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OCTOBER 18, I900. THE MARINE RECORD. 13! THE ORE MARKET. According to the American Manufacturer the movement of wild ore is exceedingly light now, those boats getting only that amount of tonnage which the shipment to the -ports at the head of the lakes exceeds the demands of the contract tonnage. The rate generally accepted is 65 cents. In making their calculations on the amount of business that is to be done on the lakes next year, and the rates that are to be obtainable for carrying ore and the other commodities, both the vesselmen and the shippers are taking account of the new feature that is likely to be produced by the brown -hemitate ore from the Michipicoten district being placed on the market. The tariffon this ore is likely to prevent it _ from having any great effect upon the prices that are to be obtainable for ores from the States, but on this account the Canadian shippers will join with those on this side of the line in demanding a lower rate of freight. It has been prac- tically demonstrated that Canada cannot possibly use all of this wealth of ore, or as much of it as can be minedin a season, her pig iron industry being yet in its infancy, and her steel trade as well. With nine furnaces in existence, a better part of the last year was spent with four or five of them out of blast. The supply of ore in Canada has been sufficient to keep the furnaces going, so that unless the fur- nace capacity is increased, and the demand for finished material enlarged, the brown hematite ore from the Michi- picoten district must seek a market in the States or flood the Canadian market and push the prices down. The statement now being made is that this ore is to be shipped into the States, as Mr. Clergue, who heads the movement to develop that field, comes from this side of the line and is better ac- quainted with the needs and the conditions here than he is inCanada. This rush of ore is likely to cause a flurry on the American market before another year is out, especially if the Algoma railroad gets into operation to the lake soon, and the promoters continue to develop that field as they have started. : The figures on the ore shipment for the last month and up to the present date from the first of the year, have just been made out by those who are watching the situation witha good deal of interest. The figures show that during the month of September the vessels, both contract and wild, brought down from all of the ore shipping ports 2,520,000 tons of iron ore. The shipment for the same month last year amounted to 2,375,000 tons, the increase this year be- ing 145,000 tons. This increase is commensurate with that which has been shown during all the months of the season, with the possible exception of August, which showed a slight falling away. The fact brought out, also, in view of the light chartering this fall, is that this year’s contract ton- nage is almost equal to both the contract and wild tonnage of last year. The figures further show that there has been brought down the lakes so far this season about 14,900,000 tons of ore, which is an increase of about 1,840,000 tons over what had been carried to the first of October a year ago. This, however, is not altogether due to the additional carry- ing power of the boats, nor to the dispatch the boats have been given, for it will be remembered that the season opened this year much ahead of what it did in 1899, and also, incidentally, much earlier than the vesselmen had ex- pected. The figures are interesting to many as showing how much ore it is likely that the boats will be able to carry down this year, for it is now almost assured that the ship- ment will exceed expectations. If the original 18,000,000 tons are adhered to there will be but 3,100,000 tons yet to move, which, if the September rate is kept up, will leave but 580,000 tons for the month of November. The general belief is, however, that the ore boats will run on through Novem- ber and on into December, exceeding the original limit largely. oe ovxO NAVIGATION OF ILLINOIS RIVER. One of the collateral results of the opening of the Chicago drainage canal has been the rivival of traffic on the Illinois tiver below La Salle, which city has for over fifty years been the nominal head of navigation. Below La Salle the river has been improved by system of dams, making a slack water channel; but what with low water and the natural filling of the river bed in the slackwater basins, there has been little Tegular navigation of the river above Chillicothe, or Henne- pin, for several years. The opening of the drainage ditch has, however, raised the water level of the river between two and three feet and restored the stage of water in the riverto