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

8 MARINE REVIEW. Sea cea cera epee eestor eee MARINE REVIEW. DEVOTED TO THE LAKE MARINE AND KINDRED INTERESTS. JOHN M. MULROONEY, EO oe F. M. Barton, HOMER J.CARR, - - - Associate Editor and Manager Chicago Office, 210 South Water Street. Published every Thursday at No. 510 Perry-Payne Building, Cleveland, O. SUBSCRIPTION—$2.00 per year in advance. Advertising rates on applica- tion. ‘ es \ Proprinrors. The books of the United States treasury department contain the names of 3,510 vessels, measuring 1,063,063.90 tons in the lake trade. In classification of this fleet the lakes have more steamboats of 1,000 to 2,500 tons than the combined ownership of this class of vessels in all other sections of the country. The classification is as follows: Class. Number. Tonnage. IRCA VOHGEIO A Ass lstssnttecsdsanivensescunlvedy: 1,527 652,922.25 IBIS VESSCISIc.ivseviaisssisas, atst¥eesclieesseste Toy 2) 328,655.96 ASPIRE TOU LG isis sesccisiacsecsutscessivcyeevesedecsves 657 67,574.90 MPSAE MED bessce sie ces ssawsadsetiveies sdscebievccieesvesees 54 13,910.09 MAOU Ac eswah ss aesekis sosunnascstesusccusiess 3,510 1,063,063.90 According to the report of William W. Bates, United States com- missioner of navigation, 46 per cent. of the new tonnage of the country was built on the lakes during 1889. This is a percentage greater than the work of the Atlantic coast and western rivers combined, and almost equal to the whole work on the Atlantic and Pacific coast. In 1890 the tonnage built on the lakes is but very little less than that built on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Tonnage built on the lakes during the past five years was as follows : No. of boats. Net Tonnage. BRAS os cdpivnyenoe seks Uhinseahs soosn sass sess 5 20,400.54 BESS cache sbupesccescasaul tose; 42 \acesese ss sures 152 56,488.32 PSR eR aR oes cad Soa ikess seis iein cee nsscese 222 101,102.87 MIS ait eae esses ee bcs 60s Soveccncoies cous ouesesse 225 107,080.30 BID eso os oos cose eseesn ii nscscscscevecedisules 218 108,515.00 AMORA test sige ht estas sacs rv aeonsess go2 393,597.03 St. Mary’s Falls and Suez canal traffic: Number of boats through St. Mary’s Falls canal in 1890, 234 days of navigation, 10,557; tonnage, net registered, 8,454,435. Number of boats through Suez canal during 1890, full year, 3,389 ; tonnage, net registered, 6,890,014. Annual tonnage entries and clearances of the great seaports of the world, for 1889: New York, 11,051,236 tons; all seaports in the United States, 26,983,315 tons; Liverpool, 14,175,200 tons; London, 19,245,417 tons. Tonnage passing through Detroit river during 234 days of naviga- tion in 1889, amounted to 36,203,606 tons. Ten million tons more than the entries and clearances of all the seaports in the United States, and three million tons more than the combined foreign and coastwise shipping of Liverpool and London. £ntered at Cleveland Post Office as Second-class Mail Matter. THERE was cause for rejoicing when the last congress included in the river and harbor act of September a clause increasing the power of the war department with regard to obstructions in navigable streams. ‘The first experience of lake vessel owners with Gen. Casey, chief of the engineer corps, in the enforcement of this act is far from an assurance that the intention of congress will be faithfully carried out. ‘The removal of the bridge obstruction in the Chicago river at Canal street is’ a matter of vital importance to lake marine, on account of matters at other ports dependent upon it, but it has been treated by both Gen. Casey and Assistant Secretary Grant in a manner that has caused a great deal of unfavorable criticism. ‘The vessel ‘owners were met at the outset with vigorous opposition from the chief of engineers, who is generally against vessel interests in matters that come before him. To gain time and in the hope that they would avoid the necessity of taking jurisdiction of the river altogether, the war department decided to refer the matter of their jurisdiction to the department of justice for an opinion. In the meantime they caused Captain Marshall, the United States engineer officer stationed at Chicago, to make an examination and report as to the nature of the obstruction caused by the bridge and abutment. Capt. Marshall’s report was a complete vindi- cation of the position of the vessel men on this point. He declared the bridge an