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ESTABLISHED 1878. E 4 3 VOL. XXIII, No. 3o. CLEVELAND---JULY 26, 1900---CHICAGO. $2.00 Per Year. 5c. Single Copy LAKE CARRIERS’ ASSOCIATION. Toconsider and take action upon all general questions relating to the navigation and carrying business of the Great Lakes, maintain necessary shipping offices and in general to protect the common interests of Lake Car- riers, and improve the character of the service rendered to the public. PRESIDENT. W. C. FARRINGTON, Buffalo. 1ST VICE-PRESIDENT Capt J. G. KEITH, Chicago. SECRETARY. CHARLES H. KEEP, Buffalo. TREASURER. GEORGE P. McKay, Cleveland. COUNSEL. HaRVEY D. GouULDER, Cleveland. EXECUTIVE AND FINANCE COMMITTEE. JAMES CORRIGAN, Chairman, Cleveland. COMMITTEE ON LEGISLATION. Gipson lL. DouGrias, Chairman, Buffalo. COMMITTEE ON AIDS TO NAVIGATION. 4 GEORGE P. McKay, Chairman, Cleveland. THE PARIS CONGRESS ON NAVIGATION. The Paris Congress on Navigation commences on the 28th inst., and will continue until August 3. Thereare only two English contributors to this important Congress, viz., Mr. A. G. Lyster and Mr. Vernon-Harcourt, both of whom have sent in communications to the seventh section, which deals with ‘‘works recently carried out in large littoral or mari- time ports.’? The Congress will be divided into four sec- tions, and nine question will be submitted for discussion, the section being as follows: (1) Internal Navigation; Con- struction Works. (2) Internal Navigation; Management and Working. (3) Ocean Navigation, Works. (4) Ocean Navigation ; Management and Working. Each section is divided into several sub-heads, and there will be two classes of meetings at the Congress—sectional meetings, where the subjects to be dealt with are to be first considered; and general meetings for full discussion. The communication will be printed in the three languages, French, German, and English, and the discussions will be held in these tongues; no member is to speak for longer then fifteen minutes at a time, nor more than twice on the same subject without special permission. Members speaking will be expected to furnish the Secretary of the Congress with a copy of their remarks, so that they may be printed within the twenty-four hours following, otherwise a summary will be published, the accuracy of which cannot be officially guaranteed. rr oor NEW YORK STATE FLAG BILL. “‘Any person who in any manner, for exhibition or dis- play, puts or causes to be placed any iuscription, design, device, symbol, name, advertisement, words, characters, marks or notice whatever upon any flag, standard,’ color or ensign of the United States or State flag of this State or en- sign evidently purporting to be either of said flags, stand- ards, colors or ensigns, or who in any manner appends, an- nexes or affixes to any such flag, standard, color or ensign any inscription, design, device, symbol, name, advertise- ment, words, marks, notice or token whatever, or who dis- plays or exhibits or causes to be displayed or exhibited, any flag, standard, color or ensign of the United States, or flag of this State, or flag, standard, color or wnsign evidently purporting to be either of said flags, standard, colors or en- signs, upon which shall, in any manner, be put, attacked, annexed or affixed any inscription, design, device, symbol, name, advertisement, words, marks, notice or token what- ever, or who publicly mutilates, tramples upon or otherwise defaces or defiles any of said flags, standards, colors, en- sign, whether said flags, standards, colors or ensigns are public or private property, is punishable by imprisonment for not more than one year, or by a fine of not more than $250, or by both such imprisonment and fine. Provided, however, that this section shall not apply to flags, standards, colors, the property of or used in the service of the United States or of this State, upon which inscription, names of action, words, marks or symbols are placed pursuant to law or au- thorized regulation.” a er ee THE NEW BATTLESHIPS. The Navy Department has issued a circular defining the chief characteristics of the three battleships authorized by act of Congress, approved March 3, 1899, and of the two battleships authorized by the act of June 7, 1900. The circular quotes the language of the serveral acts and then says: ‘‘Two classes of bids are desired on the battleships au- thorized by the act of March 3, 1899, namely, bids for sheathed and coppered vessels, in accordance with the re- quirements of the act, and bids for the same ships not sheathed and coppered, the Department reserving the right to adopt either form of construction, in case it should be au- thorized to do so, at the price named in the bid for such sheathed or unsheathed ships, the award, however, being based on the bid for sheathed and coppered ships. Bids on the battleships authorized by the act of June 7, 1900, should be on unsheathed vessels only.’ The general plans may be examined in the bureau on and after Sept. 15, 1900. They will be ready for distribution among respective bidders on application, October 15, and the bids will be opened at the Department on the 15th of November. ee NOMENCLATURE. At the end of June the Shipping Gazette published a couple of letters under the above heading, and we cannot but think, on reading them, that this serious journal for once perpetra- ed a little joke on its readers. The writer of the first letter found fault with the plan—which has many conveniences to recommend it—whereby shipowners name their vessels, and he objected to their calling them the Lake ,the Gulf of —, the——Sea, and soon. He preferred, he said, the practice adopted by the White Star Co., and the Royal Navy. Now we must agree that the naming of the White Star steamship is good. But whocan defend some of the names given to the Queen’s ships? Take those for an ex- ample, of the torpedo boat destroyes. We have the Whit- ing—now making history in China—-and the Skate. Surely it would be hard to get less suitable names for vessels than these, and many equally inappropriate could be instanced. ‘The writter of the letter goeson to suggest that possible passengers are attracted by the names of the vessels which offer themselves for their service. Hearguesthat the names he holds up to ridicule would repel, whilst well chosen names would attract. But, granted that he is right, the difficulty, to our mind, would then arise as to what really would attract and what would repel. His attraction apparently would be toward vessels named after Greek philosophers. But some people would be more frivolous, and might care more for the names of the heroes and heroines of romance. The ideas of asking the Board of Trade to choose ships’ names, or of having improving lectures on the history of the vessel’s namesake aboard, is so impracticable that we cannot help thinking that the writer was making the subject a mere jest. The range for inspectors and state management must stop somewhere; and the limit should certainly be on ere it comes to dealing with ships’ names.—London Marine Engineer. ACOUSTIC TRIANGULATION. The Atlantic Monthly for August will publish an article by Mr. Sylvester Baxter, describing a system of signaling by which a vessel can find her way in thick weather all along the coast as well asinto port. The system is based upon a notation of the difference in the intervals between sounds transmitted by bells located on shore, through the water at the rate of 4,712 feet a second from stations at the entrance of a harbor. ‘‘The fixed mathematical relation of time intervals subsisting between simultaneously sounded signals received at any unknown point from three triangu- larly disposed signaling stations established at known dis- tances from one another, determines the angles between these stations and the point of observation.” The bells are separated by the distance that sound will travel under water in ten seconds or 47,120 feet, and are sounded at intervals of ten seconds between each. The navigator is furnished with a diagram showing at what point sound from the several bells will reach him at a given inter- val after they are struck. Knowing the distance between the bells and the intervals at which they are sounded he can determine his location by the diagrams. With a special telephone receiver invented for the purpose by Professor Gray the signals can be heard more than five miles away. This instrument may be attached to the outside of the ship under water, near the keel and on either side of the bow, like a pair of ears, with wire connections made to the pilot house therefrom, or it may be dropped over the side like a sounding-line when there is any occasion to use it. Signal No. 1 would be located at the entrance of a harbor, with Nos. 2 and 3 off shore, to the right and left. Witha special cable laid to each, the signals would be automatically sounded once in thirty seconds, at intervals of ten seconds between each. To identify each signal, No. 1 would deelare itself by one stroke, No. 2 by two strokes, and No. 3 by three strokes, sounded in quick succession, as in the clicking of a telegragh instrument. These signals would be accurately located on the coast chart. The curves of equal sound-in- tervals could be printed on the chart, or better still, to the avoidance of confusion with other markings on the chart, they could be printed or engraved on some translucent sub- stance like glass or celluloid, and laid upon the chart. ‘Acoustic triangulation,’ as it is called, is the joint in- vention of Mr. Arthur J. Mundy, a Boston gentleman, and Prof. Elisha Gray, and is an application at sea of the princi- ple of trangulation used in surveying on land. In this case the three points are located by sound instead of by sight. Tr SP Ir is expected at the Navy Department that the bidding this fall on the new ships of war recently designed, will be much more extensive than in the past. As will be re- membered, hitherto only three firms in this country have offered bids on the battleships, but several new concerns have sprung into existence and will enter into the contest. The three old firms: The Union Iron Works, The Newport News Ship Building Co, and Cramp’s will of course bid, and bids are expected from the Bath, Me., Iron Works, the Trigg Co. and several others of later date. There is very little doubt that one of the new firms will get a contract for at least one of the cruisers. The work on the plans of the new vessels is progressing most satisfactorily. Chief Naval Constructor Hichborn, who has this matter under control, now has a large force of capable men at work on the drawings and every effort will be made to have them com- pleted at the earliest opportunity. At any event, it is desired that the contract be made prior to the meeting of Congress in December, as there has already been too much delay on the ships.