Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

BRITAIN AT WORK. machine. If it is not absolutely according to the drawing it will not rivet When it is fitted and screwed upon the frames the riveters come along and rivet plate to plate and frame, and after the riveter follows the tester, who “chalks” every rivet which is not perfectly driven ; these have to come out. Then the iron caulkers hammer the edges of the plates; and by-and-by the hull is watertight. Tanks, castings, and steel decks are treated similarly, and the joiners go aboard with the fittings that have accumulated in the flats. When a liner of any size reaches this stage of her construction, the number of men at work on her may be anywhere Photo ; Lafayette. A GREAT LINER NEARLY READY FOR LAUNCHING AT BELFAST. between 1,000 and 1,500. There is, of course, a limit to the staff which may be employed profitably on a single ship, but I have seen considerably over 1,000 at work on the Celtic without the slightest sign of overlapping. A great deal of the staging and some of the uprights are removed when the ship is wholly plated, and a little army of painters is set to work on the hull. The shipwrights effect further clearances below the bilges, and put down what are called “ standing ways.” Over these—with a liberal coating of tallow between, of course—are laid “ sliding ways,” and stout cradles are built under the ship forward and aft. Some time before the launch the wedges below the bilges are displaced, and the vessel, through the cradles, rests practically on the sliding ways. The means used to keep the sliding ways in these circumstances from acting up to their description vary in different districts. At Messrs. Harland and Wolff’s the practice is to hold the sliding ways by a hydraulic apparatus, from which the pressure is withdrawn when “ All clear ” is signalled. The ordinary method is, however, to let lengths of wood called “ daggers ” into niches in both standing and sliding ways, and to force them out by blows from heavy weights. That is what hap- pens when the lady who names the ship cuts the mystic cord or ribbon—she releases the weights, o Vessels are rarely in a hurry to leave the ways, and the first minute of their freedom represents a rather distressing time for their builders. Nearly all ways have a camber in them, to make progress along them easy, and a jack is used under the forefoot of a vessel to throw the weight gradually over it. The woodwork of the cradles creaks ominously as the pressure is applied, and then loud cheers greet the first movement of the huge mass of steel. It gathers way as it proceeds towards the water, and when the tide bears it all it is “ checked ”—brought slowly to a standstill, that is—by means of chains whose shore ends are anchored in the yard. Tug-boats, which have stood by all day, tow the new vessel to her fitting-out wharf,