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ESTABLISHED 1878. VOL. XXIV, No. 42 CLEVELAND =--OCTOBER 17, 1901 -- CHICAGO. $2.00 Per Year. 102. Single Copy ‘LAKE ‘CaRRIERS’ -ASSOCIATION,: To consider 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 to improve the character of the service rendered to the public. PRES DENT. AeB. WoLvInN, ‘Duluth. at 1ST VICE-PRESIDENT. : Capt. J. G. KE1TH, Chicago, SECRETARY. CHARLES H. KEEP, Buffalo. 2 : TREASURER. y ) GEORGE'P. McKay, ; Cleveland. * COUNSEL. HARVEY D. GOULDER, Cleveland. ‘EXECUTIVE AND FINANCE COMMITTEE. © JAMES CORRIGAN, Chairman, Cleveland. COMMITTEE ON LEGISLATION. : Gipson L. DouGLas, Chairman, ’ Buffalo. COMMITTEE ON AIDS TO NAVIGATION. GEORGE P. McKay, Chairman, Cleveland, THE RIVERS AND HARBORS CONVENTION. Twenty-eight States were represented at the First Nation- al Rivers and Harbors Convention which opened’ in Balti- more last week. The following officers were elected: Pres- ident, George E. Barton, Philadelphia; secretary, William H. Love, Baltimore; assistants, E. R. Sherwood, Philadel- phia; George H. Lord, New Orleans, and F.'A. Scott, Cleve- land. The purpose of the Congress was explained by Theodore E. Burton, chairman of the River and Harbor Committee in the last Congress: ““T take it the movement which led to this convention was prompted by a desire to awaken general interest in river and harbor improvements. ‘I am informed it is not desired that any specific project shall be advocated here, but at the same-time you consider the improvement of the navigable channels and ports of the country as essential for our devel- opment, and that these ports and channels require the fos- tering care and assistance of the national government. The influence of this assembly should be exerted for liberal ap- propriations for rivers and ‘harbors, but liberality should al- ways be' coupled with discrimination.”’ ‘A feature of the afternoon session was an address by ex- United States Senator A. P. Gorman, in the course of which he said: “The necessity for the improvement and development of our commerce was never greater than it is now. The only way to meet the keen competition of foreign countries is to offer equal facilities’ for the immense steamships that are now engaged in the ocean trade. We want harbors all along the coast that will accommodate the largest ships that cross the ocean. We must have in addition steamship lines that will reach from one end of the country to the other without the necessity of taking such a long, roundabout: way. I - mean that we need some large canals connecting the various 8 | igi bodies of water.”’ ——— $e ANNUAL REPORTS OF CORPORATIONS. * The’ United States Steel Corporation, the largest of all the so-called trusts, has set a worthy example in taking the pub- lic into its confidence and making a full and detailed state- merit of its operations during the past six months. As it Happéns, this company was able to make a. fine exhibit. In spite of the long, expensive strike, the company shows that it has’ been making money right along, and its profits were enough to pay allexpenses, provide for the sinking fund, pay. ae as. toes dividend on the common and preferred stock and carry a comfortable sum to the surplus, But whether the statement be good or bad, it is the duty of these ‘corporations to make a frank statement from time to time showing the exact status of their business, If this were done by’ all such corporations, there would be less prejudice against the trust and less demand for a certain government supervision of them. Moreover, the general public would be more disposed to take hold of the shares of prosperous corporations when they know that the corporations are deal- ing faiily and frankly with them. Many people are growing tired of investing in the shares of corporations, about which they know nothing, and so long as the directors of these concerns keep their affairs to themselves, the general public will become more and more suspicious, and more and more averse to buying their shares. In the light of recent exper- iment ‘‘blind pools’ are not very popular. -- Oo oe INTERNATIONAL NAVIGATION CONGRESS. Acting on the suggestion of General Gillespie, Chief of Engineers, U.S. A., our government has accepted an invi- tation to send delegates to the International Navigation Congress to be held at Dusseldorf, Germany, beginning June 29, 1902. General Gillespie is much interested in the matter, and he has secured the approval of the Secretary of War to his plan to send as delegates of the United States three of the most distinguished officers who have rendered especially noteworthy service on inland works. They will be selected particularly with regard to their ability to represent this country with honor and dignity. Each one of them will be required to prepare a paper upon some subject to be read before the congress. In order that they may have time for preparation, the three officers have already been notified of their selection and urged to accept. or oor FRENCH NAVAL PROGRESS. A year has not passed, says the Temps, ‘Paris, since the adoption by Parliament of the Naval Extension Bill, and yet one of the largest vessels to be built under the new pro- gramme will be launched on the 24th of next month. The