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8 MARINE REVIEW. In General. Under the title of " Where the Breakers Roar," S. H. Ferris writes in- terestingly about the United States life saving service in the September number of Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly. ; The twenty-third annual meeting of the National Board of Steam Navigation will be held in Cincinnati, Sept. 11. This organization is made up largely of owners of vessel property navigating the western rivers and the Atlantic coast. Charles F. Rand is now president and treasurer of the Aurora Iron Mining Company. Both Charles L. and Joseph L. Colby have resigned active positions in the management of the affairs of the company, although they are still members of the board of directors. On her last trip eastward, the big Cunard greyhound Campania again broke all previous Atlantic records by 3 hours and 18 minutes, making the run in 5 days, 9 hours and 29 minutes. The best previous record was that of the Lucania, made in October last, which was 5 days, 12 hours and 47 minutes. The Harlan & Hollingsworth Company, Wilmington, Del., has secured a contract from the Merchants' and Miners' Transportation Company of Baltimore to build for them another steamer that is to be 270 feet long, 67 feet beam and 34 feet deep, and intended for service between Balti- more and Boston. A history of Bath, Me., recently published, states that from 1781 to 1892, inclusive, there have been built in the district of Bath (the very great majority in the city) 897 ships, 858 barks and barkentines, 673 brigs, 1,352 schooners, 166 sloops, 96 steamers and 9 other vessels. This makes a grand total of 4,051 craft of various rigs, with a tonnage of 1,350,138. The cost of the vessels built up to 1890 only was $54,378,809. Secretary of War Lamont has decided that a canal is not a navigable waterway in the sense intended by the clause in a recent river and harbor act giving the war department control in the matter of constructing bridges over navigable waterways. The case was that of the Pennsylvania Company against the citizens of New Brunswick, N. J. The railway com- pany is about to erect a solid bridge over the Delaware and Raritan canal at that point. A table prepared by the Iron Trade Review, Cleveland, shows that during four years beginning with 1890 and for the first six months of 1894 there has been little variation in the proportion of the country's pig iron production contributed by the southern states of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Texas, West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, which were expected to be great rivals of the states using lake ores. The percentages of the total production credited to these states are: 1890, 19; 1891, 20.6; 1892, 20.6; 1893, 22; 1894, first half of year, 21.1. Water Tube Boilers in Fire Boats. 'Inquiry among the builders and engineers of the Clevelander, the new boat built for the Cleveland fire department, elicits the information that the use of water tube boilers in the boat is quite satisfactory and that they are especially adapted to the service required. About 100 pounds of steam is kept up all the time, and this is maintained even when all the pumping machinery isin use. Before the boat was hardly completed she was used at a seventeen-hour fire. With one pump the 3-inch nozzle was used to tear down the lumber piles, when eight 1 /-inch stream were used for the rest of the time. The steam produced and maintained was quite satisfactory. A Scotch boiler using river water for feed would get very dirty in a week's time, but the water tube boilers in the Clevelander had little or no sediment in them after beingin use five weeks. Although the Clevelander has been in operation at a number of small fires, she has not ~ had an opportunity since she was accepted by the department to show what she can do. Such an opportunity, barring the fire loss attending it, would please the firm of Thos. Manning, Jr., & Co. of Cleveland, builders of the boat, machinery and pumps, and would also be welcomed by the builders of the boilers, the Almy Water Tube Boiler Company of Provi- dence, R. I. Engines of the International Liner Kensington, The largest freight steamers in the world are the twin-screw steam- ers Kensington and Southwork, built recently on the other side for the International Navigation Company, which is closely associated with the old Inman and now the American line. These vessels are fitted with quadruple expansion engines and are in several other respects remark- able ships. Hither of them will carry, for instance, 10,600 tons of cargo and at the same time 120 cabin passengers, while the Atlantic greyhounds seldom carry more than 2,000 tons of cargo and perhaps 600 cabin passen- gers. The duration of voyage in the freight steamer is, of course, longer than that of the "flyers," probably by 30 per cent,, but the point to be determined is as to whether the capacity of the former will be more largely and more constantly utilized than the latter. But a description of the machinery of these boats is probably of most interest to readers of the REVIEW, and thisis affordedina late issue ndon, which illustrates and describes the engines lt by Messrs. James and George Thompson, Clyde- bank, Glasgow. They are of the quadruple expansion type, direct acting and surface condensing. The four cylinders each work a separate crank and