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al MARINE REVIEW. _ [May 1 ITEMS OF GENERAL INTEREST. Commissioners of the port of Portland (Oregon) are having plans made for the construction of a wooden sectional floating dry dock to cost about $185,000. The plans are being prepared by James E. Blackwell of Seattle, Wash. It is expected that bids for construction of the dock will be called for in about thirty days. The Spedden Ship Building Co. of Baltimore has sold to the United States Marine Hospital Service the tug Neptune, built by that company in 1898. She is to be used in national quarantine service. The Neptune is of 117 tons gross register, 105 ft. long and 21% ft. beam, with hull and house of steel. She has fore-and-aft compound engines and Scotch boiler. Naval Constructor Lawrence Spear has submitted his resignation to the president, to take effect in May. Mr. Spear is now on duty at New York and resigns to enter a commercial business: He graduated at the head of his classes both at the naval academy and the royal school, Green- wich, England, where he took an advanced course in naval architecture. A keel has been laid at Boole's ship yard, Oakland, Cal., for the fourth vessel to be built there for Hind, Ralph & Co. of San Francisco. The new vessel is to be of wood, a barkentine, and will have the same dimensions as the recently completed Koko Head, namely, length of keel, 215 ft.; length over all, 246 ft.; depth, 17 ft.; and beam, 41 ft. Boole & Son are expecting an order for the construction of a steam schooner of 235 ft. length. Gustav H. Schwab of the North German Lloyd Steamship Co. was defeated for a directorship in the New York Maritime Exchange by A. B. Eldridge, a towboat proprietor. The vote cast was 157 for Mr. Schwab to 264 for Mr. Eldridge. The other officers elected were: 'C. B. Parsons, president; Charles R. Norman, vice-president; Louis T. Romaine, treas- urer; directors, John A. Cormack, Wallace Downey, G. B. Lockhardt, Fields S. Pendleton and J. Raymond Smith. Plans are being prepared by the navy bureau of yards and docks for the construction of one of the largest dry docks in the United States at the New York navy yard. The new dock is to be placed between. dry docks Nos. 1 and 2. It will cost about $1,000,000, and will be built entirely of concrete. When finished it will be large enough to accommodate the largest of the battleships of the navy or any the department may build in the near future. It will be 600 ft. long by 90 ft. wide at the bottom, with a clearance of 31 ft. of water over the sill. It is expected that the new - dock, if there are no unforseen delays, will be ready for use in three years. In an interview in Washington Rear-Admiral Melville,' chief of the bureau of steam engineering, said that he was gratified to learn that the opinion of the greatest living*scientist--Lord Kelvin--was a confirmation - of his own individual ideas as to airships and as to Santos-Dumont's in particular. Such a statement coming from Lord Kelvin. must, in: the: admiral's view, be taken ex-cathedra, for it is that of the highest authority. The admiral said that Santos-Dumont's work was a conspicuous example of the tendency in humanity to turn to false gods and to disregard the useful--the same tendency that prefers the thing of show to. that of com- fort and use, the mechanical sham to the tried and true device. No branch of engineering rests on a thinner and more illogical support than that which is by courtesy called "rial navigation." To prove that the problem of erial navigation, though popular, is just the opposite of promising and unworthy of the interest which many people take in it, Admiral Melville re- cently wrote an article for the North American Review, in which he asserts that the hope for the commercial practicability of the balloon is a dream; that those who proclaim the proximate and perfect utility of the balloon or flying machine beg the question and "wrangle resolutely with the facts," and that existing physical relations, so far as can be determined by science today, give no hope for the solution of the problem, the op- posite in fact, if anything. He calls attention to the fact that the steam- ship and automobile have grown from two historical germs, the dugout and the two-wheeled cart, but that no germ. for the development of the balloon or flying machine can at present be seen. The kite is attached to the earth; the balloon and soaring machine have to obey the whim of the wind. Neither in time of peace nor war could any extended and suc- cessful use be made of the balloon or flying machine. AROUND THE GREAT LAKES. The Watson, one of the fruit steamers built at the Craig works, To- ledo, for ocean service, has just left for the seaboard. , er Capt. John Byrne, for several years master of the steamer Owego of the Union Steamboat line, died Tuesday, after an illness of two months. Capt. William Cumming, who was appointed master of the Hanna steamer William F. Fitch, building at Detroit, has decided to .remain ashore. 'Capt. A. J. Greenley has resigned as master of the steamer Rens- selaer of the Steel Corporation fleet to take the Fitch. ey . The sandbar formed outside the harbor at South Chicago during the past winter, upon which the Steel Corporation steamer Frank Rockefeller grounded two weeks ago, has been surveyed and marked with a red and white buoy. The bar covers about three acres, over which the water is only about 15 ft. deep. The branch hydrographic office at Cleveland announces that word has been received from Mr. Thomas L. Wilkins, lightkeeper of Presque Isle pier head light station, Lake Erie, that a sand bar has formed to the southward of gas buoy No. 2, and between that buoy and the east end of north channel pier. Boats should keep well to the southward of gas buoy No. 2 before turning to enter the harbor. The New Doty Manufacturing Co., Janesville, Wis., manufacturers of punching and shearing machinery, is making a ntimber of additions to its plant, necessitated by the increase in business. A pattern storage room, 30x70 ft., three stories high, will be built, also a new pattern shop and an extension to its machine shop of 60x70 ft. The company will also install a number of new tools. Special harbor charts, covering all harbors of importance throughout the great lakes, have been issued within the past year by the lake survey es rit ae Prices are in all cases very low. The Review carries them in stock. af A BIG TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM. Westinghouse steam turbines are to be adopted