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1903.] MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE, RECORD, the regular navy at the outset of a fight it might be the means of preventing a disaster. The British authorities assign another important reason for discouraging a special Canadian force, and it is that the men trained by Canada as proposed would mostly all drift across the border and join the American navy, just as they form the main- stay of the American fishing fleet today. 'The contention is that the higher pay and lighter work would be a great inducement for them to migrate to the United States and join the warships there, in the absence of any imperial obligation such as binds the Newfoundlanders to the imperial service. The only remedy for this would be to establish the battalion as an imperial aux- iliary, under the same conditions as Newfoundland's, and failing in this, a disappointment, if not a failure, is predicted. 'The lack of a central authority is recognized by all to be a decided defect in the scheme, and it may ultimately transpire that Canada's force may be converted into an imperial corps and utilized accordingly. Meanwhile, however, the fact remains that it is to be organized as a colonial battalion, and the outcome of the experiment should not be without interest for the United States as well as Canada and Great Britain. FINANCIALSTATEMENT NORTHERN NAVIGATION CO The annual meeting of the Northern Navigation Co. of Ontario was held at Collinwood recently. The report for the year ended Dec. 31, 1902, shows that the paid-up capital stock was inoreased during the year from $560,000 to $840,000 to pur- chase the minority stock of the Northwest Transportation Co. and to pay for the new steamer Huronic, which was completed last spring and placed on the Sarnia-Lake Superior route. There was expended on permanent improvements and charged to current expenses $24,849.64. Following is the financial statement: ASSETS. Poemeleatiets. a es Ce $632,478.28 Puts and Plant. ok. a 11,546.16 Meet crandise and Me joie kis i 4,391.21 Peiaece UNE PITEd cc ee se 6,277.77 ee QUMt a TeCelWalle 60 Ch ee oe ee 25,799.83 Be Oe a a ee a 485.36 $980,978.61 LIABILITIES. : (otal tock. ee a eee $840,000.00 WReSt BCCOUR: hoo ce. we Scone cee es oes 2 OO D0 BO) Prot apd Wes 20. 15,725.09 Bank.ot/beronto § 4 29,602.39 ACCOUMLS pave Die) 6.46003. 45 6 eo 5,050.53 $980,978.61 PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT'. Balance iat: credit (00h 3. .62 575. $ 12,356.11 Grossveagrnuaas. ofesteamers ik was $532,301.48 otal empenses 443,781.56 Wel a ee 88,519.92 Premium on 2,786 shares at 10 per cent....$ 27,860.00 Premium on sale of fourteen shares...... 673.50 28,533.50 $129,409.53 APPROPRIATIONS. Half-yearly dividend paid July 1, 1902, on. 5,600 Shares, at 5 per cent eer $ 28,000.00 Half-yearly dividend paid Jan. 2, 1903, on 8,400 Suances, at 5 per eet es a es 2G 41,773.84 Directors' compensation and expenses ......i...,. 5. 3,910.00 Mtepstercen to resteaccount: 0050622. 40,000.00 Palace af credit 5 eee. DEPP es a 15,725.09 $129,409.53 McDERMOTT'S PROPELLER COMPUTER The screw propeller computer made by Prof. Geo. R. Mc- Dermott of the school of naval architecture, Cornell University, and which was recently described and illustrated in these col- umns, is fast meeting with favor. It is the size of a small book, composed of one stationary and two moveable discs carrying suitable scales, accurately engraved, and is designed for the pur- pose of furnishing a means, whereby the dimensions and pro- portions of screw propellers--diameter, pitch, surface, revolu- .tions, slip and efficiency--can be quickly and accurately deter- mined for any given case or set of conditions. |Engineer-in- Chief Geo. Wi. Melville of the navy has had the computer ex- amined and finds that it gives results with as great accuracy as the known data in such calculations will warrant. "Somewhat over a year ago," says Admiral Melville, "I directed Mr. Wil- liams of my office to embody the results of Froude's experiments in a logarithmic chart, the curves of which were faired with great care. For testing the computer, we have, therefore, used the chart rather than the table given by Barnaby. We were at first somewhat skeptical about the computer, as it did not seem 29 possible to condense so many different curves into one or two arbitrary scales without introducing undesirable errors. The purely logarithmic scales of the computer we accepted as correct, after verifying the relations of exponents by comparing the scale lengths