they are so arranged as to produce the minimum of vibration, the parts being so disposed as to be practically balanced without the use of counterweights. The order of the cylinders from the forward end is high pressure, second intermediate pressure, first intermediate pressure, low pressure. The sequence of turning is high pressure, low pressure, second intermediate, first intermediate. Cranks are at right angles to each other. Diameters of cylinders are as follows: High pressure, 25% inches; first intermediate, 37% inches; second intermediate, 52% inches; low pressure, 74 inches, with acommon stroke of 4 feet 6 inches. The high pressure and the two intermediate pressure cylinders are each fitted with piston valves and the low pressure has a double-ported flat valve. All valves are worked by a single eccentric radial valve gear. It is operated by asingle eccentric through a quadrant rocking on trun- nions. The reversing is obtained by moving the sliding block attached to the valve spindle from one end of the quadrant to the other. The lap and lead is secured by a separate lever worked from the crosshead of the main engine. This arrangement of valve motion allows of the valves of the engine being placed at the back, thereby bringing the centers of the cylinders much closer together and economising space in the engine com- partment; and, of course adding to the cargo capacity in the ship. The total length of the engines is about 25 feet, which is much less than could be attained if the ordinary link gear had been used. The reversing gear is controlled by a Brown steam and hydraulic direct acting engine. In the construction of the engines cast steel was largely used. The shafting is of Siemens-Martin steel. The four cranks are each built up separately, and are interchangeable. The crank-shaft is 1434 inches in diameter, the thrust shaft 14 inches, and the tunnel shaft 14inches. The thrust blocks are of the ordinary horseshoe type, of white metal, and there are seven rings. The blades of the propeller are of manganese bronze, while: the boss is of cast steel. There are three blades to each propeller, the diameter being 17 feet, and the pitch 20 feet. The condenser is oblong, and supports the back of the cylinders. It is 19 feet long, of cast iron, and is fitted with brass tubes, the cooling sur- face being about 10,000 square feet. The condensing water to each con- denser is circulated by a large centrifugal pump driven by an independent engine. The air pumps are driven by alever working from the cross- head of the low pressure engine in the usual way. There is also fitted a large evaporator to produce the necessary fresh water from sea water to make up the feed, and to avoid the use of salt water in the boilers. A large feed heater and filtering arrangements are provided. An auxiliary condenser has, in addition, been fitted on board, with a separate circulat- ing pump, so that all the auxiliary machinery in the ship is worked sep- arately from the propelling engines. An installation of Worthington pumps has been fitted on board. There are three boilers in the ship, constructed of steel, and adapted for a working pressure of 200 pounds to the square inch. Two of the boilers are double-ended, and are 15 feet 9 inches in diameter by 21 feet 5 inches long, while the single-ended boiler is of the same diameter, but 11 feet 3inches long. There are four furnaces at each end, making twenty in all, each with a Purves flue. These are 3 feet 4 inches mean diameter, the length of fire bar being 5 feet 9 inches. The total heating surface is 12,176 square feet, and the grate area is 383 square feet. The boilers are fitted with Serve tubes 34% inches in diameter, with 134 inches spaces be- tween. There is fitted alsoasystem ofinduced draught. The boilers are in one compartment and exhaust into one chimney stack, which is 84 feet high from the grate level, and elliptical in plan, 14 feet by 9 feet. The fans are 7 feet 6 inches in diameter, and are driven direct by Sturte- vant engines running under ordinary conditions at a speed of 370 revolu- tions. The fans induce a draught through the furnaces, the air having previously been heated by passing through tubes placed in the way of the waste gases from the furnaces. The inlet of air to the furnaces is through tubes placed in a casing over the boiler, thence down a passage in front of the smoke box at the end of the boilers, and into the furnaces. The gases from the furnace, after passing through the boiler, play around the tubes forming the air inlet, and subsequently pass into the funnel, at the base of which are the five fans inducing draught through the passages thus briefly indicated. of Engineering of Lo of the Kensington, bui At the trials on the measured mile at Skelmorlie, the displacement of the vessel was 12,400 tons, the draught being, forward 21 feet 9 inches, aft 21 feet 7 inches and mean 21 feet 8inches. Six runs were made, the mean results being as follows: Steam pressure, 199.5 pounds per square inch; air pressure in stoke hold, 3.16 inches; revolutions, port engine, 86.4; revolutions, starboard engine, 86.9; indicated horse power, both en- gines, 8,313; vacuum, 27 inches; speed, 15.8 knots. The temperature at the base of the funnel was about 550 degrees Fahr. On her first trip to Philadelphia the speed averaged 14.1 knots, and on the homeward run 13.7 knots, the indicated horse power being about 7,000.