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‘inch, Net Clears Channel, Sirus 95 ee Cent 136 BERSON, West Harpaway and E. A. Morse, all of the shipping board fleet. An order has also been received from a private steamship company for a propel- ler wheel 15 feet in diameter and weigh- ing about 15,000 pounds, to be cast of manganese bronze. The same shipowner also placed an order for four propeller blades to be cast of a special bronze. The tensile strength of these blades, which are for a wheel 18 feet in diam- eter, will be 110,000 pounds per square a severe specification, NTRANCE to Vancouver = har- E bor, B. C., was recently made easier by dredging to a depth of 35 feet at low tide and widening the channel to 900 feet on the 35- foot contour at the narrowest point. On sweeping the channel after dredg- ing was completed to ascertain if any high spots remained, numerous loose boulders were found in sizes ranging up to 5 or 6 feet in diameter. Af- ter removing some of these with the aid of a diver, a much quicker and less expensive means was devised by using a net made of wire cable and, operated from one of the snag boats of the dredging fleet. Difficulties found at first were that the heavy current in the narrows, sometimes as much as seven knots per hour, made operations with a diver slow and expensive. <A _ diver could work only at slack water periods or when there was little variation in the tides. The most favorable tides oc- “ 2 Wire Cable 3 Wire Cable or MARINE REVIEW Grain Ships Delayed at Port of Vancouver Congestion at the grain terminals at Vancouver, B. C., has been so aggravat- ing during the present season that a grain clearance board has been formed. The government has been requested to vest this organization with -power ‘to handle the grain export situation with reference to the unloading of cars, issu- ing priority permits to steamers and oth- erwise to relieve a situation ‘that has curred only two or three days each month and at each of these tides he could work under water only one hour. In ordinary tides, the variation of slack water is only a few minutes. Under these conditions, the removal of two or three boulders per day was the best that could be done even un- der favorable circumstances. After a total of 16 working days with a diver in the course of which 19 boulders were removed, it was figured that the ‘cost for dredging, crew, equipment, diver and all inciden- tals totaled $2000 or $105 per boulder. Efforts were then made to find a better method of carrying on the work and the idea of a drag net was devel- oped. ‘ The drag net is made of %-inch gal- vanized wire cable, clipped together to give a l-foot mesh. The net is 25 feet long and 8 feet wide. The chain at the bottom gives weight to the lower edge and like the chains at the April, 1924 given the port a -unenviable name and caused much delay to shipping. Instances are cited where large grain carriers have been delayed from 5 to 15 days awaiting berth. By a Supreme Court decision, rendered on a case initiated in the state of Wash- ington, the act of congress making state compensation laws applicable to long- shoremen working on vessels in naviga- ble waters, has been declared unconsti- tutional. ends affords a convenient means of edging off the net as the cable is woven into the chain links. A 5-inch cable was used for the top to keep the top as light as possible. The top cable and the bottom chain are continued beyond the ends of the net to form a bridle ending in a swivel 15 feet from the net proper. From this swivel, 150 feet of 34-inch cable runs to the winch on the snag boat by which the net is dragged along the bottom. Six floats made of dry cedar, 8 x 8 inches in section and 3 feet long, give a buoyancy of 300 pounds in all. They are fastened at equal distances along the cable at the top of the net. This is the amount of flotation calculated to hold the upper 6 feet of the net in a more or less vertical position while still allowing the 2-foot section between the chains at the lower edge to lie flat on the bottom. This is desired so that when a boulder is en- 8"X 8"X3' Cedar Post Floats Sete 25° CABLE NET WHICH CLEARED CHANNEL OF BOULDERS AT 5 PER CENT OF COST OF USING DIVERS