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MAY 22, 1902. DETROIT. The old Toledo passenger steamer Pastime, has been condemned, and after taking out her machinery the hull will be relegated to the boneyard. : The carferry St. Marie, stationed at the Straits of Mack- inac; arrived on ‘Tuesday to go into drydock for repairs. The boilers reuire general overhauling. The large warehouse and coal dock of the Union Stor- age Co,, at Port Huron, were burned Monday night. The building was owned by McMorgans & Jenkinson. Loss $20,000. All the laborers employed in the Davidson shipyards, -at Bay City, struck on Tuesday, for an increase in wages. ~The men have been getting from $1.25 to $1.50 a day. They all demand an advance of 25 cents a day. The following meteorological cbservations are fur- -nished by the office of the U. S. Weather Bureau, Detroit; for the week ending May. 20th. Prevailing wind direc- tion for the week, east; highest velocity 27 miles, from the N.E. on the 14th; mean temperature for the week, 62; highest temperature, 87° on the 19th; lowest, 39° on the 14th. : The steamer Kitty Forbes, laden with lumber and aground off the Star Island House, at the St. Clair Flats, caught fire on Wednesday evening, and burned to the water's edge the blazing hull was towed up the river to a ‘point where it could be sunk in order to save as much of it as possible. No estimate of the loss is obtainable. No lives were lost. The jsteamer King Edward, which was brought by the Algoma: Central Railway, and brought from the Atlantic to go on the Georgian. Bay route, arrived at the shipyard here this week. . In order to get the steamer through the locks of the Welland canal, five feet had to be cut off the paddle boxes on each side. This is now being replaced and the steamer put in shape for the new run. ‘The King Edward was formerly the Montauk, and ran on Long Island Sound between New York and Block Island. She has accommodations for 500 passengers, and can run fifteen miles an hour.. At Port Huron the Jenks Ship Building Co. is build- ing for the United States lake survey seven catamarans, each 4o feet in width. Each catamaran has two large steel cylinders 30 feet long and 40 inches in diameter. When completed all: will be’ fastened together and the entire width will be 280 feet. Each of the cylinders weighs about one ton and the combined catamarans will be used for sweeping the river to ascertain obstructions to naviga- tion. Bars of iron will be let down at a certain distance apart. Eacah bar will be surmounted with a flag. As the sweeping process takes place the flags will dip whenever an obstruction is found. “Word comes from Toledo that a.new phase has de- veloped in the ttig strike. Monday the tug Tuthill was sent down to the foot of Ash street, to wash out the boiler of the steamer J. H. Pauly, which is unloading lumber at the point named. When the *longshoremen learned the mission of the tug they refused to continue their work, and informed the vessel captain to that effect. They de- clined to unload the steamer if she employed a tug with a non-union crew to clean her boiler. This is the first in- stance of this kind that has come. to light in connection with the tug strike, and whether or not it will be carried any farther remains to be seen. The L. T. P. A. is not affliated with the American Federation of Labor as is the International "Longshoremen’s Association and future de- velopments only will show whether or not the last named organization will associate with the tugmen in their strike against the Great Lakes Towing Co. The new Detroit & Buffalo line will start its first boat over the proposed route between Buffalo and. Detroit June 2. Just which boat will start the route has not been determined. The interest in the line has already been demonstrated by the inquiries which have come in from shippers of freight and from the passenger men of rail- roads, who say that business is promising from the start. The backers of the new route have hardly dared to hope that the line- would be a paying investment the first year, but from indications all expectations are to be surpassed, business is promising, from the start. The . passenger tariffs have just been issued showing that the one way rate is to be $3.50, and the round trip rate $6, which is a considerable reduction from what has been possible by using the two old lines through Cleveland, with the trans- fer here. The running time will be thirteen hours be- tween Detroit and Buffalo, and the.promises are that the rates and service will alike be attractive to travelers. Senator James McMillan, when here a few days ago, said that the only obstacle in the way of the passagé of the bill providing for a pension for life-savers, is the danger of opening up a long civil list, and have the gov- ernment pensions extended in directions other than that for which they were originally intended. The Senator said that the measure has many warm friends in both Ouse and. Senate, but that it also has bitter opponents. Pensions were originally created for those rendering valiant service in the army and navy, and a fear is ex- eee that if