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TAE Marine REVIEW cs | Se chinery, so that on this showing the turbine is in the ag- gregate nearly 30 per cent more economical. That is the point for the owner of the ship; and here the guarantee was made with severe penalties attached. Of course, with turbines, the displacement and draught would be less as a result of the saving in weight of the machinery and as a consequence the power for 18 knots would be less, so that the rate per horsepower per hour would not show the same reduction as is the case with the aggregate per hous; but the important fact remains that, to do a given duty under given conditions, the turbine is regarded by some builders in designing channel steamers 'as quite 25 per cent more economical than the older type of propelling machinery. According to the Glasgow Herald, the Maheno, the latest of the turbine steamers built by Messrs. Denny and Brothers, Dumbarton, for the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand, is breaking all the records on:the routes on which she is sailing. She has done the trip between Sydney and Wellington in about three days, whereas not very long ago the same voyage required five days. She covered the distance from Gellibrand Light, Hobson's Bay, to Hobart, 462 miles, in 27 hours 32 minutes, and that from Hobazt to the Bluff in 58 hours 35 minutes. The average up to 'this point was seventeen knots. Along the New Zealand coast she did still better, going from Dune- din to Godley Head, 180 miles, in 10 hours 4 minutes, and from Lyttelton to Wellington Heads, 175 miles, in. 9 hours 51 minutes. In April the Maheno will make sev- eral runs from Sydney, Brisbane, Fiji, and Honolulu to Vancouver, a voyage of 7,000 miles. THE MARINE INTERNAL-COMBUSTION ENGINE. Alderman Sir Marcus Samuel, president of the Institute of Marine Engineers, in delivering his presidential ad- | dress said that although he prided himself upon being a practical ship owner he thought he might also pride himself upon the fact that he knew little of the details of engineer- ing. He had always found that the wisest man was he who left questions of highly technical detail to those who under- stood them. As he had been extremely fortunate in being closely associated with Sir Fortescue Flannery he had not felt it necessary to go personally into any details of engin- eering. But, fortunately, in connection with the em- ployment of engines he had, through his business, ac- quired a very intimate knowledge of two factors which he ventured to say were going ahead and would have an enor- mous influence on the future of marine engineers. If he might venture on a word of advice to those present, he would say--make yourselves entirely masters'of the con- struction and working of the internal-combustion engine. Let them remember that they would see exemplified in their daily lives the power of petroleum properly applied. He would like to point out a few of the enormous ad- vantages of the internal-combustion engine. 'Take; 'for example, a sailing ship. The enormous possibility of sav- ing labor on such a vessel was manifest, because the in- ternal-combustion engine. could be started at a single moment's notice. _He supposed he would not be exag- gerating when he said that it did not take two minutes to start the engine, and the moment the work was done the consumption of fuel ceased. The possibilities of its application were so great that he could hardly enumerate them all. a The industry associated with the internal-combustion engine was still in its infancy, and some interested parties had been at pains to raise a scare as to the supply of ben- zine. They might take it from him, however, that he saw no possibility of any demand overtaking the supply of benzine within measurable distance of time. They had practically a virgin territory in Borneo, where they were producing about 14,000 tons per week of crude petroleum, and he was very sorry to tell them that they had to destroy 4,000 or 5,000 tons weekly because they had not yet found a market for it. It remained for the marine engineers to . carry the application of the internal-combustion engine into their business. He had no hesitation in saying that, ) seeing the troubles they had with the donkey boilers, he would fit in every one of the vessel of their fleet an in--- ternal-combustion engine. But they were faced with a great difficulty that nothing but common sense and great determination on the part of all those concerned in the use of that marvellous power would ever overcome. He referred to the outrageous restrictions which were put. on the storage of benzine in this country. They did not find such restrictions in France or Germany, and he had constantly advocated that they should have a minister of commerce whose' business it should be to have investi- gated the regulations prevailing in different countries for things which, if we had similar freedom, would aid our British manufacturers. It had been left to the Japanese to be the first to order turbines which would use steam generated by liquid fuel, and his firm had been entrusted -- with the order for the material for building two of the largest and fastest boats for navigating the Pacific ocean. Those boats were to be fitted with turbines, contracted fo:, he hoped, in this country, and they were to burn liquid fuel. His friends, the Japanese, had been very wise and very right in so deciding. The development in regard to liquid fuel in California had been stupendous. Within a few years, say two or three years, the production of liquid fuel in California had amounted to millions of tons annually. He thought that very great czedit was due to the British navy, and to Sir John Dunston for being the first to move in a large sense in the use of liquid fuel. One of the greatest advantages of liquid fuel was that with perfect combustion there was not a vestige of smoke, and they could put on a turn of speed which it was quite im- possible to obtain with coal. SHIP BUILDING DURING FEBRUARY. The bureau of navigation réports 54 sail and steam vessels of 21.586 gross tons were built in the United States and offi- cially numbered during February, 1906, as follows: WooD STEEL Sait) "Steam Steam | No.|Gross|No.| Gross |No | Gross ||No.| Gross Atlantic and Gulfe. oe ees oe es 1331.2, 100 1-15 888 5 2,520 33 6,165 yoke a el Oe 6 Beak et ee Hawall oc eee Western Rivers........-. Bee aslo See ice pe 8 355 "Total aa 3.684 1 88 | 1,808 | 7} 16,200 || BA | Bi gee The Baltimore Steam Packet Co., Baltimore, Md., has given contract to the Maryland Steel Co. Sparrow's Point, Md., for the construction of a new freight steamer for the service between Norfolk and! Baltimore. The steamer is to be 233 ft. 8 in. long, 33 ft. beam and 23 ft. deep, including two covered decks for freight. The machinery is to consist of triple expansion engines with cylinders 14, 30 and 50 in. diameters by 30-in. stroke, supplied with steam from two Scotch boilers, 11 ft. 6 in. diameter and 11 ft. 6 in. long. Two pole masts with fore and aft canvas are to form an auxiliary feature of this ship.