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way engineer, the master cat-builder, and the superi 10ti power. Walking through the 'Globe ship yards ae eet Mi Pa jhurst, he picked up a piece of coal the size of a walnut and remarked: "You would hardly think that little lump of coal will carry a ton of frei ht a mile, would you? And yet that is what it will do on our better lass of boats. It is true; fifty-five hundredths of an ounce of coal per ton mile is the record. Now, such results are not to be expected in the perform- ance of a locomotive; at least they are not in sight. Such economies are associated with triple and quadruple expansion engines, and it is worth of note that for the first time in the history of ship building in Ardetice we on the lakes are now building our freighters with quadruple expansion engines. Then, too, our waterways are being deepened, our boats bein enlarged. Until last year they were less than 400 feet long We are Sot building them 475 and 500 feet in length over all. . _ There is in a workshop at 'Cleveland an internal combustion engine built for the company with which I am associated. It weighs about two tons, and is, if I mistake not, the first compound gas engine that success- fully meets all requirements. Its cards show an indicated H. P. of 114 and a thermal efficiency of 39.5. Making no claim whatever to a techni- cal mechanical training, I am perhaps treading on dangerous ground but this at least is known--that, reduced to steel strains, we have an engine of 92 H. P. per ton, a record far surpassing that of the Turbinia, an engine that exhausts at atmosphere and that may be built to any power if some of your own brightest marine engineers are not in error. In any event it is certain that the principle of a compound gas or oil engine is now MARINE REVIEW. : The Big Pontoon Dock at Havana. The mammoth floating dry dock illustrated i i I on this pa sie aie in foN oF gas 2, fae ay Zanes PaRpa RPS srenniee: , her builders, M Swan & Hunter of Wallsend onary eee The distance fro: MAE to Heese 3 om the Tyne or ne course followed by steamers is less than 4,500 ales Bat nae i fA e advantage of trade winds, the big pontoon dock was towed over i 'onger course followed by sailing vessels. This dock, constructed to a mit the largest vessel of the Spanish navy, was fully described in the : eview of Sept. 23. It was constructed in five parts, which were so firmly inked together as to withstand the force of heavy ocean weather, which was undoubtedly encountered several times on the long and tedious pas- sage (nearly two months) across the Atlantic. The lifting power of the cock is 10,000 tons. In the walls, which are about 6 feet thick, there are a arge number of valves and pumps, all worked by electrical machinery. Through these valves water can be drawn into or ejected from the great chambers which are to be found on either side and in the depth of what may be termed the floor. Thus, if filled, the entire dock is submerged and this submersion can be regulated according to the size and structure of the ship to be repaired. Once sufficiently below water the vessel is floated in. Then the pumps are vigorously worked, and with a weight of 10,000 tons the pontoon can ascend until at last it is high and dry. The position of the ship is easily regulated so that her keel rests upon the center blocks, and once there, what are known as the bilge blocks, having Pontoo her the present device fulfills expectations t far distant when important results will come from the untiring efforts of mechanical engineers to transfer the source of power from the boiler to the cylinder. I mention it because indicative of a possible revolution in mechanics that will work coqu anaes in the engine room of a vessel impossible to the locomotive, an i ue increase the already marked difference between the cost per ton mule by water and t rail. eae plete aes not yet sounded the possibilities of cheap eae tation by water, and with their discovery one may be jusHneee mete that their application can nowhere be productive of more beneice ned the to mankind than on those waters to which are annually S dmne supply products of the vast plains of the west, the nation's food an PP of her workers in iron. thoroughly understood, and whet or not, assuredly the time is no ss apes te bch a Mr. A. F. Yarrow, famous as a builder of high sor aS eee and a 'special type of water tube boiler, was given 3 Gee hee Several Wiley at the Engineers' Club, New York, a few eveuie ae representative marine engineers of this country were P : EO aoe seeeee ey Hunters' Rates--Via the Nickel Plate road to designated points in the i i stern Ohio and north- poe ong southwest; also to local points in we Oe gee Me a Dock in which Spanish War Vessels will be Repaired at Havana. previously been placed ready, are made fast with the aid of movable wedges. Two large cranes at the rear of the dock are then ready to do whatever heavy weight lifting may be required, and numerous smaller con- trivances of the same kind at the sides are prepared for what may further be necessary. Messrs. Clark & Stanfield of No. 11 Victoria street, Lon- don, are the inventors of this type of floating dock. It is safe to predict that throughout the Lake Superior iron mining districts the close of navigation will see less ore in stock at the mines than at the end of any shipping season since 1890, at the close of which year the stock piles were swept with brooms to get the last pound of ore. The Gogebic mines, which have probably suffered more severely from gorged stock piles than the producers of any other range, are more completely cleaned out of ore than at the close of any season for the past ten years. The Menominee, Marquette and Vermillion ranges are also engaged in shipping the last of a large number of big stock piles which have been eye- sores for several years. All of this assures a great deal of work for a year to come to men who stand very much in need of steady employment, and have suffered much in the past four years for lack of it--Ishpeming dis- patch. All charts sold by the Marine Review are corrected to date of sale.