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OCTOBER 31, Igor. THE MARINE RECORD. iJ THE INDUSTRIAL IMPROVEMENTS AT SAULT STE. MARIE. In a paper published in the latest report of the Ontario Bureau of Mines, Mr. F. N Speller gives the following de- scription of the plant which the Lake Superior Power Co. is erecting at Sault Ste. Marie: “The coke to be used at the Sault must be brought from either the Connelsville or Punxsutewney district. This is the most important item in the cost sheet of the locality under consideration. It means an approximate haul of 210 miles by rail from Connelsville to Lorain or Cleveland, and a water haul to the Sault equivalent to 80 miles of rail haul. As it will require 1.70 tons of coke tosmelt an equal quantity of ore and produce one ton of pig iron, applying Mr. Mox- ham’s freight we find that it will cost about $1.97 to bring this fuel within easy reach of good ore and limestone on the north shore of Lake Superior or at the Sault; so that it ap- pears quite evident that the cost of assembling the necessary raw material—coke, limestone and iron ore—in the neigh- borhood of Sault Ste. Marie should be much less than at Pittsburg. At present the bessemer steel works and rail mills are being installed with three 8-ft. cupalos for melting the pig iron for conversion. The pig iron will be provided by the Midland furnaces, until the large pair of blast fur- naces, now being designed are completed, when the direct metal process will be adopted. The bessemer plant will consist of two acid-lined converters of 5 tons capacity each. The metal, after being blown, is handled as in the best modern practice, by pouring into moulds on buggies, the in- gots being stripped after standing a few minutes. The strip- ping is done by means of an overhead stripping crane, de- signed by the Wellman-Seaver Engineering Co., of Cleve- land. This crane is also provided with an auxiliary trolley which is used to change the ladles on the ladle crane. The ingots are then conveyed to the pit furnaces (soaking pits) consisting of two four hole furnaces. The ingots are drawn and charged in these furnaces by an overhead electric draw- ing and charging crane, designed by above-named company, which also delivers the ingots on the blooming mill tables. They are then passed through the 32-inch blooming mill, driven by a pair of 28x48 reversing engines, built by the . Southwark Foundry & Machine Co., of Philadelphia. The blooms are then sheared to the proper length in proportion to the section of rail into which they are to be rolled and next are conveyed to four Seimens regenerative heating fur- naces. The overhead drawing and charging crane is used in connection with these reheating furnaces for charging aud drawing the blooms. Thiscrane also delivers the bloom on rollers which run to a 23-inch rail mill driven by a 40x48 inch Porter-Allen engine, built by the Southwark Foundry & Machine Co. There are in this mill three stands of rolls; first and second roughing and finishing roll. The material is handled and manipulated at the rolls by electrically driven transfer tables, designed by the Wellman-Seaver Engineer- ing Co. This train is covered by an overhead electric travel- ing crane, which is used for handling rolls and spindles when changing from one section of rail to another. After leaving the rolls the rails are run to the hot saws, where they are sawn to the requiredlengths. They are then passed through a cambering machine and conveyed to the hot beds, where they are permitted to cool sufficiently to be finished in the cold finishing department. Here the rails are straightened, inspected and drilled, then handled by pneumatic overhead hoists and loaded on cars under cover of shipment. The cold finishing department being all under roof, the product is carefully protected until loaded on the cars. The plant is laid out with a view to handling rails in 30 or 60-ft. lengths up to 85 lbs. per yard, and structural materials, such as an- gles, channels, beams. etc.”’ OD OS Asso long advocated in the columns of the RECORD we now learn that Governors of States, including Governor Nash, of Ohio, has received from John D. Long, Secretary of the Navy, a letter asking for information as to the strength of the Naval Reserves of the Ohio National Guard. Secretary Long, for some time had in view the advisability of organiz- ing a national naval reserve under the direct control of the Federal Government, and he will attempt to secure the enactment of a law to such effect. Itis the purpose to make eligible to the National Naval Reserve only men who have seen service in the Spanish-American war, who have been connected with a naval reserve for at least three years, or who have had much service on the sea. They will receive training for several weeks each year, if the proposed plans are carried out. THE WEATHER FOR NOVEMBER. Astronomical data for November, 1901, furnished the MARINE RECORD by the Washburn observatory: An annular eclipse of the sun occurs on Nov. roth in the midst of the night for this part of the world. The path of central eclipse will begin at Sicily and extend eastward, across Arabia, the northern part of the Indian ocean, and terminate in the Philippines. Mercury becomes a morning star Nov. 4th and will reach greatest elougation west Nov. 20th; but the planet will not be favorably situated for observation. Venus continues to appear higher each evening in the southwestern sky as ‘the bright evening star and is increasing rapidly in brilliancy. The ruddy Mars also may still be seen after sunset lost in the southwestern sky. Higher and farther east the planet Jupiter shines, next to Venus, the brightest star in the even- ing sky, and is followed close by Saturn in the east and little north. The pair of planets are set t PY, the mre or early evening. The times of sunrise and sunset at Milwaukee for the month are as follows: SUNRISE. SUNSET. November alts eneiceisneke. = 6226 bk es eee tree a: 4:44 Novem ber shI is csc seis; spencer siete G530 ada cuss taRiaey acta 4:32 Novem berating ti seis d Sees OBL yes ae ea ne tice aie sae 4:23 November 30.)..2.......c.0.0 GsO2a esse ewes ante 4:18 The times of the moon’s phases are: Third quarter....... November 3.7. ciifc cs oe eae 1:24 a, m New Moon.......... November it oie ecee.n 2:34 a.m First quarter ........ November. 19: vac. .390 ¥. 2:23 a,m Full Moon ......... November 25...........00.- 7:18 p. m The principal fixed stars visible during monthin the even- ing hours are: To the west: Vega and Altair. To the east: Aldebaran the Pleiades and Capella. ANOTHER ATLANTIC RECORD. The steamer Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, which sailed from New York October 22, has again broken her eastward record, having arrived at Plymouth at 3:08 Tuesday morn- ing after a passage of five days ten hours from Sandy Hook light-ship. Captain Hogemann’s cable dispatch to the agents of the line stated that the Kaiser had made an hourly average of 22.88 knots and daily runs of 503, 553, 534, 526, 539 and 338 miles. Moderate sea and weather prevailed during the voyage. or or SHOAL REPORTED. The reported striking of a ship ona hitherto unknown and uncharted shoal in the St. Lawrence river, between McNair Island and the Canadian shore, caused the U.S. engineers to immediately start out a survey party to deter- mine definitely as to its existence and location. This survey has now been completed, and it is found that the shoal isa rock ledge about 100 feet long and 85 feet wide between 18-foot curves, with a least depth on it of about 1334 feet at low water. It isin the middle of the channel between McNair Island and the Canadian shore, right in the track ordinarily used by deep draft vessels navi- gating this river. Major Symons, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., who has had the matter in charge, will recommend the removal of the shoal at the earliest possible date, and in the meantime he suggested great caution on the part of deeply loaded vessels navigating this part of the river. ror oir MARINE PATENTS. 684,859. Coal-handling Device. Staunton B. Peck, Chi- cago, Iil., assignor tothe Link Belt Machinery Co., Chi- cago, Ill, a corporation of Illinois. 684,868. Oar. James A. Robison, Detroit, Mich. 684,871. Apparatus for regulating and controlling marine engines. Alexander M. Rust, Aukland, New Zealand. 684,878. Folding life-raft. Eduard A. Sperba, Dresden, Germany. 685,028. Apparatus for submarine operations. Charles H. Brown, Port Huron, Mich., assignor of one-half to Stephen G. Martin and Abraham S. Martin, Port Huron, Mich, 685,047. Anchor. Fletcher Joiner, Schenectady, N. Y. 685,089. Propeller. John Barnett, Los Angeles, Cal. eB Life-preserver. Icilius W. Maccolini, Inwood, N. haa Visual indicator for submergible boats. Charles A. Morris, Glenridge, N. J. 685,165. Apparatus for putting torpedoes on v.ssels. Charles A. Morris, Glenridge, N. J. 685,237. Hatch-fastener. Clarence M. Holley, Arbor, Mich. Ann TREATMENT ON AMERICAN SHIPS, No maritime nation affords better wages, better food, or better accommodations to her seamen, than does America. The minimum scale of provisions