the life-savers are granted pensions a civil list would be opened up. ‘There are those who THE MARINE RECORD. contend that railway mail clerks are engaged in hazardous work for the government, and are entitled to pensions. Senator McMillan is heartily ia favor of granting pen- sions to lifesavers, and it was he who introduced the bill in the Senate. DULUTH-SUPERIOR. Michael Ryan, past grand president of the Tugmen’s Association, has been expelled for one year for acting as business agent for the Great Lakes Towing Co., in con- tracting for the services of captains and engineers at Du- luth. This action was taken by the Duluth lodge, of which Ryan was local president. The steamer George J. Grammer, which was built at West Superior, on the order of Frank Seither, of Cleve- land, has cleared from Marquette with her maiden cargo of ore, and is expected to reach Ashtabula by Thursday of this week barring accidents. She will ply between those ports this summer, and will engage in the ore and coal trades. The United States was given judgment for $4,012 againnst the Davidson Steamship Co. by a jury in the Federal Court at Duluth this week. "That sum covered the damages to the breakwater at ‘wo Harbors, which the steamer Shenandoah inflicted by collision a year ago. The defense was that the breakwater was not properly lighted. The steamer Liberty, owned by the Booth Packing Co., has been sold to a company. composed of Ludington, Chicago and Manistee business men: It has been known for some time that the Bocth company was anxious to dispose of the Liberty, Hunter and: others of its smaller boats, because of the purchase of new and faster craft by the company. The Libertv has been at Duluth for several months. She will be used by the’ new owners on the Ludington-Frankfort route, making a round trip daily. What the result of the coal strike will be so far as the head of the lakes is concerned, is a question of deep con- cern to dealers just at present. The supply at the head of the lakes is now low, and up to the present the coal movement to the head of the lakes has been very slack, and many of the vessels are coming up lieht. In fact business has been so dull that it is reported several vessel owners are seriously considering the advisability of tak- ing their boats from the coal trade, and putting them in the ore business. It is expected that within the next three weeks the new Jones & Adams coal dock at the outer end of the Phila- delphia & Reading dock, will be able to receive coal. Work has been rushed on the dock for sometime past, so that the receipt of coal could begin as soon as possible. The erection of the rigs is now practically completed. The dock will receive both hard and soft coal, having local offices here. The head offices, however, are located in St. Paul. large Northwestern, at the end of Winter street, on Su- perior Bay. The greater part of construction work on this dock is completed. DO Ol OS KINGSTON, ONT. During the last month 400,000 bushels of wheat from Fort William have been unloaded at the Montreal ‘Trans- portation Co.’s elevator. : The local Board of Trade will legislate to have the St. Lawrence river canals deepened. Capt. Augustus has been appointed marine inspector for Lloyds, from Kingston to Qubec. Capt. Hy. Wilson, of New Orleans, is here with the schooner Lertina. He has purchased three vessels from the upper lakes and they will be taken down the St. Lawr- ence river to the seaboard and will be used in the cil, and also general merchandise trade, between New Orleans and Rio Grande. : The big government dry-dock here is having its entry gates enlarged so as to admit of the docking of vessels of sixty foot beam, and three hundred feet in length. The big steamer, King Edward, purchased in New York, reached here yesterday. It has been bought by Mr. Clergue, of the Clergue syndicate, and will ply between Sandusky and Sault Ste. Marie. er te LAKE FREIGHTS. The only change in the lake freight situation is that due to the strike of the anthracite coal miners, and the con- sequent loss of shipments. Bituminous from Ohio ports calls for fair chartering, but the 30 cent Lake Superior rate still holds. Grain—The market appears. to be cleaned up again at Chicago, with the last quoted rates at 114 cents on corn and 13¢ cents on wheat. There is no change to report in iron ore freights, though great detention is complained of at discharging ports, a feature which has prevailed to a greater or less extent, ever since the season opened. Lumber rates are steady, with fair chartering at former quotations. A dispatch has been received from Kingstown stating that the Royal mail steamship Atrato, when off St. Pierre spoke the cable ship Pouyer Quertier, from which it was stated that the bed of the ocean had been much disturbed. She found nine hundred fathoms where only three hun- dred was charted. Rechartering of these waters will be necessary. The next coal dock to be ready will be the, INVENTORS: CARBORUNDUM AND ITs : _ CREATOR. - i i ‘: : Fagan It is one of the curious. facts ef modern industrial pr gress that very, few of the men ‘who, as inventors, ha been its most