The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

FLOATING DRY DOCK. - The largest floating dock ever constructed has just been completed by the firm of Messrs. Swan and Hunter, Eng- land. : he dock has been constructed to the order of the British Admiralty, and is intended to replace the old dock at Ber- muda, which has been stationed there since 1869. The new dock, which is of the type known as a floating graving dock, has been built from the plans of the inventors, Messrs. Clarke and Standfield, and possesses a length of 545 feet, with a clear width at entratice of 100 feet between rubbing fenders. The lifting power is 15,500 tons, but this can be increased to 17,500. tons, and the walls are of sufficient height to allow a vessel drawing 32 feet to be taken on 3 feet 6 inch keel blocks. |The dock consists of five pontoons, three of which form the main lifting portion, and two sides. The center pontoon is 300 feet in length, the end ones being 120 feet long. ; The side walls are 435 feet long by 53 feet 3 inches high, “and are pierced with two gangway openings to admit light and air into the interior. ‘The pontoons are divided into 40 pumping divisions, 32 cf which are absolutely water- tight and distinct. There are four 18 inch centrifugal pumps in each wall, and any one of them can empty all the compartments of its own half of the dock. - “An electric light installation, with its own generating plant, is provided in one wall for lighting all the interior compartment of the dock, and in addition twelve arc lamps are carried on gallows on top of the towers which light up, when required, the whole dock-and ship, whilst further ' mains are led along the dock’s sides from which hand- lamps may be taken off to light up any particular spot where special work is being carried on. Electricity is also utilized as the driving power for the traveling and swinging cranes, which run the whole length of each wall. ‘They are of 5-ton lifting power with a jib radius of 36 feet. A complete drainage service, communi- cating with ‘all the dock compartments and capable of emptying them completely, is installed in each wall; and by the alteration of a coupling, this service can also be used as a washing-down service, by menas of which the outside of the ships on the dock can be washed down, or the inside tanks tested with water. — As it is possible that at low water the dock may, to a certain extent, sit upon the rough coral bottom of the harbér where she will be moored, the bottom of the pontoons is protected by a series of bilge-keels of greenheart. The top decks of the walls are planked with teal with water-way all round, and arrangements are made, in view. of the scarcity of fresh water at Bermuda, for catch- ing and running into the reserve water tanks inside walls, all rain-water falling on these decks. = ——— or MARINE PATENTS ISSUED. 693,309.—Wave motor. William S.. Bryant, Cohasset, Mass. Fae e et 602.600.—Steam pile driver. Johannes Grapengeter, Ham- burg, Germany. 693,615.—Swimmine appliance. Ferdinand Minkus, New York, N.Y.) = ; ee Asia -693,855.—Apparatus for preventing dollisions at sea. Nicolas. Gherassimoff, St. Petersburg, Russia. ‘Alegre, Brazil. oe ‘ 604,193.—Means for automatically balancing submarine boats. John P. Holland, Newark, N. J. 694,154.—Submarine boat or vessel. Newark, N. J. __ 694,214.—Self leveling and adjusting berth for ships. Camille St. Hilaire, Wilson, Mich. __ 694,242.—Wave or tide motor. William Borchert, Carson City, Nev., assignor of one-half to Reuben J. Kelly and Richard K. Kirman, same place. 694,274.—Bouyant propeller, Bernedott. ‘IT. Herold, Val- lejo, Cal... Lag is John P. Holland, THE MARINE RECORD. A TRUSCOTT BOAT Pintsch Gas Lighted Buoys. Adopted by the English, German, French, Russian, Italian and United States Light-House Departments for channel and harbor MARCH, 6 Igo2, 693,096.