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MARINE REVIEW. 9 CHICAGO LAKE INTERESTS. WESTERN OFFICE, MARINE REVIEW, t No. 13 Western Union Building, CHICAGO, IIl., Jan. 5. When 1892 came toa close the Chicago custom house had its statistics ready to hand out. Collector Clark and his force are entitled to great credit for the promptness of their work, which became doubly valuable on account of this very promptness. Little of the statistics was published in Chicago papers. The REVIEW gives some important factsfrom the compilation. During 1892 there were received at Chicago 6,686,373 packages of mer- chandise, 1,443,104 M feet lumber, 2,089,347 railroad ties and 1,336,882 tons of anthracite coal. 'There was shipped during the same time from Chicago 2,- 457 ,844 barrels flour, 1,913,091 packages of merchandise, 91,751 sacks of grass seed and 5,718,916 bushels of flax seed. These figures only give information for a few of the more important commodities, the report being received too late for complete condensation. During the season 91,084,042 bushels of grain of all kinds were shipped from Chicago, being divided as follows: Wheat 29,- 504,990 bushels, corn 41,246,948 bushels, oats, 18,392,274 bushels, rye 595,051 bushels and barley 1,344,779 bushels. In the district of Chicago, including Chicago, South Chicago and Michigan City, there were 10,556 arrivals of ves- sels having a tonnage of 5,996,626 tons, and the clearances from the district numbered 10,567, the tonnage amounting to 5,968,337 tons. From South Chi- cago 3,392,713 bushels of grain of different kinds were shipped, and 1,333,119 tons of iron ore and 122,900 tons of anthracite coal were received. These art- icles are also given as they represent the more important traflic of the port. C. A. Macdonald, the underwriter, is in New York, and is said to be ne- gotiating with the American Shipmasters' Association to inspect and classify lake boats for the underwriters. It is reported that the association has offered to do the work for $12,000. Itis stated that the last Inland Lloyds has been printed. One underwriter, however, said Tuesday, 'Don't go too fast. Every- thing may be straightened out yet."' The steambarge D. W. Powers left for Sheboygan Wednesday in tow of the tug Welcome. The Powers was bought last fall by the Shores Lumber Company of Ashland. She is now to be thoroughly overhauled and partially rebuilt. Little repair work is being done here, but the yards at Milwaukee, Sheboygan and Manitowoc, are reported to be full of work. Engineering Congress at the World's Fair. As announced a short time ago, Commodore George W. Melville, engineer-in-chief of the navy, who is secretary of the division of marine and naval engineering of the World's Fair Congress, has already begun the work of securing papers and making other arrangements for this branch of the congress. This, is, however, only one of seven divisions of the great edu- cational gathering to take place in Chicago this year from Mon- day, July 31, to Saturday, August 5. With the aid of the more important engineering societies of America, a strong committee has been formed for the purpose of making all the necessary arrangements, and it is intended to " secure papers from leading engineers on their special branches of engineering science. It is intended, as far as possible, to have the papers printed early, so that copies can be obtained, though not for publication, by those desiring to take part in the discus- sions which are to be held on the papers. 'The latter are to be read in abstract only, which will save valuable time for the dis- cussions. Papers on new and important constructions, machines and processes, experiments and investigations, will be welcomed from all, but such papers will only be accepted for reading on the advice of the officers in charge of the arrangements for that particular division of engineering to which the paper relates. All the papers will be published in English; those in other lan- guages, if accepted, will be translated, but discussions may be in French, Spanish or German, as well as in English, interpre- ters being provided when necessary. Formal invitations to par- ticipate in the congress will be issued to all the leading engineers of the world. 