in the electric gene- rating station to be built for the Metropolitan Railway Co. of London, the contract having just been given to the British Westinghouse Electric & Mfg. Co. of Manchester. The latter company is now filling a similar contract for the Metropolitan District Electric Traction Co., and as there will be a general similarity in the two stations, it will be easy to arrange for connecting the two and making them interchangeable, as far as the supply of current is concerned, which feature was required by the terms of the franchises of the two:roads. The Metropolitan power station will be located at Neasden in the northwest of London and will contain three sets of 3,500 kilowatts capacity each. The Chelsea station of the Metropolitan District' Railway will contain four sets of 5,000- kilowatts each. The electrical machinery for both stations will also be supplied by the Westinghouse company. The current will be three-phase alter- nating and of 10,000 volts, to be transformed in sub-stations to direct current for use in the car motors. AA It will be remembered that the matter of equipping the Metropolitan road electrically was the cause of a long and hard-fought battle before a court of arbitration between the Ganz. polyphase and the American - direct-current systems of working, the American system, which finally triumphed, being espoused by the District Railway under the leadership of Mr. Charles T: Yerkes.: The. steam for the immense steam turbines in the District and Metropolitan plants will be generated in water-tube boilers. The aggregate power of the two plants will be 30,500 kilowatts. It is hoped that in a year and a half the equipment will be complete and in working order. Both roads are underground and the change to elec- tric traction will be an important and desirable step in the solution of London's transportation problem. etd 7 4 The first cement plant in»Canada tobe operated by electric power is that of the National Portland Cement Co. at Durham, Ont. All of the cement-making machinery in this plant will be driven by induction motors supplied with current by two Westinghouse 450 K.W., three-phase alter- nators. These machines are ofthe engine type with revolving fields and run at 125 revolutions per minute, 3,000 alternations and 600 volts. Two exciting units are provided, one consisting of 624% K. W., 125 volt, engine-type, D. C. generator, direct connected to an automatic engine, and the other of a 5614 K. W. machine coupled to an induction motor, The output of the exciters will be used not: only for exciting the fields of the A. C. generators, but also for arc and incandescent lighting 'throughout the works and grounds. The Westinghouse company also furnishes the eight-panel switchboard and instruments. CANALS TO COST ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILLIONS. Mr. Carl B. Hurst, United States consul general at Vienna, makes a special report regarding a measure for a new system of canals, which has just been adopted in Austria. 'This undertaking, will do more," he says, "than anything yet enacted in Austria to promote the commerce of the country. It will not only bring the yarious.provinces into closer touch, but will also afford the cheapest freight connections with Ger- many and Russia." ; : ae The measure provides, first, for a canal from'the Danube to the Oder; second, for a canal from the Danube to the Moldau, near Budweis; third, for a canal from the Danube-Oder 'canalito the upper Elbe, and fourth, for a canal from the Danube-Oder canal to the Vistula and to some navigable portion of the Dniester. There will be about 1,000 miles of navigable waterways, which will be constructed by the state with co- operatiori of the provinces, districts and towns, and especially of Vienna and Prague. The contributions of the municipalities and provincial authorities can be made either. by single payment or in annual instalments, or through the erection of certain works, stich 'as harbors, docks or streets leading to them, or through the cession of land or water rights. - The work: of construction will begin at the latest during 1904, and the entire system will be finished within twenty years. The cost of construc- tion; in:so far as it will not be covered by contributions, is to be met by an issue of 4 per cent. tax free government bonds, redeemable within ninety years. The government is empowered to issue these bonds to an amount not exceeding $50,750,000 during the period of construction, from the year 1904 to 1912, and the money thus raised shall ibe used only in building the designated waterways. For the expense after 1912 due pro- vision will be made by law. The entire cost of construction is estimated ~ at $152,150,000, and the canals will be designed to admit boats up to 600 tons burden. AMMUNITION EXPENDED IN BATTLE. -Rear-Admiral Charles O'Neil, chief of the bureau of ordnance, navy department, recently prepared some interesting figures on the subject of ammunition expended in the battles of Manila and Santiago. In the fight at Manila the United States ships expended 132 tons of ammunition, in- cluding. powder; the cost was. $50,044. Nearly 67 tons of metal were thrown in 5,858 discharges. Of these, 1,413 rounds were fired by the main batteries of the fleet and 4,445 by the secondary batteries. The ammunition expended in destroving the Spanish fleet off' Santiago amounted to 164.7 tons; the projectiles thrown weighed 114.3 tons. Thirteen hundred rounds were fired from the main batteries,' 8,174 from the secondary, a total of 9,474 rounds. Of this number only 124, or 1.3 per cent., are known to have hit their marks. The Oquendo was struck sixty-one times, the Vis- caya twenty-eight times, the Maria Teresa twenty-nine times, and the Colon six times. Recent target practice in the British navy has developed avery much: gréater percentage of hits, yet in that practice the targets were stationary, and the vessels firing were moving at a fixed speed. In the battle off Santiago, however, the targets were moving as rapidly as they could and the pursuing vessels following at constantly increasing speed. As the figures stand, the cost of ammunition to the United States in de- feating Spain at sea was only about $175,000, of which $134,909.11 was spent in the two decisive battles of Manila and Santiago. : Hard coal 'shipments from Buffalo during April aggregated, 164,650 tons. This is just a straw showing what an early opening of navigation means. .In some. seasons. Buffalo, shipments of hard coal duri Apri would amount to practically nothing. a