There is also a large installation of special plant for the manufacture of water-tube boilers, but it is scarcely necessary to describe this in detail.
A large part of the boiler work, especially for warships, is galvanised, and a special department has been organised for this purpose. The tubes, in the first place, are thoroughly cleaned, then placed in a zinc bath, and coated by electrolysis to the desired extent; the object being to expose defects, as well as to protect the tubes from corrosion during manufacture. The amount of work done is, perhaps, the best indication of the equipment of this department, as well as of the water-tube department; and this will be realised when it is stated that over 24,000 tubes are required for the boilers of one cruiser, and that six months suffices for their construction.
It would be possible to give other indications of the splendid equipment of the Works, but enough has been said to show that there is directed towards the realisation of the best work in all departments—firstly, the advantages of accumulated experience, carefully collated throughout two hundred years; secondly, the benefits which the psychologists claim for hereditary influence—applicable here not only through the proprietors, but also through many of the workmen; and, thirdly, a sound progressive spirit, which recognises the necessity for continual improvement in administration and design, and in machine tools and methods of manufacture.
PRINTED AT THE BEDFORD PRESS, 20 AND 21, BEDFORDBURY, STRAND, LONDON, W.C.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] This date is incorrectly given as 1904 at the end of the third paragraph on page 66.
[2] Campbell's "Historical Sketches of the Town and Harbour of Greenock," vol. i., page 18.