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1902.] MARINE REVIEW. | as this result has been its adaptation in serving power to widely distributed points and groups of buildings. It has insured greater freedom, a larger degree of movement in almost all branches of ship and engine construc- tion. Electric motors now economically perform the work of many small and scattered steam engines of the old type of ship yard. The cost of power by distributed steam engines is today prohibitive in private yards, compared to the economies effected by concentrated steam-power genera- tion. In so far as private and government yards have such work in com- mon, can the latter continue to employ antiquated methods of power dis- tribution? The wandering of work is likely to be excessive in such widely scat- tered buildings as exist in ship yards. It has at last been minimized, if not altogether obviated by the use of electrically-driven portable tools-- one of its adaptations specially invited by the extreme flexibility of the system. The similar movement of men and material has always con- stituted a like disadvantage in ship-yard work, to which the electric sys- tem has applied an efficient and economic check. It has been especially in the matter of dock repairs that the problems of lost time between shop and ship defied any solution till the introduction of portable tools. Any radius of action may be maintained at any time, and to any amount of power needed, and with less time required by the electric than by any other system for shifting of workmen, tools and material. Moreover, it admits of simultaneous operations, by portable tools independently driven or operated. Before proceeding to a detailed study of the application of electrical transmission in this field it will be helpful to make a general survey of what may be termed the navy-yard power problem. It goes without say- ing that such a problem is of necessity quite comprehensive. It involves considerations not to be found in private establishments and ship yards. From its functions, as related to the public service, there is no peculiar obligation to serve commercial interests. Irrespective, therefore, of what system may be best in special instances, let us outline some of the con- ditions to be met in any case regarding power supply for a navy yard. It will be understood that every system, either proposed or adopted--as steam, compressed air, hydraulic pressure, wire rope and electricity-- furnishes one or more of the suggested requirements composing any such general survey. No one system will solve the entire problem, expanding, as it is, in many directions simultaneously. Each year's experience furnishes new and more exacting requirements. That system which meets the largest number of conditions at the given time of its installation will be the best for that time. There is no guarantee but that in a decade or, less it may become antiquated. We refer to the system becoming anti- quated, not the equipment, machinery and appliances required for its util- ization. These latter, of course, will have to be put into the scrap heap, sometime, in any system, unless the government's navy yards are to become more interesting museums for mechanical curiosities than they are now. Waiving all other considerations, this question of replacement or scrapping is probably the last one to be carried out in these yards, though now so common in private establishments for various recognized eco- nomic reasons, Military and strategic considerations of the subject may be summed up as follows: To secure maximum efficiency of all navy-yard work by meeting the routine or emergency speed and power requirements neces- sary for intensified production, for any length of time and in any loca- tion within the yard enclosure; to secure rapid interchangeability through- - out the system, by standardization and duplication of units, elements and spare parts; to admit of rapid and non-interfering extension and expan- sion of power facilities for any kind of navy-yard work, either on peace or war footing; to reduce to a minimum all delays due to accidents, casualties and shut-downs inherent or peculiar to navy-yard work, that they may be easily and quickly made good without interfering with or stopping any part of the system; naval-shop repairs to be accompanied by no losses or wasteful operations during necessary idle periods of inter- mittent work; dock repairs to be efficiently and readily executed by port- able tools and shop appliances; power transmission and distribution sys- tem between shops, departments or buildings, to be kept out of all danger of the enemy's fire; to reduce to a minimum all fire risks, delays, casual- ties due to the enemy's shells; to continue all operations by supply of power from distant point, out of reach of an enemy, if the local navy- yard plant shuts down for any reason during a public exigency; to reduce to a minimum, especially during war, the necessity for supervision, super- intendence, repairs, renewals, replacements of units or parts of the same; to best conserve the health, morale, discipline of all workmen that their individual efficiency may be kept at a maximum and fewest men required to execute any given work, especially during war. Es The power plant should be located in an isolated house, reducing danger of fire from nearby sources; preferably by a water front for economy of fuel and water, and to secure transportation and conveying facilities for fuel, ashes and machinery. Transmission system to be simple, flexible, reliable, convenient of application throngh wide ranges of load requirements and necessary speed changes of machinery and tools; and to possess inherently a wide range of other applications to serve the functions of a navy yard. Equipment to admit of ready duplication, interchange and extension; that the generating units may be operated always at the most economic normal loads; that extensions of the transmission system may be made at any time, to any point and in any capacity; and that measurements of power wherever and whenever required may be readily made. Re-organization of the power equipment of existing navy yards to be interfered with in the least by introducing the new system, which must be such as to require the least scrapping of machines and tools. Expansion of shop facilities and arrangement of machinery and tools to better productive advantage, to be provided by new system, with such location in groups and shops as shall secure maximum output per square foot of floor space, rendering