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84 Tae Marine REVIEW Standardization. cA Report on the Work Done by the En Tests for Materials Used in the C N OCTOBER, 1900, the secretary of this institution received a let- ter from the secretary of the British Iron Trade Association stating that, as the proposal contained in a paper read before the association by H. J. Skel- ton, a resolution had been unani- mously passed to the effect that it result of a was desirable a committee should be appointed to consider the whole ques- tion of standard and special sizes in The letter en- closed a copy of the resolution, and asked whether in the opinion of the Institution of Naval Architects such action would be expedient, and if the structural materials. institution would be ready to co-oper- ate therein. The reply of the council was in the affirmative as to the desira- bility of forming such a committee. As to their co-operation they added that their representatives "would more particularly be desired to see that nothing was countenanced which would be likely to unduly restrict the action of naval architects and marine engi- neers in designing and getting made such new forms and sections of ma- as wight be necessary here- In January, 1901, the Institu- tion of Civil Engineers (as the result terials after." of a motion in council by Sir John Wolfe Barry) appointed a committee to inquire into the advisability of standardizing rolled sections for struc- tural work, and, the three other prin- cipal technical societies having been their the institution appointed approached for support, council of this me to attend a meeting of the com- mittee on April 26, 1901. At. this meeting it was agreed that, before any final decision was taken, evidence should be obtained from steel makers, merchants, ship builders and_ engi- neers, and from representatives of the classification societies, which was done at a later date. _*Read at the spring meeting of-the Institu- tion of Naval Architects, March 31, 1909. gineering Standards Committee on Sections and onstruction of Ships and their Machinery." By Archibald Denny, Esq., Vice-President. The committee immediately recog- nized that it would be impossible. for them as a body todeal with the whole of the items which required standard-_ ization, although when we began work none of us foresaw the immense de- velopment which has since taken place. It--ts interesting, in looking back, to note that out of this small but thoroughly. representative com- mittee, which ultimately came to be known as the main committee on en- gineering standards, has grown an or- ganization embracing 39 various sec- tional committees and sub-committees, with a membership of approximately 300, which deals with interests that intimately affect practically every branch of engineering. : Sectional Material. | 'The first work to be tackled was naturally that pertaining to sectional material, and, as it was found that radically different sections would be necessary for ship building work, for bridge and building construction, and for railway rolling stock, three chair- men were appointed, with instructions to form sub-committees, care being taken that all interests were repre- sented. The three chairmen were: For bridge and building construction, Sir Benjamin Baker; 1or railway roll- ing stock, Sir Douglas Fox; and my- self for ship building materials. Our instructions were to formulate lists of sections suitable for each division, to keep in touch with each other, and finally submit a joint list if possible. My purpose is to present this paper as a species of report to the council and members of this institution of the work done by my committee, and to refer only in general terms to the work accomplished in standardization as a whole. - It was natural that there should be at the beginning considerable diverg- ence of opinion, and while every mem- ber recognized the dsirability of stand- ardization, all were not equally hope- ful as to its possibility. But a very few meetings sufficed to show that while difficult, standardization was possible, and with goodwill on the part of every member, the work pro- ceeded slowly but surely. The first thing done was to get into close touch with the. manufacturers, who gave every facility to the committee, sup- plied data as to the details of the vari- ous sections they manufactured, the practical reasons which governed the sizes and forms of the sections, and in short gave willingly that. workshop information without which there could have been no useful outcome to our labors. -I believe also that the collect- ing and collating of that information has not been without value to the manufacturers themselves. Variation in Profiles. It was found. that there were, very wide variations in the profiles between professedly similar sections made by different firms, not only in regard to the radii at the roots and corners, but in proportions of thickness to dimen- sions. The various .. practices. were plotted diagrammatically and a mean through them formed the basis for discussion,. and a method of. recon- ciling the differing interests of manu- facturers and users. a Taking now the different sections seriatim in regard to equal and un- equal angles, it was decided, after very careful consideration, to depart from the practice of tapering the flanges, and the committee recommended the adoption of the technically superior form of section having parallel flanges. They specified thicknesses at which practically correct profiles could be obtained and the range of thickness for each size, and they standardized the radii at root and' toe. For bulb tees, plates and . angles, Lloyd's already had sketches in their rules of bulb profiles, and these were practically adopted by my committee, but they made an important improve- ment in deciding that the standard web should be of the least thickness in proportion to its depth which was consistent with ease in rolling; that is to say, that the material should be arranged to obtain the best strength value possible without adding to man- ufacturing costs. At the same time, they took care that the standard sec- tion should be one in which there is sufficient material to provide a mat- gin for corrosion, an important ele-