Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

THE EQUIPMENT OF A MODERN SHIPYARD. 67 Great improvements have been made dur- ing recent years in shipyard machinery. The machine most Shipyard j • ,, , . , Machinery, used is tne punching and shear- ing machine, at one side of which, plates are cut or sheared to any required form, while at travelling gantries, or bridges, the supports or legs of which run on rails at the ground level. These gantries (see Fig. 1) are worked by hydraulic power, and at the top are fitted traversing and swing cranes for lifting the tending their full length, somewhat similar to those in the other establishments first referred to. Along the top travel cranes of the “ engin- eer ” type, while along the inside of the gantries are suspended a number of vertical jib cranes. Fig. 2.—A MULTIPLE DRILLING MACHINE (MESSRS. WILLIAM SELLERS AND COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA). Fig. 3.—a 130-ton sheer-legs at h.m. dockyard, Chatham, lifting test load of 180 TONS (MESSRS. DAY, SUMMERS, AND COMPANY, SOUTHAMPTON). plates, etc., into position. At the time of writing this article Messrs. Harland and Wolff have just completed the laying out of new berths for the building of the huge liners of which they make a speciality. These berths, however, are equipped with fixed gantries ex- the other side holes to take rivets are punched through plates or bars. Other items included in the equipment of a modern shipyard are— rolls for straightening and bending plates; planing machines for removing the rough edges of material after it has passed through the