Lighting, Ventilation and Interior Communication
The first problem was light. To solve this so as to be able to have battleship control, it was necessary to locate every light on its proper circuit. There are about fifteen thousand lights, controlled from eighty-one lighting or power stations and each station containing from eighty, the highest, to ten the lowest, local branch circuits, which in turn are supplied from seventy-six main circuit switches and these again from eight main switchboard feeder switches. When this lighting is distributed over fourteen decks, of which the main deck, at sea level, has an area of seventy-six thousand square feet, one may grasp the magnitude of the problem attempted by these men. This had to be completed without any wiring plans and without interfering with the ship’s repair work of other departments.
To crown it all, along came the wreckers. That is, the construction gang who stripped four decks of all room paneling. If it had not been for the alertness and co-operation of the electrical force, both civilian and enlisted, serious fires would have surely resulted. As it was, not a fire alarm was turned in during the entire reconstruction period, due to nothing else except the alertness of these loyal men.