Admiral CONE. It is different in different yards and under different circumstances.

Mr. WITHERSPOON. Give us some approximate idea.

Admiral CONE. The general overhead charges at the New York yard where we have built battleships, in the case of the Florida, for instance, under the Bureau of Steam Engineering, that is what we call overhead charges, leaving out these two items that we were speaking of, the salaries of officers and the pay of technical men, was $192,000, and under Construction and Repair it was $743,000, and under Bureau of Equipment, $28,000.

The CHAIRMAN. And those overhead charges were all charged to the appropriation?

Admiral CONE. Yes, sir.

Mr. WITHERSPOON. How much did the Utah cost, including overhead charges and everything?

Admiral CONE. We have no way of knowing what the Utah cost, because she was constructed by private builders.

Mr. WITHERSPOON. Then, take the Florida.

Admiral CONE. We know exactly what the Florida cost. She cost $6,286,143, and the limit of cost was $6,400,000.

Mr. WITHERSPOON. That does not include equipping the vessel. I want to ascertain what the ship just as she stands in the water cost?

Admiral CONE. We would have to add the armor and armament. I do not know what that cost.

Mr. WITHERSPOON. Could you approximate it?
Admiral CONE. I could secure that.

Mr. WITHERSPOON. Please put it in the hearing.

what one of these big battleships costs.

Admiral CONE. The Florida cost $10,190,235.

clerks and technical men are really small.

Mr. GREGG. You ask for $450,000?

I want to know

The charges for

Admiral CONE. That is for all the Navy, in the department, in the yards, in the inspection offices, and all over the country.

Mr. CREGG. You do not know how much to charge up to each particular vessel ?

Admiral CONE. Under our system we inspect all of the material that goes into the battleship that we are building or the builder is building. We employ out of this $450,000, technical men in Pennsylvania and Chio and all around the country to inspect the material to see that it is manufactured in accordance with the specifications. Really coming right down to the fact, if possible, that ought to be charged in to the cost of the ship, but there is no practicable way of fixing the charges, because the same people inspect material for general Navy use in addition to that for new ships, and it would add greatly to our expense to try to accurately apportion this expense to each appropriation.

Mr. GREGG. When a relative statement is prepared as to the cost of construction by the Government and by purchase, are not all of those items included?

Admiral CONE. No, sir. They should be added just the same to the one constructed by the Government as by the builder.

Mr. GREGG. We have to have the extra technical services for designing when building ourselves?

Admiral C'ONE. Yes, sir.

Mr. GREGG. Is that extra expense included in making the statement; Admiral CONE. It is included in some of the statements that have been made as to the total cost of the Florida.

Mr. GREGG. As to the relative cost?

Admiral CONE. Yes, sir; all items are taken in; some of the items are estimated, such as officers' salaries.

Mr. WITHERSPOON. When you insert the statement about the Florida, can you furnish a statement as to the cost of the four battleships which are about 20 years old-I do not remember the namesI would like to know what the four cost?

Admiral CONE. I will furnish that information.

Approximate increased cost of new type ship over old type, $3,275,000.

November, 1895..
June, 1896.

$5,983, 371.98

6,047, 117.95

May, 1900..

4,998, 119.43

October, 1900..

4,665, 820.22

21,694, 429.58

5,423,607.39

8,059,719.62 8,517,587.99

April, 1910.
.do..
August, 1911.

September, 1911..

8,019,771. 69 10, 190, 235.00

34,787,314.30

8,696, 828.58

The CHAIRMAN. The next item is "Engineering experiment station, United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Md.," and I notice that you are asking for an increase from $40,000 to $60,000?

Admiral CONE. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Please tell us about that.

Admiral CONE. I am asking for that increase not because we can not run the experiment station with the $40,000 that we now have, but because I believe that if you will allow the $20,000 additional, we can improve our practices and designs of machinery enough to pay the $20,000 several times over. I think that the experiment station is now at a point where it is really a valuable instrument in the hands of the Bureau of Steam Engineering.

The CHAIRMAN. Please tell us what work you are doing.

