The great ladle in the upper portion of this picture is filled with steel at the furnace. A traveling crane then takes it to the train of flat cars on which the molds stand and the steel is poured. After cooling, the molds are removed and the steel in the form of a “billet” is taken to the next process in manufacture.] [Illustration: GIRDLING THE EARTH WITH STEEL A steel beam, red-hot, drawn out 90 feet long in a huge steel mill in Pittsburgh. Steel rolled here may find its place as part of a skyscraper in the Babel of New York, be builded into the framework of a vessel in the shipyards of San Francisco, or help to construct a railroad into the heart of China. _Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y._] [Illustration: ARMOR PLATE FORGING PRESS The Bethlehem Steel Company installed this great hydraulic press to replace a 135-ton steam hammer, which was abandoned because the shock of its blow disturbed the alignment of the big machines in nearby shops. This press is the largest of its kind in the world, having a capacity of 15,000 tons, induced by pressure as much as 7,000 pounds per square inch in its two hydraulic cylinders of over 50-1/2 inches diameter.] [Illustration: MAKING ARMOR PLATE View of the armor plate machine shop at the Bethlehem Steel Company. The varied and complex machining required on armor plate demands tools of enormous size and strength as well as varied purpose. In this shop the different groups of armor are assembled in the position they will occupy on the vessel for which they are intended, and inspected before shipment.] [Illustration: _Courtesy of Bethlehem Steel Co._ FORGING One-piece, 90-degree, double-throw crank shaft for 5,400 H. P. gas engine. Diameter of shaft, 37 inches, with 10-inch hole. Length over all, 25 feet 5 inches. Crank webs, 16-3/8 inches thick, 6 feet 1-1/2 inches long, 4 feet 1 inch wide. Forged weight of shaft, 133,400 pounds. Finished weight, 83,855 pounds.] * * * * * We have always said “a white elephant” when we have meant something we didn’t know what to do with, since the King of Siam first sent a white elephant to a courtier whose fortune he wished to destroy. What do We Mean by “Deviation of the Compass”? When people speak of “deviation of the compass” they mean the difference of a ship’s compass from the magnetic meridian, caused by the near presence of iron. In iron ships the amount of deviation depends upon the direction, with regard to the magnetic meridian, in which the ship lay when being built. It is least when the ship has been built with her head south. Armor-plated ships should be plated with their head in a different direction from that in which they lay when built. The mode now generally employed to correct deviation is by introducing on board ship masses of iron and magnets to neutralize the action of the ship’s magnetism so far as possible.