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12 THE MARINE RECORD. MARCH, 13, 1902. A TRUSCOTT BOAT SIMPLE, SAFE, lighting. 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. Pintsch Gas Lighted Buoys. Adopted by the English, German, French, Russian, Italian and United States Light-House Departments for channel and harbor Over 1,000 gas buoys and gas beacons in service. Burn Continuously from 80 to 365 days and nights without attention, and can be seen a distance of six miles. ...... Controlled by THE SAFETY CAR HEATING AND LIGHTING CO. 160 Broadway, New York City. WORK OF THE ISTHMIAN CANAL ENGINEERS. The Scientific American for February 1, 1901, pub- lishes a very interesting paper by Federick Moore, ,sum- marizing the reports of the various surveyors, hydro- graphers, geographers, geologists, topographers, and other assistants engaged. in the engineering work of the pro- posed Isthmian Canal. ‘The printed material covering the work of the Isthmian Canal Commission is very volum- inous, and with maps, diagrams, etc., its value is propor- tionate to its abundance. A resume of the work accom- plished is as follows: i A chief engineer was appointed for the report on each of the canal routes to which the Commission was directed to give special attention. He was directed to make his headquarters in his respective territory, and to take gen- eral control of the field operations therein. Considering the results of the numerous surveys made in the past, it was decided by the Commission to limit the explorations in search for “other possible routes.” as Congress directed, to that part of Colombia known as the Darien country, lying between Panama and the Atrato river, and a third engineer was appointed to direct the field work there. Competent assistants, whose education and experience had fitted them for the special work to be, done, were assigned to service under the three chief engineers; and laborers, boatmen, and other workmen were hired where- ever their services were required. ‘Twenty working parties were organized in Nicaragua, including 159 engineers and assistants, and 455 laborers. Five parties were organized in Panama, with 20 engineers and assistants and 41 labor- ers. Six partics were sent to the Darien, numbering 54 engineers and 112 laborers. ; The chief engineers were directed to examine, with the aid of these working parties, the geography, hydrology, topography, and other physical features of the different countries. ‘he schemes already planned were thoroughly tested, and iurther stirveys were made in order to vary the line and select better locations wherever the conditions were iound to be tinsatisfactory. Accordingly, a complete project was prepared for each route, and the center line of each canal was marked where that had not already been done. _ The sinds involved examinations of the terminal har- bors and approaches, the locations selected for dams, locks, embankinents, and other auxiliary works. Borings to determine the nature of the sub-surface at the sites of the locks and along the canal lines, and observations of raini- fall, stream flow. sedimental deposits, and lake and ocean fluctuations, were, in the main, the work to be done. At- terition was also given to the supplies of rock, timber, and other materials cn the canal lines, available for construc- tion and maistenance. . The results of these examinations and observations, and the material and data obtained, were sent from time to time to the headquarters of the Commission at Wash- ington, where they were arranged and entered upon plates and profiles under the direction of the committees of the Commission in charge of the respective canal surveys. How the engineers did the work is interesting, and their life in the Isthmus indeed an experience. Each of the parties were allotted a certain territory. They would establish a camp along the approximate routes, living in tents, huts of palm leaves, or, if near a village, in some “hotel” therein. From these they would work from 3 to 5 miles in each direction and then move on to a new camp, and so on until they met the next party or the next partv’s work. The largest force was placed on the Nicaraguan line because it was the longest, because the many reports on the line were at variance, and because the data obtainable from the Maritime Canal Co. were found to be of little value, owing to inaccuracies, age, and the fact that the company’s designs were for a canal which, for its shallow- ness, would be useless to-day. The number of authentic surveys that have been made on the Panama line (espe- cially that of the International Commission of Engineers), and the full and sufficient data the Panama Company holds, made a large force there unnecessary. ; .the streams was simple. The method of observing the regimen and discharge of A stout line was stretched from bank to bank, or from trees on the banks. Below was placed a windlass to haul out the trolley car in which the gaugers rode. Of course, a point was selected as near as possible to the location at which knowledge was desired, having reference to the conditions of the stream itself, the aim being to secure high and permanent banks on both sides, as straight a channel with as uniform a depth and velocity as could be found, and avoiding any location which was a short distance above any tributary of importance which might create backwater. A guage, graduated to feet and tenths, was placed in the stream near one bank and so situated as to be read conveniently from the shore. It was usually possible to fasten such a guage in a vertical position in deep water to the trunk of an overhanging tree (for they grow over the banks and. even in the streams in Central America). "The height was recorded twice a day, and the mean of the two gauges taken as the river’s height for that day. At various intervals, depending on the change of the gauge, measurements of discharge were made from the trolley cars with current meters. Soundings were taken at a known distance from an assumed initial point and the velocity measured by submerging an electric current meter at six-tenths of the measured depth and holding it