corresponding to the ratio 10. To test the arbitrary scales we selected seven widely separated points on the chart, and, working back to the screw data, compared these to the results given by the computer, all of which were tabulated." The tabular statement to which Admiral Melville refers gives results in a number of cases covering a wide range of propeller practice, showing that the computer gives values within one- half of 1 per cent. of that obtained by the use of Froude's ori- ginal data. Mr. P. C. Walter of Chas. P. Willard & Co., Chicago, build- ers of marine engines and boilers, steam yachts, tug boats, etc., says in a letter to the Review: "I am free to admit that some of the intricate problems of propeller practice are very much of a task with me, and my first efforts to make use of Prof McDer- mott's computer were not altogether successful, but an explana- tion from him regarding the workine of the device has made sev- eral points clear to me and the results are now highly satisfac- tory. This recommendation is unsolicited." COL. HENRY C. PROUT. _ The announcement that Col. Henry Coates Prout, formerly editor-in-chief of the Railroad Gazette, has been appointed first vice-president and general mana- ger of the Union Switch & Sig- nal "Co., was . the 'occasion of genuine pleasure to his many friends and acquaintances, espe- 'cially those associated with rail- road affairs. The switch and signal apparatus manufactured by this company is used by the foremost railroads in the United States.: [he company was or- ganized in 1883, with a capital of $1,500,000, and has been en- , gaged in the manufacture of every | known form of automatic and Semi-automatic railroad signals. | The appointment of Col. Prout as the executive head of the com- -pany means that it has secured the best man obtainable for the post. In the fall of 1863, Col. Prout enlisted in a Massachusetts regiment. In the army of the Potomac he went. through the Wilderness campaign. In 1865 he was mustered out, and two years later entered the University of Michigan, where he graduated with the degree of civil en- gineer. He had a few years work on railroad surveys and con- struction, and two summers were spent in taking surveys in the Rocky mountains. After this experience, he entered the service of the khedive of Egypt, as a major of engineers. He re- mained in that service about four years and a half and reached the grade of colonel in the general staff. After the first year, . he went to the Soudan in command of an expedition to Kerdofan and Darfour, and thence he was sent to the head of the Nile as governor-general of the provinces of the Equator. Col. Prout's work here was largely administrative. He had 3,000 soldiers under him and was supreme over finance, civil and military affairs. After his return to America, he was for a little over a year civil engineer to the company out of which the Union Switch & Signal Co. grew. Col. Prout was in business in the city of New York for a few years, and in March, 1857, became the editor of the Railroad Gazette. As the editor of the Gazette he built an enviable reputation, well founded upon his high profes- sional skill and his character as a man.. He established a standard of editorship which will probably long continue as that journal's most valuable asset--one that will be hard indeed to live up to, much more to surpass. In recognition of Col. Prout's splendid work as an editor and journalist, Yale university last year gave him the honorary degree of master of arts. The navy department has issued a circular defining the characteristics of the gunboats Dubuque and Paducah, bids for which are about to be called for. These vessels will be of the following dimensions: Length on load water line, 174 ft.; breadth, extreme, 35 ft.; mean draught to bottom of keel at trial displacement, 12 ft. 3 in.; mean draught, full load, about 13 ft. 5% in.; total coal bunker capacity, about 200 tons; coal carried on trial, about 100 tons; displacement on trial, 1,080 tons. The vessels will be required to make 12 knots on trial. The hull will be composite to a point about 2 ft. 3 in. above load water line amidships, above which point it will be entirely steel The arma- ment will consist of. six 4-in. rapid-fire guns, four 6-pounder rapid-fire guns, two I-pounder rapid-fire guns and two Colt auto- matic guns. 'The engines will be vertical, twin-screw, triple-ex- pansion type. The Cleveland Punch & Shear Works has begun shipments on an order involving the supply of $50,000 worth of tools to the Great Lakes Engineering Works, Detroit.