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2 ay 6 MARINE REVIEW. eee eee? CHICAGO LAKE INTERESTS. WESTERN OFFICER, MARINE REVIEW, l No. 210 So. Water Street, CHrcaGo, IIl., Nov. 5, { It is very likely that an invitation to the waterways convention: to meet in Chicago will be formally extended within a fortnight. The Lake Line Agents’ Association met Monday and fully discussed the. question. It was felt that if the line agents undertook the task, they wonld be shouldering a large amount of work, for they could not afford to leave anything undone to make the convention a success. It was decided to appoint a committee to confer with the directory of the board of trade over the invitation, T.T. Morford, Hugh MacMillan and J. C. Evans were named as the committee. It was thought best, in case the convention is invited, that it should be by the board of trade and the Line Agents’ As- sociation jointly. The call board room of the board of trade is admirably adapted for the convention and it will doubtless be the place selected. It is an amphitheatre seating 700, with fine acoustic properties. Until the board of trade directory acts, nothing more will be done. If the conven- tion is held here every effort will be put forward to make an historical event in the lake marine. The Chicago papers have had a good deal to say of late about low water in the river here, but their advice to vesselmen has been to wait until the level of the great lakes rose to a normal stage again. ‘The river is now in sad need of dredging, but the city is ‘dead broke,” and anything that calls for the expenditure of money is not at all relished at the city hall. Capt. William Harmon raises the point that if a big winter fleet is to load grain here this winter there is no place where the boats can lie after they have received their grain. He wants the city to do a lot of dredging in front of docks where buildings have been erected, in order to supply a place for deeply laden craft. The situation by January will be a serious one, unless something has been done. He estimates that the winter fleet will have capacity of 15,000,000 bushels, and says that from the present outlook the boats will all be loaded by midwinter, if there is any place for them togo. For years past the city hasonly dredged in the middle of the river, requiring dock owners to do their own dredging. Where the docks are not used the sewerage has settled until there is now not over eight feet of water in front of these docks. The owners of the buildings would be glad if there was no water at all, as that would keep the boats away altogether. Whether the city will now stepin and dredge out these places at its own expense in order to give berth to grain vessels is in question. It is urged that such a course would be a discrimination against dock owners who are put to great expense for dredging to main- tain a sufficient draft of water in front of their property. Something must be done, but what it is, is hard to say. _ The wife of A. W. Hall, deputy collectorin charge of the marine department of the custom house, died at Norwalk, Ohio, Friday after a long illness. Capt. Hall has the sympathy of a wide circle of friends, The railroad companies which have bridges across Chicago river have long violated every principle of fairness by using the bridges for switch- ing purposes. The Northern Pacific which has been highhanded in every- thing it has done, has been the worst offender. Outrageous delays have been experienced at its bridge, between Taylor and Twelfth streets from the day it came into use. The city authorities tried to stop the use of the bridge asa switch yard, but they did not succeed because they used only moral suasion. It now appears that under the last river and harbor act the Secretary of War can put an immediate stop to Northern Pacific tactics of “hogging” everything in sight. Formal complaint against the bridge will be laid before the war department. There is no doubt as to the result. Canadian Canal Tolls. Special Correspondence to the MARINE REVIEW. KINGSTON, Ont., Nov. 5.—The article which appeared in the REVInw regarding alleged discrimination by the Canadian government in favor of Canadian bottoms has brought forth replies from many prominent news- papers, and resulted in a renewed discussion of the canal tolls question. The Ogdensburg Transit Company, which controls the handling of the grain from the west transhipped at that city, is preparing to push its case against the government when the commission on reciprocal trade rela- tions sits. The rebates on the grain alluded to amounts to $10,000, and this sum the government has been asked to allow. The Kingston and Montreal Forwarding Company, which has its headquarters here, are specially interested in this matter, as it does a great deal of freighting for the Ogdensburg Transit Company and is therefore in favor of the rebate being allowed. On the other hand the Montreal Transportation Company is moving in another direction. It wants the authorities to build eleva- tors here, and thus make the Canadian route independent of all outside aid, let the