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10 built in such a manner that it can be easily removed, while at the same time its construction is such that it will last as long as the balance of the dock in case congress does not authorize the. lengthening of the dock BETWEEN 'the towns of Godes- berg and Nieder- dollendorf, Ger- many, on the river Rhine, an electrical- ly operated ferry boat has been placed Mm operation. h- censed tO, = Carry about 650 passen- gers and four car- riages or other vehicles. This electric ferry boat is nearly 100 lone atid about 2) tt. wide, drawing less than 3 ft. of water: The height to the main iron deck is about 6 ft., and the length of the free deck about 50 ft., its breadth being about i at "Phis boat, shown in the' a-- sompanying illustration, Fig. 1, # constructed of Siemens-Martin steel, and is provided with a storage bat- tery room, an electric motor power compartment and acabin with bunks for the crew. The time required for this Hig. electric boat for crossing the river - Rhine between these two cities 1s from four to five minutes, and the THe Marine REVIEW at some time in the future. The dock as now designed will take the largest battleship built or contemplated. Bids for constructing the dock will be publicly opened at the navy depart- ment on May 22 next. ab Unique Rhine River Elec- tric Ferry Boat etrical .circait for «swhich is seen in Justration, side of .the river consisting of a pontoon about 16% ft. wide by 53% ft. long, connected to the shore by means of a bridge 82 ft. long and 26 ft, wide, on one side of the river, the bridge being about half this width on the other side of the river, The accompanying il-ustration, Fig, 2, shows the ldnding stage on one side with connections for charging the electric ferry boat, the plug con- _tact. being noted for closing the elec- charging the latter, the accompanying jl- Fig. 3. In this storage Fic. 2--LanpInc Stace WitH CONNECTION FOR CHARGING ELECTRIC RHINE FERRY- Boat SHOWING PLUG CONTACTS. . average current used by the port mo- tor is 137 amperes and by the star- board motor 142 amperes. There is a landing stage on e'ther Fic. 1--New Gree : MAN ELEcTRICALLY Driven Ferry Boat oN River RHINE, battery room, which is ventilated by anumber of offset pipes and port holes, there are 160 cells, the elements be- ing enclosed in -vulcanite cases. The batteries are arranged in 16 sets of 10 each, a wooden trough holding each complete set. The pressure is about 300 volts and the capacity of the storage battery on a one-hour discharge, is 335 ampere hours. The accompanying illustratian, Fig. 4, shows one of the two 50-horse- power motors of the interpole series types constructed at the Lahmeyer- werke at Frankfort-on-the-Main, for driving the propeller shaft. The two screws operate at a speed of 300 per minute and the motors the same are of light compact construction, the mag- net frames being of cast steel. BY means of the commutating poles it is possible to vary the speed within revolutions driving very wide limits without causing sparking at the brushes, and to fe verse the direction of rotation I! stantly without evil effects.