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MAY 3, 1900. THE MARINE RECORD. VESSEL BAROMETERS. Marine Agent Norman B. Conger, of the Weather Bureau, announces that as usual vessel men may have their barome- ters tested free of charge at any weather office along the lakes. At the ‘‘Soo,’’ however, special attention will be paid to keeping the barometers correct, and an official will-be at the locks all the time to compare vessel instruments with a standard instrument. At other ports it is necessary for vesselmen to leave their aneroid barometers with the Weather Bureau for some hours to be compared with the standard mercurial instruments, and frequently some days are required to correct a disordered machine. At the ‘‘Soo’’ the official merely goes aboard the vessel, as it is being locked through, and compares the vessel instrument with an aneroid barometer corrected to the standard gauge, and if any correction isto be made it is done. On the return of the steamer the instrument is again compared, in this way finally regulating the instrument without taking it away from the boat. Duting the season it will be the aim of the bureau to put in correct condition the barometer of every boat passing through the locks. Another privilege afforded vesselmen is the free use of 40 barographs, or self-registering barometers, which the Weather Bureau distributes among the lake boats in return for the records at the end of the season, which form invaluable data concerning the atmospheric changes over the lakes. The barograph contains a clock-work arrangement whereby a strip of paper is slowly revolved under a delicate needle at- tached to a barometer. Every fluctuation of the atmosphere is recorded, and as the paper is divided into days and hours, the complete roll, together with the location of the boat each day, forms a record of the conditions of the air. It is the practice to distribute the machines so that each representative lake line may have one, , Last year very valu- able records of the tidal wave that swept over Lake Superior were obtained in this way. S— OO OOl SS A NOVEL BOAT. Early in May, the improved R. D. Mayo life-boat, now being built at Manistee, Mich., will be started on its journey across the Atlantic for Paris, where it will be placed on ex- hibition at the exposition. This device is an improvement upon the working model, which was satisfactorily tested and brought before the United States Board of Supervising Inspectors of Steamboats in January last. The boat is nearly ready for the water and is attracting much attention from men who have made a study of life-saving devices. While marking a radical departure from the style of con- struction of the open life-saving boat now universally in use the new boat has elicited much favorable comment. A de- scription of this device may be summarized by saying that it resembles in appearance a long barrel with rounded, conical ends. It presents a smooth, unbroken surface to the water and has a buoyancy that will keep it safely on the surface of the water under all conditions, where it may be allowed to drift in a heavy sea or be propelled by oars when the condi- tions will permit, without danger or discomfort to the occu- pants. é : The most interesting feature of this device is the interior construction, which consists of an inner shell so suspended from bulkheads in the middle and at either end of the boat that the living compartments, like the cars of the Ferris wheel, remain in an upright and practically stable position regardless of the motion of the outer shell or its position in the water. The boat now being built is 30 feet in length over all and will occupy about the same space on ship deck that the ordinary 28 foat life-boat does. It will accommo- date 52 passengers, which equals from two to three times the capacity of the old style boat, and is said to be just as sea- worthy when loaded to its limit as when empty. Oe” Mor# than a hundred models and plans of a workable life-saving device in case of a disaster at sea have been sub- mitted by Americans in competition for the Pollock prize of $20,000, which is to be awarded during the Paris Exposition. Some of these devices, the work of naval experts, are said to be exceedingly clever, including a superior kind of life buoy; a water-tight bulkhead, which may be closed by means of electricity at a distance; a life-boat that can be swung clear of a ship and easily detached from it, and an eophone sound detector that enables signals or warnings to be heard clearly a great distance, even in the foggiest-of weather. Reward and fame never can be merited more fully than by the man who succeeds in diminishing ‘‘the perils of the great deep.” OBITUARY NOTICES. ROBERT C, THEUTON, Robert C. Teuton, one of Detroit’s old residents, and a well-known business and vessel man, died at his home, 157 Congress street