emergency be ever so great. The government having taken no action in either case it is surmised that nothing will be done until it be seen what the commission will do. The timber season was slightly better than was expected. ‘There was considerable old stuff taken forward. ‘The Calvin company sent forward ten rafts and the Collinsby company six large ones. The woods being well cleaned out a big season is expected in ’92._ - The old iron steamer Southern Belle, which was a blockade runner during the war, is being broken to pieces at Deseronto. On Saturday Rathbun & Co. shipped.a car load of ashes, glazed, to South Africa, The schooner Hoboken being unable to get anything to do is laid up at Cape Vincent. The barge Hiawatha, owned here, got on a shoal off Charlotte. One hour after a despatch was sent to Washington permission was received by Calvin & Co. to haul her off. The promptness is the subject of favorable comment. : The water in some lake ports is nearly four feet lower than it was last year, and steamers find it difficult to get to the wharves. The weather is so fine that coal is still being carried east in large quantities. Value of the Independent Condenser. Ep1tToR MARINE REVIEW:—In recent numbers of the MARINE RE- VIEW appeared articles from correspondents upon the “Value of Indepen- dent Condensers.” ‘The writers have evidently endeavored to show these machines. to be of small utility. _This tendency is only one that always exists in- connection with any departure from old methods to those that represent real progress. Old lake engineers well know the repeated at- tempts that have been made in years’ past to relieve the main stéam en- gines of attached pumps, and;the ‘aif pump in particular. That such a thing was greatly needed, went without saying,. We have seen the several varieties of independent air pumps including single cylinder steam pumps moved by asmall auxiliary steam piston, and air pumps driven by an in- dependent engine—have their trials and have noted their failures. -There is probably no more critical service for pumping machinery than that to be found upon steamships, and engineers were not long in finding out that they could not put their trust in pumps whose steam valves were moved in so uncertain a manner as those on the single pumps referred to. These pumps had avery peculiar and unpleasant way of stopping at the end of the stroke without warning, and of resisting even a quite vigorous application of crow-bar to start them.” The independent vertical air pumps driven by a separate engine seemed to possess desirable features, but when we found that they simply multiplied the things to take care of, we were really worse off than we were before. The small engine had its own little connecting rod, crank, pin, pillow blocks, cross-heads, eccentrics, bell crank, ete. and they all had to have about as much attention as the similar parts on the larger engine. It is certain that engineers have looked upon the advent of the duplex direct acting independent condenser as a step of great importance Its use eliminates the above objectionable features. We all know the simpli- city of the duplex steam pump with a common D slide valve—nothing to adjust, no crank pins to get hot, no cross-heads to be adjusted, and, in fact, none of the little matters that pertain to rotative engines that are a con- tinual source of trouble and anxiety to the engineer who already has quite enough to attend to. Then again, there isa feature which in my mind solves finally the whole problem of air pump practice. In the duplex pump we have the feature of one pump pausing at the end of its stroke, awaiting the move- ment of its steam valve hy the other pump. This absolute stop is the thing that is entirely wanting in all other kinds of air pumps, and it is of extreme value. The valves are enabled at this time to come to their seats by the pressure of the spring alone and are not slammed suddenly by the change in the motion of the pump. The result of this is apparant to every practical man. Ian informed that several Worthington condensers that are of the duplex type on lake steamers, and that have been in use four or five years, have not even changed or renewed the.air pump valves. This is certainly a remarkable result. The relief to the engineer in his not being obliged to handle the in- jection valve on going into port is particularly noticeable, and not long ago an engineer of one of the “liners” told me that his “ cared grt ant evn ried ts aml a aint the main engine, this sim ie fe) i “ a ner aRLG sep engine to vespond at once ee on ti = ne : sean es 2 viens a he avacuum after being shut down fo eres His oe pet — of flooding the condenser is of BS — ie Hose: dears , urse, entirely done away with. The condenser runs along whether the engine is “fal ” “backing hard.” 8 s “full head,” or stopped, or The piers and slips at our lake than are now plowing the wate filled as they are with steam craft have sharp turns and narrow channels, an engine was as tance, and it seems to me that the valu this one respect alone, ifit had no ot it a position on all our large carriers. Ross,