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8 THE MARINE RECORD. DEPUTY STATE ENGINEER OF NEW YORK. (WM. PIERSON JUDSON. ) In recording marine events from week to week throughout the year, it is always a pleasure for the RECORD to note the marked personality of those who lend their interests, time, talent, and energy to the furtherance and upbuilding of that which more nearly concerns the present and!future advance- ment of the lake marine. The subject of our brief sketch has long been identified with active work on these waters,and chiefly on Lake Ontario, and has eminently filled the role which we have ascribed to the studious habits of those who cultivate a logical sequence and the science of determining hitherto unknown quantities, facts and data. Such, we assume, have been the chief characteristics of Mr. Judson’s professional career on the lakes, and inthus marking out his line of life work, we may further say that he has but walked in the footsteps of his worthy sire, Col. John W. Judson, of Oswego, N. Y., who was a graduate of the West Point Military Academy in the class of 1836, and afterward had charge of United States harbor work on Lake Ontario. William Pierson Judson was born in Oswego, May 20, 1849, and attended the public schools of that city, graduating in 1865. He entered the service of the United States in the Engineer’s Department as draughtsman and leveler on the work of rebuilding Fort Ontario with permanent masonry which had been in progress for some years in charge of his father. The instruction in civil engineering which was given him by his father, with constant study during practice in the office and field, combined to fit Mr. Judson for the responsible positions which he has since filled. In 1869 he made the original survey of the lake front of Os- wego for the outer harbor, and also the large map of it upon which the Board of Engineers planned the outer break- water, which was begun in 1871 by Major John M. Wilson ‘(now general and the chief of the U.S. Corps of Engineers) to whom Mr. Judson was assistant engineer in 1871 to 1875, and under-whom Mr. Judson had personal charge of this and other harbor works on Lake Ontario. Mr. Judson has served for 30 consecutive years as the U.S. assistant engineer to the ten successive officers of _ the U. S. Corps of Engineers who have had charge of the work of rivers and harbors and forts in that region, and during all that long period has been familiar with, not only the harbors on Lake Ontario, but also with others on Lake Champlain, St. Lawrence river, and some on Lake Erie, and has known of their construction, their damages, their re- pairs and their maintenance in a way which would only be possiblé by such continuous duty. In 1893, as assistant to Major Dan C. Kingman, of the Corps of Engineers, he made a minute survey and map of Oswego harbor and river up to the dam, and of the city streets and railroads, which was adopted as the official map of the United States harbor line. During the progress of these works, Mr. Judson has mean- time studied closely the many features of lake commerce, and has been the member for New York State of the Execu- tive Board of the International Deep Waterways Associa- ciation, which last met at Cleveland in 1895. Mr. Judson has been connected with deep waterways since 1874, when he was assistant engineer to Major John M. Wilson on the ship canal survey of that date. He was also assistant to Capt. Carl F. Palfrey, on the ship canal report of 1890, and to Major Thomas W. Symons on his ship canal report of 1897. Besides these duties, in connection with the subject of deep waterways, Mr. Judson prepared, in 1890, a pamphlet and map entitled ‘‘ From the West and Northwest to the Sea,’’? which were published and widely circulated by those commercially interested in the ship canal subject, the pam- phlet being afterwards re-published at Washington as a Senate document. In 1892, Mr. Judson made a further report upon ‘‘An En- larged Waterway between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Seaboard,’’ which was also published by those who were in- terested in advancing the general subject. This dealt more especially with the route from Oswego to Troy through the Oswego-Oneida-Mohawk Valley, and with the vital subject of a water supply for the summit level, which was shown to be attainable from storage in the Adiron- dack region, supplemented by a feeder from Lake Erie, whose water is now carried in the present Erie canal as far as Macedon, 20 miles east of Rochester, (where it is 35 feet higher than the Rome summit level), and whence it can be carried seventy miles further eastward by building a feeder ona regular slope along the high land lying southward, until the summit level is reached, just east of Syracuse. Recent statements which have been published regarding the results of the deep waterway surveys now in progress, indicate that this route and method will prove to be the one finally adopted, if a ship canal is to be built. In 1896, the first U. S. Deep Waterways Commission put Mr. Judson in charge of the subject of compiling all exist- ing data and obtaining new data for making the best loca- tion of a ship canal from Lake Ontario to the Hudson river through the Oswego-Oneida-Mohawk valley, which Mr. Judson had advocated, as above described, as being the best route. Asaresult, the commission published, in 1896, Mr. Judson’s report with a large profile of the line and an accom- panying map with contours, showing the valley and the line. These formed a part of the large volume issued by the commission, which is not now easily obtained. With his characteristic public spirit, Mayor J. D. Higgins, of Oswego, has recently had this report and the profiles and map re-printed in separate pamphlet, in order that the peculiar advantages of the route by way of his city should be more generally known. Aside from Mr. Judson’s official duties, he was appointed by the court in 1876, and still serves, as commissioner to regulate and divide the water power of the Oswego river at its first