—Life-saving suit. Herrman M. Brand, Porto SIMPLE, SAFE,” RELIABLE, SPEEDY. It may be possible to build better and safer boats, but it hasn’t been done yet. We send a completely illustrated catalogue and price list free, which tells you all about boats and WHY TRUSCOTT BOATS EXCEL. Truscott Boat Mfg. Co., ST. JOSEPH, MICH. lighting. MARINTIME LAWS. The laws of admiralty are of very ancient origin, and an- tedate really all known laws at present in force in the ¢ivil- ized world. The first mention that“we find of any regular, recognized maritime code of-sea’ laws reaches far back into misty antiquity. We know that the Rhodians had such a code about 900 before Christ, and we know’also that the Phceni- cians had a set of regular sea laws. Coming down to more recent times, the following are the principal. mari- time codes with-time of their enactments : 940—The maritime law of Norway. 1063—The maritime law of the Two Sicilies. 1117—Maritime law of Iceland. 1150—Maritime law of Denmatk. 1158—Maritime law of Lubeck. 1160—Maritime law of Florence and. Pisa. 1224—Maritime law of the Prussian States 1232—Maritime law of Venice and Austria. 1243—Maritime law of Catalonia, Aragon, Valencia and Majorica. 1245—Maritime law of Sweden. 1270—Maritime law of Hamburg. 1270—Maritime law of Russia. 1303—Maritime law of Bremen. 1303—Maritime law of the Papal States, 1316—Maritime law of Genoa. 1350—Maritime laws of Wisby and Gothland. ~1485—The laws. of Oleron. 1539—La consulat de la mer, Venice. 1550—La guidan de la mer, France. 1507—The laws of the Hunsealic League. 1606—Maritime law of Sardinia. Thus all maritime nations’ of the world have aided in building up the present admiralty law, which has now be- come’a subject of international importance. ©The funda- -mental principles are the same in all countries, though the application of the law may vary according to the rules and regulations of local tribunals by being ‘modified or even changed by statutory enactments. oO STATEMENT OF THE VISIBLE SUPPLY OF GRAIN. As compiled by George F. Stone, Secretary Chicago Board of ‘Trade March 1. CITIES WHERE WHEAT.| CORN. Oats. RYE. Ba: LEY STORED. Bushels. | Bushels. | Bushels. | Bushels. | Bushels Buffalo. ............ 2,819,000 369,000 332,000 2,000] 690,000 MSY HBINORL: ost. ics 361,000 Baro bev iwces +s oletor ce: niles beet oe a. Chicago... ........ 6,623,000] 4,456,000 461,0c0} 1,010,000 169,000 Mee AMOR socc sy << ALTOOOls icc ele inca 77,000]... DECOM is seek cee 314.000 146,000 34,000 96,000 24,000 Doluphy ss Sess 12,349,900 144,090 370.00 456,000 308,000 MOB OAL 230% BLT OOO|| 2 ain er orp vines littahcatgaicedllices enivalae serena els Fort william: Onto? 45470,000))oe ea lnc coe bee loko ec eae Milwaukee.......... 5¢9 000 174,000 371,000 34,000 177 000 Minneapolis ........ 15,966,0co 8g 000 172,000 44,000 77,000 Montreal: i.22.i25%.' 46,000 13,0CO 208,000 22,0c0 55,000 Port Arthur, Ont.... ZO, O00! sisi vcuesiny as cindealngiiliace Sees etl eee see rae MOLGdO. cc acne seas 71,000] 896,000] 562,000 De OOO eds ces Toronto’ ........... 45,000] . ... IGfooo hfe ee 48,000 On Canals........... . 46,000} 3,000 112,000 37,000 50,000 Grand Total..... 093 000] 10, 000] 4,246,000] 2,193,000 Feeble a 54,093 333 4,246.0 93 2,038,c00 LOOT ensee iy siak eine 57,234,020] 19,764,000] 10,550,000] 1,163,000] 1 530,000 Increase’ for week. i) ..5. asi e ee piste No ofo as eee ol Ia cone Decrease ‘ iB 292,000 456,000!..... 65 000 78,000 While the stock of grain at lake ports only is here given, the total shows the figure. for the entire country except the Pacific Slope. —— oo Tux work of constructing the interurban railway between Seattle and Tacoma, Wash., is progressing rapidly, and will be open for traffic about July 1. Outside the limits of the two cities the road has been located on private right of way, and the svstem of transmission will be by rail. ‘The company is paying particular attention to its fences, which are being made extra strong. Burn Continuously from 80 to 365 days and nights without attention, and can be seen a distance of six miles. ...... Over 1,000 gas buoys and gas beacons in service. Controlled by THE SAFETY CAR HEATING AND LIGHTING CO. 3 160 Broadway, New York City. THEORIES AS