west, this week, of Bright’s disease. Mr. Teuton was born in Belfast, Ireland, 57 years ago, and came to America with his parents when but a boy. Formany years he was senior partner in the firm of Teuton, McWilliams & Co., grocers and ship suppliers, at the corner of Wood- bridge and Second streets. An explosion wrecked the store some years ago, and the partners went into the vessel busi- ness, organizing the Wayne Transportation Co., of which the deceased was secretary. A widow and one son, Walter G., survive, together with two sisters, Mrs. James Findlater and Mrs. Percival Todd, living in Detroit ; two more sisters in New York, and two brothers, Edmund, in Chicago, and Frederick, of Pittsburg. CAPT. EDWARD M’GOWEN. Capt. Edward McGowen, one of the early sailors of the lakes, died at his home at Port Huron, aged seventy-four years. He had been in poor health for some time, the im- mediate cause of death being paralysis. Deceased was born in Ireland, came to this country when three years of age and settled in Port Huron in 1842. He began sailing when only ten years of age became master of the schooner Buckley. He followed the lakes until within a few years, when he retired owing to ill health. A widow and ten grown up children, four sons and six daughters, survive him. CAPT, RICHARD A. DAVIS, Capt. Richard A. Davis, a veteran master of vessels, died at Chicago on Saturday. Deceased became captain of the schooner Seminole in 1844. In 1858 he assumed command of the Young America, and during his lifetime had no less than forty issues of shipmaster’s commissions, and was the possessor of the oldest license on the lakes. —_—_—$$_ OOO Ol SS SHIP BALLOONS. Should the submarine boat take the place in naval war- fare that some nations expect, one of the chief precautions taken by the world’s navies will be an immense increase in the number of balloons, with duly trained staffs to work them, carried by war vessels. The balloons carried by these battleships are of exactly the same material and pattern as those in use in the army, onlysmaller. They have a use far in advance of any mere long-distance observational purpose, for, though the wake of a submarine boat suuk deeply in the water can only be traced with difficulty from such an eleva- tion as that afforded by a ship, both such wake and the boat itself can be seen with absolute and undeviating clearness from a captive balloon. This is the result of a scientific and optical law, and when ship balloons were first put to the practical test in regard to this matter, the results attained were of the most surprising kind. Even where the water is distinctly cloudy, objects of a much smaller kind thana submarine boat, and painted of neutral color, could be seen from a balloon with the utmost clearness at a depth of five fathoms, or thirty feet, though the surface was rough. No submarine boat could in the daytime get within striking dis- tance of a threatened ship that had a balloon without being observed. : —$— rt ee THE rapid growth of the copper industry in the United States, and the large proportion which this country supplies of the world’s copper consumption, is illustrated by some figures presented by a German publication entitled ‘‘A Cen- tury of Copper,”’ a translation from which has just reached the Treasury Bureau of Statistics. It shows that the United States has during the decade—1891-1900—produced more than half of the copper of the world, while in the preceding decade it supplied but about one-third of the world’s pro- duction, and in the decade 1871-1880 the proportion supplied by the United States was only about one-sixth of the total. The growth of copper production in the century has, accord- ing to this statement, been very rapid, being in the first de- cade 91,000 tons, in the fifth decade 291,000 tons, and in the tenth, which ends with 1900, 3,643,000 tons, of which 1,963,- ooo tons is supplied by North America, the large proportion of this being from the United States. The greatly increased demand for this material is further illustrated by the fact that although the production has increased from 505,909 tons in the decade 1851-1860, to 3 643,000 in the decade 1891- 1900; the average price; according to the publication in ques- tion, has only fallen from £111 per ton to £52 per ton, pro- duction having during that time increased more than six- fold, while the price fell but about one-half. FLOTSAM, JETSAM AND LAGAN. The tug Wisconsin, formerly of Ashtabula, has been pur- chased by the Maytham Tug Co., of Buffalo, and will be stationed at Sault Ste. Marie. The Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce has "reported favorably on the proposition to increase the salary of surfmen at the life-saving stations on the lakes from $65 to $70 a month. The crib of the East Middle light No. 12 (showing a fixed red lantern light) on the eastern edge of