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THE MARINE RECORD. ag": Notes. - Carneaie Broruprs signed a contract last Thursday for 1,- 000,000 tons of iron ore, The sum of $3,000,000 is the figure va quoted as the contract price for the delivery of the ore to the Bessemer Works at Pittsburg. Tue Secretary of the Treasury has submitted estimates of $175,000 for the construction and equipment of a revenue steamer for lakes Michigan and Superior, and $100,000 for another for Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence river. Tue Columbian Navigation Co. has been incorporated with a capital of $500,000 for the purpose of running steamboats to Jackson Park during the Exposition, for the accommodation of visitors. It is believed that many thousands of visitors will prefer the lake route in reaching the Exposition. Evisu Minter, shipbuilder, Bath, Me., builder of the Shenandoah and her sister ships, died last Thursday at the age of 78 years, Capt. Millet had built forty-two vessels for one firm alone, and inclnding his life’s work had put afloat more tonnage than was contained in the U.S. Navy altogether, A niLt has been introduced in the Senate by Senator Frye to carry into effect certain recommendations of the United States delegates to the International Marine Conference held in Washington two years ago. The bill coutains 201 sections and practically covers all of the recommendations made by the Conference for the protection of life aud property at sea and to provide revised regulations regarding the rules of the road, carrying of lights, the examination of officers and inspection of sailing vessels as well as new rules regarding the issuance of officers’ licences, Tue chairman of the Deep Water Convention, Hon, Thom- as W. Palmer in his remarks at the opening of the Convention said, ‘‘There is one thing that I would like to say to the Con- vention. There is a great deal of loose knowledge about the statistics of the commerce of the lakes. I think it is very essen- tial that that should be exact, so that it cannot be gainsaid on the floors of Congress; so that when you ask for your appropria- tion and improvements your figures cannot be assailed. I am told that only thirty millions of dollars have ever been expended on the improvements of the lakes and that thirty millions of dollars is only one-third of the saving for asingle year. To whom does it go? Certainly not to the vesselmen, but to the people of the United States. It means cheaper comforts of life to every oné. _ Tue first steamboat on Western waters, said the late Mr. J. B. H. Latrobe before the Maryland Historical Society, was the New Orleans, which was built at und started from Pitts- burg, Pa., in September, 1811, and reached the city of New Orleans in October of the same year. This boat was built from the designs of Robert Fulton by Nicholas J. Roosevelt, who was associated in this enterprise with Fulton and Chav- eellor Livingston. The New Orleans was 116 feet long, 20 feet beam, and had an engine with a 34 inch cylinder. The second and third steamboats built for this service were the Vesuvius and the tna, end the fourth boat, the Buffalo, was built under the direction of Mr. B. H. Latrobe, Sr., the architect of the first capitol at Washington, who became inter- ested with Fulton and Livingston in the navigation of Western waters about 1813, Tuomas Drery & Son, Wilmington, Del., have just re- ceived aa order from the Globe Iron Works Co. for metallic life boats for the new steamers now under construction at their yards. The Northern Steamship Co. also order six twenty feet metallic life boats for vessels in their Line. This last order is due to the excellent satisfaction which Drein’s boats gave when the Northern Line fleet of large steel steamers were fitted out after construction by the Globe Iron Works Co. as the new order calls for an exact duplication 0} the six boats then furnished, It is learned that the works of Thomas Drein & Son at Wilmington, Del. is now running at its full capacity, with orders booked well ahead, so that builders and owners requiring metallic Jife boats and life rafts on a spring or early summer order would do well to send in their specifications to the manufactury so that work mey be turned out punctually, er + + oe ELECTRIC INVENTION FOR THE PRESERVATION OF LIFE AT SEA. Thomas A. Edison has perfected and patented another won- derful electrical invention. It is one that is intended not only to further the interests of commerce, but to protect human life atsea. It is, in substance, a system by which telegraphic com- munication can be carried on between ships at sea and shore and between the distant points on land. The most remarkable part of all is that this intercommunization can be maintained absolutely without the use of wires or cables. In his specifica- tions filed at the patent office in Washington, Mr, Edison says: “T have discovered that if sufficient elevation be obtained to overcome the curvature to the earth’s surface and reduce to the minimum the earth’s absorption, electric telegraphing or signaling between distant points can be carried on by induc- tion without the use uf wires connecting such distant points.”’ By this method ships can telegraph to each other at sea, one vessel being able to communicate with another far away and out of sight. Ifa balloonin New York should be sent up to agreat height, equipped with a condenser, and held to the earth by a rope cable, in which there was a strand of wire, and another similarly equipped should be sent up from Lon— rcuit would be formed through earth and air without of wires for transmission, through which messages 2 flashed at a greater speed than has ever been attained system, GRAIN STEALING, AND THE REASON WHY. BY OBSERVER, I think I may truly say that my experience in elevator weighing, and my opportunities for investigating this problem, have been entirely on the ground floor. Throughout my car- eer as elevator accountant, the slack methods, the absolute looseness of permitting weighmen to enter such important fig- ures as the weight of grain, carload after carload, without any check on their work, has always been to me a perfectly reason- able explanation of the big differences between our weights and those of shippers, I must admit that no importance was attached to these views by the manager of