Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Marine Review (Cleveland, OH), 26 Aug 1897, p. 13

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-accomplished, in the illustration MARINE « Revolving Bulkhead Door. A revolving double door for water-tight bulkheads in ships, invented by Wm. Kirkaldy of Glasgow, is attracting considerable attention in naval circles. It was fitted on board the recently-built channel steamer Duchess of Devonshire and is said to have the approval in England of the board of trade. The distinctive feature of this double door is that it is impossible to leave it open at any time when passing through the bulkhead, one : - door having to be absolutely closed | | I before the other opens. From the ae. accompanying illustration it will be a seen that the arrangement consists of a hollow cylindrical casing, which is bolted to the water-tight bulkhead, one-half of the circle being in one compartment, and the other half in the compartment adjoining. In the casing are two doorways, one at the fore part of the circle, and the other at the aft part. Within the casing, and close fitting, is a hollow cylin- der, which easily revolves, having one doorway in its circumference of a size corresponding to each of the doorways in outer casing. This cylin- der is suspended by a central bolt overhead, and freely revolves on ball bearings. The revolving action is printed herewith, by hand, slots on the outside for the insertion of the fingers, and handles on the inside, be- ing provided for this purpose. The inventor, however, in other doors now being made. is substituting other means of revolving the door, with the view of obviating any possi- PATENT REVOLVING DOUBLE DOOR FOR Ble ris of damage-tothe fingers of WATE R- MAR BULK BEADS IN SHIES. anyone hurriedly operdting it. When it is intended to pass through the bulkhead, the aperture in the revolving cyclinder is brought round to correspond. with the doorway in the casing, and the person steps inside, revolves the cyclinder, and in doing so, of course, brings it round so that its one doorway corresponds with the doorway on the opposite side of the casing, thus giving agress into the compartment. The doorway by which entrance was had to the casing is, of course, absolutely closed before the revolving cylinder and its opening comes in line with the opposite door- way allowing egress from the casing. As the casing is bored like ordinary engine cylinders, and the inside cylinder turned to fit it like a piston, it is evident that the door is always effectually closed. The Brandon Bridge Building Co., Motherwell, are the manufacturers. _Erastus Wiman's Canal Scheme. Erastus Wiman, who is trying to enlist capital in the building of a large fleet of canal vessels that will be specially suited to the enlarged Erie canal, is very probably encourged by the improved condition of business throughout the country, as he is again submitting through the newspapers elaborate collections of figures suited to the advancement of his scheme. € reviews the whole subject in an interview given out recently. It is a fact not generally appreciated," 'he says, "that the Erie canal, now being enlarged at an expenditure of $9,000,000, voted directly by the people of New York, will possess a carrying capacity for food products equal to that of the five trunk line railroads that parallel it, and, moreover, it will be competent to take care of and to handle every bushel of grain or every barrel of flour that the lake marine can deliver. Further, that while the railroads now catrying these products are exacting rates paying fixed charges on an aggregation of $500,000,000, or equal to $1,000,000 per niile for 'the distance traveled, the canal, being free, exacts no such tremendous tribute, Further, that the cost of maintenance, which to the railroads is next to that of interest, is for the canal borne by the state and in no sense can be made a charge on the products that are handled. Still further, that the cost of movement of freight by the railroads has never yet been less than 5 mills per ton per mile, while on the canal a profit is possible at a mill per ton per mile. Think of it! One ton ten miles or ten tons one ae for a cent! And yet, still further, all railroad freight passing through e harbor of New York, in or out, bears-a lighterage charge of 3-cents at 100 pounds, or 60 cents a ton, equalling on a 30-ton grain car no less aR; ae than $18, which either the producer or manufacturer pays, and ety AeitaEs charges, in the harbor of New York, reach the enormous a 0 110,000,000 annually. Canal freight bears no such charges, for, shi iS already afloat when it enters the harbor, it can be delivered at a P's side or to storage at any point without any cost for transfer." fide Sked how it is that these advantages so striking had not before been Hens ee and how it came that it was left. for him to head the move- rt oy 1S Somewhat remarkable reform, Mr. Wiman replied: "In the the ae the reform now impending will come from the enlargement of Bnd ahich all of which will be completed within a year from next May, will abecle under the systematic management that I propose to inaugurate, cipa ee aoe double the capacity of that great waterway. But the prin- iors itherto has been organization, the employment of capital, the j Becton of real business capacity and the lack of terminals specially men a canal traffic. Heretofore individual effort by 1,500 canal boat- uae See ue two or three mules, or, with a few exceptions, wretchedly suc anh oats, has been the intsrumentality endeavoring to compete with Delaware @ poo nzations as the New York Central, the West Shore, the terminals Lackawanna and Erie and Lehigh Valley railroads. With no Porate ah their own, with no organization, no responsibility, no cor- Waterwa arantee for a bill of lading at the point of production, this great a cost Y Costing $100,000,000 and sustained by the state of New York at i _ $1,000,000 a year, has utterly failed in its purpose of making pos- © expansion of the cheap water rates prevalent on the lakes, and t REVIEW. 