The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

When Efficiency Became Known to the Navy, Many Instances of Uneconomical . “pes Practice Were Exposed—This Article Shows How Simple Changes Saved Money me a HE joker that wondered at I there were “three feet in the ““- Boston yard” might be sur- prised now to find that there are three, and, as in the other navy yards, hands and brains also, as will be shown by the following (the instances cited did not take place at Boston): ic: “leak <stopper’. 1s, a cylindrical cushion filled with cellulose. It has a hole through the axis through which is passed a steel rod with a hinged cross-piece at the end. By squeezing the cushion up against a hole in a ship, water is kept out. Three years ago a “live” naval constructor made a little investigation all by himself into the leak stopper question and made valuable discoveries. He dis- covered that large battleships carried ten boxes of leak stoppers, each box containing three stoppers; that they cost about $100 per box; patent had expired; that under no conceivable conditions could a_ ship use more than three boxes of stop- pers; that. they could be made in a navy yard for $20 a box. ‘The net result was that a ship could be sup- plied with all the leak stoppers it needed for $60 when it had been pay- ing $1,000. The navy department -is making use of this “discovery” which in 10 years should save $100,006. : The same man observed that each navy yard was buying some com- pressed oxygen for use: in ‘oxy-acety- lene welding and cutting, and making some at high cost which was stored Z Zz 4 rs ————} PLUGS FIG. 1—ORIGINAL DESIGN FOR BOAT that the FIG. 2—BOAT PLUG COSTING TWENTY ‘CENTS in. tanks at 300 pounds pressure. He conceived the idea of having the oxy- gen all made at one yard, where, on account of being made on a large scale, it could be made much more cheaply, and of storing it in tanks of 1,800 pounds pressure. The oxygen is shipped from this yard to the other yards as they need it. Shipment is facilitated by the:use of small tanks ‘which contain more. oxygen at high pressure than.the larger tanks at the low pressure. As the tanks become empty they are returned for refilling. This has resulted in a large saving. Kapok Saves $1,000 per Ship Rapok, which Strongly resembles ““cotton, is obtained from the pod of a tree that flourishes in the East; Indies, the best kapok coming from Java. Kapok has the distinction of being the most buoyant solid known, one pound of it having a bttoyancy of more than 20 pounds. This is about the buoyancy of a cork life jacket which weighs over seven pounds. Kapok, moreover, is of an oily nature repel- lant to vermin. It was therefore sug- gested as a filling for hammock mat- tresses for use on board ship. While every ship carried a large number of life preservers of cork they would usually be hard to find when it be- came necessary to abandon ship in a hurry. On the other hand when sub- marines attack, which is usually at night or in the early morning, when the sailors are in their hammocks they do not have to rub their dazed eyes at the abandon ship “Siren,” and try to remember where the life preservers ‘are stowed. Each man need merely ‘grab his mat- tress and jump overboard, each mattress having enough buoyancy to keep all but the heaviest completely out of the water. After two years of investigation, the navy. department has adopted the suggestion and now requires kapok mattresses, re- ducing the number of cork life pre- 374 ‘servers. This will result in a ‘Saving on each large ship of about $1,000. “Transportable Rifle Racks” are wooden boxes without top or ‘bottom, about four feet long by 16 inches wide - by 8 inches deep. Each box carries six rifles. Each large ship carries about 200 of these racks which are kept in the armory full of rifles ready for quick use. Each navy yard formerly made these racks in small numbers as required, the racks frequently costing $10.00 each, and seldom, if ever, under $5.00. By simplifying the design, by carefully planning the work, and by manufactur- ing in quantity at one yard for the whole navy racks now cost less than $1.50 each. - This. shows a saving on each large ship of as much as $1,700. A “Ditty Box” is a small wooden box about 10 inches by 12 inches by 9 inches. These boxes are provided by the government, one to each member of the crew of a ship. It is in this box that the sailorman locks all his love letters and his monogram “notepaper, ink, pen and photographs of loved ones or stage favorite. He uses it also as a desk’ to. write upon. Twelve years ago each yard made ditty boxes as required, made them of cherry, coated them thickly with varnish, polished them highly and invoiced them to the ships at $7.00 plus, per. After two months’ — use no one could tell that they had The manufacture of been varnished. FIG. DESIGN OF DRAIN 3—ORIGINAL BUCKET eB