Of Queen Elizabeth An entirely new method of increasing a ship's speed by reducing ihe friction set up by the passage of the hull through the water is being employed in the construction of the Queen Elizabeth, which is to be launched at John Brown and Co.'s yard, Clydenbank, on September 27 by the Queen, states the "Daily Telegraph and Morning Post."
It has long been known that the overlap of plates on the submerged part of the hull conduces to friction, the cumulative effect of hundreds of these blunt edges causing a perceptible braking action.
On the basis of scientific research it has been decided to "fai streamline, the plate edges with a new type of cement, so that the entire underbody will present a smooth Surface to the water when the ship is under way.
I understand that tank experiments with model ships streamlined on this bevelling principle show Aremarkable absence of friction ad eddy-making, both of which affe¢t speed, Work on the-Queen Elizabeth is well up to schedule, and the evi dences of steel plate shortage which I noticed on my previous visit are no longer visible.
22 Months on Stocks When the Queen Elizabeth is launched she will have been just Over.22 months on the stocks and will represent a deadweight of about 43,000 tons.
Officially her gross tonnage, which. being a cubic measurement, has nothing to do with total weight, is still given as 83,000 tons, but I have reason io believe that the final figure will be nearer 90,000, compared with the 81235 tons of the Queen Mary.
Preparations for the launch are well in hand. The Clyde Trustees are spending more than £70,000 on widening and dredging the river opposite the launching slip as well as at other places which the enormous vessel, 1032 ft. long, witl pass when she leaves her birthplace for the open sea in the spring of 1940.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.