13 helping the farmer and miller in the interior to place their product in the markets of the world to successfully cornpete with other countries produc- ing their products at the seaboard; thus they have deprived the American producer of a profit legitimately his own. lesa! LEA "To remedy this disorganized condition on the canal is the purpose of a movement now in progress to consolidate existing interests, and, by the expenditure of capital for providing a modern equipment for' the en- larged canal, furnishing also new and adequate terminals, also providing a corporate guarantee for a through bill of lading, which will be undisputed for any amount anywhere, by anyone on this continent. This takes the shape of the formation of a company known as the Consolidated Canal & Lake Co., in which are a number of the western millers and jobbers and Buffalo elevating and canal men, with myself and others in New York, directors. Good progress has been made in this direction, first, in securing contracts for freight tonnage at good rates extending over three years; second, in obtaining terminals as a free gift from the city of New York, in that harbor, and from the state authorities, and also in Buffalo. In anticipation of the enlargement of the canal, a modern equipment will now be created, and the business will be inaugurated next May with an initial fleet to be increased in the two following years to an extent that will enable the canal to carry the whole 10,000,000 barrels of flour, instead of less than 1,000. 'The immediate necessity for making available this inde-, pendent artery from the center of the continent to the sea by an all water route is found in the remarkable concentration of railroad ownership in a few hands. The acquirement of the Lehigh Valley road by Mr. Pierpont Morgan places in the control of that gentleman the five trunk lines that parallel the canal, for long ago he dominated the New York Central as well as the Erie, which he recently reorganized. Having control also of the Reading and the Lackawanna, he dominates the anthracite situation, while the certainty that the Baltimore & Ohio will fall into his hands for reor- ganization makes it possible for him to get a New York entrance for his southern system, so that he will more or less control the outlets for grain and flour at Newport News, Norfolk, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York. Owning as he does, also, the control of the New York, New Haven & Hartford and the New England systems, and having also com- plete control of the Northern Pacific system, connecting the same by steam- ers from Duluth to Buffalo, where his five New York roads terminate, he dominates the entire railway area and possesses a power greater than that given-almost to any other mortal, judging by the area covered, the variety of products affected and the interests involved." ee | The United States the Rising Nation. The United States is now entering upon the commercial career long ago seen to be its manifest destiny. Hitherto it has been in a formative or preparatory state. Its citizens have been engaged in the costly and arduous work of developing its natural resources, establishing intercommunication, diversifying industries and endeavoring to supply their own requirements as far as possible. They have always raised surplus crops, and have helped to feed the world. They are now in a position to turn out more manu- factured articles than they need, and are assisting to supply the wants of the rest of the world in that regard. Unless remarkable and calamitous changes take place the United States will from this time be a large seller of all kinds of commodities, raw and manufactured, and a comparatively small buyer. This combination will surely make it the richest country in the world and the leader among nations in other respects. No other nation on earth is so well situated to become the future workshop of the world. Nowhere else is food so abundant and cheap, with manufactures so well established and the finest raw materials so plentiful and accessible. In its ability to sustain itself the United States is unique among nations. Its independence, politically and commercially, may well excite the envy of other powers. They can not, however, stay its progress. The ghost of a demoralized currency having been effectually laid, the danger of in- ternal troubles is past. In our case more is always to be feared from dis- sensions among our own people than from attacks by other countries.-- Iron Age. Stocks of Grain at Lake Ports. The following table, prepared from reports of the Chicago board of trade, shows the stocks of wheat and corn in store in regular elevators at the principal points of accumulation on the lakes, August 21, 1897: Wheat, bushels. Corn, bushels. GHICAgO "i. .os54 apailines tes, boa "RoloeeaR ee The PacEE: 1,986,000 11,720,000. Dah pesccnenteromeren pentane nerircrs encima S 495,000 135,000. Milwatkeet 2 cee. ieryes erie iii oot - 92,000 121,000 Detroit: 2s. stein toe einposerel te tetcteeercter 188,000 28,000 Moledo 2. eee ee tes 574,000 454,000 Buftalloy 25 aod face a Bloct cn tae 579,000 416,000 3,914,000 12,874,000 As compared with a week ago, the above figures show, at the several points named, a decrease of 924,000 bushels of wheat and an increase of 1,633,000 bushels of corn. Steam vessels have been practically unknown in the coast fisheries of this country, but John H. Dialogue & Son of Camden, N. J., have just launched one, in which they are said to have introduced the best features of English steam trawls. The vessel is 125 feet over all, 25 feet beam and 13 feet hold. She has a triple expansion engine of 350 horse power, and is expected to attain a speed of 13 knots. Henry E. Rottmer of Washington, who was one of the delegates to the International Congress of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers in London, visited several ship yards on the continent before returning to this country. He speaks very highly of the hospitable manner in which he was received in Germany, mentioning especially the kindnesses of Mr. Ernest Ritter of Winterhude, Hamburg. Army and navy charts of the lakes are kept in stock by the Marine Review, Perry-Payne building, Cleveland. : oe ie PT 7 Eee a My

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