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1900.] MARINE REVIEW. at the isthmus; and this though the St. Mary's canal is open only for a season of 225 days, while the Suez is open throughout the year! A FEW FIGURES DEALING WITH ORE AND GRAIN. What now of the cargoes carried by this mighty fleet? For the past eight years it has comprised 56 per cent. of all the freight moved east of Chicago. Three commodities, iron ore, grain (including flour) and coal, make up the bulk of the material carried. It is extremely difficult to keep up with the racing figures of the grain traffic. No sooner do you grasp the immense proportions of the output than statisticians call upon you to stretch your imagination to take in another cipher. A single lake freighter (the very largest) will carry about 250,000 bushels of wheat, enough to fill 360 cars, or nine trains of forty cars each. Fifty years ago the total amount of grain lifted at the port of Buffalo during the entire shipping season was but one-tenth of the amount elevated there now in a single day! Amazing, too, is the story of the ore carrying trade on the lakes, The ore mined in the Superior region is 75 per cent. of all the ore consumed throughout the United States; 18,250,000 gross tons of ore were shipped down the lakes last year, an amount equal to one-eighth of the total output for the past forty-four years. At the ore docks at Superior, Duluth or Two Harbors, vessels of 5,000 to 7,000 gross tons capacity are loaded through pockets with chute attachments in a few hours. & Almost all this material comes down the lakes until the impassable Niagara blocks its progress to the seaboard, and it is "bottled up" at Buffalo and other Lake Erie ports. At Buffalo the grain must be lifted from the holds of freighters and transferred.to canal 'barges and freight cars. That is why the water front of Buffalo echoes all day long to the bellow of ponderous freighters, the grunt of stunted propellers and the squeal of officious tugs. That is why the harbor of Buffalo stretches out long skeleton coal-trestles to meet the incoming ship. That is why great brown elevators--hulking, high-shouldered monsters--raise their ugly heads along the shores of Buffalo river. Here any day you may see them snuffing the yellow grain through their long steel trunks from the holds of mammoth freighters. Scores of dusty scoopers shovel the grain from the sides of the ship into the path of a charging steam shovel, which drags it to the foot of the "leg," where the bucket chain snatches it, and whisking it 150 feet up into the cupola, flings it off into great bins. One hundred and eighty thousand bushels are whirled aloft, weighed, and spouted out again in yellow streams into the shadowy holds of canal barges within a few hours' time. WEST DEMANDS AN OUTLET TO-THE SEA. All this is picturesque and eminently satisfactory to the owners of the elevators. But it is far from pleasing to the man who ships the grain. Why, he reasons, should I pay a man in Buffalo to transship my mam- moth cargoes? Why should they not pass in bulk directly to the sea? The west is in dead earnest about a deep water connection with the sea- board, and the westerners are gradually convincing the powers that be that they must bestir themselves if they would not see American com- merce diverted to Canadian waters. The report just rendered by the deep waterways commission suggests the construction of a canal around the, American side of the falls, beginning at La Salle and ending at Lewis- ton. To connect Lake Ontario with the Hudson two routes are suggested ---one from Oswego lake to Lake Oneida, thence to the Mohawk river, and so to the Hudson at Albany, and the other from the St. Lawrence to Lake St. Francis, to Lake Champlain and the upper Hudson. The under- taking would cost the nation a cool $206,000,000. But, on the other hand, it would enable us to carry our produce to European markets at a cost no greater than that now paid for transportation to the seaboard. The pro- ject will be opposed by interested capital; the consummation may be long delayed, but it is coming surely. Our magnificent merchant squad- ron cannot be much longer penned up in inland waters. Its destiny is the open sea. ; A VERY LARGE COAI, PIER. The large coal pier of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co. at Curtis bay, on which workmen have been engaged since last October, is about completed. The pier is about 350 ft. long, and will cost in the neighbor- hood of $350,000. It will have the capacity of loading four ocean freighters at the same time and has chutes enough to handle all the coal that the cars can conveniently carry. To gain an idea of the strength of the pier, one has but to gaze at the mammoth pieces of timber, a foot in width. There is not a single strip of lumber used that does not mea- sure at least 2% in. in width. The larger ocean liners will find no diffi- culty in docking at the pier as the channel is dredged to 30 ft. The round house at Stone cove is well under way, but there yet remains sev- eral weeks' work on the structure, which, when finished, will relieve the congested condition of Locust point. The large area of what three months ago was a great field is being rapidly transformed into a rail- road yard, capable of accommodating 2,500 cars at the same time. In order to reach Curtis 'bay the cars must cross the Patapsco river at Brooklyn. It will take until the first of next year to get things in good working order, when the B. &'O. will have one of the finest terminals in the world.