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MARINE REVIEW. Oe Illustration of Progress in Marine Engineering. A striking illustration of progress in marine 'engineering is found in the new machinery placed in and designed for two notable Ameri- can steamers, one a merchant ship and the other a war ship. The Louisiana of the Cromwell Line was built in 1879 and broke the record between New York and New Orleans, The Chicago was de- signed in 1882 and launched in 1884, and was much the largest of the four ships which constituted the beginnig of our new navy. When the Chicago was designed our naval authorities had had little experi- ence in building modern marine engines, and the triple expansion engine was an experiment. Therefore the speed of the Louisiana led to the adoption of her engines as a model, and they were almost copied in building the machinery for the Chicago. The engines and furnaces had two features that provoked immoderate laughter among British engineers. The latter had a very poor opinion of beam engines at best, and beam engines attached to propeller shafts were something of a novelty even in this country. To make the matter still more com- plicated the beam had to work in most restricted quarters, because the machinery of the man-of-war must be below the protective deck, which is about the water line, for reasons of safety. The boilers were set in furnaces of fire brick very much as they would have been on land, English engineering authorities declared that if a beam engine on a propeller shaft below a protective deck and brick furnaces would work at all they had not learned the alphahet of their business. They did themselves and the Americans an injustice. They knew their business, but they did not know everything in it. The engines and boilers of the Chicago worked very well for several years. She began her career by a long cruise about the world, and being a very popular Ship with commanding officers she has been kept in commission as a flag ship most of her existence. The engines have given some trouble, but not much, and the difficulty that has from the first been found in the boilers had nothing to do with the brick furnaces, which astonished English engineers by not falling down. The bricks never loosened. On the whole the engines and boilers have caused much less trouble than the machinery of several English warships, where in a number of instances weights have been reduced to the point of weakness and boiler-leaking has gone so far as to practically disable the vesesl. The engines of both steamers, the merchantman and the man-of- war, wore out, and at the same time the superiority of newer machinery made them relatively expensive to operate. The triple expansion engine became almost obligatory in marine engines and the use of water tube boilers increased. The Louisiana's engines were replaced three years ago by the vertical, triple expansion engines, and furnaces and boilers that afforded greater power with less fuel, and she has in- creased her speed record. The Chicago is now at the Brooklyn navy -- yard receiving her new engines, which are also of the triple expansion type, but as they must be got for safety beneath the protective deck they are horizontal instead of vertical. The objection to the horizontal engine and the reason why a vertical engine was originally placed in this ship is that in the horizontal engine the weight of the piston head wears the lower side of the cylinders, but in the new engines this is nearly or wholly obviated by the support of the piston rod and its ex- tension. The cylinders of the Chicago are larger than those of the Louisiana, the diameters of the high pressure, intermediate and low pressure cylinders of the two steamers being respectively 33} and 24 inches, 504 and 39 inches, 76 and 64 inches. The stroke is 40 inches in the Chicago and 45 in the Louisiana. Some of the contrasts between the old and the new engines of the Chicago are shown in the following table: Old. New. Steam pressure, in pounds.............-.-+> 90 180 Grate surface, square feet..........-..+5+-- 672 633 Heating surface, Square teehe my iceg lar cae 19,950 26,552 Horse power with forced Crauehtie ss «ott were *5,083 +9,000 Speed with forced draught, knots.........--- #15 +184 -- *Actual. +Estimated. The introduction of six water tube boilers accounts for the great increase in the heating surface. With all this increased power it is . expected that the weight of the new machinery will fall 200 or 300 tons below that of the old; the omission of 6,000 fire brick for each furnace will account for some of this, and the progress in steel mak- ing in the last few years has made it possible to save a good deal of weight by substituting steel for cast iron. The Chicago will carry 918 tons of coal, and will make thirteen knots an hour with her Scotch boilers alone.