Page:The fairy tales of science.djvu/362

 What he did see might well excite his surprise. He saw the giant arm of Steam welding huge shafts, and punching inch-plates of iron as quickly and as noiselessly as a lady punches cardboard for a fancy-fair ornament. Steel, urged by the same potent genie, was seen showing its mastery over iron; while the huge lathes revolved, and the planing-machine steadily pursued its resistless course; whilst, in place of the shavings of the carpenter, long ringlets of a dull grey metal cumbered the ground. The ship-carpenter was transmuted into a brawny smith, and the civil engineer had taken the place of the marine architect.

The Leviathan is essentially an iron ship, more completely so perhaps than any vessel hitherto built. Iron plates, angle irons, and iron rivets form the sinews, muscles, and bones of this monster of the age of iron. The plates vary in thickness from half an inch to an inch; the rivets are about an inch in diameter, and it is these that hold the vast fabric together.

In fastening the plates, the mighty genie Heat lent his aid. When the holes in the plates to be held together had been brought into exact opposition, bolts at a white heat were one by one introduced, and firmly riveted whilst in that condition by three men, one holding the bolt in its position by placing a hammer against its head on the inside of the ship, whilst the other two with alternate blows produced the rivet-head on the outside. The rivets contracted