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8 | MARINE REVIEW. in Passenger and Freight Steamer John Englis. », The steamer illustrated on this page is the John Englis, which has been operated during the past summer in freight and passenger service between New York and Portland, Me. I ship Co. and was built at the Roach ship yard, Chester, Pa. A descrip- _ tion of this steamer is doubly interesting just now, as a second vessel, prac- tically a duplicate and intended for the same route, is under construction at the Delaware river works. These ships are designed to make the run between New York and Portland in eighteen to twenty hours, averaging about 17 knots for both deep and shallow water. The John Englis is of steel, 313 feet over all, 290 feet between perpendiculars, 46 feet beam and 17% feet depth of hold. Engines are triple expansion, with cylinders 30, 48 and 75 inches in diameter and a common stroke of 56 inches. There are six boilers of Scotch type, each 13 feet long and 13 feet 2 inches diameter, and each provided with three Purves ribbed steel furnaces, 40 inches in diameter. The working pressure is 180 pounds to the square inch. Pumps are of the Blake type. One hundred and thirty staterooms on main and spar decks provide accommodations for about 300 passengers, and the ship is capable of carrying also about 1,300 tons of freight. The cost of this vessel was about $350,000. She is owned by the Maine Steam- - Against Double Launches. LOE Some time ago there was launched simultaneously at the Union Iron Works, San Francisco, two small government vessels from two sets of ways, parallel to each other. The vessels collided and both sustained some damage. It is needless to say that although the launching of two 'vessels in this way was quite novel, it will not again be attempted at the Pacific coast yard. Mr. Geo. W. Dickie, general manager of the Union Iron Works, refers to this incident in writing of "Engineering Experi- ence" in Cassier's Magazine. "Two parallel lines are supposed to stretch out indefinitely,' says Mr. Dickie, "but never to come together. Why did these two ships, launched on parallel lines, come together so suddenly, when their rudders were set to make them diverge? We have not yet been-able to find a reason for it. Our experience is now against launching two ships at the same time from parallel ways; our experience forbids it being done in that way. Still, some one else might do such a thing and be successful, and thus acquire an experience totally different from ours, and never know how near he came to doing an unsafe thing. This illustrates what I mean by saying that no man can impart his experience to another, as it is acquired for his own use solely. If we were to be guided by another's The Cramps of Philadelphia. _, William Cramp, who founded in 1830 the great ship building estab- lishment that bears his name, originally studied for the ministry, but was compelled by ill health to abandon his studies and seek outdoor employ- ment. In the year 1857, his family having in the meantime grown up and several of his sons having had a thorough training in the business and exhibiting marked qualifications for it, William Cramp took into partner- ship two sons, Charles H. and William M. Cramp, and in 1862 his other sons, Samuel H., Jacob C. and Theodore Cramp, all of whom, with the exception of Theodore, are now and have been continuously members of the company. Theodore Cramp withdrew about twelve years ago. On the admission of the sons the firm took the name of William Cramp & Sons. Each performed some distinctive and important portion of the great and fast-growing business of the company, and together they formed one of the most vigorous, progressive and enlightened commercial com- panies to be found in the country.--Marine Journal, New York. T. W. Butterworth, who has been connected with the auditing depart- ment of the Chicago & Northwestern Ry. Co., and who recently accepted the management of the new car ferry line between Milwaukee and Muske- gon, is an enthusiast regarding car ferries. 'The car lenny) We .Says, 'is bound to play an important part in the transportation of freight between east and west. ~The saving in time, length of haul -and cost of moving cars is an important matter. The Pere Marquette, for instance, makes a round trip across Lake Michigan in nine hours. I believe that the day is not far distant when every port on Lake Michigan will have a car ferry slip and cars will be transferred from any and all points on one side of the lake to all points on the other, without regard to connecting lines. The ferries will be run independently, just as are the freight and passenger boats of today." ty Steamer John Englis--In Freight and Passenger Service between New York and Portland, Me. [PHOTOGRAPH BY N. L. STEBBINS, BOSTON.] experience, progress would be at an end in certain directions. Men have found that certain things could not be done, because they tried and failed; other men, searching for experience for themselves, will try to do these same things and do them successfully, and thus gather an experience that contradicts that of the others. And this process goes on continually. What my experience tells me will fail, another's experience tells him will succeed, and yet my own experience must guide me, and not that of an- other. Experience is a thing of slow growth, for often the first impres- sions produced by our work have to be modified as certain tendencies on the part of the work develop. "This is especially true of moving mechanism. An engine or machine may make a fine start, and engineering experts may give good reports of it, so that its designer may feel justly proud of the result of his labors. But by and by certain tendencies begin to manifest themselves; workmen are employed nearly every night on it to keep it in condition to run in working hours; still the fatal tendencies keep developing until the machine is broken in constitution and must be abandoned. This is the end of many a fair start, and alas, how many of the model engines aid machines that get conspicuous illustration and description in engineering publica- tions come to just such an end! On the other hand, machines that re- 'quired careful nursing at the start have developed constitutional strength that enabled them to serve their day and generation with credit. "I have found it very instructive to go back ten or twenty years and study the designs for engines and machinery that figured in the engineer- ing papers and magazines, and were advertised atthe time as the results of the best experience of the firms making them, and trace them on through the succeeding years. Very many of those receiving the highest commenda- tion drop out of existence altogether, experience having shown them to be constitutionally defective; while others, having sound constitutions as a foundation of development, appear again and again, modified to suit varied conditions, but still showing through all changes the good stock from which they sprang." -