dam for the operation of the various water powers WM. PIERSON JUDSON, C. E, on the west side of the Oswego river, including the well- known Kingsford Starch Factory and others. From 1884 to 1890 he was actively connected with one of the leading electric companies, and had much to do with the general introduction of electric power for various uses and industries. In 1894, at the request of the Mayor and as the Consulting Engineer to the Department of Public Works he prepared a discussion of the ‘‘City Roads and Pavements suited to Os- wego,’’ which has been published in book form, and has had a large sale by the Engineering News, of New York, who consider it as one of the standard authorities on the subject. This year Mr. Judson received the appointment of Deputy State Engineer, with a residence at Albany, N. Y., and in the opinion of a large number of persons, including his lake acquaintances, State officials and others, it would be difficult to find a more energetic and expert scientist ‘to fill that office. Mr, Judson is a member of the British Institution of Civil Engineers, a member of the American Society of Civil En-, gineers, and an associate member of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. He is one of the oldest members of the Acenian Lodge, F. & A. M., of Oswego. Furthermore, it can, perhaps, be recorded to his credit that he has never been actively identified in affairs political, AUGUST I0, 1899. eee en eee ee nse ne NOTES. Aw American electrician, Mr. W. J. Clarke, has suggested a means of detecting the presence of a ship or an iceberg by wireless telegraphy. The apparatus which he proposes is so arranged that when two ships approach each other a large vibrating gong will ring in each, and the transmitter is so arranged that the signal would be operated at a distance of from one to ten miles. A MOVEMENT in favor of subsidies to American steamship lines is receiving strong support. J. J. Hill, president of the Great Northern Railway Co., in a speech at Seattle, argued strongly in favor of subsidies. He declared that with a sub- sidy for steamship lines America’s trade with the East and particularly with China would startle the world. Mr. Hill has exceptional opportunities to estimate the value of: Pacific trade, as his railway is connected directly with this trade, and derives a great deal of business from it. THE tug Vigilant, building by Lewis Nixon, Elizabethport, for Lieut. Com. John C. Fremont, Supervisor of New York Harbor, is 112% ft. over all, 98 ft. water line, 22 ft. beam, 13 ft. depth and 8 ft. draft. She will be fitted with Wells’ quadruple expansion engines of 700 horse-power and a Roberts boiler. The Supervisor’s fleet, including the Vigi- lant, now numbers seven vessels—of which six vessels are equipped with Roberts boilers. The continued use of Roberts boilers in this fleet after a number of years experi- ence speaks volumes. THE Nordischer Bergung Verein, of Hamburg, are be- ing widely complimented on the manner in which they accomplished the salving of the Paris. Many theories were advanced as to the most effective method, but the German salvors adopted the principle of tilting. They first blasted away the rocks which pierced the bottom and acted as a pivot, and then put a great quantity of ballast in the stern, which had floated from the time the vessel stranded, and thus they caused the steamer to slide off the rocky ledge into deep water at the highest tide. LLoyps’ last ‘‘Register.of Shipping’’ gives the entire fleet of the world as 28,180 steamers and sailing vessels, with a to- tal tonnage of 27,673,528, of which 39 per cent. are British. The Americans come next with 3,010 vessels, with a total tonnage of 2,465,387. Norway has 2,528 vessels, with a ton- nage of only 1,694,230. Germany has 1,676 vessels, with a tonnage of 2,453,334, in which are included her particularly large ships. Sweden has 1,408 vessels with tonnage 605,991. Russia has 1,218 vessels, with a tonnage of 643,527. Italy has 1,150 vessels and France 1,182, Japan has 841, Denmark 796 and Spain 7or. FREQUENT sea disturbances that are sometimes called earthquake waves are recorded in New South Wales, Aus- tralia. Mr. H. C. Russell, the government astronomer, states that these have a period of about 26 minutes from crest to crest, which correspond to the period of waves from earthquakes, but it has been shown that only about 1 per cent. have really originated in earth movements. About 60 per cent. have their origin in confined waters far to the south under a low pressure. The low barometer is accom- panied by a rise in sea level, resulting in currents that meet in Bass Straits, producing waves that are transmitted through Tasman Sea, and are recorded by the Sydney and Newcastle tide-gauges. Heavy gales originate at least 10 per cent. more inthe Tasman Sea. The remainder of these ‘periodic waves, which somewhat resemble those that have been noticed in Lake George, are believed to be due also to meteorological causes, although the connection has not yet been traced. ADMIRAL, BETTOLO has just completed designs for four Ital- ian battleships, the building of which will be commenced as soon as possible, and will occupy not more than 24 months. The Italian military journals assert thatthe Admiral has solved the problem of uniting in one vessel of great size all the advantages offered by battleships and cruisers, namely, high speed, 22 knots at least, with the most powerful artil- lery and the most complete protection. The speed is to be obtained by an alleged entirely novel form of water tube boilers. The armor plating is to be about one-third the weight of the present heaviest plating on any warship afloat, while it is to be more powerful. owing to some remarkable improvements over the Krupp and Harvey hardening pro- cesses. The displacement of these battleships is not to exceed 8,000 tons, but they are to be speedier and carry bigger guns than any battleship now existing, while their defensive capabilities are to be greater. Such, at any rate, is the assertion of the Italian experts.