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' part of the coast that he may approach. 24 | MARINE REVIEW. Bane 18 ship and her speed are taken into account. And here, before departing from the question of protection, it may be said that protection of the turret guns is of 125 millimeters (5 in.) in thickness at the front, the material being of hard steel, while at the back it is 90 millimeters (3% in.) in thickness of soft nickel steel; the ammunition hoists are also of nickel steel 75 millimeters (3 in.) in thickness. The casemates are 80 millimeters (31% in.) thick in front and 35 millimeters (13 in.) at the back. : There is a further improvement in the Variag design in respect that, in addition to the magazines forward and aft, there is one of considerable size amidship, so that the supply of ammunition to the guns amidship is much quicker, and is maintained with less likelihood of danger. There are hoists to all the guns, worked by electric power, but fitted also with gear for operating them by manual labor. As to the coal supply, it may be noted that while the enormous supply in the Variag was given as 600 tons, it is 720 tons in the case of the vessels of the Bogatyr type, the total coal capacity being 1100 tons. While the Variag had Niclausse boilers, the Bogatyr and the four other ships now being ordered will have sixteen Normand-Sigaudy boilers to supply steam to the twin-screw triple-expansion four cylinder and four crank engines, which are to develop 20,000 I.H.P. and to give a speed of 23 knots. The general appearance of the vessel will be easily seen from the elevation which accompanies this article. HAMILTON-FOSTER FOG SIGNAL. Few persons who are not familiar with the subject have any idea of the amount of time and money that has been spent in attempts to render navigation safe and practicable under the ever-changing conditions of wind and weather. The United States light-house board has done its work so effectually that a person can sail entirely around seaboard and lake coasts without ever being out of sight of a light-house, and every channel and entrance is clearly marked. The most careful scientific researches have been made for the purpose of ascertaining which is the most power- ful and effective light and how lenses should tbe arranged so that these lights shall carry to the greatest distances. Where light-houses cannot be built, light ships are anchored, and where a light ship cannot live, gas buoys and other devices of the buoy kind have been placed. In daylight, this immense system enables the mariner to recognize any In the darkness his position is equally clear to him, 'because every light is different, some being white, some red, some flashing and some steady, and every one of them absolutely reliable ; from sunset to sunrise. But the mo- ment a fog settles down wpon the sea, the whole system becomes absolutely useless, and light-houses which have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to build and equip are powerless to . render the slightest assistance to the mariner. Instead of sight, he must now depend upon hearing, and his only guide is a series of howling sirens, placed at very irregular intervals along the coast, and a few whistling buoys, tossing restlessly upon the surface of : the waves. The whole of the present system of fog signals is incomplete and unsatis- factory, simply because it is recognized as being ineffectual. There is some de- fect in the human ear which renders it impossible for a person to determine with accuracy the direction from which a sound comes, especially in thick weather. Seafaring men used to think that the fault was with the sound itself, which was in some way deflected, but experiments have proved that the faut is in the hearing and not in the sound, because it has been shown that two officers standing on the bridge of the same ship have differed as much as 90° in their estimate of the direction from which a sound came. To remedy this defect, a number of contrivances have been used to locate the sound, but they are open to the objection that the sound may cease before there is time to use the apparatus, and also that every vessel must have one, so that instead of the mariner being provided with some good and sufficient warning of his danger and the direction of it, each individual vessel must provide itself with an apparatus for finding out its position. The Hamilton-Foster fog signal has 'been recognized by the United States light-house board as the first successful attempt to remedy this de- fect in our system of fog signaling. Its main principle is that it makes the signal, itself tell where it is. This is accomplished by confining the sound of the 'ordinary siren in a megaphone, so that instead of spreading it out all round the horizon, it shall be projected toward one point of the compass. In the light-house machine there are eight of these megaphones, each pointing toward one of the principal points of the com- pass, and through each megaphone a different signal, consisting of long and short blasts, is blown. It has been found from experiment that when a vessel is at a short distance from the signal, say half a mile, the mega- phone which is pointed directly toward it can be heard with tremendous force while the others are hardly audible. At greater distances, from two to ten miles, it is impossible to hear any sounds except those from the megaphone pointed directly toward the observer, consequently the listener knows by the-signal that he hears which of the megaphones is pointed at him, If he hears one long and two short blasts, he knows that the fog signal bears S, E. from him. If he hears two signals with equal distinct- ness, the danger must be between those two points, S. E. E. for example. The full code is as follows: One long 'blast, signal is N. of you; one short blast, it is S. of you. Two long blasts, signal is N..E. of you; two short blasts it is S. W. of you. One long and one short, signal is E. of you; one short and one long, it is W. of you. One long and two short, signal is S. E. of yau; two short and one long, it is N. W. of you. It will be observed that all the signals signifying the general direction of east begins with a long blast, while those signifying the general direc- tion of west begin with a short blast. Opposite points of the compass have opposite signals, so that if a person learns half the code, he knows it all. This apparatus was erected at Falkner Island and was thoroughly tested by a committee appointed by the light-house board in Washington. The report of this committee was so satisfactory that the government im- mediately purchased the apparatus as it stood, and appropriations will be made for the construction of similar signals at other points. A modification of the same machine is intended for use on board ships, the chief difference being that instead of eight megaphones, the signals are projected through a single revolving megaphone, which is so controlled that no matter how much or how often the ship changes its course the signals will always be blown to the right points of the com- pass. By means of this apparatus, one vessel meeting another will be able to tell the exact compass bearing of the vessel which it hears signaling. Another variation of the same system is in course of construction for use on ferry slips. In this apparatus there are only two megaphones, one of which blows a single blast, meaning "keep to the right," and the other a double blast, meaning 'keep to the left." These sounds are projected from the end of the ferry slip, and by their means it has been found that a ferry boat can run right into its slip without trouble in the densest fog. The illustration shows the apparatus as intended for light houses and which is now on exhibition in the light-house branch of the government building at the Pan-American exposition, in Buffalo. Headquarters of the Hamilton-Foster Co. are in the Bowling Green building, No. 11 Broad- way, New York. STRIKE DELAYING NAVAL WORK. A Washington dispatch announces that the machinists' strike has affected work at nearly every private ship building yard where United States warships are under construction. It is believed at the navy de- partment that considerable delay on these vessels will result, but the con- tractors will not be obliged to pay penalties to the government on that account, as every contract takes into consideration the contingency of strikes. The Union Iron Works of San Francisco, which has the battle- ship Ohio and other vessels on the stocks, has reported to the depart- ment that of its 5,000 machinists, 4,700 have gone out. The company granted them their demand for a nine-hour day, and made other conces- sions, but declined to give the advance in wages demanded. Lewis Nixon of Elizabethport, N. J., reports that he has secured the return of a num- ber of his men through making concessions. The William R. Trigg Co. of Richmond, Va., and the Risdon Iron Works of San Francisco are also suffering from the strike. Some naval officers express the opinion that work on every naval vessel under construction will be delayed for the period taken to settle the strike, Colonial and Yosemite are the names selected for two large freight steamers which are being built by the Detroit Ship Building Co, for aie E. Kirby and others of Detroit and which will be launched next month,