the ancient low water datum. “As a result we are able to load grain barges to their full depth and get to market without the delays formerly so com. mon on the river,’’ said. the agent of the Turner-Hudnut Co,’s elevator at Chillicothe to a Chicago Record reporter. “Freight in full boatloads is lessthan freight in half loads, and we are able to buy grain—and are buying it—half a cent a bushel closer than last year. Our elevator will handle 200,000 bushels of corn and oats this fall, on which we will pay not only the naturally higher prices this year but $10,- ooo besides, representing the famers’ share of the cheapen- ing of transportation. . That can be credited to nothing else than the opening of Chicago’s canal, which has sent the new flood down the valley.’’ There has not been, unfortunately, any corresponding effect on the water level of the old Illinois & Michigan canal, running from La Salle to Chicago, since the flood of drainage canal water affects Illinois river only. Years ago the business of the canal in grain began to decline. A part of this was natural, for the new railway lines took the grain that previously had been hauled for the longest distances. Another part of the decline was unnatural, since the grain and other traffic—except stone from the Joliet-Lemont quarries—left the canal to go to the paralleling railway. When the railway made upits mind it wanted the canal grain and lumber, it made a rate to get them, just as the Record says a 5-cent rate on grain, with a 1-cent rebate, was made from Chillicothe to Chicago to stop the Turner-Hudnut corn from going down the river; and so, despite big con- ventions held at canal towns some years ago to head off this movement and to work uj a sentimental interest in a revival of ‘‘the old canal,’’ the railway has gradually taken the big end of the canal’s business, even from canal towns and canal elevators, not a few of which have their switch-tracks laid on the canal banks under the old canal loading spouts. The result has been that the canal revenues have declined and the canal itself has been allowed to go out of repair. Its feeders are filled up, the canal itself needs drédging for its entire length, its aqueducts need repairing and the Lock- port-Chicago end, filled as it is with twenty-five years’ ac- cumulations of Chicago sewage sludge, is scarcely naviga- ble. Until the canal is dredged and reopened to boats car- rying a full load it can never again be of any weight as an arbiter of rates as in the old days. Of course, there is little prospect of a return to canal con- ditions of forty years ago, when railroads were few and far between and when the canal elevators were able to pay a price for grain that took every kernel within thirty {miles of the canal or Illinois river during the navigation season ; but the Record says that, ‘‘encouraged by the prospect of increased depth of water, because of the Chicago canal, the Turner-Hudnut Co., of Pekin, last year acquired, the long- idle river elevators in all these cities, and bought grain for the Pekin and Peoria market, diverting it from Chicago. The corn goes to the Pekin distilleries and the oats are clipped in that city. They bought last year nearly 200,000 busbels of grain at Chillicothe at a rate which the railroad elevator could not equal. They bought at other cities in the same way, and the Illinois river experienced a slight boom.”’ ee BUFFALO-TIDEWATER GRAIN POOL. The New York Central, West Shore, Erie, Lehigh and Lackawanna roads have formed a pool of the grain traffic by rail from Buffalo to tidewater. So states the American Blevator and Grain Trade, Chicago. The Vanderbilt lines, the New. York Central and West Shore, get, it is said, 55 per cent. of the traffic, the Erie 25 per cent. the Lehigh 16 per cent. and the Lackawana 4 per cent. Frank Harriot, late of the Erie, will be manager of the traffic and handle the con- tracts to check up the business ofeach road. On the strength of this arrangement grain rates east of Buffalo, which had been cut to the lowest rate on record, were restored Septem- ber 19 to 3 cents, including Buffalo elevator and New York lightering charges. It is stated that the Pennsylvania lines will co-operate with the roads named above by making a corresponding rate from its Lake Erie ports to tidewater. This general statement is denied, however, by the rail- roads, whose representatives say the popular idea of the ‘pool’ is entirely erroneous; that Mr. Harriot’s business is simply to keep tab on the tonnage of the various roads so that their executive officers may know what each of their competitors is doing. At any rate, if it is a pool, it is elaimed, it is not ‘‘strictly a pool,’’ inasmuch as the ‘sub- scribing companies do not pool their