"ARMSTRONG'S."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3163, 14 April 1909, Page 7

"ARMSTRONG'S."

An article of absorbing interest just now is "The Birth of a Battleship" in "Gassell's." It describes the work at the great shipyard of Armstrong, Whitworth and Co., on the Tyne, where our Dreadnought may be built. Armstrong's is really a town. There are over 25,000 men on the paysheet, and the workshops cover 250 acrea. Secrecy and efficiency are the main characteristics of the establishment. Great precautions are taken that no information of the designs of ships shall leak out from the designing offices. Everyman is, so> parcelled out that it is next to impossible for a foriegn agent to procure a complete design. A Case was mentioned to the writer in which £I,OOO was offered for a sketch that covered a sheet of notepaper. When the plan of a battles b p is completed to scale, it is.drawn to exact size on the floor of the moulding loft and | moulds are made from thin pieces of I wood, showing every detail, down to • the smallest rivet-hole. The moulds [ are then taken to pieces, and each ' piece of wood used as a guide in the ! building yard, where nearly 4,000 men are at work. Very fascinating is the account of the making of the •great 12in guns, whi-.h dominate the !' naval situation to-day. This weapon [is over 50ft long, weighs 70 tons j without its mountings, can send a projectile weighing half a ton through a wrought-iron plate 20in thick as if it were paper, has a range of twelve miles, costs £IO,OOO, and takes nearly a year to build. It consists of a forged tube surrounded by steel wire wrappings, in which steel jackets are shrunk. Man's mastery over immense weights is ever becomming greater. It used to take Armstrong's three months to take a pair of gwns and the barbette to pieces after testing and place them on a ship. Now the guns and barbette are picked up by a crane weighing 1,000 tons, lifted out of one shop, carried over another, and placed in the warship lying in the river. One may enter the huge showroom and purchase guns, from machine guns to 12in monsters, just as one buys a pound of steak in a butcher's shop.