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12 THE MARINE RECORD. ROCKEFELLER VERSUS CARNEGIE. Apparently the fight is now on between Rockefeller and Carnegie, relative to lake work. Rockefeller has chartered _ everything in sight and the Carnegie interests have been equally as active in placing orders for new shipbuilding so that it is quite a question whether the Rockefeller or Car- negie interests become uppermost in the lake trade. Car- negie has the steel to offer, Rockefeller has the money to make steel, for that matter, so has Carnegie. It is palpable, however, that the Carnegie interests will win out, for the primal cause that Rockefeller has no control of the steel output and can’t secure it fora year or two. It is here, perhaps, that some of our vessel owners may be dropped later for their chartering to an opposition firm. The battle is now on and the victory will be known to the defeated. It is peculiarly strange that the ordinary vessel owner no longer knows ‘‘ where he is at’? in connection with next season’s business. They want his tonnage and he don’t wish to fix on terms offered. Actual dealings and future possible contracts are on such a gigantic scale that the owner of only several boats is in a quandary to know what to do with them for the best interests of all concerned, and himself in particular. Chartering ahead means money, yet not to charter may mean more, and the problem is, to say the least, difficult of solving. In this connection, our esteemed contemporary Coal and Coke of Pittsburg, says: “ The Carnegie Steel Co., Ltd., will begin at once a very extensive addition to their now enormous steel plants, keep- ing in the van of all competitors in the world. The new improvements will consist of: Two 700-ton blast furnaces at the Carrie plant, Rankin, Pa. ; fourteen 50-ton basic open- hearth furnaces at the Duquesne plant ; a steel bridge across the Monongahela river for conveying hot metal from the new Carrie furnace to the Homestead Steel Works; a re- versible blooming mill at Duquesne to roll steel from the 14 open-hearth furnaces to be built there, The product will be billets and sheet bars for the trade. The cost of the im- provements will be upwards of $6,000,000. Contracts for the blowing engines have already been awarded and the Secretary of War has issued the permit for the building of the bridge. The erection of these immense plants shows the confidence the Carnegie concern has in the future of the steel business and the faith that Pittsburg is the most desir- able site for the manufacture of steel products. ‘‘ With the iron and steel furnaces now building and pro- jected the Carnegie company will have within a year a producing capacity over 1oo per cent. greater than any other concern in the world. ‘<The two blast furnaces will each have a capacity of 100 tons per day more than any one of the four giant furnaces at Duquesne. The Duquesne plant was put in operation in 1897, and, with an average production of 2,400 tons per day, has steadily led the blast furnaces of the world in the manu- facture of iron. The two proposed stacks will have a capacity of 1,400 tons of iron in 24 hours, 700 tons each. These furnaces will be the largest in the world in every de- tail. These stacks will be 106 feet high, with a diameter of 23 feet in the bosh. The Duquesne furnaces are Ioo feet high, with a diameter of 22 feet in the bosh. The new fur- naces will be built on the Carrie furnace property of the Carnegie company at Rankin station, adjoining the east of the two old Carrie stacks, which have a capacity of 300 tons per day each. “For the purpose of handling the large tonnage of iron to be produced by the new furnaces the Carnegie company will commence the erection at the same time of a double- track steel railroad bridge across the Monongahela river, connecting the Carrie furnace plant with the Homestead Steel Works, on the south shore, opposite. The molten tnetal will be run into ladle cars and hauled by locomotives across the river in the same condition, and, after the mixing process at the Homestead Works, the iron will be used in the open-hearth steel furnaces or the Bessemer conyerters. The same practice will govern in transporting the hot metal as is followed at the present time between the Edgar Thom- son steel furnaces and the Homestead Steel Works, via the Union railroad bridge at Port Perry. “The building of these two furnaces will give Allegheny county a total of 32 stacks with an aggregate annual capa- city of 3,850,000 gross tons of pig iron, of which the Car- negie company will own 19, with a total capacity of 2,700,- 000 tons, or about 70 per cent. of the entire producing capacity of Allegheny county. With the addition of the new furnaces the four blast furnace plants of the Carnegie company will comprise the following: Edgar Thomson, nine stacks, 1,000,000 gross tons per annum ; Duquesne fur- naces, four stacks, 800,000 gross tons ; Carrie furnaces, four stacks, 700,000 gross tons ; Lucy furnaces, two stacks, 200,- 000 gross tons; total, 2,700,000 gross tons of pig iron per annum, ‘« Additions to the Duquesne works of the Carnegie com- pany will inelude a large plant for the manufacture of