The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 17, 1901, Page 8

THE SUNDAY CALL. Is e ILLIAM DE be put weeks time TP aps lttle longer. B re about the firm 3 h the r ns why » should be chosen by so keen a bus n as Sir Thomas Lipton in conjun with such a ful and well known designer as George not o seek. For years, many years, the firm of Wil- & Br ers has been known in the mercantile marine as one turning ut ships ordered of it in the most re- liable manner as regards high finish and strength. Its name in this respect has become & household word. To quote the words of a well known scientific paper, the En : “The shipyard of Mess ny & Brothers occuples tion among the shipbufl , both in regard to the extent of its Watson are Willlam Den- a prominent posi- resources, the amount of tonnage it pro- duces, the quality of its work and the scientific thoroughness of its methods. It i< perhaps the last named characteristic which gives th m its distinctive mark ntitles it to stand in the front rank shipbuilders.” ¥ what strikes a visitor he works, as I have been. Tt is doubt- Jefs exactly what struck Sir Thomas Lip- ton at the time he was looking around for & bullder »se works bear In every spot and cor- hem an impression of thorough- ness, of great conceptions, of united effort and concentrated engineering genius, to- gether with a perfection of organization which makes you ponder and wonder. Just think of it, some four to five thou- sand skiued workmen, ranging from engi- neers and designers down to the forge hammer tender and the riveter, all work. ing away, each as though some part of a :al whole—never a hitch, e hand among them. There miles of Decauville rallway, narrow gauge, laid down all over the yard for the expediting of material from one place to another. Donkey engines are puffing and hurrying to and fro with a feverish haste. Forges with great Nasmyth hammers all in a row beat vast masses of metal into mneeded shapes. Huge stores are here where anything can be furnished from & needle to a shaft for seven BDein A DAY IN THE GRFAT SHIP BUILDING: the largest ocsan steamship. the serew of 3 a steel ships for ocean trade iron ous at the docks. phone office is here with a counle f instru £0 that the firm ot only all over the m but fou don itself. ed ambulance room, a's> elanorate photograhic ay cpposite a meteors- s to me, of the Den. the belief of every lies in member of the firm tzat if you want a thing thoroughly good and well done you must look after it yourseif. Thus they have within their works not only ti means necessary for the bullding of hull and frame of the ship but also cf ai- most all the accessorics.. Would you be- lieve jt—and It is typweal of the fir that not only can it build ships of a size and forge the most complicated bent steel appliances and make most of its »ols, but it aleo has the means fir the necessary furniture for an Here is a characteristie’ rémark of one of the members of the firm mzde over ths heon table es, we make beds and en mattresses!” I loskkd somewhat as tonished and made sumé remark to that effect “Well, it's just this,’ sald he, with that taking Scotch burr so famillar to thoss who know the country mnorth of the Tweed: ‘“We prefer it. If we buy them how are we going to know what kind of stuff and workmanshiv {s put into them? Do you know there are many qualities of hair used in the stuffing of mattresses” How would we know what quality was put in?” This simple statemeni, made without any idea that it would ever be repcated, is the keynote of the who'e Denny busi- ness—the desire that everything leaving the firm should be irreproachable. This is the firm’s creed of 7aith and it 1s what has brought it such <reat success. The Dennys, therefore, try to do every- thing possible in the <hips they turn out, even to the interior de‘alls, on their own premises. That might well gound an m- possible task. How this 1s done may be explained by the fact that there is not one Denny, but many. of the famiiy. There seem to be Dennys in every cor- ner of Dumbarton and there is one com- mon characteristic about them—they are all hard workers an< they are all thor- oughly skilled in the various aepartments over which they preside. First, there is the shipyard firm. That is the senior business and is styled Wii- liam Denny & Brotners. Then comes, quite separate, the engine works, which is known by the name ¢f Denny & Co. Again, the forge works, known as the Dennystown Forge Company. The foun- dry trades under the rame of Measrs Hardie & Gordon. All these are entirely separate, but all are orgenized so as to work in together. And although separate concerns, partners cf the one m:y be partners of the other. The rartners in- clude Walter Brock, senior of all the firms; James Denny, Peter Denny, Colonel J. M. Denny, M. P.; Archibald Denny, John Ward, Henry W Brock, Robert B. Pope, Leslie Denny, Arthur D. Wedgwood. Arthur Wedgwood Jr. und Willlam Mayer, The managemenigof the shipbuflding firm is in the hands of Walter Brock, the yard is managed by