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j e 14 . MARINE : Trade Notes. The Buffalo Forge Co., Buffalo, N. Y., is equipping with forced draft and heating and ventilating apparatus the large ferry-boat that is being built by the Charles Hillman Ship & Engine Building Co. Branch houses for the sale of pumping machinery have been_opened by Henry! R. Worthington at Nos. 713-717 Perdido street, New Orleans, and in the Century 'building, 317 North Ninth street, St. Louis. A new general catalogue, No. 28, dealing with Worthington pumping engines, steam pumps and hydraulic machinery, has been issued, and may be had upon application to the main office, Brooklyn, N. Y., or at any of the Worthington branch offices, which are established now in all of the prin- cipal cities of the country. "M. T. Davidson of Brooklyn, N. Y., manufacturer of the Davidson steam pump and improved hydraulic machinery, has recently purchased all the patents of Geo. W. Baird, chief engineer, U. S. N., for evapor- ating and distilling apparatus and is now the sole owner and manufacturer of the same. Mr. Baird's inventions have been known for years in vessels of the navy, light-house service and coast survey and in merchant marine steam vessels and yachts. While retaining all the advantageous features of the Baird apparatus, Mr. Davidson has added some improvements of his own, and says he will now guarantee it to be the simplest, most effi- cient and most easily cleaned, while occupying minimum space and weigh- ing no more than any other apparatus employed for a similar purpose. ~. A catalogue of 218 pages, revised to Sept. 1, has just been issued hy the American Ship Windlass Co., Frank S.. Manton, agent, Providence, R. I. The book contains full particulars of all of the specialties of the Providence company--windlasses, capstans, towing machines, etc.--and the illustrations are clear and complete in every particular. This catalogue is especially interesting to vessel men, as it deals with the many improve- ments and the great saving which this company's machines have con- ferred upon the shipping community during the past forty years. During all this time the Providence company claims never to have turned out a poor machine. Their customers generally will bear them out in this assertion, and, what is more, their machines have always stood in ad- vance of anything in their line ever made in the world. New Books. _ "Trigonometry," a book intended for young men in the merchant marine, is the latest volume of Charles Griffin & Co.'s popular nautical series, published by the J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia. The simplicity of these little books and their great value, largely on this account, to young men in the merchant marine, has been referred to several times in these columns. The author of "Trigonometry" is Richard C. Buck of the Thames Nautical Training College., The price of the book is $2. During 1895 and 1896 a series of articles entitled "Valve Gears" was published in "Power," by C. W. MacCord, Jr., M. E. The object of the papers was to put the principles of design of slide-valves in a practical form for practical men. The subject matter of these papers, revised and rearranged, with new cuts, has just been published by John Wiley & Sons of New York. It sells--8 vo., cloth, 168 pages and 101 illustrations--at $2. 7a ""Homie-seekers' excursions west, northwest and southwest are of- fered'via the Nickel Plate road Sept. 21 and Oct. 5 and 19, at about one fare for the round trip. Inquire of agents. 316-Oct. 18 - . Chas. E. & W. F. Peck, 58 Wiiiiam St. 812 Royal I Building, NEW YORK CITY. °MORICAGO, ILL. MEI ee ts C. T. BOWRING & CO., 5 & 6 Billiter Ave., H.C. LONDON, ENG. INSURANCE. BROWN & CO.," : : J.G. KEITH & CO., LA SALLE & CO.-.. 202 Main St., 138 Rialto Bldg., Board of Trade Bidg,, Buffalo. N. Y. Chicago, Ill. Duluth, Minn. Aré prepared to make rates on all classes of Marine Insurance on the great lakes both CARGOES and HULLS. "CREAT LAKES RECISTER." F. D. HERRIMAN, Surveyor-General, Chicago, Ill. Newport News Shiphuildine & Dry Dock (On Hampton Roads.) Equipped with a Simpson's Basin Dry Dock capable of docking a vessel 600 feet long, drawing 25 feet of water, at any stage of the tide. Repairs made promptly and at reasonable rates. SHIP AND ENGINE BUILDERS. For estimates and further particulars, address _C. B. ORCUTT, Pres"t, No. { Broadway. New York. : ~ REVIEW, Triple-Screw Cruisers. European countries are all following the lead of the United States in the building of triple-screw cruisers. A vessel of this type 'which will shortly take the water at Kiel for. the Germany nayy, will be of 10,650 tons displacement, and will, it is anticipated, attain a speed of 19 knots. She is built entirely of steel, and will have a belt of nicicel steel 8 inches thick, and an armored deck of the same material, 3.15 inches at its thickest part. She will carry four 10-inch guns, placed in pairs in fore and aft revolving turrets built of 8-inch nickel steel plates; and will also be fitted with torpedo tubes