ANOTHER WONDER.

Taihape Daily Times, 26 September 1918, Page 6

ANOTHER WONDER.

FIRST RIVETLESS VESSEL. Syren and Shipping reports that the first steel vessel built without rivets has just been launched somewhere on the south coast of England. The vessel was built in a shipyard operated by the Inland Waterways and Docks Section of the Royal Engineers and as her production industry, it is satisfactory that the initial experiment has taken place in this country. Instead of rivetting, and caulking the plates, they are joined together temporarily by bolts and that'the joint" is' then? submitted to .local heat by means of an electric arc, so that the two plates are fused together. Though the process itself is not new, as certain auxiliary work on ships has been done by electric welding in the past, considerable developments have been made in the last 12 months and this is the first time that a vessel has been produced entirely by.the new method. Its general adoption would speed up production, more particularly in the assembly of bulkheads, deck structures, fitting arid' other interior work. It is computed from the results obtained on this experimental vessel and other Admiralty work that a saving of 20 per cent, or possibly 25 per cent, could be effected in both time and material. The United States Shipping Board has been in close touch with this experimental work, with the result that arrangements are in hand for the manufacture of a number of 10,000 ton standard ships, in the production of which "riveters" will "become "welders."