armored cruiser Leon Gambetta has been built in the government yard at Brest, which, during the past few years, das made such extraordinary progress in the rapidity of con- struction. The new cruiser will be the largest afloat under the French flag, and will have a displacement of 12,550 tons, with a length of 450 feet, and a beam of 65 feet. She will be fitted with tubular boilers, and three triple-expansion engines of the vertical type, driving triple screws, and de- veloping 27,500 horse-power, giving a speed of 22 knots. The officers and crew will number 730 men. The armament will comprise four heavy guns in pairs in turrets fore and aft, 40 smaller quick-firing guns, and five torpedo tubes, two of them under water. _The Leon Gambetta will be ready for commission in 1903, and when completed will have cost 30 millions of francs. oe oor MAGNETIC INVESTIGATION. The coast and geodetic survey has established a magnetic observatory at Sitka, Alaska, and is constructing another at Honolulu, Hawaii, to. co-operate with the British and Ger- man governments in investigating problems of the mag- netic forces and needle variations throughout the world. This is in connection with British and German expeditions forthe South-Pole on plans long ago formulated. It is ex- pected to determine whether all magnetic disturbances and phenomena are subject to a common and world-wide cause, or are, in some instances, of a distinctive and marked local character. ieee nats USTs REVIEW OF MARINE ENGINEERING. The following is a summary of questions treated in a paper read by Mr. James McKechnie, of Barrow-in-Furness, at the summer meeting of the Institution of Mechanical: Ragingers, held at Barrow-in-Furness. : Steam pressures have been increased during the® past “ten years in the merchant marine from 158 lbs. to 197 Ibs. per square inch, the maximum attained being 267 lbs, per square inch, and 300 lbs. in the naval service. The piston ‘ speed of mercantile machinery has gone up from 529 to 654 feet per minute, the maximum in merchant practice being about goo feet, and in naval practice 960 feet for large engines, and 1,300 feet in torpedo boat destroyers. Boilers also) yield a greater power for a given surface, and thus the average power per ton of machinery has gone up from an average of 6 to about 7 i. h. p. per ton of machinery. The net result in respect of speed is that while ten years ago the highest sus- tained ocean speed was 20,7 knots, it isnow 23.38 knots,; the highest speed for large warships was ‘22 knots, and is now 23 knots on a trial of double the duration of those . of ten years ago; the maximum speed attained by any craft was 25 knots, as compared with 36.581 knots now; while the number of ships of over 20 knots was eight in 1891, and is 58 now. But probably the result of most importance, be- cause affecting every type of ship from the tramp to. the greyhound, is the reduction in the coal consumption, »Ten years ago the rate for ocean voyages was 1.75 lbs. per. h. p. per hour; to-day in the most modern ships, it is about 1.5 lbs. Ten years ago one ton of cargo was carried 100-miles for 10 lbs. of fuel, whereas now, with the great increase in the size of ships and other mechanical improvements, the same work is done for about 4 tons of .coal—a_ result which means a very great saving when applied to the immense fleet of over-sea carriers throughout the world. It may be said that so far as high-speed -machinery is concerned, the universal practice is to fit a 4-crank engine operated from four cylinders, usually on the three- stage compound system, and occasionally for quadruple ex pansion, the cylinders being arranged on the -Yarrow- Schlick-Tweedy system. Ten years ago the greatest power developed in any steamer was 20,000 i. h. p., and the highest speed on an over-sea voyage 20.7 knots. Now, 30,000i..h. p. is the highest in naval practice; the speed being 23 knots, while in merchant practice over 36,000 i.h. p., has: been developed, the mean speed on a trans-Atlantic passage being 23.51 knots, while at the present time there is -building a steamer to excel this splendid result. Full credit for this remarkable speed should be given to the company who built the vessel, the Stettiner ._Maschinenbau Actien- Gesellschaft ‘‘Vulcan,’’ of Stettin, who have built for German owners the two fastest merchant vessels afloat, and are now building two to be at least equal in speed. ee ———— GULF WAVES THROW UP PARAFFINE. A news item which recently appeared in the Galveston News tells of the taking up of paraffine from the Gulf of Mexico, According tothe account this has been gathered up by some people, and a week or ten days ago a brick of it was sent to an oil prospector in.Galveston. He pronounced it paraffine, and went to the coast country to investigate. He is back, and says that the reports are true that the paraf- fine is washed in from the Gulf, but from where he has no idea. At one place as much as 300 pounds was gathered up. by coast dwellers who knew nothing of its value. This ex- pert is of the opinion that paraffine oozes from an oil deposit below the water, and that it is practically refined by the ac- tion of the sea water. The coast dwellers claim that this. stuff has been coming in from the gulf for several years,