WARSHIP VENTILATION.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 249, 9 February 1917, Page 3 (Supplement)

WARSHIP VENTILATION.

Uno of tlu' most difficult problems m building a nioUcni battleship is to secure satisfactory ventilaton. A ship is suc-ii a complicated tiling, made up of so many stcei boxes, large and small, nor tlio accommodation of officers, men, coal, ammunition, and stores; dotted hero and there with .so many steel ladders, automatic lute, steel bulk-head--, and water-tight doors, varied here and there by miles of electric wires belonging to lights, telephones, bells, and motors, to say nothing of the endless mileage of p pes for flooding, ..draining, pumping fresh water, fresh air or compressed air, and speaking tubes. First in importance conies the ventilating of the boiler and engineroom«. When you Ik gin to think of the gangs of coal-black demons working away n tho bowels of the ship at a temperature of 120deg.: when, too, you commence to lealiso that unless the furnaces receive their required draught the speed of the battleship drops to below that of her sisters in tho squadron, you appreciate the importance of tTie steam-driven fans to the furnaces and boiler-rooms. Tho supply of air comes down through largo water-tight trunks which are continued right up to the weather deck, armoured gratings being provided at the protective deck.

For ventilating cng : nc rooms, largo electric fans are employed. So, too, tho coal bnkers have to ho ventilated, owing lo tho gas which the coal gives off. This gas. when mixed with air, forms an explosive; so, in order to prevent a pos% sibility of injury to men or sliip, a supply and an exhaust pipe are fitted in such a manner as to cause a current -;f n-ir.