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en en nn ii a Inclined Engines for Small Passenger Vessels. Illustrations on this page represent the engines of a small passenger steamer recently constructed in Scotland for service on the Forth and Clyde canal. The boat, which is 63 feet long between perpendiculars with a beam of 14 feet anda draft of 4 feet, is very much like the numerous small wooden passenger steamers of similar dimensions in use throughout the lakes, and on this account a description of the engines, which were built by Messrs Hall, Brown Euttery & Co. of Govan, Glasgow, will prove interesting. The machinery, which is placed amidships, only occupies 11 feet 8 inches of the length of the vessel, the remainder being occupied by two cabins of good proportion. The passenger accommodation (231) is therefore very extensive for the size of the vessel. The engines are diagonal of the compound surface-condens- ing type. The cylinders are 8 inches and 16 inches in diameter, with a stroke of 12 inches. The diagonal type was adopted be- cause of the saving in fore and aft space, and the low center of gravity obtainable. All the bearings throughout the engines are of ample proportions. 'The crankshaft is of the built type, hav- ing balance weights forged and slotted with the crank checks. Both connecting rods are upon the same crank pin, the connect- ing rod bushes being of solid gun metal. The main bearing * MARINE REVIRFW. | 7 Time Ball Service at Chicago. George P. Blow, U. S. N., in charge of the branch hydro- graphic office at Chicago, announces that a complete time ball service has been successfully installed on the top of the Masonic Temple in that city. The outfit was designed, built and installed under the personal smpervision of Professor Gardner of the United States naval observatory, the inventor and originator of the naval observatory time service, and is considered the most complete and perfect in use anywhere in the world. The ball which is 4 feet 6 inches in diameter, is dropped from the top of a galvanized hollow steel mast, 30 feet above the dome of the building, and 332 feet above the ground, and can be seen with a glass from a distance of ten miles. 'The precision clocks, break-circuit chronometer, transmitting clocks, chronograph and electric key boards and batteries are all located in the United States branch hydrographic office on the sixteenth floor of the building, and are operated by the officer in charge. 'The ball is dropped precisely at noon, central time, (goth meridian) by an electric current controlled by a standard transmitting clock. The clock is corrected by daily comparisons with the standard naval observatory clock, by means of signals received over the Western Union Telegraph Company's wires and recorded upon the chronograph. By this method the clock's error will not ex- DIAGONAL COMPOUND SURFACE-CONDENSING ENGINES FOR SMALL PASSENGER STEAMER. bushes are of cast iron lined with bronze, and are adjustable both horizontally and vertically. A separate thrust-block of the horse- shoe type is provided, and, as shown on one of the engravings, is bolted to the aft end of the soleplate, thus causing the thrust of the screw to be distributed over the whole of the seat, The surface condenser is of the usual mercantile type, with the water circulating through solid drawn brass tubes packed at the ends by -means of screwed ferrules and cotton packing. The arrangement of the engine allows of the condenser being placed under the low pressure guide, so that a very short copper exhaust pipe serves to convey the steam from the cylinder to the condenser. The air, circulating, feed, and bilge pumps are placed at the back of the condenser, and are worked on a rocking shaft and levers op- erated, as shown on the engraving, by a link from a pin in the eccentric pulley. From the illustration it will be noted that the engine does not take up any more space than would be occupied by a non-condensing engine of the same type, and very much less fore and aft space than would be occupied by a vertical com- pound engine. The reversing gear is of the ordinary link motion type, one pair of eccentrics serving for both cylinders. A large donkey engine is provided for pumping out the bilge, washing decks and feeding the boiler. The boiler, which works at a pressure of 100 pounds per square inch, is of the vertical type. ceed one-tenth of a second, an error too small to be appreciated by the eye or recorded upon any instrument except the chrono- graph. \ Rapid Steam Making. Engineering of London, in a recent issue, describes a test of a Yarrow water tube boiler, in which the working pressure of 180 pounds of steam was reached in 22 minutes and 20 seconds after a match was put to the fire. The weight of the boiler, with water and all fittings, is 5 tons 7 cwt., and the makers have found, by previous tests, that it will evaporate 12,500 pounds of water per hour. With 16 pounds of water per indicated horse power per hour, which Mr. Yarrow takes as ordinary torpedo- boat practice, the power obtained by means of such a boiler would be 781 indicated horse power. 'The heating surface is 1027 feet, and the bar surface 20.6 square feet. The bars are 6 feet 6 inches long. In the Havock, a torpedo destroyer, there are two locomotive boilers, the weight of which, with water and fittings, is fifty-four tons, and the Havock's machinery developed 3400 indicated horse power on trial. The eight water-tube boilers of the Hornet, another destroyer, will weigh with water _ and fittings, forty-three tons. British charts of Lake Superior cover the entire north shore. $1.