No. I I.) Away out in Kokomo, Indiana, the GlobeAmericanCorp., a stove manufacturer, found itself faced with the prospect of either getting war contracts or going out of business. Through the farsightedness of the executives of the 5o-year-old concern, a changeover was made in plant facilities to make steel lifeboats, with which every oceangoing vessel is equipped, and in spite of the fact that the plant is Iooo miles from the Atlantic Ocean and 200o miles from the Pacific, the U. S. Maritime Commission considered the design submitted by Globe American as fine enough to be adopted as "standard equipment" for the first 312 Liberty cargo ships now being built. Previously, lifeboat design was not standardized, but had only to meet certain minimum specifications pertaining to size, material, air tank capacity, etc., as established by the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation. Globe American, anxious to get into war work, employed naval architects to design a new, improved steel boat, and through their pioneering efforts obtained a contract for I248 such boats. They will be identical in every respect and are constructed at the rate of one every 2 hr. The three plants are now working one eight hour shift a day. The rate of production can be increased I5o per cent. by working 24 hr. a day, high enough to provide enough lifeboat equipment for the launching of nine cargo vessels a day. In the shop, the boats are moved by a power conveyor along the production line from the time the keel is laid until the finished craft is loaded into the railroad car. The construction is entirely of steel except for wood floor boards, seats, mast, oars, and rudder, and when shipped the boats are completely equipped with clocks, releasing gear, oars, red sails, food and water, signaling and first aid equipment, can;cas covers, hood and weather cloths. There are four boats to each cargo ship, one of which is equipped with a built-in marine motor. Each boat seats 31 people, providing twice the capacity of a maximum crew of each vessel.
R. H. O.
World's Longest Underwater Natural Gas Pipeline.--(Manulecturers Record, Vol. I I I, No. 3.) United Gas Pipe Line Co. has finished its 2o4-mile natural gas pipe-line from the Lirette gas field