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VOL. XXV, No. 6. ESTABLISHED 1878. CLEVELAND -- FEBRUARY 6, 1902 -- CHICAGO. $2.00 Per Year. 1oc. 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, PRESIDENT. Wo. LIVINGSTONE, Detroit. IST VICE-PRESIDENT. J. C. GiLcuRist, Cleveland. SECRETARY. HARVEY L. Brown, Buffalo. TREASURER. és GEORGE P. McKay, Cleveland. ; COUNSEL. HARVEY D. GouLDER, Cleveland. EXECUTIVE AND FINANCE COMMITTEE. JAMES CORRIGAN, Chairman, 4 Cleveland. COMMITTEE ON LEGISLATION. Gipson L. DouGtas, Chairman, Buffalo. COMMITTEE ON AIDS TO NAVIGATION. GEORGE P. McKay, Chairman, Cleveland. ANNUAL REPORT LIGHT-HOUSE BOARD. SALARIES oF Licut-Houské KEEPERS. On March 3, 1901, Congress appropriated $785,000 for salaries, fuel, rations, rent of quarters where necessary, and similar incidental expenses, of not exceeding 1,600 light- house and fog-signal keepers and laborers attending other lights, for the fiscal year ending on June 30, 1902. On June 30, 1900, there were 1,243 light-stations; on June 30, 1901, there were 1,306; on June 30, 1902, it is believed there will be 1,316, and on June 30, 1903, it is expected that there will be 1,326 light-stations in operation. It is reasonable to suppose that Congress will make appropriations for. ad- ditional light-houses, which the Board has recommended should be built.» The Board has recommended the estab- lishment of a number of fog-signals at numerous existing stations, and it is probable that the number will be in- creased at the next session of Congress. It will be neces- sary to employ another keeper at each station to which a fog-signal is added. The Board therefore recommends that it be authorized to employ not exceeding 1,700 light- house and fog-signal keepers and laborers attending other lights, if needed, and that an appropriation of $833,000 be made therefor. Congress appropriated $475,000 to defray the expenses of light-vessels during the fiscal year to end June 30, 1902. The appropriation will barely meet the needs of the ser- vice during that time. There are now 45 light-vessels on stations and 8 light-vessels held in reserve ready in case of need to be put on stations to take the place of those for the time being under repairs. Three light-vessels are being built. The Board has asked that appropriations be made for building four more. It costs about $6,000 a year to maintain a first-class light-vessel: ‘The wear and tear on the older vessels increases with their age, and it costs more each year to keep them in repair. While the new light- vessels, when built, are fitted with all the modern improve- ments, the Board is fitting certain of the older light-vessels with fog-signals and like improvements to bring them up to its present standard. The cost of labor and material is largely increased since last year. The Board estimates therefore, the expenses of light-vssels for the ensuing fis- cal year will be at least $525,000, and it is recommended that dn appropriation to that amount be made therefor, _. Congress appropriated $550,000 to defray the expenses of buoyage during the fiscal year to end on June 30, 1902. It is estimated that the same amount will be required to de- fray the expenses of buoyage during the coming fiscal year. The Board therefore recommends that an appropriation of $550,000 be made for that purpose. As stated last year, the limited appropriation for this purpose has not permitted the general renovation and im- provements that are so much needed in this important class of aids to navigation, though considerable progress has been made. Improved apparatus has been installed at sey- eral stations, preserving the system of interchangeability be- tween the various members of the duplicate sets of ap- paratus required in each case. ‘Ihe Board is of the opin- ion that the change from the old-style steam engine, which consumes a great deal of steam, to the Crosby automatic engine, which, operates by clockwork and consumes steam only for winding the clock and opening the valve, is de- sirable and should be made, at least as rapidly as the old engines become unserviceable; that the replacing of steam boilers by some form of explosive engine with an air com- pressor is desirable for all stations where the water supply is precarious, and may perhaps be found advantageous by experience in all cases when the present installation of steam boilers becomes unserviceable; that in view of the probability that steam will be replaced by compressed air quite generally for fog-signals, it is not desirable to enter at once upon any considerable expenditure for perfecting the installation of steam boilers. The average time of getting up steam with the old style of boilers is about forty-five minutes. With heaters kept properly tended this time can be greatly reduced with a small expenditure of coal. The importance of raising steam quickly is such that it is proposed that heaters be attached to all fog-signals operated by steam. It is estimated that $190,000 will be required for all ex- penses connected with fog-signals, and it is recommended that an appropriation of that amount be made therefor: The three appropriations of $300,000 made by the acts approved March 3,. 1899, June 6, 1900, and March 3, 1901, were barely sufficient to maintain the post lights which had already been established, but they were insufficient to en- able the Board to establish and maintain other lights, which it is evident are much needed. It is estimated that $330,000 will be needed to defray the expenses of lighting rivers. during the next fiscal year, and it is recommended that an appropriation of this amount be made therefor. The Board also recommends appropriation be made for building a steam life vessel for Martins Reef, Lake Huron; a reef life vessel for the ninth and eleventh light-house districts. The Board also renews its recommendations of last year for the construction of a steam tender for use in St. Marys river and adjacent waters, Michigan. In conse- quence of the increased commerce passing through this river, and the great necessity for keeping its aids to navi- gation in the best possible condition, an iron steamer, drawing not more that 6 feet of water and a special steam- er bow for ice crushing is required. oro ECONOMY OF OCEAN LINERS. Improved econonty in the oversea transport of commerce is being ‘sought for now in the greater size of cargo steamers, the fuel consumption of which does not increase in the same ratio as the cargo capacity. ‘This point is il- lustrated' in a diagram prepared by James McKechnie, the engineering director of the Vickers’ Company, which shows that the displacement of the ship does not increase in quite the same proportion as the deadweight carried, the immersed midship area increases at a slower rate than the load displacement, and -he power necessary for a giv- en speed advances at a correspondingly lower ratio. ‘Thus, a ship to carry only 5,000 tons requires machinery of 3,475 indicated horse-power to propel her at’ 13 knots; while, in the case of a ship of treble the capacity, the power is scarcely double. In other words, the consumption of coal per hundred ton-miles in a now relatively : small ship taking 5,000 tons of cargo, is eight pounds, while the ves- sel taking 16,000 tons uses only 4.4 pounds per hundred ton- miles, the rate of consumption per unit of power per hour being assumed in all cases at 1.5 pounds. Not only is the fuel consumption per ton carried less, but the first cost per ton carried need not be greater, the working expenses per ton generally are lower, because mechanical means are in- troduced more freely for many purposes, while the per- sonnel does not increase pro rata with size. This greater economy is the cause of the steady growth in the size of ships. The total aumber of vessels of over 10,000 tons in existenceten yearsago, was two; now there are 51, of which ten are over 13,000 tons. Ten years ago there were only of vessels which exceeded 5,000 tons register; at the end of last year there were 505. ‘This higher economy of the larger ships is, as shown by Mr. McKechnie, being wide- ly recognized. Germany maintains her position with Brit- ain so far as large ships are concerned.—The Canadian En- quirer. WESTERN IRRIGATION. The latest press bulletin of the division of hydrography of the United States geological survey points out the fact that the future of large tracts of arid lands, in the west, amounting to many millions of acres, depends largely on the use made of the streams flowing through: them. Whether they shall remain in their present unproductive and uninhabited condition,.or become the homes of thriv- ing populations and centers of business activity, is almost wholly a question of the fullest and most economical tse of their available water supply. Irrigation has been prac- ticed for years on portions of these lands and proved its value beyond ‘question, but the development of more land demands the use of more water, and especially the consid- erable amount of water which the older method of irriga- tion could not control, and which is allowed to run to waste. This waste water represents a large and important acreage for reclamation from an arid state, if only the means are found to make use of it. Part of it is to be found in the spring freshets, part in the water that has sunk beneath the stream’s gravel bed, and part, already used for irrigation, which has worked its way so far below the sur- face as to be beyond the reach of vegetation. Engineers are alive to the necessity of saving the waste and using over and over again as much of the streams’ flow as possible, so as to extend the reclamation line to its utmost limit. Hence the storage of water on the upper portions of the streams is being studied, storage by the cultivation of forests about their headwaters, storage by snowfall, and storage by means of dams and reservoirs. Attention is also being directed to electricity as a help in economizing the use of water. The electric current is gen- erated in the mountainous portions of the watersheds. It is then conducted to the lowlands and made to _pump up again the water once used for irrigation which has sunk too low.to moisten the crops, or wells are dug in the river gravels and the water usually to be found there pumped up for use on the farms. j Not only are the streams to be more fully used, but the underground waters are to be reached, and both artesian and ordinary wells made to furnish their very considerable flow of water. : The one idea, in the arid west seems to be to use to the utmost all the water to be had in the most economical vay, so as to put the largest possible acreage under cultivation. It is interesting to note that many of the recent papers of the series of the Water Supply Papers, published by ‘the United States geological survey, which are written by. ex- perts, descriptive of the use of the water supply all over the country, openly or by inference point to the fullest con- servation of the country’s water as an approaching future necessity. -—_—_—SSsananoa eS — eee FOR A TRAINING STATION ON THE LAKES. As a result of Secretary J,ong’s letter to Senator Hale, of the Senate Naval Committee, in favor of a naval train- ing station at some point on the Great Lakes, which we published on Jan. 11, a strong effort is being made to se- sure such a station on the Peninsnla of Presque Isle, near Erie, Pa. Rear Admiral Henry F, Picking Garrison, No. 4 of the Army and Navy Union, at Erie. has taken an ac- tive interest in the matter, and a bill for the establishment of a naval station has been drawn up by the adjutant of the garrison and introduced as a joint resolution in the Senate and House by Mr. Penrose and Mr. Bates respec- tively. In addition to establishing a naval training sta- tion at Presque Isle, the bill provides for the raising of the sunken hull of Commodore Perry’s historic flagship, Niagara, sunk near by at Misery Bay, and for its preserva- tion at the naval station. The harbor of Erie and Presque Isle is four and ‘one- half miles: long and from 3,500 to 7,500 feet wide, with a depth up to 27 feet, and is generally conceded to ke one of the best natural harbors on the Great Lakes. ‘The pen- insula of Presque Isle; now under charge of the War De- partment is about six miles long and from 300 to 7,000 feet in width, situate on the north side of the harbor -of' Erie, and extends out a distance of two and one-half miles into Lake Erie, making a safe harbor, as the prevailing winds are from the west. Erie harbor has been for more than half a century, the naval home port of the United States steamer Michigan, the only recruiting vessel stationed on the lakes.