FERRO-CONCRETE SHIPS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1711, 12 May 1917, Page 4

FERRO-CONCRETE SHIPS.

If wo AViini to build ships faster tiian the Gormans by any imaginable development of their barbarous methods can ever sink them, there is, we are assured by a Avell-known inventor, a perfectly simple Avay (says the London Observer). Keeently we referred to the launching in Norwegian waters of a ferroconcrete barge of a thousand tons and corrected the impression that it was the first “stone ship’’ ever floated. Many barges of similar dimensions made of ferro-conerete have been brought into ordinary use on the open sea as well as upon dilferent waterways. Pontoons, caissons, and even forts have been built of the same material. The forts have been finished, floated oui into position, and sunk on to, permanent, or semi-permanent, foundations, whilst the constructhm of ferroconcrete caissons is a commonplace of engineering.

Develop this idea, use instead of I'erro-conerete ferro-cement for greater strength and buoyancy, and you could, in the opinion of Mr .John Cameron Grant, an engineer and inventor whose patents are in use all over the world, build with astonishing rapidity ships of all sizes, froiq barges of a thousand tons, which could be towed right up to Rouen, to ocean-going liners and even Avarships. ’ “By using blended steel and cement,” Mr Grant; said recently, in an interview Avith a representative of the Observer, large ocean-going vessels could be constructed in Avhich the present riveted steel plating would not be needed, and the weight of the steel framing itself might be substantially reduced. After a considerable amount of time spent Avith my partner over the application of cement and ferro-cem-ent to quite another line of work, in which both great strength and extreme accuracy Avere required, avc got such a respect for its possibilities that I avus led to study them in the construction, or at least the plating or covering, of self-propel-led vessels.

Their construction presents no intrinsic or inherent difficulty. It is merely a question of organisation and careful supervision. The strength, buoyancy, rapidity of con-

•fraction as well ns the saving of steel plate, and the general economy, including the possibility even to the entire use of female labour, lend to the project sufficient merit, in my opinion, to call for immediate consideration. For <'ll practical puxposes ships built with ferro-cement would be at least its strong as those built entirely of steel. In fact, their shells become harder and stronger with age and immersion, and there is no comparison between the life of properly constructed fcrro-con-crete for ferro-cement and that of exposed steel. There are in use today, I believe, ferro-concrete boats that were constructed fifty or sixty veal’s ago, and they are reported to he still as good as new. Now is the moment,’’ Mr Grant added, “when, quickened hy necessity, we require imagination in construction to trump the German's ace. The use of ferro-concrete, at least as an addition to present methods, would, I am convinced, prove all, and more than all, that I have said."