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GR Mnias pies Bohn SEES eas Tp NC ‘gun was fully elevated. “munition Sa ee Bee ee ene SE gun is fired at angles of elevation above 15 degrees, a pit beneath the track is necessary to provide clear- ance for the recoil. Under these con- ditions, the weight of the car is transferred from the trucks by means of lifting jacks to a steel and timber foundation which, exclusive of the timber grillage, weighs approximately 25 tons, and iis erected with ithe aid of a special construction car equipped with a hand- -operated crane ‘capable of lifting 14,000 pounds. Excavation of approximately 103 cubic yards of earth is revived in erecting the foun- dation. “Lack | of power-driven auxiliaries presented difficulties in ramming home the 1400-pound shell so securely as to preclude its backing out when the These diffi- culties were overcome by the devel- opment of a shelll-loading device op- erated by hand. When firing, the ammunition car is coupled directly behind the gun car. Shells are car- ried from a trolley hoist in the am- ear to the breech of the gun on a tray, with rollers, running con a monorail track and pushed by a ‘crew. The ‘track is an structural shape supported on ped- estals in the gun car at such a height ‘that the shell in the tray is aligned approximately with the center of the gun. The tray is pushed by a crew along the track toward the gun breech. Wien the car has reached the forward end of the track its progress is checked by hydraulic buf- fers and the impetus that thas been given the shell serves to project it into its seat in the gun. HE final and indisputable criteria of the ordnance designer’s abil- ity to transmute into a perfectly func- tioning machine the powerful weapon of his imagination are the acid tests of ‘battle where the law of the ‘sur- vival of the fittest applies to ma- chines as welll as to men. While stories gileaned from the logs of these land battleships are yet to be made public, the meager press dis- patches during ‘the last few months preceding the signing of armistice told how these units of super-artil- lery hurled high-explosive shells into important centers of ‘concentration and transportation miles behind the first and second lines of the enemy, and hloow at Laon, at Soissons and finally at Sedan the orderly retreat of the Hun became a precipitous rout. These engagements on the western front fulfilled the utmost hopes of the naval officers and designers who conceived and built the 14-inch rail- way mounts; but the real vindication came immediately after the first bat- H-section | 102 | THE MARINE REVIEW tery had been completed. Only a few hours before the first gun car was to be pulled across the narrow neck of land which ties the point at Sandy Hook to the shore, the track spanning the neck was washed away by heavy waves from the sea not more than 50 yards distant. Bluejackets, who were to man the batteries in France, hastily replaced the rails on the soft sand bed and a locomotive with the gun car ran over the newly laid track and came to a stop on ‘the site selected for firing. The car with its locomotive had no sooner come to a standstill when the first shell fired from a 14inch railway battery went shrieking down the coast. The heavy gun car had proved iits ability to pass safely over the poorest of road beds; it had functioned prop- erly when fired on the tracks; and the designers knew its success on the battle front in France was assured. Boiler Scaling Dangers The following notice to shipmasters and marine engineers relative to pre- cautions in connection with the scal- ing of boilers connected boilers containing steam or hot water has been issued by the marine depart- ment of the board of trade (Eng- land): “Serious loss of life has occurred from time to time among men em- ployed in cleaning and scaling boilers -which are connected to other boilers -at work, either by accident or through negligence. The fatalities have generally oc- curred owing to the admission (a) of steam through the boiler stop valves and (b) of hot water through the blow-down valves or cocks or through the feed check valves. In a few instances, shocks of water-ham- mer have occurred when the steam pipe ranges were being drained of water, causing the fracture of the stop valve on the boiler being cleaned and admitting steam into the boiler with fatal results to those working inside. It is becoming the common practice on board ship for auxiliary boilers, or for main boilers which may be used as auxiliary boilers in port, to be scaled and cleaned while steam is in the other boilers, and it behooves en- gineers to take every care in order to safeguard from injury those who may be engaged working inside boil- ers. Under the conditions described above, reliance should not be placed on the fitting or on the tightness of nonreturn valves, as it has been found that, owing to the pulsating flow of the steam through the pipe range and to other: February, 1919 the consequent hammering of the nonreturn valves on their seats, they have become so badly worn in some instances as to be useless in a very short time. The following precautionary meas- ures should be taken when men are employed in boilers the pipe ranges of which are connected to other boilers at work: 1. All steam stop valves, feed check valves, blow-down and scum _ cocks or valves on the boiler in which men are at work should be locked in the “Shut” position in such a manner that they cannot be moved from that position. 2. When steam is about to be ad- mitted into pipe ranges connected to a boiler being cleaned, or when any of the other boilers, having their blow- down or scum pipes connected to that boiler, are about to be blown down, the men in the boiler being cleaned should be withdrawn _ there- from until it is seen that no steam or hot water is passing into it from the pipes into which steam or hot water has been admitted. Electric Propulsion The Snell system of electric propul- sion the possibilities of which are viewed with unrest in English ship- ping circles is to be used in particular for ships operating under such condi- tions that the time for loading and un- loading is considerably greater than the time during which the ship is un- der way. This applies in particular to cross-channel navigation. Instead of a complete set of machinery in each ship, the system provides one set of transferable power-producing machin- ery so constructed as to be attach- able to several independent hulls. Only propellers and electric motors, which form a small proportion of the total cost of machinery, are fixed in the hulls themselves and are connected during the voyage to “the power-pro- ducing machinery by electric cables. The hulls of the ships may be similar to those of ordinary cargo steamers, the space usually occupied by engine and boilers being available for cargo. The power-producing plant will con- sist preferably of. internal-combustion engines or high-speed turbines driving generators, the whole enclosed in a detachable structure of special design carried on the stern or amidship of the hull and: firmly attached thereto during the voyage. It is claimed that this system insures reasonable safety against torpedo attacks. Bee Ee ©