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8 THE MARINE RECORD. MAY 9, Igol. ee EEE ELECTRIC LIGHTING FOR GERMAN SHIPS. An article in the Electrotechnische Zeitschrift treats of electrical installations on new ships of the German navy: “It appears that in the German servies separate lead and return wires have been generally adopted, concentric cables being used in the neighborhood of the ships’ compasses. Attempts to employ,the ship's structure as a return have not attained successful results, and, sofar as large vessels are concerned, this practice has been entirely superseded; but in the case of new torpedo boats, where economy in weight is a vital consideration, the practice still holds. In all places exposed to the danger of mechanical injury, such as the en- gine rooms and stock holds, lead-covered, iron-armored cables are employed, while elsewhere cables well insulated with rubber, but otherwise unprotected, except in some cases by thin rust-proof wire, are used, The wood casing formerly employed has been abolished, owing to its inflam- mability. Hitherto, the telegraph and telephone cables have been of the lead-covered, iron-armored type; but the newest ships have been provided with a central subway, like a corridor, as well as side corridors below the armored deck, which may be used for the electric cables, telegraph and telephone wires, etc., thereby avoiding all danger of mechan- icalinjury to the same. It is proposed to dispense with the steel armor in the future, even for the lighting and power cables, retaining only the lead protection. The practice of soldering branch connections has also been discarded in favor of branch fuse-boxes, in which the connections are made with terminal bars. These branch circuit boxes are made for two, three, four, six, and eight lamps. They are, of course, water-tight. Their introduc- tion seems to have been a complete success, facilitating as they do systematic supervision of the ship’s wiring. Although slate is at present generally used for switchboard bases in the service, it is interesting to learn that iron is proposed asa substitute, owing to the unavoidable break- ages which occur. Small machine boards with iron bases have already been successfully introduced, but the difficulty of insulating the terminals and connections has hitherto prevented the adoption of the plan ona large scale. With the exception of the connections with the measuring instru- ments, all the switchboard connections on the Furst Bis- marck were for the first time made with bare copper bars, whereby a neat, solid construction is obtained, which is also accessible. The necessary protection against moisture is provided by enamel, which also serves to distinguish the poles, red and blue being used. This type of board is par- ticularly advantageous where the available space is limited in depth, since the connections behind require no supervi- sion, and the screw terminals may all be withdrawn from the front of ‘the board.’’ Mr. Fritz Forster, in an article in the Electrotechnischer Anzeiger, discusses the use of accumulators for supplying electric light on ocean steamers. It appears that a German firm, which makes a specialty of ship installations, has re- cently installed, experimentally, quite a number of batter- _ies of accumulators in Hamburg ships. All these ships previously possessed generating plants, the dynamos being éither shunt or compound wound machines; but in each case they were designed to yield only the normal difference of potential required for the lighting, whence.it was neces- sary to provide for charging the accumulators, subsequently introduced, in two parallel batteries, in order to avoid essen- tial modifications of the existing plant. The accumulators, fitted with acid-tight covers of vulcanite, were placed in a compartment as near the switchboard as possible in each case and firmly secured. A diagram which accompanies the article shows the connections adopted to facilitate cut- ting out the compound winding of adynamo when charg- ing, so as to enable it to be run temporarily as a shunt- wound machine. As the writer suggests, experience alone can prove the adaptability of accumulators for ship-lighting purposes. Butit is not impossible that they may play an important part in the future of this branch of electrical ‘work, and they will be especially useful when a ship isin port and the boilers not under steam. OOO Oe HYDROGRAPHIC OFFICE NOTE. Information has beea received from the superintendent of ‘the Chicago Ship Building Co., on Calumet river, South Chicago, giving dimensions of their dry dock as follows: "Length, extreme, 564 feet; length on blocks, 556 feet; ‘width at top, 100 feet; width at bottom, 80 feet; width at ‘gate, top, 70 feet; width at gate, bottom, 50 feet; available “depth over sill, 16 feet. SHIPBUILDING AT NAGASAKI. Consul Harris, of Nagasaki, February 9, 1901, reports the launching, on the 26th ultimo, of the steamship Kaga Maru from the Mitsu Bishi Dock Yard and Engine Works, of that city. This vessel was constructed under the shipbuilding encouragement act of the Japanese Government and Lloyd’s rules, class 100, At, and was built to the order of the Nip- pon Yusen Kaisha (Japan Mail Steamship Co.) for its Amer- ican line. The materials used in its construction were pur- chased in England, and the keel was laid on the 2oth of March, 1920. The ship is to be completed and delivered in March, 1901. A description follows: Type, 3 decks; ma- terial, steel; length over all, 459 feet; beam, 49 feet 2 inches; depth, 33 feet 6 inches; gross tonnage, 6,240 tons; displace- ment, 11,800 tons; draft, 25 feet; deadweight capacity, 6,820 tons; engines, twin screw, triple-expansion; boilers, cylindrical, four in number; indicated horse-power (esti- mated), 4,5c0; speed, 15 knots. OO Oe MAGNETIC SURVEYS. The United States Coast and Geodetic Survey has organ- ized a special bureau charged with the magnetic survey of the whole country, including Alaska, the Hawaiian Islands and Porto Rico. Some 500 stations have already been Sausalito Pt Tarmalpais £levation ranging