the location of shops and departments inde- pendent of the power consideration, that they may be placed on most aye ground, within necessarily limited areas of the navy-yard en- closure. : : Initial cost to be reasonable, but not necessarily the least expensive to be chosen, regardless of efficiency and cost of maintenance; and, while saving power, the interest, depreciation, repairs and renewals should be reduced to a minimum. : Operating features to permit of several simultaneous lines of work being executed on any project by portable tools; to allow of clear over- head room for traveling cranes; to allow of individual, group or sectional driving, as may be best suited to the machine or work in hand; and, if individual driving is adopted, to allow of wide, easily-controlled range of speed changes for maximum productive capacity of machine or tool; and to supply power for auxiliaries and transportation. In the system of transmission adopted, other applications than those of supplying power should, if possible, consist in supply of heat and light as required in a navy yard. SHIP BUILDING DURING THE PAST YEAR. Brief reference was made in the last issue of the Review to the report of Mr. E. T, Chamberlain, United States commissioner of navigation, regarding ship building in the United States during the year ended June 30. The report shows that during the year 1,657 vessels of 473,981 gross tons were 'built and officially numbered, compared with 1,709 ves- sels of 489,616 tons for the previous fiscal year. The proportion of un- rigged vessels (scows, canal boats, etc.) included in these figures is shown in the following table: 1902. 1901. No. Grosstons. No. Grosstons. Steam and sail vessels of regular register.. 1,360 416,479 1,178 401,285 Unrigged craft (scows, canal boats, etc.).. 297 57,502 536 88,331 Total s.e:svesshecs th nee ee 1,657 473,981 1,709 489,616 Excluding the unrigged craft, the commissioner presents the follow- ing Wires by districts, of vessels built during the year ended June WOOD. STEEL. TOTAL. SalL. STEAM. SAIL. STEAM. Gross Gross Gross Gross Gross Noe tons. |N°-) tons. Bp. tons. Bue tons. ||N°| tong. Atlantic and Pull i650 583 | 65,265 |290 | 19,021 8 9,223 | 62 | 102,647 || 943} 196,156 Porto. Ric0scc dca 5 BO cosasles oenes se icoeeelatoe ms ca, sl ee 5 PaCliie (osccsecssicc rcs 47 | 26072: |-90 |) 9,725 A lees a 2 10,707 || 189} 46,604 Hawail...3.c.a0 ei 1 91°71 TB cel wees ot acs eee 2 22 Great lakes............scsseeeee 8 2007) 655 |) 33240 | ieee: 52 | 161,797 || 125} 165,289 Western rivers............0005 6 114 BE) TOOT rele es 6 328 || 146} 8,369 Total, ccs a. 650 | 91,849 [580 | 39,928 8 9,223 | 122] 275,479 1360! 416,479 The decrease compared with last year is in sail vessels and canal boats, barges, etc. This year's new sail tonnage is 101,072 tons; last year's, 128,099 tons. This year's new canal boats, barges, etc., aggre- gate 57,502 tons; last year's, 88,3381 tons. New steel steamers aggregate 275,479 tons compared with 235,265 tons last year. Included in the total new tonnage are ninety-four vessels, each of over 1,000 tons, aggregating 315,062 tons, or two-thirds of the output. Of this large construction forty-one steel steamers of 158,631 tons were built on the great lakes. The lakes have built for ocean trade two West India fruit steamers, Watson and Buckman, of 1,820 tons each; one cargo steamer, Hugoma, of 2,182 tons, and two large cargo steamers, Minne- tonka and Minnewaska, of 5,270 tons each, cut in two to pass the Can- adian canals. ee The output of completed steel steamers on the seaboard has been much below the indications of last July. The launching of nearly every large steamer has been delayed from three to eight months, and some are still on the ways which by this time were to have been in operation. The delays have been partly due to the steel strike last summer, to the great demand for structural steel in all directions, to low ocean freights and the lack of new ship building orders, which has left builders and owners without motive for haste. Last July 255,000 tons of ocean steel steamers were under construction or under contract, while at pres- ent only about 160,000 tons are under construction and no new large seaboard contracts are reported. The year's new steamers on the seaboard, however, include the transatlantic liner Kroonland, 12,760 tons, the largest vessel ever built in this country; the Pacific Mail liner Korea, 11,276 tons, of 19 knots, the largest and fastest merchant steamer on the Pacific; Shawmut and Tre- mont, of 9,606 tons each, built for the opening trade with the Philip- pines, and Alaskan, 8,671 tons, for the New York-Hawaiian trade, the largest vessel ever launched into Pacific waters. The sister ships, Fin- land and Siberia, to the transatlantic and transpacific mail liners named, | have been launched and will be officially numbered and in operation in the early autumn. 'Two steamers, Nevadan and Nebraskan, of 4,408 tons each, have been added to and two more of 8,000 tons each are building for the steam fleet to Hawaii around Cape Horn. The remain- pee new ocean steamers of 1,000 tons or more are for local coasting trades. : Two steel full-rigged ships, William P. Frye and Atlas, 3,380 tons each, and five wooden barkentines of about 1,100 tons each have been added to our square-rigged fleet. New large wooden schooners number twenty of 34,471 gross tons. The steamer Weetamoo, which has been built to ply on Lake Suna- pee, N. H., was constructed in a novel manner, as her hull was built in Baltimore, her engines in Boston, and she was launched in New Hamp- shire. She was designed by Sinn & Page, and built in the Baltimore Ship Building & Dry Dock Co.'s yards in that city. As soon as the hull was complete it was taken apart, and the pieces carefully numbered, loaded upon gondola cars, and shipped by rail to Lake Sunapee. At about the same time the boilers for the boat were purchased in Elmira, N. Y., and the engines in Boston, and shipped to the lake. About three weeks ago, Mr. Page superintended the relaying of the keel at the lake, and the riveting of the plates was begun at once. As soon as the boat was ready for the engines and,boiler, they were put aboard and set up, and a few days ago the steamer was launched, and was in as good condition as if she had been put overboard where she was built. She is 60 ft. long, and has a capacity for eighty passengers. A new towboat to take the place of the Pittsburgh harbor towboat anirlarie is now being built at the Elizabeth Marine Ways, Elizabeth, a. : '