Colonel J. M. Denny, M. P, Archibald Denny John Ward and Leslie Denny. The engine works are man- aged by James Denny, Peter Denny, Hen- ry W. Brock and R. B. Pope, and the foundry by Arthur D. Wedgwood and his son, Arthur Wedgwood Jr. With this is published a panoramic view of the shipbuflding yard, which will give an Idea of the vastness of the business of Denny Brothers. Far away to the left may be seen a slip. That is attached to the engineering works, whence may be seen coming out a curlous looking, rud- derless, double funneled, self-steering craft. bringing boilers across from there to the slip, where the huge crane is to be seen and which with ease lifts the largest boilers and deposits them in place in the ships moored up along the wharf. That curicus self-steering craft which is carrying over the boller is an invention of one of the workmen in the engineering firm. It is one of the principles in this vast business. where so many highly in- telligent artisans are employed, to en- courage in every way the individual in- ventive faculties of the employes. In this manner the Denny firm has become pos- sessed of large numbers of highly useful, practical inventions, which have been thought out by their artisans, some small, but others very important. For such in- ventions the workmen are pald according to the value of their particular invention. ‘While on the subject of the workman, it is interesting to know that the Denny firme believe most thoroughly in looking after their men. Most of their artisans arc encouraged in every way to own their STUDIO FOR STAINED GLASS AND PAINTED TILE WORK own houses, which are given them on easy terms of purchase. Rows of such houses can be seen in the second ground of the illustration. Perhaps one of the most Interesting of the many remarkable and striking in- stances of enterprise and the spending of money where money is needed on the part of the firm in what is known as the “experimental tank.” This highly prac- tical feature of the yard was constructed in 1852, and has cost roughly, from first to Jast, £20,000. It costs from £3000 to £4000 a vear to run it.' For the first five years the firm practically got no working information from it. These years were taken up in experiments with a series of models to get reliable data to work from, as there was none other available, and also In trying a large number of vessels in the tank for which it had data on measured mile trials. Without having past experience of the relation between the tank horsepower and the measured mile horsepower, there was no possibility of using the tank efficiently, and the cap- ital sunk was therefore large. But the firm is now satisfied that it was a wise expenditure, The tank proper is 300 feet long, 20 feet broad and the water in it is 10 feet deep— in all about 1300 tons of water. The avall- able yun for the model is 250 feet, and part of this, however, is absorbed in get- ting up speed and a part in slackening up at the end of the run. There is thus very little time at fast speeds for the taking of the necessary data; in fact, at the highest speed run in the tank, about eleven miles an hour, there is only about six seconds to get this, and provision has to be made for stopping the truck at the == Y5 end of the run by means of very powerful brakes. If you have ever visited the Washing- ton tank you will no doubt have noticed how elaborate these provisions are. The tank there is, however, longer than ours and the actual speeds they run are higher. The tank data is converted into ships’ data by use of Froude's law. This law, briefly stated, is that the wave making resistance of model and ship are propor- tional to their displacementat correspond- ing speeds. Corresponding speeds are as the root of the lengths; that is to say, if you had a model ..0 feet long and a ship 400 feet long, and you wished the ship to run at twenty knots, the model would be required to be run in the tank at ten knots. As one of the firm sald: “All the work Involved in the building of a ship is done inside our gates. We have departments for copper work, plumber work, uphol- stery work, painting, decorating and elec- tric ight, which in many establishments are let out to sub-contractors.” Perhaps the Denny annual tonnage— which varies considerably in all yards— may not be the highest on the Clyde, but the class of vessel is as a rule high, and probably the value of the work turned out is of the first rank. Twenty years ago the number of vessels the firm had built was 243, but to-day it totals up to 654, making 411 vessels turned out in that time, or an average of twenty per an- num. Deducting holidays, this means that the firm has turned out a vessel of some description every fourteen working days. Not a bad record. A few weeks ago occurred {he launching of the first important y: the Dennys "' YARDS AND DOCKS r built. My attention was called to tre ed whence that yacht wus launched under that same shed Sir Thomas ipton’s new challenger is being b come up of how she is t. the workmen only come are bound to secr not e ea to co fellow 1 is all ver: exaggerated. secrecy is observed is, an: kind of doubt . 