--Commercial Bulletin, New York. Improvements in Pumping Machinery. The Consolidated Association of Marine Engineers, a New York organization made up some time ago from branches of the Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association, is composed of engineers who are employed aboard vessels, but some of these men find time to attend meetings at which papers on practical subjects pertaining to their call- ing are read and discussed. At a recent meeting of this kind the sub- ject was a paper on "Recent Improvements in Pumping Machinery for Marine Service," by John A. Drew. "There is no branch of steam engineering' Mr. Drew said, "that presents so many difficult prob- lems, or such exacting conditions of service, as that of marine engi- neering. The engineer's constant contact and practical knowledge of the troubles encountered naturally give him a clearer understanding of what is really required to improve the general efficiency of the ma- chinery of the engine and boiler room, than any merely theoretical in- vestigation ever can. It is hardly fifteen years since it was the general | practice to drive the feed and bilge pumps by the main engine, and it was thought to be the only reliable method. To-day we find that the great thing desired by marine engineers is to have all the auxiliaries entirely independent, in order to free the engines of any other work than that of propulsion. The great steamships of the American line, the St. Paul and the St. Louis, were the first trans-atlantic ships to - carry this idea to the fullest extent, and they have absolutely no pumps connected with the engines, the air, feed, bilge, circulating, fire and sanitary pumps being independent and driven by their own steam cylinders."' Mr. Drew explained that in consequence of the tendency just noted, the design and construction of auxiliary pumps for marine service has -- received a great amount of study and experiment during the last few years, and he then went on, with the aid of illustrations, to describe features of pumping machinery built by Henry R. Worthington of New York. The New York manufacturers have thought the paper worthy of publication and it has been printed in neat pamphlet form, with clear illusitrations, for distribution among all engineers who may ; apply for it at any of the branch houses of Henry R. Worthington (Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit on the lakes) or at the main house in New York. Speed and Cargo Records--Lake Freight Steamers. Iron Ore--Coralia, Mutual Transportation Co. of Cleveland, 5,088 gross or 5,699 net tons, Gladstone to Ashtbuala, draft of 16 feet 10. inches. From Lake Superior--Steamer Sir Henry Bessemer, Besse- mer Steamship Co. of Cleveland, 4,637 gross or 5,194 net tons, Ash- land to Conneaut, draft of 15 feet 9 inches. Grain--Steamer Queen City, A. B. Wolvin of Duluth, 207,000 bushels of corn, equal to 5,796 net tons, Chicago to Buffalo, 16 feet 8 inches draft; steamer Zenith City, A. B. Wolvin of Duluth, 289,- 000 bushels of oats, Chicago to Buffalo. From Lake Superior-- Steamer Queen City, A. B. Wolvin of Duluth, 185,000 bushels of wheat, equal to 5,550 net tons, Duluth to Buffalo on draft of 16 feet 1 inch; steamer Andrew Carnegie, Wilson Transit Co. of Cleve- land, 182, 000 bushels of wheat, equal to 5,460 net tons, Duluth to Buffalo on draft of 16 feet, even. _ Coal--Steamer James Watt, Bessemer Steamship Co. of Cleveland, 5,550 net tons of bituminous coal, Cleveland to Duluth, on draft of 15 feet 44 inches; steamer Andrew Carnegie, Wilson Transit Co. of Cleveland, 4,997 net tons of bituminous coal, Cleveland to Sheboygan, draft of 15 feet 2 inches. Speed--Owego, Union Line of Buffalo, Buffalo to Chicago, 889 miles, 54 hours and 16 minutes, 16.4 miles an hour; Centurion, Hop- kins een Co. of St. Clair, Mich. Buffalo to Duluth, 997 miles, 65 hours and 10 minutes, 15.3 miles an hour. The secretary of war has awarded contracts for supplying 12-inch disappearing gun carriages, six to the Bethlehem Iron Co. at $15,000, and six to the Niles Tool Works of Ohio at $15,000. The Marine Review has prepared in neat oak frames cards contain- ing the schedule of time required to be run between certain points in the St. Mary's river under the speed limit of seyen miles an hour. When hung ina pilot house, distance and time may be readily noted from these cards, as the type is large. They will be sent by express. to any address at $1 each,or may be had upon application at 409 Perry- Payne building, Cleveland, for 65 cents each.