in that position for a length of time—usually one hundred seconds or more—sufficient to make a good determination of the velocity at that point. ‘The operation was repeated at short intervals for the width of the stream, and from them the discharge of cubic feet per second was com- puted for each section by multiplying the depth, width, and measured velocity together. ‘The discharge of the several sections added together gives the result: for the stream. At the beginning and end of staging a careful note was made of the gauge and the mean depth of water taken. ‘ Every other detail of the work was done in the same simple and thorough manner. Take Nicaragua’s every tributary was gauged and its supply accufately determined ; for the control of the waters of the lake is vital to the practical operation of the canal, and has an important bearing on the cost and plans of the project. now some 12 feet, which materially hampers lock workings; hence the careful observations of the fluctations, the max- imum and minimum inflow and outflow, and evaporation. Because of violent breakers on the lake, the gauges had to be protected behind old vessels or whatever was found along the coast. At Las Lagas the boiler of a wrecked vessel was used-to incase the gauges and evaporating pans. Observations of rainfall were made with a funnel and a bottle, the relations of the diameter of the funnel mouth to that of the bottle being accurately known. ‘The rain- fall is a remarkable characteristic of Central America, and particularly Nicaragua. There is a radical and striking difference between the falls on the eastern and western coasts. There is a definite dry season on one, but rain may be expected the year round on the other. At Brito there is practically no rainfall from January to the middle of May, but during the rainy season the downpour often reaches 5.6 inches per day. The evaporation test did not work, usually, as well as the others. Galvanized sheet iron pans, 3 feet square and 2 feet deep, were anchored in some protected body of water alongside a rain gauge, giving the water in them the same freedom, as far as practicable, as the outside water had. But the waves would wash over and fill them, the natives would steal them or haul them ashore and eae washtubs out of them, and animals would overturn them. The same windlass that trolleyed the cars across the rivers was used to tow out the sediment gauge cars. These too were galvanized pans 1 meter square and 8 inches deep. ‘The upstream side was on a hinge. The pan was lowered into the streams and anchored. When the time came to haul it up, the gate was closed by a copper wire and the windlass put to work. First it was hoisted gently out of the water, then trolleyed to shore. ‘The slit It fluctuates’ deposit is an all-important test, and has much influence on the location of the locks. Samples were also taken of the waters and allowed to settle ashore, each day the clear water being drained off and more muddy water poured on. The measurements were made with 100-foot steel chains, they being checked each fortnight by comparison with steel tapes. All angles were measured carefully with a transit, deduced bearings beine carried through as a check to the reading of the angles. The density of the forests and the incessant heavy rains or cloudiness materially in- convenienced the reading of the instruments. Special care was taken in chaining, plumb bobs being used on all broken | ground. Elevations of surface were taken with a wye level and target rod at intervals of 1co feet, and at such in- termediate yoints as were necessary in order to produce close and accurate profiles. These are but a few of the innumerable tests that. wete made, but they serve to demonstrate that dependence may be placed upon the Commission’s report. i DIRECT ODESSA-NEW YORK STEAMSHIP LINES. The Deutsche Levante Linie, in connection with the Hamburg-American Line, will, in January, 1902, start a direct line of steamers between New York and Odessa. The combination cf these two lines insures the success of this enterprise, as both have a thorough knowledge of the trade relations between the Tevant and the United States. The Deutsche Levante Linie sends five steamers each month to Odessa from Hambure. two of which are classed as express. It is evidently the purpose cf the combination to capture the trade of the discontinued Barber Line, which ran until recerttly between Constantinople and New York. The new line will run from New York to Malta, Alexandria, Con- stantinople, Novorossisk, Batum, and Odessa. As will be readily seen, the route and itinerary will enable the new™ line to practically control the traffic between this part of the world and our Atlantic ports. I am much pleased with the establishment of a direct line between Black Sea ports and New York, but I confess a disappointment that the line is not under the American flag. ? 5) . T am now in my seventeenth year as consul at Odessa, and during that time have never seen the American flag at the masthead of a traffic steamer. Tos. E. HEENAN, Consul. —$$ rr er MARINE PATENTS. 6094,355.—Conveying apparatus. James G. Delaney, New York, N. Y., and Thomas ‘S. Miller, South Orange, Nile 694,383.—Unloading apparatus. George H. Hulett, Cleveland, Ohio, assignor of one-half to Webster, Camp: & Lane Machine Co., Akron, Ohio. ea 604,433.—Means for guiding and propelling steamships. Louis Sher, Atlantic City, N. J. 2 694,468.—Rudder atinginrent geen C. Gaillac, Jones- port, Me. Sy i : 604,486.—Submarine!pérmanent way. Karl Leps, Ham- burg, Germany, assignor to Johannes von Donat, Leipsic, Germany. ee 604,016.—Mechanism for operating ship windlasses and capstans. Frederick N. Connet, Providence, R. I. 604,643.—Submarine boat. Join P. Holland, New- atk Na J: 604,911I—.Marine railway. James I,. Crandall, Boston, Mass., assignor to H. I. Crandall & Son Co., same place. Trade-mark 37,911—Fish hooks. Sons, Limited, Redditch Eneland. Essential feature the ficure of a mailed arm-holding in the hand a falchion. — Used since 1861. oe Trade-Mark 37,912.—Fish hooks. Henry Milward & — the words “Iron Arm.” * Used since 1880. : Henry Milward ee