potential: factor are widely known. «QOatside of ‘a small circle in: each~individual tase, Ba fs 93g are as meaningless as that ofthe average! man. e see, use or handle, articles’ every day articles, which we know must have called the highest inventive “faculties into play. in their devising, and. we. wonder’ sometimes who the genius is whose mind has contributed so abundantly to human conveniences in the article before us, and: not in- frequently we speculate mentally as to how much money — he got, or is getting out of it. | Its manufacturer may. be known to us—in fact, he usually is, through some form of advertising; but it rarely happens that the name of its inventor comes under the public eye or is sounded in the public ear. Like the average writer for the press, the inventor is just one of many evenly cut cogs in a huge machine, his work being privately estimated on a revenue basis, his name figuring as “Dennis,” and the fruits of his toil usually passing to others. Sd This subject, in some of its aspects, is very entertain- ingly presented by Paul Latzke in the Saturday Evening Post, under the title of “The Unknown Captains of In- dustry.” One of his personal references has:to do with Edward G. Acheson, the inventor of carborundum, a: preduct which, as the greatest abrasive ever introduced for industrial purposes, has a vast field of usefulness. Noteworthy. too, it has proved an exception to the rule, for inventions and discoveries, in that it has made its originator both rich and famous; and all that, moreover, while he is yet but 46 years of age. re ‘How did it happen! Well, here is the story in brief: — But a few years ago Mr. Acheson was practically penni-. less, and broken in spirit. He had served for six years under Edison in this country and in. Europe, and’ had mastered the science of electricity. The problem of’ con- verting heat directly into electrical energy had always fascinated him, and in 1889, he sacrificed everything to devote himself to its solution. Within the space of. twenty- four months he had lost in his work the results of seven- teen years of unremitting labor. s He had also demonstrated to his own satisfaction’ that the thing could not be done, at least by himself, and be-_ ing a practical man, he cast about for something else: that was more promising. ane After loking the situation squarely in the face, he had about made up his mind to give up original research and look once more for a salaried position, when suddenly he remembered, as if by inspiration, a little incident that had happened while he was experimenting: at the Edison lab- oratory. In this institution all sorts of queer forma- tions are constantly coming to the surface .as by-pro- ducts. Mr. Acheson recalled, says Mr. Latzke; “that on one occasion, when they were fusing some clay and carbon, a substance harder ‘than anything ever secured in the ° laboratory had resulted. He knew the tremendous value to the industrial. world of emory, corundum and other abrasive materials, and he concluded that here, if he could only reproduce the stuff formed in the Edison work- shop, he might make a fortune. Carborundum was the result. It was a long, uphill struggle, for several years after he started on this new line, but his energy told in the end. A company was formed to establish works at Monongahela City, in Pennsylvania, and then at Niagara Falls. A startling illustration of the value of Mr. -Ache- son’s work is furnished by the fact that the first sale of | carborundum consisted of a consignment of two’ hundred. ' carats at thirty cents a carat, or over $550 a pound. By : improving the process it is now possible to market the» abrasive at ten cents a pound in the rough. Every man- ufacturing country in the world uses the material. ‘The market for it was enormously increased recently by the discovery that, fused with ordinary steel, it adds very ma- terially to its strength. ; “Carborundum is made of fusing sand, carbon, sawdust and salt in electric furnaces under tremendous heat. As a by-product, the company secured last year a million and a half pounds of pure graphite, which heretofore has been found only in nature. This alone may be regarded as an extraordinary achievement.” —__ OO FINELY DIVIDED IRON ORES. In a treatise on the use of finely divided ores ob- — tained by concentration Prof. Wilborgh, of Stockholm, re- - views. the methods by which such ores can be separated mechanically or magnetically, thus permitting the utiliza- tion of what would otherwise be wasted. ‘The, fine ore which can be smelted in the blast furnace is limited as re- gards quantity by its tendency to pass through the fuel, and therefore descend without being completely reduced; but it may-also be made into riquettes or turned into spongy iron. Briquettes made from fine ore cemented by quick or slaked lime, with the quantity of water necessary to make a thick paste, harden sufficiently when dried in air. What is called “ore-coke” is made by mixing the ‘fine ore with tar or bituminous coal, 30 per cent. of the latter to 70 per cent. of iron, and highly heating the whole, which yields a hard and compact product.