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Great Benefit To Shipbuilding

Great Benefit To Shipbuilding image
Parent Issue
Day
11
Month
September
Year
1903
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

GREAT BENEFIT TO SHIPBUILDING

Will Be the Experiments in Engineering Department

LARGE TANK BEING BUILT

For Testing Varying Forms of Ships at Various [Speeds] -- Results to be Published

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A great many people are in doubt as to just what use the tank on the east wing of the new engineering building will be put to. The tank, when completed, will be 22 feet wide, 800 feet long and 11 feet 6 inches deep with 10 feet of water. Along the sides of the tank is a curbing, which will tend to deaden the waves and also to support steel rails by which a track is formed for a little train to be propelled by electricity.

 

The tank will be for the use of the student in naval architecture and marine engineering. By means of it a thorough investigation of various forms of ships can be made. Upon the train a dynamometer of suitable size will be mounted and model ships from ten to twelve feet in length will be towed along the tank. Thus by means of the dynamometer the resistance of the model at the different speeds which the train makes and which can be varied at the will of the operator can be determined. By this the best form for any given set of conditions can be determined by the investigation carried on with a great variety of ship forms. Resides the dynamometer an apparatus for testing various types and designs of propellers will be placed.

 

Heretofore most of the experiments of this character have been carried on in government tanks and the results obtained have been kept more or less a secret. Here the tests in most cases will be published and the industry of ship building in the country will be benefited. The models used in the tank will be prepared from parafin wax as it is a material very easily handled. There will be a model room adjoining the tank where the work will be carried on. The boats at first will be roughly modeled and then will be cut the proper shape by machinery prepared for the purpose. When finished they will be very carefully measured that a reliable record of their exact form may be obtained.

 

It is expected that the new building will be ready for occupancy by the beginning of the second semester of the coming year. It is thought that the enrollment in the engineering department for the coming year will reach 800. The new building will be none too large to accommodate this number.