and some thirty quick-firing guns. This vessel is 394 feet long, 6514 feet beam and will draw 26 feet of water. Two triple-screw cruisers of the armored class have also been ordered for the French navy. The first of these, the Dupetit Thouars, will be laid down at Toulon, and the other, the Gueqdon, at L'Orient. The vessels will each be of 9,516 tons displacement, and are to be fitted with three sets of triple-expansion engines to be collectively equal to driving them at 21 knots. The vessel to be built at Toulon will be 453 feet in length, 64 feet beam, and with a draft of 23 feet will displace 9,500 tons. The ag- gregate indicated horse power of three sets of engines is to equal 19,000, and the boilers are to be fitted for burning coal or oil as fuel, the 1,600 tons of fuel which she will carry giving her a radius of action of 6,500 miles at 10 knots. Suitable Places for Compasses. Long experience gained by watching closely the results of adjustment of compasses in hundreds of ships from the time they were launched, and in every latitude, until they rested finally in "rotten row," points to one cardinal result--that no arrangement of correctors yet given to the public modifies the necessity for the greatest care in providing suitable places for the standard and other compasses generally used in the navigation of the ship. From the neighborhood of these positions all iron or steel fit- tings should be excluded, and brass or wood substituted when structural considerations adverse to this are not imperative. Sometimes iron fittings may be utilized as correctors, but the cases are rare. It may be argued that if, by properly providing places for the compasses when a ship is de- signed, the serious difficulties that present themselves in war vessels can be successfully overcome, it is not too much to ask that the owners and designers of vessels of the mercantile navy should face the far easier prob- lem connected with the placing of compasses in the ships with which they have to deal. Happily, under the intelligent control of our great shipping companies, the question of placing compasses is generally well looked to. But even in some of these, the chart house, which might be made of wood, is made of steel, with the principal steering compass therein only a very short distance from the steel bulkhead. Permanent diminution of direc- tive force on the compass is the consequence.--Nautical Magazine. A Pleasant Month. October on the lakes is a month of transition from warm to cold-- generally one of the most pleasant of the year. The change to winter conditions is first noticeable on Lake Superior, where light snowstorms may occur at any time after the 15th. Snow falls in the vicinity of Mar- quette a little earlier than at other points to the westward. It has been observed as early as Sept. 13 both at Marquette and Sault Ste. Marie. On lower Lake Michigan snow has fallen as early as Oct. 6, but the aver- age date of first snow is about a month later. The average date of first snow at the eastern end of Lake Erie, viz.: Oct. 28, is about ten days earlier than at the western end. The average date of the first freezing temperature falls a little earlier than the average date of first snow, viz.: Duluth, 13th; Marquette, 11th; Milwaukee, 19th; Grand Haven, 17th; Alpena, 5th; Detroit, 20th; Chicago, 26th; Cleveland, 27th; Buffalo, 24th; Oswego, 25th.-- Weather Bureau Chart. Major W. L. Marshall, United States engineer at Chicago, opened bids on the 23d inst. for constructing eight miles of the eastern section of the Illinois and Mississippi canal--iniles 17 to 24--excavating lock pits and constructing foundations for three locks, and for constructing one con- crete arch culvert. The sum of the lowest bids on the several different parts of the work is $283,433.80. There were sixteen bidders, and on some of the earthen work the price was down to 8 cents per cubic yard. The list of successful bidders includes Cogan & Pound, Heldmaier & New, R. C. Cushing & Co., and H. A. Boedeker & Co., of Chicago; John J. Mc- Coughey of Summit, Ill., and the Globe Construction Co. of Cincinnati. The Marine Review has prepared in neat oak frames cards containing the schedule of time required to be run between certain points in the St. Mary's river under the speed limit of seven miles an hour. When hung in a 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 es ch. The Bessemer Steamship Company Solicits Catalogues, Prices and Discounts from manufacturers and wholesale dealers in Ship Machinery, Brass Goods, Rope, Paints, Asbestos, Packing, Hose, Furniture, Piping, Glass and Crock- ery, Tinware, Ranges, Carpeting, Bedding, Life-preservers, Rafts and Boats, Engineers' Supplies and Tools, Carpenters' Tools, Elec tric Supplies, Lamps, Grate Bars, Castings, etc., etc., etc. ALSO QUOTATIONS from Market men and Grocers on the Lakes for Provisions and Meat, best quality only. CATALOGUES without quotations are not wanted. ALL, GOODS except provisions to be delivered in Cleveland. Address LL.M. BOWERS, General Manager, CLEVELAND, OHIO.