on American merchant vessels fixed by law is far and _away invadvance of the: similar scale in existence; by agreement, over here. The order of the day on American ships is plenty, but no waste. In ships bound round Cape Horn, for examiple, allowance is unknown, Water is always available for the thirsty man, and food for his hungry shipmate. No one who has not made a few Yoy- ages in an American sailing ship, commanded by an Anieri- can, can have the faintest idea of the variety in the diet and the daintiness of the dishes served out even to the men he- fore the mast. There is always a hot savory mess for break- fast, and various kinds of soft bread for supper; while a bar_ rel of appetizing white biscuits is never allowed to be empty inside the seamen’s dwelling place. A recapitulation of the items of the legal minimum food scale for American seamen would make the mouth of British merchant Jack water, on a deep-water sailer. Food on British sailing ships is good enough—only the ignorant term it ‘‘offal’’—but it is lacking in quantity and in variety. Moreover, the American sailor has his food from a clean gal- ley, in a clean tin vessel—not in a wooden so-called ‘‘kid,”’ somewhat after the fashion of a niniature hog-trough. By the Acts of 1895 and 1897, American vessels are required to provide 72 cubic feet space for the quarters of each seaman; and in the case of sailing ships built subsequent to June 30, 1898, the space has to be 100 feet. Congress has bettered the food scale and the accommodation of American merchant seamen considerably during the past four years, but the very large majority of American shipowners have not murmured with respect to the extra expense thereby entailed. The American ship owner long since discarded the dismal lower forecastle and the uncomfortable topgallant forecastle for the roomy deckhouse, with windows on each side. With American-born boys in training, a food scale and ac- commodation for seamen second to none, and a rate of wages somewhat in excess of other nations, America’s merchant marine, in its expanded form, will never lack officers or men. Moreover, in American ships it is not a case of ease and starvation or growl you may, but go you must, for the men are well cared for and naturally give willing service, Hence the higher cost of an American crew in an American ship is counterbalanced by the extra work got out of the men ungrudgingly.—London Syren and Shipping ee LAKE CHAMPLAIN’S OLD TREASURE SHIP. Several problems of considerable delicacy have been pre- sented by the recovery, a few years ago, of I0,000 sovereigns from an English sloop that had been lying since 1777 at the ° bottom of East Bay, Lake Champlain, says the New York Times.., The treasure was sent from Quebec for use in pay- ing Burgoyne’s troops, and the vessel was scuttled by its captain, one Johnson, when he was attacked by a superior force of Yankee soldiers in retreat after the reverse at Hub- bardton. There was afterward some suspicion that Capt. Johnson removed and appropriated the treasure before he sank the sloop, but his honesty is at last vindicated. With the course of the years the sloop was covered with silt brought down by a neighboring river, but this spriug unusually high water washed much of the deposit away and left a portion of the wreck exposed. Mr. George B. West, a civil engineer, turned the course of the stream, did a little work with pick and shovel, and then with a charge of dynamite broke open the old hull.’ In the cabin he found a few muskets and an iron chest, and in the latter were the sovereigns quite un- harmed by the long submersion. They are now ina bank at Fairhaven, claimed as treasure trove by the state of Ver- mont. Prof.S. M. MacVane, of Harvard, has made the somewhat painful suggestion that perhaps the British gov- ernment can establish an equity, if not a right, in the gold, and that, as its origin is known, Vermont may be moved to make some sort of restitution. Naturally enough, this idea hes not been received with enthusiasm in Vermont. Why, indeed, should it be? The title to property passes very easily in time of war, and if the Americans who forced the sinking of the sloop had been able to fish up its precious contents, they certainly would have taken possession of them without any compunctions. New York state has quite as good a claim to the gold as Great Britain has, for it was not until years after 1777 that Vermont’s ownership of the region where the treasure lay was admitted by this. state, and dur- ing ee period we had a sort of proprietary interest in the gold.