Admiral CONE. One example of the saving of money due to some research work there is in connection with the transmission of heat. In recent years due to experiments we have cut down the cooling surface of the condensers about 40 per cent, and the heating surface of the heaters about 50 per cent.

Mr. HOBSON. The main condensers?

Admiral CONE. Yes, sir; and also the feed heaters and distillers. It saves many thousands of dollars.

Mr. HOBSON. Fifty per cent?

Admiral CONE. Yes, sir. We are now buying packings, etc., at about 35 cents a pound, whereas before we undertook the investigation of the packing business we were paying $1.275 a pound.

Mr. OBSON. Do I understand that the condenser will now only have to be about half the surface?

Admiral CONE. Yes, sir. Within the last few years we have been cutting down the size of condensers.

Mr. HOBSON. Are the condensers in other services reduced?

Admiral CONE. Yes; they have been. We had no definite information on this whole question of the transmission of heat. We were guided, as you doubtless know, by so many square feet of surface per horsepower. We started at the experiment station to actually ascertain in the case of heaters just how we could arrange the different speed and flow of the water and the direction and flow of the heating medium to obtain the maximum rate of heat transmission.

Mr. HOBSON. Fifty per cent?

Admiral CONE. Yes, sir; and in the case of some feed heaters more than that.

Mr. HOBSON. That would pay for the maintenance of that station for 50 years?

Admiral CONE. Yes, sir. One reason why I have a balance this year is because we conducted there for three years experiments as to boiler corrosion which, I think, everybody knows is a very serious and expensive matter, and we found that we were wrong in our theory of the cause and we have introduced a practice in connection with the boilers since then which we hope will make the boilers last at least three times as long as before.

Mr. HOBSON. Three times as long?

Admiral CONE. Yes, sir. That alone would pay for the cost many times over. Our boiler tubes in some cases have given out inside of five or six years, and while we have not been carrying this experiment on long enough to tell just what we will accomplish, we feel sure that we have arrested to a large extent the corrosion of the boiler tubes, and if we can arrest it entirely it will mean a great saving. Those are only a very few of the things. There is absolutely no question that any money spent in these days in research work in engineering is well spent.

Mr. BATHRICK. Have your experiments been along the line of preventing the scale also?

Admiral CONE. Our experiments have been along the line of keeping the boiler water at such a chemical state as to prevent pitting and the formation of scale, and we have found, or think we have found, that the corrosion in boilers is due almost entirely to the electrolytic action that takes place within the boiler. We supposed for years that by the introduction of some soda or alkali, keeping the boiler water neutral or a little alkaline, would prevent this, but we find on investigation——

Mr. BATES (interposing). Do you use muriatic acid or anything to overcome that?

Admiral CONE. We found on investigation, after going into it for three years, that the practice of using a small amount of soda or alkali, which we were doing, was not sufficient, and that water of moderate alkaline strengths will corrode a boiler faster than pure distilled water, but if you give it sufficient alkali it will completely stop the electrolytic action between the water and the metal.

In the introduction of alkali in water soda seems to be the cheapestand most convenient form, but when we put in enough soda to arrest.

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this corrosion we are confronted with a priming or foaming, and the water goes into the steam and goes over to the engine, and so we had to introduce something into this soda to stop the foaming, which we found to be some phosphate compound and tannin, and we put in enough of those to arrest the foaming. In addition to that we get a considerable amount of grease in the boiler. It has always been easy to cut the grease with soda or alkali, but that forms a soap, and the soap rests on the heating surface and prevents the heat from getting through to the water. So we had to get some constituent that would dissolve this soap. By going through the whole list of things we found that these same phosphates and tannic acid derived from cutch, or mangrove bark, would accomplish this. We have not done this all by ourselves, but we have been helped by chemists and engineers all over the country, and we got our original ideas from men who manufacture these things. We were paying for commercial compound as high as 22 cents, and I think more in some cases. It is now costing us about 3 cents because we have been able to make it ourselves. Putting in different proportions has enabled us to ascertain that the compound does not prevent it entirely, but it has undoubtedly improved the conditions tremendously. This compound will keep the water alkaline and at the same time will prevent foaming to a certain extent, not as much as we would like, and will keep the grease and soap in solution so that it does not rest on the surface.