open- hearth steel and the construction of a reversible blooming mill, The proposed plant at Duquesne will be the first to make open-hearth steel at these works, the product at pres- ent being Bessemer steelexclusively. With the new depart- ment completed both grades of steel will be made at Du- quesne as well as at Homestead. The new open-hearth plant at Duquesne will be on the sight of the present offices, which will be removed. This plant at Duquesne will con- sist of fifty 14-ton furnaces, increasing the open-hearth steel capacity of the company over 200,000 tons per annum, which, with 4o furnaces at Homestead, will give a total capacity of 1,600,000 tons of open-hearth steel per annum. “The new blooming mill to be constructed at Duquesne will be of the same design as .the reversible mill now in operation at Homestead. It will handle the product of the new open-hearth department, which will be subsequently rolled into billets and sheet bars at the same works. Addi- tional equipment for rolling the open-hearth blooms into billets and sheet bars will not be necessary ; the billet train and sheet bar mill in operation at Duquesne at present being ample. etn 1898 the Carnegie company made 5.34 per cent. of the pig iron product of the world, 17 per cent. of the iron produced in the United States, 35 per cent. of the production of Pennsylvania, and 63 per cent. of Allegheny county. The company produced over 9 per cent. of the steel output of the world, 25 percent. of the steel production of the United States, 41 per cent. of the production of Pennsyl- vania, and 64 per cent. of Allegheny county. ‘‘ For many years the big Edgar Thomson furnaces bore the palm in the production of pig metal, each producing from 350 to 4oo tons daily. Now the big furnaces at Du- quesne are the leaders, producing 600 tons. Other com- panies have new furnaces of like capacity, but the new Car- negie furnaces will be the monsters of the iron world. “The Carnegie Steel Co. now has under construction a_ monster axle works at Howard station, two plate mills at Homestead, besides one recently completed, and an open- hearth steel plant at Homestead, all of which are being pushed to completion.”’ oe orev VISIBLE SUPPLY OF GRAIN As compiled for THE MARINE RECORD, by George F. Stone, Secretary Chicago Board of Trade. CITIES WHERE WHEAT.| CORN. Oats. RYE. BARLEY STORED. Bushels. | Bushels. | Bushels. | Bushels. | Bushels. Butlaloits 3c. cess 1,519,000 786,000 371,000 63,000] 529,000 Chicago. sGaceseas 10,333,000] 4,787,000] 1,359,000 423,000 34,000 Detroitciewn wean 810,000 22,000 6,000 6,000 4,000 Diluthie eo 7,487,000 129,000 104,000 261,000 589,000 Fort swilliam<Ont £3). <-7'78; O00] sic. csieiar ap l-seayessene veto ellie as tannnen gies kone pte ae Milwaukee.......... 104,000 4,000 2,000 12,000 26,000 Port Arthur, Ont.... Xo FK0,0,0) Serie eae et yacetenl aeeaak aia TeEcpeealleeaydiaretae nae TOlEGOM tcc ccag ees 2,230,000 905,000 649,000 OOM Pai eee TOLONtO:.. jeeceiee ee TOOIGOO|Fas wtrniies BiO00| ear ae eins 24,000 Om Cana into sancgetes 232.000 774,000 159,000 31,000 475,000 On Lakes...... rie: 1,299,000] 1,827,000 375,000} castes vane 516,000 Grand Total..... 48,555,000] 14,099,000] 6,742,000] 1,063,000) 2,510,000 Corresponding Date, MOOS cs thes ciate eveisiaress 14,848,000] 24,633,000] 6,164,000} 1,339,000] 3,204,000 Increase PAP fo; 010) Latent ens eM REP TOA Tes 244,000] 408,000 DECrEase soi ci veep baciese ae = 966, 000 B27, OOO wens wavsialneccr sce as ae While the stock of grain at lake ports only is here given, the total shows the figures for the entire country except the Pacific Slope. —_—— er A TOW HALF WAY ROUND AUSTRALIA. In April last La Serena, a fine steamer of 2,300 tons, went ashore on the coast of Western Australia and became badly damaged—bottom severely strained, engines aud boilers ‘‘set up” about afoot, and plates and steam pipes broken and bent. Given up by her owners to the underwriters, she was afterwards brought back, and British pluck and seamanship set to work. ‘The bottom, which looked like a battered ker- osene tin, was heavily concreted and the engine and boilers shored up. Then came the little Franklin, a boat of 700 tons. She was to tow her big sister ship to Sydney—3,500 miles distant. The towing gear and the manner in which it was secured are interesting to read about. A sixteen inch coir (cocoanut fibre) hawser was made fast to La Serena’s starboard cable, fifteen fathoms of which were put outside the hawse-pipe. Fifty feet fromthe stern of the Franklin the coir hawser was fastened to steel hawsers paid out from either quarter. These were secured to the after bitts on each side, then taken forward and made fast to the midship bitts. A 4¥%-inch steel hawser was used asa “‘preventer,’’ being se- cured right forward to the starboard bitts, then taken aft and through the eye of the 16-inch coir hawser to a parallel posi- tion on the port side, where it was made fast to the forward port bitts. The voyage was accomplished without a single mishap, though at times bulky La Serena, in a heavy sea, would rear and jerk and tumble about in such a frantic man- ner that she threatened to tear the decks out of the little Franklin. leaving Broome on July 2, the steamers set out northward, through the Gulf of Carpentaria and Torres Straits, and reached Sydney on Aug. 7—36 days. Sucha feat is unparalleled in the Pacific; but it has been surpassed in the Atlantic. In 1890 the Liverpool tug Gamecock towed the disabled ship Ardencaple from the Falkland Islands to Liverpool; the ship was about 1,800 tons, the tug 370, and the distance 8,000 miles.