trom 1400 10 2500 1% Z ight le Porat fixed White fog whist fee! eval" uy 3 yore Least Siren South em of Etull Facing seaward © Mile Rocks i & Bel Buoy / Kilometer Qys£ 5S Showing the course of the steamer City of Rio Janeiro entering San Francis o harbor, also the lines of the inaudibilty of sound from the fog signal stations, and the probable location of the spot where the steamer foundered. occupied and the magnetic elements—declination, dip and intensity—have been determined. Other special stations have been established at which these observations will be reported from time to time, in order to determine the secu- lar values of the elements. Magnetic observatories of a permanent character will be established at Cheltenham, Maryland (near Washington), at Sitka, in Alaska, and at Honolula, on the Island of Hawaii. A new edition of tables and charts of the magnetic elements isin course of prepara- tiou, and the whole field of magneticsurveys will be covered within a reasonably short period. ec PROFESSOR BILES an eminent English authority in ma- rine architecture has stated as follows: Taking a steamer 500 ft. long, and 60 feet broad, with a draught of 27 ft. 6 in., he found that by increasing the length to 700 ft., with a pro- portionate increase in the breadth, but keeping the draught constant at 27 ft. 6in., the cost of carrying a ton of cargo 5,000 knots at 12 knots speed increased from 8s. 6d. to over 11s. But if the draught, instead of being kept’constant, was increased in proportion to the increase in the other dimen- sions, then the cost of carrying a ton of cargo the same dis- tance, and at the same speed, decreased from 8s. 6d. in the -Gase of the 500 ft. ship to 7s. in the case of the 700 ft. ship. It is thus shown that if draught be increased proportionately to increase of the other dimensions, cargo can be carried at a proportional less cost. Pt Cavallo THE BRITISH CONSIDER SUBSIDIZING SHIPPING. : The British House of Commons is considering the advisa- bility of inaugurating a system of shipping subsidies. Mr. Evelyn Cecil pointed out that the Germans had established a fortnightly monthly service by the West Coast and East Coast of Africa, and alsoa monthly service which went as far as Delagoa Bay. The result had been that the German trade to East Africa had increased from £300,900 in 1891 to £955,600 in 1898, whereas our own trade to Pemba and Zan- zibar had actually fallen off. The question of subsidies gen- erally was a large and important one, and deserved to be fully considered, and he claimed that the recent establish- ment of the Direct West India Mail Service, with a bounty of £40,000 a year, afforded a precedent of giving help of this kind to our possessions abroad. Sir E. Sassoon seconded the motion. Sir F. Evanssaid that his firm had madea very close study of this question, and he could assure the hon. member that no line which went around the East Coast ports via the Mediterranean could be made a commercial success. His own company had tried for some years to establish a line via the southern route, but even in this case it could not pay, and after losing some thousands the company gave up the venture.. He was personally very much opposed to subsidies unless it could be clearly shown that the government got very good value, and it could certainly be shown that any useful advantage would be gained by this country supporting a line to the East Coast of Africa via the Mediterranean. Sir C. Cayzer and Mr. Arthur Stanley supported the demand for a Select Committee on the whole subject. Mr. C. M’Arthur said that within the last five years the subsidy system had enormously increased with foreign Governments greatly to the detri- ment of British shipowners. Figures which had lately been prepared worked out as follows: Great Britain, postal subsidies, 1895 £592,000, I900 £764,007; United States, from £167,000 to £357,- ooo; Germany, from £249,000 to £389,000; Italy, from £70,000 to £449,000; France, from £420,000 to £1,766,000. There was a bill now before Con- gress to enormously increase American subsidies, and British owners in some trades trembled at the possible result of the passage of such an act. The Norddeutscher Lloyd received £279,000, the Inter- national Navigation Company of America £ 168,- .voo a year, the Trans-Atlantique Company of France £446,000 a year, and the Messageries Mari- time Company £554,000 a year, compared with £126,000 paid to the Cunard and White Star Com- panies put together. He strongly supported the demand for a Select Committee. Mr. G. Balfour agreed to appoint a Select Com- mittee to inquire into the general question of shipping subsidies. The Government had at present under its consideration the question of paying a subsidy to a steamship company which should establish a line between this country and Zanzibar. money in this way the Government had in view not the promotion of trade and commerce generally, but the fur- thering of the interests of particular colonies. The motion was then withdrawn as a whole, and the prop- osition of Mr. Balfour being accepted, that part of the mo- tion asking for a committee on the subsidy system was car- ried. ror ior corr IMPORTANT SALVAGE EXPEDITION. An important salvage expedition has left the Clyde for the West Indies, where an attempt will be made to lift the Cor- inthia, lost on the Island of St. Domingo last year. She was on a voyage from New Orleans to the Cape of Good Hope with a cargo of one thousand mules for the British Government. The underwriters paid the whole claim of $35,000, but as she was worth at least double that sum a fund of £8,000 to £10,000 has been subscribed with the view of floating her. Accordingly the Liverpool-owned steamer Bear has been chartered to convey the salvage party of forty men and divers to the scene of the wreck. The Bear takes out the most approved steam pumps and other salving appliances, and those behind the expedition are confident of reaping a big profit on the venture. The risk is extensively covered in Glasgow, London and Liverpool. thn ee 4 It must be remembered, however, that in giving -