The equally divided ship:

Where the Titanic erred…

Jayanthi Liyanage

Had the ship Titanic been built differently, would it not have sunk? Aruna Madurapperuma of Hingurala, Puwakpitiya in Avissawella thinks that it could have been saved from sinking by a method which he has ingeniously devised.

Aruna has invented a ship construction method which could reduce damage to water-borne vessels by at least 90 percent.

In this method, the keel of a ship is divided into equal sections.

This division must be right up to the level up to which the ship is submerged in water.

“If one section of the ship is damaged, only the damaged section will be filled with water,” explains Aruna. “The effect of the damage will be balanced out by the undamaged sections and the ship will not sink.

This method can be used in any water borne vessel.” He says that this design can avoid seven major disasters which could befall a sea or river borne vessel.

“If a middle section is damaged and filled with water, none of the other sections flanking the damaged section will feel any effect of destruction.”

The equally divided ship

Aruna invented this method of “the equally divided ship” in 2007 when terrorist activities were rife in the country. He obtained a patent for his method in December 2009. “The method is still in model stage,” said Aruna.

“It has not been used in any vessel. Many lives can be saved in this manner. If some responsible authority steps forward to help me develop this method, there is nothing I would like more.”

He is hopeful that he would receive a response in using this method to avoid disasters.

Aruna, who works as a container driver at Sea Consortium Ltd. based at the Ports, is not new to the field of invention.

Earlier, he invented a toothbrush which can be adjusted to fit the shape of one’s mouth. Another invention of his designed a method by which about ten cassettes could be stored and played in a vehicle radio player set.

He also created a spanner that could be used to fit cables in three wheelers and a plastic cover to shield a three wheeler driving seat from rain water.

Aruna has been featured on the TV program “Ata Pattama” with his “equally divided ship” and is hopeful that his creativity will not go unheeded by the Government and authorities who could make use of this method to reduce sinking disasters of water borne vessels.