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MARINE REVINW. 13 In General, The Jackson & Sharp Co. of Wilmington, Del., has just launched a freight steamer 150 feet long for the Commonwealth Transportation Co. of Philadelphia. Machinery will be furnished by Neafie & Levy of Philadelphia. The Elsa, a small steamer from Sandusky, is now in Chicago pre- paring for a trip via the Mississippi to Central America for service on the Gulf of Mexico. The boat will get new steeple compound condens- ing engines in Chicago and will also be provided with Worthington air and circulating pump, Lunkenheimer steam fittings, ete. It would seem that there must be some gross carelessness attending the large number of accidents that have befallen big war vessels like the costly battleship Texas, which was sunk at a dock in the Brooklyn navy yard a few days ago. Accidents of this kind are rare on mer- chant ships, as it is well known that the result would be a wholesale discharge of officers and men who were in any way responsible for the loss. At the sixth annual meeting of the American Society of Mechan- ical Engineers in New York recently, Mr. Albert Kingsbury, Dur- ham, N. H., presented a paper in which some important points with reference to graphite as a lubricant were brought out. Reports of tests made on a specially designed machine with lard oil, mineral oil, oil and graphite, etc., showed a great lessening of friction by means of graphite. The Joseph Dixon Crucible Co. of Jersey City, N. J., has prepared a small circular that deals with these tests. It will be sent to any address upon application. "'Tn time past," says the Louisville Courier Journal, "nearly every boat on the Ohio river carried a pet of some kind, in the shape of an animal, asa sort of emblem of good luck. One would carry a dog, another a hog, another a goat and so on, and many boats of the pres- ent day continue the practice. One of the Cincinnati packets carries a pair of fine, fat porkers, which were born on the boat and raised by the deck hands giving them milk from bottles. They often go ashore at way landings when the boat is taking on freight, and are the first to get aboard as soon as the bell rings to leave."' Fuel Cost of 8% cents per Mile. Mr. T. C. Burrows, chief engineer of the steamer Marquette, owned by John W. Moore and others of Cleveland, is elated over the success of the Howden draft in his boat. In a letter to Mr. C. B. Calder, sup- erintendent of the Dry Dock Engine Works, Detroit, he says: "I write to give you a few points in regard to the working of the steamer Marquette. Since your company compounded the engines, and fur- nished the new boiler fitted with the Howden system of draft, we are making twelve turns more per minute than we made before, an in- crease of one mile an hour in speed, and we are using less than half the amount of coal previously used. Weare using slack coal, and ata cost of $1.60 per ton. We have been running for 8} cents per mile for the round trip. After using the Howden system of draft for four months, I can say that in my judgment it is a great success. It gives very little trouble, and furnishes you with a convenient and effective means to handle your steam pressure. And another of its features is, that while lying in port with a banked fire, it takes very little aes and as long as we keep a bank we always have steam. But I ihinte I will have to give the magnesia covering credit for that. The engine works very satisfactorily, although I could suggest some improvements if I was asked to do so."' A Rare Admission from England. The European press, and amongst them, we are sorry to see, many English papers, have effected to laugh at the idea of American warships forcing the Dardanelles. Ignoring for the moment the politi- cal aspect of the question, we would ask: "Have not those who scoff lost sight of the fact that the American navy is daily becoming a greater power than they care to acknowledge?" Itis barely two years ago since an American firm asked, in all good faith, to be al- lowed to compete for the construction of British warships, a request which raised a storm of ridicule in our papers; and now, almost before the merriment has ceased, the same firm with another concern in America haye about closed contracts to build two 7,000. ton cruisers for the Japanese government, vessels which, be it noted, will have to be completed in as short a time as any English firm would care to under- take delivery i in. The American navy may be a small one today, but we who speak the English tongue ought to be the last to undervalue the marvelous potentiality of a nation which entered upon the great struggle of 1860 with a mere handful of men only to leave off four years later with armed forces whose numbers alone caused the whole world surprise. As with her men, so it may be with'her ships, should the requirement for them ever arise--a requirement which, as a kind- red nation, we pray may never come.--Shipping World, London. For Good Eating's Sake. The unique systenr described herewith has been adopted by a railroad company to have its dining car service up to the best. It might be followed with advantage on some lake passenger steamers. The plan is set forth in an extract from the Locomotive Engineer of New York city, a paper of recognized authority in technical railroad matters. 'In connection with the through train service between Chicago, Buffalo, New York and Boston the Nickel Plate road run their own eating cars, and they have adopted a rather unique manner of keep- ing the men in charge of the cars up to themark. There is a grievance committee, consisting of two superintendents, the superintendent of motive power, the regular traveling representatives and the general car inspector, who have authority to take a meal in the cars at any time and report on anything they find wrong. These officers make life a burden to the superintendent of the dining cars. There isa good deal of pleasantry about the criticisms, but those patronizing the cars find that they never have reason to complain of the victuals being cold or out of season. The dining car service on the trains of the Nickel Plate road is something that strikes the traveler as approaching perfection. With the system in force referred to, there is not much room for a 'kick' from anybody. "In conjunction with the above we feel justified in adding our compliments to the painstaking management of the Nickel Plate road. It has been our good fortune to have occasion to tse this line in our frequent trips from Chicago to New York city and Boston. While traveling in one of the day coaches in a little jaunt from a local station into Buffalo, I was impressed with the cleanliness of the car. The secret was soon divulged. Along came a colored porter in uniform, dust cloth and brush in hand, and with a polish here and a wipe there, the seats, the window sills, and floor were kept scrupu- lously clean. The schedules of their fast trains are convenient, and. the sleeping cars placed in the regular daily service are of the most luxuriant type of modern construction. Solid trains are run between Chicago, Buffalo, New York city and through sleepers to Boston. A fact worthy of note yet remains to be pointed out to the readers of this journal, which, perhaps, has not come to the notice of many. Rates are offered between the same points lower than those quoted by com- petitors of the Nickel Plate road, and from my experience their pas- senger facilities are excelled by none."' 'In connection with the announcement of another dividend from the Roberts Safety Water Tube Boiler Co. of 39 Cortlandt street, New York, it is noted that this company, which was incorporated Noy. 1, 1890, has built nearly 900 boilers, ranging from those suitable for small launches up to installations of nearly 2,000 horse power in one vessel. The capital stock of this company is $250,000 and the sixth consecu- tive annual dividend of 10 per cent. was declared on the first day of this month by the board of directors, notwithstanding that the last three years have been years of unusual business depression. It is claimed that the works of this company are larger than any other plant in the United States devoted exclusively to the construction of marine water tube boilers. The tools are of the most modern type, nearly $30,-« 000 having been expended in adding to the equipment in this line dur- ing the past year. Although the Roberts company owns a number of patents on water tube boilers, it has been their experience, that, all things being taken into consideration, the original type gives the best satisfaction, with some slight improvements in construction and ma- terial, With the possible exception of one different type which has since been practically discarded by its manufacturer, the Roberts boiler is the father of all marine water tube boilers now being manufactured in thiscountry. The original boiler, built by Mr. Roberts in 1879, is still in use, although it is infinitely inferior to anything built at the present cay This company has an enviable record in view of the factthat not one of its boilers has ever killed a man or produced a dis- astrous explosion.