SCIENCE SIFTINGS

New Zealand Tablet, 16 May 1918, Page 46

SCIENCE SIFTINGS

By “Volt.”

Science in New Zealand.

. “Possibly it is a fact of good omen for this Dominion that to-day the first and foremost scientist of the world in the field of foundry-work is a New Zealander, a chemist educated in our technical schools and University, whose name is worthy of being inscribed beside Rutherford’s on our yet scanty roll of fame—Dr. Mellor, whose colossal help towards ‘supplying Britain with an adequate output of munitions will surely be recognised by the nation in the near future,” remarks Mr. S. H. Jenkinson, concluding an article on “SteelCasting. Furnaces under New Zealand Conditions,” in the Journal Of Science.

Concrete Ships. The new era in shipbuilding heralded by the launching of the large new American concrete vessel. Faith, is apparently not destined to dawn in New Zealand during the war period (says the Auckland Herald). Enquiries made recently from authorities on shipping and concrete elicited the information that, providing proper plans were available, nothing stood in the way of turning out in normal times New Zealand concrete hulls equal to American or European hulls of similar material. “However,” said a gentleman prominently associated with the cement industry, “in addition to concrete there is a large quantity of steel used in the construction of a ship’s hull, and steel is an unprocurable commodity at present. Moreover, the necessary engines and other fittings would have to be imported, and, owing to the war, these are also unprocurable.” He added that small concrete vessels for service on canals had been in use for many years in Italy, and, perhaps, in other countries, but these vessels had been not more than 200 tons in weight, and were merely used as barges. He was of opinion that concrete ships had come to stay, though some variation from the original lines of the pioneer ship might be found necessary before the perfect type of concrete vessel was evolved. The cost of a concrete vessel, he said, would be little more than half that of a steel ship, and concrete hulls could be completed in about a third of the time it took to construct a wooden vessel. Owing to cheapness and rapidity of construction, as compared with other types of ships, the concrete vessel was apparently destined to prove a strong factor in solving the war-time shipping problem for the Allies. Reverting to the possibility of constructing concrete vessels in New Zealand, he said that by the time the shipbuilders of the Dominion would be in a position to undertake such a work, concrete ships would have been thoroughly tested in all respects. Small vessels for costal work, he considered might be built in New Zealand, but the importation of the large amount of steel necessary for reinforcing the hull, as well as the engines and other fittings, would always be more or less of a handicap in undertaking the construction of large vessels. On the other hand, we had in New Zealand concrete material equal to any in the world, and a solution for the steel and engine problem might be found in years to come.