TO THE ORIGIN OF BITUMINOUS COAL. The geological world has been divided for years into two camps upon the subject of coal formation. Advo- cates of the“growth in place” theory maintain that coal was formed from the debris of vast forests growing in swampy grounds in districts which were in a constant state of sub- sidence. ‘That new giants of the forest took root and flourished upon the remains of those which had previously fallen and decayed away, and that an occasional inundation of water carrying detritus from the neighboring uplands was sufficient to explain the interlarding of the coal meas- ures with beds of grit or sandstone. Others attribute the vast accumulation of vegetable matter, which in a con- solidated form has become coal to the action of rivers in transporting large trees from the interior of a prehistoric sea coast, where, becoming water logged, they formed.a thick deposit of vegetable matter upon the sea floor. . Mr. A. Strahan, of His Majesty’s Geological survey, has never accepted ‘either of these theories “in toto.’ He has always argued that coal ‘was formed by sedimentation of ‘vegetable matter, and that the evidence is not conclusive that the forests gave rise to coal seams in the place of their growth. In support of this he mentions the interesting fact that, while the trunks of trees are found in the under- lying sandstone, they are not found in coal itself. He sug- gests that the general sequence of events preceding the de- position of a normal coal seam was (1) the outspreading of sand or gravel with drifted plant remains, followed by shale as the currents lost velocity; (2) the gradual retreat of the water, leaving the surface open to the air; (3) the deposition of very fine sediments; (4) the rooting of a mass of vegetation in the deposit so formed, in which mass were caught wind-borne vegetable dust and floating vege- tation. Recent investigations of Mr. Strahan very mater- ially substantiate the theory. He has found an example of a pure coal shading off into pure dolomite, which, in the circumstances; can only have been formed under water. Hence it follows that the coal which lies side by side with the dolomite must have been laid down under the same conditions. Dolomite can be formed in other ways. Why should dame nature in prehistoric ages have possessed that: fickleness which is today charisteristic of her sex, and have varied from time to time her method of storing the black mineral to whigh we now owe so much? Hundreds of geological wonders are capable of more than one ex- planation, yet the geologists cling tenaciously to some theory which accounts for the greater majority of instances which come before their notice. ‘Thosé who can clear their minds of scientific basis will be glad to admit Mr. Strahan’s theory as explaining the formation of some of our coal seams, ‘lo admit all seams were formed in this way would be as chimerical as to refuse to adopt any part of Mr. Strahan’s argument. EDUCATIONAL FEATURES IN THE WORLD’S WORK. There is an unusual amount of interesting discussion of varied educational matters and comment upon striking personalities in the educational field in the World’s Work for March. A number of editorials touch upon educa- tional topics. Longer articles that will attract college and school people are Prof. Hill’s description of the — American Desert, Dr. See’s story of an Astronomet’s © Night’s Work; ‘Theodore Water’s article about Prof. Hallock’s experiments with the earth’s interior heat. The career and personality of Dr. W. H. Maxwell, the Super- intendent of Greater New York’s schools, furnish @ model for school superintendents the country over, and Dr. E. C. Branson’s description of the work the Atlanta State. Normal School is doing to solve the Real Southern Problem is a_ significant contribution to the genetal knowledge of Southern educational conditions. | Full- — page portraits of Dr. Maxwell, Nicholas Murray Butler, the new President of Columbia, and Dr. Remsen, the new president of Johns Hopkins, will interest educators. ae