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i | MARINE REVIEW. Around the Lakes. Capt. George Tebo is now with the 0. 8. Richardson Fueling Co. of Chicago. Mr. Frank H. Brown of the Garlock Packing Co. has been in Cleveland during the last few days in the interest of his firm. Capt. Samuel Gould is again schooling, this winter, another large class of young men who will be seeking government licenses as pilots and masters of Jake vessels. His address is 265 Marcy avenue, Cleve- land. ; Joseph R. Oldham will entertain the members of the Cleveland Society of Engineers on the evening of Jan. 26 with a paper on '*Resist- ance of Ships and Other Floating Bodies at Deep and Shallow Drafts of Water."' A very neat calendar gotten out by the Magnolia Metal Co. was so attractive that the supply of them was hurriedly exhausted, but the company is now distributing another useful article--a brass-edged rule for desk work. It has been decided that the quadruple expansion engine for the steel freight steamer to be built by the Cleveland Ship Building Co. for A. B. Wolvin of Duluth will be of the four cylinder kind, but sizes of cylinders are not yet fully agreed upon. ' Another car dumping machine of the side-dump kind, to be built by the MeMyler Mfg. Co., will be erected in Cleveland shortly. It will be on the Cleveland Terminal & Valley Ry. Co.'s dock and will be operated by the Pittsburg & Chicago Gas Coal Co. High winds and high water Sunday night raised the lumber barge Cc. L. Young so that she was floated off Horseshoe reef and she is now ata dock in Buffalo. Her upper works are not badly damaged but it is thought that her bottom is in very bad shape. Officers of the Wilson Transit Co. of Cleveland, elected a few days ago, are: Capt. Thomas Wilson, president; A. McLachlan, vice-presi- dent; H. D. Goulder, secretary; directors, Capt. Thomas Wilson, R. MeLachlan, J. E. Upson, George L. Quayle and W. D. Rees. Capt. Jones, who was last year in the Wilson line steamer Spokane, will command the new steel steamer now being built for that line by the Cleveland Ship Building Co. The vacancy in the line will be filled by Capt. Geo. Brock, who was last season in the steamer Alcona. - a ee A dispatch from New York City announces that the Joint Traffic Association has decided upon a reduction in the grain rate from Chicago to New York of 5 cents per 100 pounds, or 20 cents to 15 cents. This action has been found necessary to check a rapid and . very important diversion of grain to southern coast ports. Among leading vessel owners who have left or are te leave for the south shortly on vacations are James Davidson of West Bay City, J. J. H. Brown of Buflaloand James McBrier of Hrie. It is quite generally understood that there will be nothing in the way of contracts for next season's business to demand the attention of vessel owners for some time to come. A firm to be known as Drake, Bates & Co., and composed of Capt. M. M. Drake of Buffalo, F. A. Bates and John H. Bartow of Cleveland, will handle the ore of the Hale and Cincinnati mines next season. Mr. Bates has been in the ore business on a moderate cale for some time past; M. M. Drake is well known asa Buffalo vessel owner, and John H. Bartow isamong the oldest and best known vessel brokers in Cleveland. : It is announced officially from Buffalo that Mr. S. D. Caldwell who has been known for years as a manager of leading lines of Aen ships having railway connections, has resigned from the positions of vice-president and general manager of the Western Transit Co. A statement from the company is to the effect that Mr. Caldwell tend- ered his resignation because of a decision to take a rest with a view to repairing his somewhat broken health. Owing to the favorable weather thoughout the greater part of the past season of navigation, the number of vessels sheltered at Sand ° Beach harbor of refuge, Lake Huron, was not so large as in 1895, but the use that was made of the harbor shows that it is of more real ealive than any other place of shelter maintained by the government on the lakes. Following is the record of the year: Steam vessels, 529 of 246,477 tons; sail vessels, 312 of 24,621 tons; tow barges 239 of 105,987 tons; total, 1,073 vessels of 377,086 tons. es Big Electrical Power Contract. The announcement that the contract for the elcetrical utilization of the Falls of St. Anthony at Minneapolis has been awarded to the General Electric Co. directs attention to a big project in electrical engineep -- ing. Some time ago the St. Anthony Water Power Co. and the Pills. bury flour mills and elevators were merged into the Pillsbury-Wash- burn Flour Mills Co., which controlled not only most of the de- veloped water power of the falls, but also the undeveloped water power below the falls. A dam to utilize this power was constructed and the total horse power available is calculated at 10,000. The water wil] pass through turbines of Stillwell Bierce-Smith Vaile manufacture, seven of which, each of 1,000 horse power capacity, will form the initial hydraulic equipment. The electrical equipment will consist of a plant comprising both direct current railway apparatus for the needs of Minneapolis, and three-phase apparatus for transmission of part of the power to St. Paul, ten miles distant. The direct cur. rent portion consists of two 700 K. W. General Electric multipolar generators, with a speed of 130 revolutions per minute, furnishing current at 600 volts, and two 100 K. W. exciters for the three-phase alternators. The three-phase generating plant consists of five 700 K, W. alternators, with a frequency of thirty-five cycles, and an initial voltage of 3,450 volts. This pressure will be raised to 12,000 volts in six step-up transformers of the well known air-blast type, and at this voltage the current will go to St. Paul either by overhead or under. ground wires. This has not yet beensetteld. AtSt. Paul the pressure will be reduced in fifteen step-down transformers, when the current will be led into the rotary converters of special type. Of these there will be five. They will resemble in appearance those which the Gen- eral Electric Co. has installed in the power house of the Buffalo Street Railway Co., to take care of the power transmitted from Niagara Falls, They are 8-pole machines, each of 600 K. W. capacity, running" at 520 revolutions and turning out direct current at 580 volts. They are designed to operate,in parallel with each other, or with the genera- tors now driven by steam in the existing station. The water power development and the electric plant completed by the Pillsbury-Washburn company will be operated by the Twin City Rapid Transit Co., a lease having been made between the two companies to that effect. Thestreet car company will send to St. Paul about 3,000 horse power, leaving 4,000 horse power to be used at Minneapolis. There was close competition on this contract between the companies engaged in electrical devleopment and manufacture in this country. The General Electric Co.'s apparatus was preferred, however, on account of that company's long experience in power transmission work. The other concerns interested were the Westing- house, Stanley and Walker companies. With the new revenue cutter Gresham going into commission next season, the old Andy Johnson will be left entirely to Sault river patrol service. It is quite probable that the Globe Iron Works Co. e builders of the Gresham, will be reimbursed by the government, in part at least, for their loss in the construction of the Gresham. Con- gressman Burton has introduced a bill 'providing relief for the com- pany to the extent of $60,970, and it is more than probable that the revenue cutter officials will favor relief, as they know the value of the boat that was turned over to them, and they know also that the builders were not to blame for numerous delays and changes that resulted in loss on the contract. Mr. Robert L. Ireland has been in Washington during the past week looking after this matter for the Globe company. At the time of going to press meetings of three big organizations that are directly interested in the merchant marine of the country are being held in Washington. The organizations are the National Ass0- ciation of Marine Engineers, the Ship Masters' Association, which comprises a very large part of the vessel captains of the lakes, and the United States board of supervising inspectors of steam vessels. None of the conventions had, however, progressed far enough in their work to permit of a report being made this week. The senate has decided to take up the Nicaraugua canal bill but there is no prospect of the measure being passed by the present con- gress. New arguments will pertain mainly to great reductions in pre- vious estimates of cost, these reductions being based upon the low figures that have prevailed in constructing the Chicago drainage canal.