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: z % : ; a VOL. XXIII, No. 49. — — —— ESTABLISHED 1878. [Pssumanaqeans CLEVELAND---DECEMBER 6, 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.-‘GouLDER, Cleveland. EXECUTIVE AND FINANCE COMMITTEE. : “JAMES CORRIGAN, Chairman, Cleveland. COMMITTEE ON LEGISLATION. Grsson I, Doucias, Chairman, Buffalo. COMMITTEE ON AIDS TO NAVIGATION. GEORGE P. McKay, Chairman, Cleveland. THE SHIPPING OF THE WORLD. The mercantile marine of the world, according to -“TLloyd’s Register,’ is represented by 28,422 vessels, hav- ing atonnage of 29,043,728. Of this aggregate, Great Bri- tain has 10,838 vessels and a tonnage of 14,261,254. Next to the British Empire ranks the United States, with 3,135 ves- sels and a total tonnage of 2,750,271. Germany has 1,710 vessels.with a tonnage of 2,650,033. Following comes Nor- way with 2,380 vessels with a tonnage of 1,640,812; France, with 1,214 vessels, with a tonnage of 983,655; Sweden, with a greater number than France (1,433), but as they are smaller craft their total tonnage is only 637,272. Japan has 1,066 vessels, tonnage, 574,557,’ Holland, 406 vessels, ton- nage, 530,277; Denmark, 802 vessels, tonnage. 416,084. Greece, Brazil, Belgium, Portugal, and Chile all have a ton- nage in excess of 100,000. The steam tonnage of the Bri- tish merchant navy is superior to that of all other countries combined, but nearly half the tonnagejof the United States is made up of sailing vessels. , Lloyd’s quarterly returns, issued early in October, 1900, demonstrate the enormous impetus given to shipbuilding in as _ the United States, partly as the result of the cheapness of material, partly owing toa large demand for tonnage, but to a still greater degree the result of the marketing of American coal abroad, which is regarded as one of the most remarkable economic evolutions of the time. According to the authority cited, the United States had, next to Great Britain, the largest amount of tonnage under _ construction at the end of the last quarter. The total for merchant ships—154,712 tons—is 36,c0c0 tons more than France, and 42,000 tons more than Germany had at the Same date. Hitherto the vessels built on the Great Lakes - have not been usually taken into acount when reviewing the world’s ocean tonnage. They can not, however, be ignored in the future, as the deepening of the Canadian canals and the lengthening of the locks will enable large-sized vessels of moderate draft to pass easily into the St. Lawrence and thence to the sea. An example of the eligibility of vessels for lake service for classification under the head of ‘‘ocean- going”’ vessels was demonstrated during the month of October, when four steel cargo boats, each of 3,000 tons burden, passed down the connecting channels from Lake Erie to New York for service in the Atlantic coasting trade. At Cleveland and Detroit ten or more large ocean steamers are to be built during the winter, and at Chicago and other Lake ports contracts for various types, of cargo boats for use on the high seas have been entered into. \ The shipyards on the Atlantic seaboard have also taken on a new lease of life, and, as noted in the. Monthly Bul- letin for October, large number of ‘‘tramp’’ steamers are being constructed to compete with British and other vessels in all parts of the world. A new shipyard, is just being completed at New London, Conn., and at this point it is in- tended to build a fleet of steamers for regular service between the Pacific coast and the Far East, in connection with the Great Northern and Northern Pacific railroads, and with the lake steamers of the Great-Northern Company. At another yard, near Boston, the construction of the largest vessel for the United States Navy. built in New Jéngland since the days of the wooden clippers has just been commenced. It is to be a cruiser of 3,200 tons displacement. Farther south, at Richmond, Va., a yard hitherto accustomed only to small craft has just been enlarged and equipped for the construction of the largest war ships, while on the Pacific coast preparations are being made for the establishment of a plant to compete with the Union Iron Works for work for the United States Navy. A New York paper recently an- nounced that the New York Central Railroad Company is contracting to establish a regular service of ocean-going steamers in connection with this railway system, with a harbor terminus at Weehawken, opposite New York. It is also reported that the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company is about to acquire more vessels for the trans-Atlantic service. Three protected cruisers, whose construction was author- ized in the last session of Congress, are{to be allotted to pri- vate builders during the course of afew weeks, each to have a displacement of 9,000 tons and to cost about $2, 500, - ooo. Atthe beginning of the present year 49 war vessels were being built in the United States for the Federal Navy. At the same time a cruiser of 6,500 tons and a battleship of 12,700 tons were in the course of constructian for the Rus- sian navy. Thus the total of war ships ‘tunder construc- tion’’ was approximately. 