Mr. HOBSON. What do you finally do in order to get rid of it; does it finally become precipitate?

Admiral CONE. No; we try to keep it in solution and then blow it out of the boiler. The great difficulty in marine practice with boilers is one which you do not have. on shore at all, it is the introduction of salt water. The introduction of the sea water into boilers producers not only salts but certain acids which make a very good electrolite, or solution inducing electrical activities.

As you further doubtless know, we exhaust our steam into a condenser, condense it, and use that water over again, condensing the steam with salt water from the outside. If there are leaks between the salt water and the fresh water side we are bound to get salt water into the boilers. It has been found to be a physical impossibility not to get salt water into the boilers. Of course, we prevent that as far as we can.

Those are just a few of the activities of the station. We have gone a long way in the investigation and improvement of the quality of oil that we use for lubrication. The money you gave us last year or the year before for the finishing of the extension of the boiler house will help us to solve a good many of the problems as to the burning and handling of liquid fuel. We have also solved a good many of the small troubles in the operation of turbines by experiments and investigation. We are testing continually all the time all sorts of mechanical appliances. We have tested a number of pumps of different makes to determine which is the best and most efficient pump. We have tested a large number of safety valves to ascertain what safety valves could be built that would answer the purposes at high pressures and temperatures. We have tested a number of valves for the Panama Canal Commission, and we are just beginning to undertake the test of safety valves for the Interstate

Commerce Commission, locomotive safety valves. The only thing that limits us is the size of the plant and the amount of money available.

The CHAIRMAN. Do the Panama Canal Commission and the Interstate Commerce Commission reimburse you for the testing done for them?

Admiral CONE. We charge for every test we make, except for those that we make for ourselves, and any manufacturer who has anything he wants tested has to pay for the full test. We could not begin to touch that work with this appropriation.

Mr. BATHRICK. Have you been paying any attention to coaling at sea?

Admiral CONE. No, sir; that does not come under me at all.
Mr. BATHRICK. That is a pretty big problem?

Admiral CONE. Yes, sir; a very big problem. I know that the Navy has experimented with it at different times, but I do not know what the results have been.

Mr. BATHRICK. What bureau is doing anything in that line?

Admiral CONE. Admiral Watt, the Bureau of Construction and Repair.

The CHAIRMAN. That is, loading coal from the colliers to the ships?
Admiral CONE. Yes, sir; at sea.

Mr. BATHRICK. That is practically impossible now, is it not?
Admiral CONE. Some say it is and some say it is not.
Mr. BATHRICK. At any rate, they are not doing it?

Admiral CONE. They are not doing it much; no, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. I see you have a new item, "Equipment of building: For extension of steam, air, and water lines, and electric circuit; for foundations for machinery, etc.; for Diesel type alternating current generating set; for purchase and installation of addition condensing apparatus for steam turbines, $26,000?"

Admiral CONE. Yes, sir.

Mr. GREGG. Is that a new item?

Admiral CONE. Yes, sir. This additional item is simply for equipping the plant at the experiment station. We wish the Diesel engine because it is desired to get as many different types of machinery in the plant as possible. Of course, the plant can run along without the additional equipment, but I think it is worth the money.

Mr. HOBSON. Have you any definite plan in regard to the equipping of the station?

Admiral CONE. Yes, sir; and this is a continuation of that plan. A couple of years ago we got some money for the installation of boiler power, and this is to continue the equipment of the present building.

Mr. GREGG. It is a part of the extension of the plant?

Admiral CONE. This is really not an extension of the plant; it is to finish the equipment of the present plant. I suppose in the future my successors will be here for an extension; I would if I stayed here, undoubtedly.

Mr. HOBSON. But you have a plan toward which you are working Admiral CONE. Yes, sir. Of course, the plan is changing from time to time as practices change.

The CHAIRMAN. The whole project is a new one?