grain traffic earnings, but simply divide the business. Some New York men are inclined to look on the pool with favor because it is thought to be the purpose of the roads to favor New York, and it is cited asa ‘‘straw’’ to that affect that the British S. S. Zampa on September 24 was loading 140,coo bushels of wheat from the iron elevator at the foot of Degraw Street, Brooklyn, being the first steamer to load grain at that elevator for many months. Another theory for the pool is that itis a movement ‘'‘to head off further agitation for the enlargement of the Erie canal by showing how completely the grain forwarding trade is under the control of the trunk lines, It is antici- pated that the intention of the trunk lines is to maintain a low freight rate until every canal barge is put out of busi- ness, The canal business is about onits last legs,” said a prominent vessel broker, ‘‘andI reckon the railways have formed a grain pool because they think the time is ripe to give the canal business a knock-out blow.” — or PULVERIZED COAL AS FUEL. Some peculiarly novel and interesting experiments made recently in Chicago with pulverized coal as fuel indicates the possibility of a radical change in the coal using condi- tions of great manufacturing plants requiring steam power. Even with all the best modern appliances at command, the burning of ordinary coal in furnaces is a process so wasteful when results are compared with the potential energy liberated, that a veritable flood of inventive talent has been poured around the problem of increased fuel effici- ency. Pulverized coal isa contribution to the list of at- tempts at solution which have already shown valuable re- sults under careful tests, and may eventually supercede the familiar form of this fuel. As shown in the experiments at Chicago, conducted under the direction of Illinois Central railway officials, the new preparation of coal burns in an ordinary furnace just like gas, with no waste and no resi- duum. The finely pulverized coal, blown into the furnace witha due admixture of air, flashes into gas and is instantly consumed. An increase of from 25 to 40 per cent. in the steam producing capacity of the coal used has been certified to by the engineer experts who conducted the Illinois Central series of experiments. Manifestly, if the results thus shown can be reproduced at will elsewhere, there will be little delay in the general in- stallation of the new process of fuel treatment and combus- tion. The saving in coal alonein one year would amply cover the cost of the new machinery required, while the further relief from noxious gasses, slag, cinders and waste, and from the intolerable nuisance of heavy black smoke. would be a public boon of great value. It is to be trusted that this elaborately heralded new device is not, like so many others, a mere pretense and illusion destined to early obscurity and oblivion. —<—<—< <i oe or THE ALPENA WRECKED. Between midnight and daylight of Oct. 16, 1880, the side- wheel passenger steamer Alpena, of the Goodrich Line, went: down with all on board somewhere, it is thought, between Racine and the east shore, during an equinoctial storm which is well remembered to this day for its severity. Like the ill-fated Chicora, she simply dropped out of sight, where, no man could tell, for the long search for the hull was never rewarded; under what circumstances none will ever know, for during the twenty years which have passed since that awful night no survivor has ever been found to tell the tale. The bodies and wreckage that piled upon the Michigan shore between Holland and Grand Haven for days after, bore the only witness of the disaster, but gave no clew to the cause. At the government marine office in Chicago is an old record in which is given the opinion of the late Capt. A. E. Goodrich of the cause and manner of the wreck. ‘‘Capt. Napier was a man of courage,” says this record. ‘‘He had that bulldog tenacity that would not give up as long as there was a fighting chance. The Alpena was last seen about thirty miles off Chicago. . Instead of squaring off for Mil- waukee, as he might have done, the captain fought the storm until the sea got so big that when the boat dropped into the trough of the sea her freight shifted to leeward. One wheel was pitched out of water and the captain was not able to right her. She probably stood in that position until the sea knocked her to pieces, which was probably a good many hours after. I think she rode out the storm and did not go to. pieces until the wind shifted. That was Sunday night.”’ SD SOO OS THE six submarine vessels of the Holland type, which have been ordered by the government are to be named the Adder, the Grampus, the Moccasin, the Pike, the Porpoise and the Shark.