'The entire proceedings of the congress will be published, and copies sold at cost price to engineers who may subscribe for them. At the close of the congress a number of excursions will be made to points of engineering interest, the details of which have not yet been settled. To facilitate the work, the congress has been divided into seven divisions. The names of the secretaries of these divisions are given below, and to them all inquiries, etc., should be addressed: Division A, civil engineering, Secretary Mr. F. Collingwood, 127 East T'wen- ty-third street, New York; division B, mechanical engineering, Secretary Mr. F. R. Hutton, 12 West Thirty-first street, New York; divisions C and D, mining and metalurgical engineering, Secretary R. W. Raymond, 13 Burling Slip, New York; division BE, engineering education, Secretary I. O. Baker, University of Illinois, Champaign, Ill.; division F, military engineering, Secretary Clifton Comly, Governor's Island, New York harbor; division G, marine and naval engineering, Secretary G. W Melville, engineer-in-chief, United States Navy, Washington,D. C. Powerful Fire Boat. Baltimore has a fire boat fitted with tubulous boilers, fire pumps of special design and other improved equipment. Eastern marine exchanges tell of the wonderful performance of the boat at the big cotton fire in that city a short time ago. The walls of the warehouse where the fire broke out were from 18 to 23 inches thick, and, as all shutters and doors were of iron, the boat abso- lutely knoked a hole through the solid masonry some 5 or 6 feet wide by ten or twelve feet deep, then maintaining constant streams for more than fifty hours upon the apparently in- extinguishable mass. 'The boat's hull, machinery and engines were constructed in Baltimore, her fire pumps by Thos. Manning, Jr.,& Co. of Cleveland and her boilers by the Cowles Engineer- ing Company, South Brooklyn. She has two ot the Cowles water tube boilers, and was designed and superintended in her construction by Wm. Cowles, constructing engineer and naval architect and president of the Cowles Eugineering Company, who has received very complimentary letters in regard to her performance on this occasion. Cleveland builders of the pumps are further complimented by the following letter: MARYLAND CLUB. } Baltimore, Md., January 2, 1893. My Dear Mr. Manning: I feel that I owe you an apology for not writing to you sooner, and telling you of the magnificent re- sults we obtained from your pumps at a large cotton fire here recently. Captain Lindsay tells me he has written to you, and has given you the figures, so that it is not necessary for me to go into details, but it gives me great pleasure to add, on the part of the commissioners, that nothing could have been more satistac- tory than the action of the pumps you built for us. The con- tinuous service of 158 hours is, in our opinion, as severe a test as can be made. The pumps show, up to the present time, no distress whatever, and it is most gratifying to me to be able to assure you that we are more than satisfied with them. I remain, yours sincerely, GEORGE May, Commissioner. More Work for Wheeler. The closing of three new contracts by F. W. Wheeler & Co., West Bay City, Mich., gives that yard more work than any other on thelakes. 'he contract with John Francombe and others of Detroit is for 190-foot schooner, 34 feet beam and 14 feet deep, to tow with the steamer Stafford. 'The second contract is for a schooner 250 feet long, 41 feet beam and 18 feet deep and is for Capt. Wm. Forbes, of Port Huron, Mich. She will have four spars and full rig. This contract knocks out the statement that no more craft of that class would be built on the lakes. The third contract is for a Saginaw river fire tug, 60 feet long, to take the place of the one at present in that service. In General. One of the two new cargo-carrying g.0o00-ton steamers for the Inman Line will be built by Messrs. W. Denny & Bros., Dumbarton, and the other by Messrs. G. & J. Thompson, Clyde- bank. Contracts have also been placed with another Clyde firm for two steamers of 8,000 tons each, intended for trading pur- poses betweeu Liverpool and Philadelphia. One of the original iron steamboats, the Richard Stockton, built by the Harlan & Hollingsworth Company forty-one years ago, is still doing good service. At least four American wooden ships might be named which have been in the trade about half a century, including the Columbia, formerly of the Black Ball Line to Europe, which was built by William H. Webb in 1841. The advantage of twin screws for steamers are so many and so manifest that they promise to supercede the single screw en- tirely. 'The cost is so much greater just now that.only the finer class of boats will be fitted with twin screws, but the difference in cost will be somewhat lessened in time, and the saving gained in the end will far more than equalize any addition of expense.-- Maritime Register. We sre glad to see that the question between Col. Ludlow, corps of engineers, and the light-house board, is to be submitted to a court of inquiry. We do not doubt that the result will be favorable to Col. Ludlow. His restoration to duty in his old position may or may not follow, but this is of less consequence than that he should be relieved of the charge of insubordination brought against him by some members of the light-house board. --Army and Navy Journal.