8. Denny seek it. but special orders ta thut effect have been given by Sir Thomas Lt who bas said that this an ever will the mystery of cf his challenging yacht be con- Why, scme people cannot unc to know the feelings nial knight, explained ir Thomas was a great u e, and that he was perfectly at the more mystery there was attached to anything the mo; the interest the public would feel in it. And that is why he is thoroughly deter- mined to keep penpie wondering up to the very last moment. What 1 can tell you about the vacht Is small. Dennys don't brgathe a word about 1. \All that the visitor sees is the shed from which you see the yacht being launched in the accompanying picture. But—and it is a big but—the shed is not exactly the same as it appears in the pic- ture. Since the new challenger has been laid down that shed has been most care- fully boarded in, from roof to ground. and no one coming without special permit is - allowed to go inside the entrance doors. In order that necessary light may be had, great big windows have been cut In the roof of the shed. The men work just in the usual manner and the busy sound from within tells that they are working hard. The frame furnace shed is also very Interesting. Not less than two and a half acres are roofed in for this pur- pose and theré all the newest ma- chinery is to be found for every purpose of plate making. The engineering department is a really wonderful institution to visit. There you can see at one time what may be called the vitals of entire ships, standing up completed and ready to be placed as soon as the hulls are in a condition to receive them. It strikes one almost with awe to see such vast and complicated machinery attached and adjusted with all the accu- racy of clockwork. It is there that in brief space, Jf you have the luck to have one of the Denny brothers with you—as 1 had—you will learn more about ergines and furnaces and boilers than you have known in all your life before. It is an engineer's paradise. All about are the most modern machines for riveting, which have so lightened what used to be such a laborious task when done by hand alone. In the shipbuilding yard, and. by the way, no photographcr and camera have recently been allowed in here, you will see ships in all stages of progress, and, what is curlous, some being bullt from above instead of In the usual way. Of late years I think that some of the Sreatest triumphs of the Depny firm huve onstructed YARD OF WILLIAM DENNY AND BROTHERS 'CLYDE COL. JIM DENNY I'1P amn In the ships t well known the me 1L, bou t e for that serv d sh She s 240x38 carryieg a ¢ A ther Oster argo boats and e Dover-Ostend have also built the Pri and the Prine Jor also built for the P. steamers, for the Au the Allan line 11, for the Compagnie Transatlantique 11, for the [ n Steam- ship Company of New Zeal 3, and so on. The probability which now seems ta loom u is that the Dennys w taks their share In yacht building In the fu- ture, which up to now has not fallen to their lot. Yacht owners, one would im- agine, are just as anxious to have fine work put into their boats as any passen= ger company can be, and thus they will turn their eyes toward Dumbarton and Denny Brothers. Forward is the Denny idea, and at the present moment the firm is engaged In putting in and equipping its yard with electrical driving plant and pneumatio riveting plant, being the first firm In Great Britain to do so. I think there is much In the work turned out by the Dennys, and its thor- oughness, owing to the extraordinarily ood, terms which the firm makes a point ol being on with its hands. As an In- stance of the manner in which master and man agree for mutual benefit, thers is the standing instance of the year of 18%5, when the trade depression was so great. During that pericd the workmen voluntarily offered to accept reduced Wages in order to enable the firm to build ships on the chance of seiling them when completed, and in that way keep their works going when no orders were forth- coming. For the men there Is a joint scheme for giving edmpensation for men injured by accident, and thus the annoyances of lawsuits and the consequent ill feeling are avoided. compensation without appeal to the law courts. This is known throughout the trade, and so it is that the very best men and rising talent among the skilled labor- ers are always anxious to get into their employ. It is somewhat like the condi- tion existing at Ratsey & Lapthorp’s, the famous sailmakers, where members of the same families serve from generation to generation. The town of Dumbarton is also in many ways a large debtor to the name of .Denny—to begin with, for the gift of a splendid public park, provided with a band and other attractions, where the people can find rational amusement in. stead of being driven Into the publie house for want of something bette; a3 s 80 often the case, oo ek to do, 4 The men receive adequate \)