unreasonable obstruction to navigation, and said it should be removed at once if the department had jurisdiction to cause its removal. ‘Then followed the opinion of - the attorney general holding that the war department had, under the last river and harbor bill, full power to cause the removal of this bridge and abutment. These officers were in all probability, surprised at the opinion rendered by the attorney general. This opinion leaves the department nothing to do but to order the removal of the bridge, and it is said that such an order will be issued within a few days. Instead of acting in good faith and in accordance with the intention of congress, as expressed in the river and harbor bill, Assistant Secretary Grant and Gen. Casey both go out of their way to encourage the city of Chicago to pay no attention to the order which they propose to issue and to’ encourage it to enter into a litigation with the government. They even go so far as to point out a legal decision which they hope will prompt the city of Chicago to commence such a litigation. Only a few days ago Secretary Grant, in spite of the fact that he had just received from the highest law officer in the United States government an opinion that an order from the war department for the removal of the bridge would be perfectly valid, admitted to a Chicago newspaper correspondent that he was in hope the law: department would take the matter off his hands and he then called attention to an adverse decision ina case said to be similar, thus urging the city of Chicago to bring legal action. Gen. Casey expresses himself in the same strain, for he is quoted as saying: ‘‘ The order to remove the bridge would give the interested parties until about August unless it should be decided to go into court, and no one can predict what the out- come would be. There might be found another judge like Judge Shiras, who would decide against the jurisdiction of the war department, on the ground that congress has no right to delegate its authority over navigable waters of the United States.’’ THE investigation regarding alleged Duluth wheat frauds now being carried on by a committee of the Minnesota legis- lature may not reveal anything of importance, but enough has already been brought out to prove irregularities in the elevator business at the head of the lakes. In matters of litigation over the question of shortages in cargoes of grain taken from Duluth to Buffalo, the irregularities proven in the investigation will have a bearing. One or two suits over this question of shortages are already in court and they will be contested vigorously. Shortages in Duluth cargoes are too numerous of late. ; Foreign Inventions and Improvements. The principal feature of an improved marine boiler, placed in a steamer at Hull, consists in the provision of two distinct sets of tubes, the lower ones being three inches in diameter, and the upper ones five inchesin diameter. ‘The gases first pass from the combustion chamber to the lower tubes, and then through the up- per ones on their way to the funnel. It is theretore likely that by this arrangement the temperature of the escaping gases will be considerably lower than in the ordinary marine multitubular boiler, and thus economy of fuel will be effected. ‘The boiler, which is thirteen feet in diameter and nine feet long, has two corrugated furnaces three feet five inches diameter, with a grate surface of thirty-eight square feet and a total heating surface of 1,500 square feet. This boiler burns 20.3 pounds of coal per square foot of fire grate, and is said to evaporate 1o.1 pounds of water per pound of coal, calculated at an absolute pressure of 195 pounds. ‘These results, if correct, are very satisfactory. | The Fairfield Company recently fitted Serve tubes to a new vessel, the Phra Nang, while plain tubes were fitted to a sister ship. A report of the engineer of the Phra Nang has just been received, stating that on the run out to China there was an appreciable saving of coal as compared with the vessel fitted with plain tubes. The Marque adjustable blade propeller wheel has been tried recently in England and gave the same results as a regular bladed wheel. The advantage claimed for this device is that the wheel can be adjusted for any work and when. it is desired to trail the wheel and sail the steamer the blades can be turned so that they present no resistance to the water. A. Marque} Brussels, is the inventor. By AEE aR