The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

June, 1915 the shaft and the bearings are thus kept well lubricated from the stuffing box at the fore end to after end, where it escapes. It was imperative that the feed of the grease should be very slow and only sufficient for the purpose. A special lubricator. was therefore de- vised to give a slow and powerful feed, with a wide range of adjustment —a great advantage when charging the system, or when it is desired to give an extra rapid feed. The auto- matic nature of the feed is essential for proper lubrication, and, being pos- itive and continuous in action, it meets a cardinal point in any system that aims at proper lubrication. This is brought about, as shown in ‘Fig 1, by an eccentric on the shafting, or as in Fig. 2, by being driven direct- ly from some reciprocating part of the engine as, for instance, the pump levers. It is thereby ensured that a positive and regular feed of grease is made for every stroke of the engine, and it is impossible for the engine to move either ahead or astern without positively forcing a certain amount of grease through the stern tube. The human element is thereby eliminated to a very great extent; it is only nec- essary for the attendant to occasion- ally refill the grease container, which, in the smaller steamers already fitted, is at intervals of between two and three weeks, the cost of the lubricant for this period being approximately three shillings. The lubricator has been so designed that the recharging may be done with a minimum of trouble; it only being necessary to disengage the pin in the ratchet lever, slacken back the butterfly nuts and remove the vent screw, when the whole cover and gear can be lifted off bodily, giving access to the container for re- filling. If it is considered desirable to give a rapid feed, as, for instance, just after recharging, means are provided for doing this by interrupting the double train of worm gears by means of the eccentric shown in the sec- tional view of the lubricator, Fig. 3. The means for stopping the feed at the end of the travel of the plunger is arranged to preclude any chance of failure from this cause. Special at- tention also has been given to the de- sign of pawl, as it is important that the pawl action should be reliable, and reliability of working has been the guiding principle in designing the whole arrangement. That there is ample power to forci- bly feed against any head of water may be presumed, when. it is known that the mechanical advantage in the complete train of gear is such that, in the lubricators at present fitted and feeding at the slowest speed, it needs THE MARINE REVIEW 125,000 revolutions of the engines to obtain 1-6-inch travel on the lubri- Cator plunger. This can be speeded up to give automatically 5-6-inch travel on the plunger for the same number of revolutions and a feed of 53.5 inches through the tube connect- ing with the stern tube. In the ves- sels now fitted it has been found that the wear of the bushes is less than half and the wear on the shaft is im-- perceptible, the shaft in the way of the stern bush being in a highly polished condition. The advantages and economies that follow from efficiently lubricating this most ‘important part of marine ma- chinery are manifest. Most marine engineers have had experience of the troubles that arise from the want of proper lubrication and the results obtained in the vessels referred to prove the great advantage of the sys- FIG. 3 tem of lubricating the propeller shaft in the manner described. Coast Ship Building Shipyards on the Delaware river have many large orders in hand. Two more contracts for large steamships have been awarded the Harlam & _ Hodllings- worth Corporation, of Wilmington, mak- ing the total contracts awarded to Delaware river shipbuilders for vessels now building or to be*built, more than 30. The two contracts awarded on Wednesday were for tankers, one to be built for a foreign corporation, namely, the Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Co., of London. Each of the vessels will cost about $780,000. The other tanker is to be built for the Mexican Oil Co., of New York, is to be delivered in 13 months, and will cost about $750,000. The same shipping com- pany has under construction one car float, one oil barge and one steel ferry hull. Another Delaware shipbuilding cern which is working to capacity is the New York Shipbuilding Co., at Cam- con- 2a den, N. J. This corporation has 8,000 men in its employ, and holds contracts for five colliers for the Coastwise Trans-° portation Co., of Boston; the battleships Idaho and Oklahoma for the United States navy, torpedo boat destroyers Ericson, Jacob Jones and Wainwright, and the submarine tender Melville. Besides these, a large lumber steam- ship for the Atlantic coastwise trade, the William O’Brien, is just completed, and a large tanker for the Gulf Oil Co. was recently launched. The Cramp Shipbuilding Co., another Delaware shipyard, has under construc- tion no less than seven torpedo boat destroyers for the United States navy, two large cargo-carrying steamships for W. R. Grace & Co., of New York, a steel yacht for Henry Whitney, of New York, and an, oil tanker for the Huestica Oil Co., of New York. The Jackson & Sharp yards at Wil- mington, Del, are building eight sea- going barges, one towboat and_ five dump scows. Other smaller shipyards along the Delaware are also busy at work on from one to .three sail or unrigged vessels. The Fore River Shipbuilding Corpora- tion at its own request is spending $250,- 000 in putting in much stronger turbines than at first built for the battleship Nevada, under construction at its yards. This step was taken by the shipbuilders because of the unpleasant experience with the Curtis turbines which the com- pany built and installed on the Argentine battleship Ravadavia, when it was found that the buckets were not strong enough and the metal was seriously weakened by the superheated steam. The corpora- tion is willing to shoulder the expense rather than stand a chance of having to tear out the turbines and repair or remodel them after the ship is ready for service. The Fore River Co. has been awarded another contract for a tanker by the Cuban Distilling Co. This vessel is to be used in the transportation of molasses from Cuba to American ports. The award makes the third vessel to the Fore River Co. by the same corporation. John S. Talbot, general agent of the Chicago & North-Western railway, with headquarters at Indianapolis, has been selected as commissioner for the As- sociation of Lake Lines with head- quarters at Buffalo. Mr. Talbot succeeds Fred Signer who resigned to become general eastern freight agent of the Lehigh Valley railroad. The steamer E. D. Carter, which was last year purchased by the Algo- ma Central. Steamship Line from Ed- ward Carter, Erie, Pa, has been sold to Boland & Cornelius, Buffalo.