lower Hay Lake cut has been carried away by the ice. No light will be shown in this position until the crib can be reconstructed. ‘The new survey of the Great Lakes is not to interfere with the survey made by the army engineers’ bureau, says Admiral Bradford, but to discover isolated rocks and ob- structions of small superficial area, a work which requires the use of a drag, which is only understood by. nautical men, The Montreal harbor board has declined to accept the plans of the Conners syndicate for the improvement of the harbor on the ground that they showed a building with a capacity of 1,000,000 bushels instead of 3,000,000, as agreed upon in the contract between the syndicate and the com- missioners, Every sawmill in the Duluth district is at work and sawed lumber is increasing on docks at the rate of 4,0co,000 feet daily. Those of the mills located on deep water sold last fall and early in the winter some 250,000,000 feet that must be shipped at once. Rates of shipment by water hold firm at. $3, although shippers are trying hard to get a $2.75 figure. The Donnelly Contracting Co., of Buffalo, has secured two contracts for the extension of the breakwaters at Ashta- bula and Lorain. The Ashtabula bid was $410,292, and the Lorain bid $635,519. This company now has on hand more than $1,600,000 of United States government and state work, including harbor work at Fairport, Conneaut, Erie, Buffalo and Cape Vincent. . Building has begun by the Steel Ship Building Co., of Collingwood, Ont., the company in which Capt. McDougall - is interested, and which has taken the plant of the old Col- ‘lingwood Dry Dock Co., ona bonus agreement with the city. A complete equipment of machinery will be installed and then work can go on with four vessels at once. One will probably be completed this year. During its survey work the Deep Waterways Commission secured invaluable data concerning the Mohawk Valley. The state of New York in preparing its data upon the pro- posed new canal, has been accorded the privilege of copying the Mohawk Valley data, a saving tothe state of nearly $200,000. D. J. Howell, formerly in charge of the New York state work of the Deep Waterways Commission, and * who is now employed by New York, is here with a staff of assistants to secure the copy of the data. Some of the leading colleges are to be honored in the naming of the six large steel vessels that are building at works of the American Ship Building Co., for the Pittsburg Steamship Co., which is the corporation controlling Car- negie vessel property on the Great Lakes under the direc- tion of Mr. Edwin F. Mills, of Cleveland. The first of these vessels, a steamer to be launched about May 5, will be named Harvard. Then will follow the names Lafayette, Princeton, Cornell, and very probably Columbia for the other four steamers to come out in the middle and latter part of the season. The one steel tow barge in the new fleet will be named Bryn Mawr. Toronto papers announce the consummation of the deal between Capt. McDougall, of Duluth, the Cramps, of Phila- delphia, and the town of Collingwood, Ont., by which im- mense smelting, steel, iron and shipbuilding works are to be established on Georgian Bay. The town grants a free site of more than eighty acres for the works, undertakes to keep the minimum depth of eighteen fect of water for a shipyard front, to give a cash bonus of $150,000, to fix the assessment ata low figure for twenty years, and to supply water and light at a figure to be agreed upon. The syndicate under- takes to employ not less than 600 men regularly for a period of twenty years, to construct works of latest design, and to pay the school tax in full. Government sanction of the scheme has been recorded. ———— re THE Board of Construction of the Navy is having con- siderable difficulty in deciding on the details of the three new battleships authorized and now under consideration. Although the board has been working on the plans for these ships for several weeks, little of a definite character has yet been decided relative to the essential parts of the vessels except that they will not have superimposed turrets. . Practically all the members of the board are opposed to this style of turret, and it is safe to state no other vessels will ever be given this method of heavy gun installation. There have been several plans sug- gested for the batteries of the new ships, but itis probable they will be given practically the same armament as the Jowa and other vessels of her class. The batteries will com- prise four 12-inch guns in two turrets, one fore and one aft; eight 8-inch in four turrets just abaft and forward of the 12-inch turrets, and the guns mounted in pairs, and twelve 6-inch guns in broadside. As soon as the board has decided upon the plans for the battleships it will begin the consid- eration of the authorized armored cruisers.