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"TAE MarRINE. REVIEW ; 37 company, painted July 31, 1905 and hauled out at the same time the Twohy was hauled out but with bottom almost perfectly clear from any marine growth and the iron under the paint perfectly protected from all corrosion. The McCauley had been painted with the Marine Paint Corpor- ation's product and the Twohy with another product. For this paint it is claimed it will stick equally well above and below the water line and preserve an unbroken casting which prevents fouling as wellas pitting, MR. WALLACE ON THE PANAMA CANAL. In the Engineering Magazine for March, Mr. John F. Wallace, formerly chief engineer of the Panama canal, con- tinues the account of his experience during the year in which he was in charge of construction work in the canal zone. In this article Mr. Wallace declares it to be his belief that it will require more time and money eee to construct a high level canal on the 8s-foot plan on 'a the present method of government control than it will to construct a sea-level canal, provided the work is accomplished by modern efficient business methods. He ad- vocates either placing the work in the hands of one Midi, a practical engineer with unlimited authority, or letting the work to one large contracting firm. Continuing he says: "Of the factors which exercise the greatest. deterrent in- fluence in the accomplishment of satisfactory results under direct governmental control the first is found in the laws gov- erning the disbursement of public funds. The official and the commercial ideals are evidently diametrically opposed. Whether, after all the governmental methods secure greater honesty, or less scandal in connection with disbursements, can best be judged by a comparison of the history of the government bureaus with that of our great engineering enter- prises under corporate management. It should be apparent to every thinking man that when the work must be conducted 2,000 miles away from a seat of government, a policy. impos- ing the necessity of referring all important questions to Washington and submitting them there to men who neces- sarily cannot be conversant with the conditions on the isthmus unless they are informed by the parties on the ground, cannot give satisfactory results, no matter how hon- est or efficient the supervising officials may be. I may per- haps feel too strongly on this point, but my experience at Panama--my occasional contact with governmental methods reaching back to a service of five years as assistant engineer on river and harbor improvements, has convinced me that attempts to carry on constructive work under the direction 'of Washington bureaus, especially when the work is large. complicated and distant from the seat of government--are conducive of extravagance and waste, as to both time and money. I am emphatically of the opinion that governmental functions on the isthmus should be confined exclusively to a general supervision of the work and enforcement of such simple ordinances and sanitary regulations as may be neces- sary to secure the peace and the health of the community affected by the constructive work. "Tf the experience had not been so serious I should look back to my first connection with this enterprise and the ex- perience gained therewith and smile to think I had been so innocent as to suppose myself able to overcome the long settled influences heretofore indicated, or to impress my individuality upon the work or employ in it the methods with which I had been familiar for years. The usefulness of any man who might be called in as an engineer of demonstrated capacity to supervise an enterprise of this character is natur- ally measured by the extent eto which he may be premitted to use his own methods and make available the result of his past experience. To expect that any person who is really qualified to conduct the work will radically change his methods, which have been the outcome of a lifetime of exper- ience and adapt himself to mossgrown government methods, is to expect thé impossible. It demands that a man should be content to ignore the instincts of his profession and subject himself to the various influences brought to bear upon him, drifting along ina perfunctory way, satisfied to draw his compensation, hoping that in some way or other he may be able eventually to see the work completed, or wasting the best years of his life in the partial accomplishment of it." CALDWELL IMPROVED BALANCED FLOAT VALVE. The Caldwell improved balanced float valve, represented in the accompanying cut, is a balanced. water valve that can be easily operated under any reasonable pressure, making it a very ° superior float valve which requires a small float for a large valve. This valve is always of the angle kind with entry on the side. The interior of this valve has the shape of a cylinder and contains two pis- tons on the same rod. The pressure enters between these two pistons and is held by them without caus- ing any action on same. One of these pistons is the valve disk. This one fits the valve seat tightly, leather being used between the two metal surfaces to pesfect the seat. The other piston is made to move and retain a tight joint with the inside of cylinder by means of a cup- leather. This piston is necessary to balance the moving parts of the valve, and packs the end. of valve. The valve stem protrudes and is joined with-the lever operating it, making the valve self-packing. All the parts contained on the valve stem are secured to. the same by the nut on the lower end, making it easy to assemble these parts and hard to derange them. All of these parts can be removed from the body of the valve without disconnecting same from pipe. line, by unscrewing the brass cylinder. You can then attend to any part of valve.. The lever containing float can be turned in any direction that may suit the user. The vertical angle of lever can be changed by screwing or unscrewing the bracket that sustains the lever. : Directions.--Connect the valve so' that the stem will be vertical with lever on top. Always let pressure enter side of valve. The valve does not require to be in the tank to be filled, but can be used outside in any position suitable. The valve can be used in any kind of liquid that will not destroy the leather. For enclosed vessels, such as feed water heaters. we can furnish plans and parts to connect valve, at but little additional cost, so that it will be on the outside of vessel and be automatically operated by float in the vessel. The valve cannot be used where there is very much back pressure. When used in fluids that destroy leather, we supply speciai metallic packing instead. --