--Baltimore Journal of Commerce. The resignation of G, W. Wallace, long mine superintendent for the Minnesota Iron Co., to accept the management of the Corrigan, MicKin- ney & Co. mining interests, has led to a number of changes in the Minne- sota Iron Co.'s organization. Edwin Ball, manager of the Minnesota mines at Soudan, becomes general manager of the Fayal, Genoa and Auburn, but will continue to reside at Tower and to be manager at Soudan.. G. C. Brown, manager of the Genoa, becomes assistant manager of the Fayal. A. H. Ahbe, of the (Minnesota, becomes assistant manager: F. E. Keese, mining captain at the Genoa, becomes assistant manager there. A dispatch from Berlin announces the names and dimensions of the two. monster steamships which are in course.of construction for the North German Lloyd Steamship Co. They are the Kaiser Wilhelm III of 19,500 tons and 39,000 H. P., and the Kron Prinz Wilhelm of 15,000 tons and 33,000 H. P.. The vessels, it is understood, will be placed in the New York and Bremen service of the line. ITEMS OF GENERAL INTEREST. The Maryland Steel Co., Sparrow's point, Md., will launch the ore ship Thomas for the Metropolitan Dredging Co. of New York on Oct. 2. The William R. Trigg Co., Richmond, Va., has notified the navy de- partment that the torpedo boat destroyer Decatur will be launched at its yard, Richmond, Va., today, the 26th. ss _The Vulcan Iron Works €o., Toledo, has issued a campaign blotter which has the following as its motto: "Don't let politics interfere with your consideration of the Vulcan steam shovel." H. Bloomsburg & Co. of Newport News, Va., manufacturers of what are known as equilibrium circulators for heating and circulating water in steam boilers, have fitted fifty of them to boilers this year, including thirty -- for the big Pacific Mail ships building at Newport News. P. S. King & Son, Nos. 2 and 4 Great Smith street, Westminster, London, have just issued from their press a book on "High Speed Steam Engines" by W. Norris and Ben. H. Morgan. The work should prove a useful guide and reference to designers, users and makers of high speed engines. It is copiously illustrated. Joy's patent assistant cylinder has been fitted on the engines of vessels in the merchant marine aggregating 400,000 I.H.P., and on warship engines of over 600,000 I.H.P.. This steam cylinder, which balances the valve of an engine and takes the weight off the eccentrics, is patented by David Joy, Son & Pryor, No..85 Gracechurch street, London, E. C. 'Mr. Joy is of "Joy valve gear" fame. Catalogue No. 60, issued by the Watson-Stillman Co., No. 204-210 East Forty-third street, New York, contains an assortment ot illustrated sheets selected from the illustrations of hydraulic machinery manufactured by them. The firm,manufactures a large line of high pressure tools for all purposes, and if a special machine of any sort in this line is required they are always prepared to make it with dispatch. Their facilities are of the highest. Recently the German imperial mail steamer General of the East African line sailed from Hamburg as an "extra steamer" for Cape Town, Durban and Delagoa bay, touching at Flushing, Lisbon and Las Palmas. This may be regarded as the virtual inauguration of the new German- African mail steamship line, although the subvention contract does not come into force before April 1, 1901. There will in future be two sailings per week, the boats going all round the African coasts, starting down the east and west coasts alternately. Mr. A. N. M. Gray of 25 Equitable building, Boston, who has an electric log that is said to be extraordinarily true (it was described in a recent issue of the Review) will shortly make arrangements for bringing his device to the notice of lake vessel masters. He has had some corre- spondence with Mr. W. C. Farrington, vice-president of the Northern Steamship 'Co., and expects before the close of navigation to have one of the Northern line boats tow one of the logs for inspection. One of them is now being used on the Atlantic by the Dominion line steamer New England and another is being towed by a Gloucester fisherman. TO MANUFACTURERS OF BOILERS AND BOILER PLATE... Regulations issued by the supervising inspector general of steam ves- sels regarding the data to be furnished the treasury department 'by manu- facturers of boilers and boiler plate are as follows: "To manufacturers of boilers and boiler plate: Notice is hereby given that the inspection of iron and steel plate under the act of congress ap- proved Jan. 22, 1894, must be confined exclusively to inspection of iron and steel to be used in the construction of new boilers of steam vessels. Manufacturers of boiler plate will hereafter be required to include in their application for inspection of plate at the mills the following information: Name of steamer, if she has one, upon which the boiler is to be used, for | which the plate is ordered; if the steamer is not yet named, then the name of builder of hull; for whom built; the waters upon which the steamer is to be navigated; United States local inspection district in which she will be inspected; number and thickness of plates for shell, steam chimneys. lining of same, shell of steam and mud drums; thickness of head and side sheets, domes, crowns of furnaces and 'back connections, "To insure prompt inspection of their material, manufacturers of boilers for steam vessels should supply the above information when for- warding their orders on a form substantially as follows: "Order for steel for marine boilers. "Only such plates as require government inspection to be shown on this sheet. "Plates for repairs or stock boilers will not be inspected at the mills, Material for such repairs will be inspected by the inspector in districts where the material is to be used. ' "All the information called for in table below is positively necessary to the assistant inspector so that he may determine intelligently the exact plates subject to tensile strain in the completed boiler. ess pastes Faroe a ees Se ee eae 19. ; ON ODE se ht eee ee es Ob se Re ees | Diem: waa, '| Thick- Seley = See Material. a. Length. | Width. here ee marks. "Name ot boiler: mantiiacturer,...0. 0645: ose es pati, uh es Kind oteboiler.. 35. oe Shop -Noi2....5 Diameter of boiler. Length of boiler. Steam pressure required. Are heads to be bumped or fat, «Name of builder of DO3at..:.... 34... ee Name or number of steamer for which boiler ts built,:.....0...04.5.4 +0 For whom built, Ste aia h OLS. ca ey Ale sis is ees Waters upon which steamer is to. be navicdted.: 1.6.60. . rs ie oe ls Tensile strength. Local inspection district in which completed boiler will be inspected. "The attention of manufacturers of boilers and boiler plate is partic- ularly directed to the requirements in above form, as assistant inspectors at the mills will be justified in refusing to make tests of orders upon fail- ure to give the information called for."