— Liverpool Daily Post. Major Clinton B. Sears, Corps of Engineers, U.S. A., iussed notices for a public hearing upon the matter of 1 readjustment of the harbor lines in the Duluth-Superi harbor. The changes which are contemplated are all to b made with a view of straightening the channels as much a possible, thereby making them more convenient for naviga tion and less liable to cause accident. On the Minnesote point side of the canal it is necessary to vary the line slight ly on account of the inward sweep which has been given the new south canal pier. Just beyond the Duluth-Superi bridge an important change is to be made. For some dis tance up the bay from the bridge the line will run at a right — angle from the bridge. The channel to the Duluth draw of — the Northern Pacific bridge will run a perfectly straight line’ instead of swinging out from the point as it now does. The effect of this work will be to cut quite a piece off Rice’s Point. On the end about eighty feet will have to come off and along the St. Louis bay side a strip which is about 80 feet wide at its widest part willalso have to comeoff. The changes — in the bay of St. Louis will begin at about the site of th Lesure Lumber Co’s. mill. The channel will start from that point and will take as traight shoot in the direction of Iron- ton. It will cut off the end of Grassy Point and will add large amount of dock area between Grassy Point and Spirit Lake. The channel at the present time takes a curve inward, : The amount of dock property that will be added to the prop erty near the Minnesota shore by this change in lines is more than 100 acres. Opposite the blast furnace the new channel will be nearly 1,300 feet farther out in the bay than” at the present time. All the way up the river there will changes, all made with a view to getting the channels as straight as possible-and cutting off sharp corners. : OO oe on RAPIDITY OF ELECTRICITY. The time required for a journey round the earth by a man walking day and night, without resting, would be 428 days; an express train, 40 days; sound, at a medium temperature, 32% hours; a cannon ball, 2134 hours; light, a little over one-tenth of a second, and electricity, passing over a copper wire, a little under one-tenth of a second. ee, ee SHIPPING AND MARINE JUDICIAL DECISIONS. (COLLABORATED SPECIALLY FOR THE MARINE RECORD), Master and Servant—Contributory Negligence.— As the appearance of arope did not indicate its weakness, and libelant had no knowledge of the length of time it had been in use, he was not negligent in obeying the mate’s orders without question. The Ethelred, 96 Fed. Rep. (U. S.) 446 Master and Servant—Death of Stevedore—Ljiability of Owners of Ship.—Where a ship was not bound to furnis tackle to hold up a chute used by contractors in loading the — vessel with grain, and that used was rigged up by the stev dores employed by the contractors, the mere fact that the mate in charge did not object to the manner in which it was secured would not render the owners liable for the death of a stevedore, caused by the breaking of such tackle — and the falling of the chute, the mate having no better means than others of judging of itssafety. Jeffries et al. vs. DeHart, 96 Fed. Rep. (U. S.) 494. Master and Servant—Injury to Seaman—Unsafe Appli- ances—Negligence of Mate.—Libelant, a seaman, who had just signed and reported for duty on board a steamer, fell and was injured, by reason of the breaking of a rope which he directed by, the mate in charge to use to support him while washing down the mast. ‘The rope had been used fo a number of voyages, and had been in a position where it was exposed to injury from heat and smoke, but during the preceding voyage had been subjected to no strain to test its strength. Held that, in failing to test it before directing its use, the mate was guilty of negligence for which the vessel was liable. The Ethelred, 96 Fed. Rep. (U. S.) 446. a mh —— re In a pamphlet sent out this week by the Dixon Co. we _ find the following: The Lunkenheimer Co., of Cincinnati, Ohio, are manufacturing a special sight-feed graphite lubri- cator for engine cylinders and steam pumps. They say the following of this lubricator: : “The cup can either be attached, like any ordinary sight feed oil lubricator, to the steam pipe alae the throttles or below the throttle, or on the steam chest, with the upper steam connection above the throttle. On Corliss engines it may be desirable to use two cups, placing one above each valve, and making the stem connections above the throttle. On compound en gines there should be a cup applied to eae! cylinder, A sight-feed lubricator becomes entirely unneces: sary and superfluous when an engine is provided wit graphite cup. To insure best results we recommend the us of Joseph Dixon Co.’s cylinder graphite.