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September, 1909 TAE Marine Review Buk FREIGHTER J. Q. RIppLE. Steel hatch covers are still employed, but they are of the telescopic type and opened and closed singly or in groups by machinery. In the matter of eyuip- ment no cargo ships in the world com- "laker." There is no improvement in steam steer- pare with the once despised ers, windlasses, winches, electric light- ing, ballast handling, etc. which they are without. In the matter of handling water bal- last alone there are no ships in the same class. Where 10,000 tons of car- go is put aboard in two or three hours from making port, 3,000 or 4,000 tons of water must be disposed of with ce- lerity. And in the matter of finish, space and convenience of accommoda- tions they are absolutely unique, if the term can be applied in the plural sense. The "glorified barge' makes no con- temptible showing alongside any cargo ship anywhere, they lack something in strength and seaworthiness have never lived out a winter gale on Lake Superior. Ships have come to the lakes from other parts of the world, even from the Clyde and the northeast coast and have made no better showing in Lake Superior weath- er; they have even disappeared and left no trace of ship or crew, and they were not built after lake models either, but after the tried and true good old tramp type. The average sea-going master would not for any consideration venture to sea in light trim except on an evel keel, and in a bit of sea his propeller is fanning air a large share of the time, while the modern type with ma- chinery aft and liberal water ballast will go along comfortably and make good headway. Some day the ocean-going bulk freighter will develop to the stand- ard now existing on the lakes, and when that time comes the builders of the lakes will have set the goal still further ahead, and those who think -- RECENT MARINE REPAIRS BY THE THERMIT PROCESS. The Thermit process has been. util- ized for some important steamship repairs within the last few months, more especially in the welding. of' stern posts and rudder stocks. . The largest repair of this kind which «has been made in some time was _ carried' out for the Clyde Line at the dry docks of Tietjen & Lang, Hoboken, 345 packed. with sand, space being pro- vided for a collar surrounding the broken sections and for a pouring gate and riser. Yellow wax was used as a pattern and the molding mate- 'rials consisted of one-third fire. clay, ene third ground. fire brick and one- third sand was packed around 'this as a' matrix. Wooden patterns. were used for the gate, riser and smiall preheat- ing hole in the bottom of the mold. 'In making Thermit welds it is necessary to bring the sections to ibe welded to a red heat so that when the super-heated. Thermit steel. produced by the. reaction between the alumi- "num and iron oxide, is potrred into the mold it will melt up the ends of the pieces to be welded together and 'unite with them to form a homoge- neous. mass when cooled. The fact that these' welds may be made with- out. removing the broken parts from the ship effects a marked saving in "both time and expense. In the case cof 'the Arapahoe the vessel went into dry dock at 7:30 in the morning and by 6 p. m. the next day was ready for service--the total time consumed FRACTURE OPENED BY DRILLING READY FOR PLACING Moxp. N.. J., on 'the steamship Arapahoe, a vessel of 4,000 gross tons. The re- pair consisted in welding the stern frame of the vessel, which was broken about 24 in. aft of the stern post, the section at the fracture being about 2 <6 ino in area. in making this re- pair, the fracture was drilled out to provide a space of about 1% in. for a free ' d box was then placed in position and flow of Thermit steel, and a mold: in making the complete repair being only 35 hours. To those unfamiliar with the use of Thermit for this work, it might be well to explain that Thermit consists of a mixture of finely divided alumi- num and iron oxide, which may be ignited by means of special ignition powder. The chemical reaction $0 produced causes the aluminum to combine with the oxygen in the iron