipbuilding programme, still talks of the “front end” of a ship, but he knows how to build it. His prefabricated ship parts move on trailers the size of ice-hockey rinks. They reach the ways with plumbing, electric wiring, binnacle, radio, and, galley stove already installed. Lifted into place they are swiftly welded into a complete whole.

Aerial Transport Now, with the suggestion that aerial transport may aid in combating the Axis attempt to cut . the United Nations’ world communications, Sir. Kaiser is to enter the realms of aircraft construction. True to his revolutionary ideas, he is proposing to use shipyard slipways for the job, for the craft he, with the co-operation of Major de Seversky, is to build will Tank among the giants of the air. The bottleneck Mr. Kaiser will first have to overcome is that of aluminium, for his construction contract specifies that the work must not be done with aluminium obtained at the expense of present aircraft work, for which aluminium is already in short supply. If he lives up to his reputation, Mr. Kaiser will find a way. He is the miracle man of modern engineering.