136,463 tons, which, taken:in con- junction with the indicated. tonnage for merchant ships, shows a very considerable expansion ‘of marine interests. or oo -LORD KELVIN ON. ALUMINUM CONDUCTORS FOR ELECTRIC TRANSMISSION. rex The already practical foreshadowed widening use of alum- inum conductors for electric transmission purposes adds interest to Lord Kelvin’s recently expressed ‘opinion of them. The weight of aluminum’ required, he said, is al- most exactly one-half of the copper which would produce the same effect. Thediameter of cable is 28 percent. in excess of one made of copper, and the cost of insulation for an underground cable is' increased in about the same pro- portion when we pass from copper to aluminium, Alumin- um is nota pleasant metal to deal with, but its high con- ductivity will make it invaluable for overhead transmission. It is true also that the weight to be supported on posts is half. of copper, but the surface exposed to the wind is greater, and its strength is not great.. The chief. drawback to its use, especially overhead, is its liability to become rot- ten, This defect does not exist if the metal be pure, and especially if free from sodium. But exposures to the atmos- phere, especially near the sea, induces deterioration. The fact that ‘aluminum is easily oxidized ought not to con- demn it. The same is true of iron and steel, and yet we do not hesitate to place structures of these metals in exposed positions. Only we paint them, so Lord Kelvin proposes that we paint or varnish aluminum conductors wherever necessary. A few hundred: yards of 1&%-inch aluminum wire were put up by Lord Kelvin on a Scotch estate some- what over a year ago, and on this line he is watching the effects of weather.—From Cassier’s Magazine for December, LIQUID FUEL FOR STEAMERS. — Much interest has been manifested in the experience cf a British steamship company, which has been making experi- ments with liquid fuel. The London Times announces the arrival of the steamship Cowrie of the Shell Transport and Trading Company, with a’cargo of oil on the Thames, which : steamed all the way from Koetei, in Borneo, to London— 9,250 miles—using nothing but liquid fuel. The boilers for supplying the steam for the pumps. discharging the cargo are fired by the same material: The oil is not burned by a thin layer of incandescent coal, as is the case in some sys- tems, but is pulverized or reduced to spray by means of a steam jet at the furnace door, where it is delivered from fur- nace tanks above the boilers. The Cowrie was formerly fired with coal, and her conversion to liquid fuel has been at- tended with advantageous results. : Her complement of stokers has been reduced to six, as against sixteen necessary with coal, and her speed has at. the same time been slightly improved. Moreover, the change has effected an important savingjin bunker space, for her consumption of oil on this voyage was only 22 tonsa day, whereas her daily consumption of coal used to be 35 tons, and a ton of oilis calculated to occupy only 34 cubic feet, against 45 feet required for coal.- Oil, too, can be carried in the water-ballast tanks, and can also be taken on board much more quickly than coal. On a recent occasion 300 tons were pumped into a German steamer in one hour. The oil yielded by the Borneo fields forms an excellent fuel when used just as it comes from the ground, and is said to be superseding both the Russian and the American products in the Far East, where it is extensively used for fuel in the Hamburg- American boats engaged in the eastern trade. To give some idea-of its ‘cost, it may,be mentioned that, according to the terms of a recent contract, it is to be delivered at the price of $7.30 a ton at Singapore and Hongkong,'$7.90 at Shang- hai, $8.51 in Japan and Colombo, and $12.16 at Suez. ‘The Cowrie brought from Borneo over 6,000 tons of solar oil, the greater part of which is destined to be used by the Gas Light and Coke company for the production of oil gas for enrich- ment. purposes, and it is an interesting fact that the vessel (or one like her) will be bunkered with the refuse that re- mains after the oil has been utilized in this manner, Mr. Henry Fisher, assistant mgnager of the fuel oil de- partment of the Standard Oil Company, in response to an in- quiry from Modern Machinery as to the practicability of the Standard Oil Company engaging in similar traffic in this country, stated that ‘‘the price for fuel oilin the United States will not permit of its being used for steam purposes as against coal; the latter being decidedly the cheaper. With the eastern trade, however, the conditions are reversed, the price of coal being very high, and the price of oil considera- bly cheaper. This accounts for oil being used ‘so extensively on steamers plying in the eastern trade.’’ i — ———— A NEw: system of fighting fires is being perfected in the Brooklyn navy yard. ‘It was found that the salt water not only saves supply of fresh water, but will put out a fire much mofe quickly than fresh water will. The plan now being constructed will follow, on a larger scale, the plan of the one placed in the,Norfolk navy yard some two years ago. Atthe Brooklyn yard the supply of water will be taken from the river ata’ point three feet below low water mark and will be carried by gravity through ‘a main thirty inches in diameter toa new electric power house, where the reservoir and two driving pumps will be situated. Each of these pumps will be able to deliver, from: 3,000 to 4,000 gal- ons per minute, through 14 or 15 streams of water, which can be thrown almost immediately upon receipt of the fire signal. This salt water method, where conditions permit, diminishes the chance of frozen fire hydrants in winter.