Ships of “Puffed Brick.”

Progress, Volume XV, Issue 2, 1 October 1919, Page 627

Ships of “Puffed Brick.”

Concrete shins seem unlikely enough, but how about ships built of brick? We hasten. to say, for the information of scoffers, that the bricks are not laid in mortar, but are pulverised and mixed with, cement. The result is a comnound vastly lighter than ordinary concrete, but employed in much the same wav.- Says a write’- in the “Scientific American” (New York, March 29th ) : “Two puffed-brick ships are soon to be launched at San Francisco. •Bricklayers are not. however, employed in building this peculiar type of boat because with the mortar used, a trowel-wielding labourer is not reonired. The ‘puffed-brick’ used is made, like ordinary brick, of a peculiar clay containing a low percentage of silica. Subjected to an intense heat, the’ brick puffs up like popcorn. Th« product looks something similar to coke and is about as light. Once puffed the bricks are ground to dust and mixed with cement . This process, it is claimed, makes for a gain of about forty per cent, in the lightness of the ship’s walls without losing any of its strength The ship’s forms, are built in standardised sections and are hinged with bolts so thev can be forced up and nut out of the wav when the concrete hardens. After launching, the forms are ouicklv put back into place, steel reinforcing rods installed, and the pouring of another ship can be begun. , According to experts in concrete -shipbuilding this svstem makes it possible to turn out a 7.500 ton vessel every three months, and only about twenty-five per cent, of the lumber in the forms is wasted. The first two shins built of this material at San Francisco, each 7,500 ton oil tanks, are ready to be launched.” Suitable, woods being scarce, a Paris firm claims to have been successful in making furniture out of reinforced concrete. The result is excellent. Almost any article can be made, and, whether desk, chair, or table, it looks like a highly lacquered piece of furniture. Moreover, it is not heavy. English manufacturers also have been experimenting, and at least one firm is opening a factory near London.