our elevators. The men were regularly cautioned to be careful, and the manager thought that as our men were experienced and were in constant practice, their figures were certainly more trustworthy than those of shippers. Now and then acar number would be transposed or distorted. Such instances I made use of to prove to our easy minded officials that our men were not infallible; that if they trans- posed car numbers they could reasonably be suspected of transposing weights. But this was met with the excuse that they were, perhaps, not as careful with car numbers as they were with weights, because the car numbers could be easily corrected. When I claimed that the reverse was the case, that they were, in fact, more careful in handling car numbers be- cause their errors could be easily detected, they ‘‘rather thought not.” We kept on explaining to shippers about the experi- ence of our weighmen, and how we tested all of our scales daily with a full carload of grain. Sometimes copies of our foreman’s report to the superintendent of such tests were sent to the shipper or furnished the consignee. But somehow the trifling difference of ten pounds or such a matter between the weight of the carload on five or six different scales failed to soothe theshipper. And so the matter dragged along. * * * This proves the fact that with close weighing and no mistakes, an elevator may, without loss, handle millions of bushels of grain a year, giving every shipper just and correct weights; also that the element of uncertainty in handling grain without an abso- lute check on the figures entered by the weighman, is respon- sible, ina great measure, for the too large surpluses often found in grain elevators at the end of the year, because the weighmen are really responsible for a shortage if one should occur. They have weighed the grain in, and they have weigh- ed it out, and if a shortage occurs at the end of the year they realize as clearly as any one that they are objects of suspicion of either dishonesty or incompetency. Naturally enough then, the tendency is to weigh in favor of the elevator, and as mis- takes are sure to occur, there is always this element of uncer- tainty which acts as a still greater incentive with the weigh- man to be on the safe side, The result, an unreasonably large eurplus. This state of affairs has become a fixed fact. The experi- enced elevator employe does not have to figure hard to satisfy himeelf tiat he can dispose of enough wheat to help himself out nicely without his little appropriation being missed. That this is true is clearly proven by the late discoveries of system- atic grain stealing. These discoveries are in most cases the result of complaints and pressing claims of short shippers and receivers, I have not noticed a single instance, I think, where dishonesty or theft was suspected or detected by reason of a shortage in the elevator stock. * * * There is no doubt in my mind, therefore, that the true rea— son why grain stealing has become so common is because of this ever present and undeterminable question of errors, It makes no difference how accurate your scales are, the work of the scales is done when the beams balance with theload. Then comes the adding together and entering of figures, which the weighman must do, and unless this work can be proved, the field for dishonesty becomes simply a big common. Isn’t this true ? How would it be in the banking business, in our county treasurer’s office, in our cnstoms offices, if everybody concern- ed could charge every other body of having made a mistake, and nobody concerned could fix the mistake on anybody else. Would the business be carried on honestly ? Well, is not this exactly the state of affairs where in case of a difference the elevator officers and the shipper affirms, and no one has rea- sonable proof to show that this matter of recording weights has been correctly done. What is reasonable proof? Nothing short of a balance of entries, Called and checked proof is not to be relied on. Every clerk will tell you that. One man going over another’s work is not reliable. Not long ago we read in the columns of this excellent journal an elaborate explanation ot how the we'ghing is done at Duluth, from which we are led to believe that every draft delivered to a vessel by the elevator weighman is check- ed and duplicated by the state weighman. or inspector. How can a mistake happen with such a system of checks? Let us be duly impressed. ‘The man who does the checking is not an ordinary person, a common tallyman, buta high official—a state inspector. Are we all duly impressed ? Then let us read the following from the January number of this same journal: “Duluth wheat cargoes are, on the whole, holding out better than any previous fall on record,’’ writes the Buffalo corres- pondent of 7he Marine kecord. * * * ‘The America’s shortage of a little over 500 bushels was no doubt a mistake of adraft. She had a similar one last fall but got no redress.’’ Now let us observe how our esteemed Buffalo correspondent of The Marine Record proposes to fix this matter. He says fnrther: ‘This feature of making the vessel responsible for weighmasters, errors (which weighmaster ?) is all wrong, and calls for a change in the wording of the bills of lading.” It is evident this Buffalo correspondent of The Marine Record is a vessel owner. But of this at some other time. The ques- tion which arises here is: ‘‘Where was the state inspector ?”” The errors above referred to, if they were made at Duluth, signify that the figures representing 500 bushels of wheat, were charged to the vessel while the wheat was not delivered. This instance only goes to show that nothing in the way of checks short of a perfect system of balances will give usa perfect sys- tem of weighing. The sooner this theory is acted upon the sooner this notorious evil will be done away with.—American Hlevator and Grain Trade. EE oa ERIE CANAL TRANSPORTATION Notwithstanding the enormous exports of grain, the Erie Canal shipments were 6,000,000 bushels Jess than in 1890; while the railroads, on the other hand, delivered at New York this year, more than twice as much grain as last yaar. Various causes combined to produce this effect. Besides the coustant discrimination in elevator charges, the canal boatmen were harassed by unwarranted delays in loading. At the time when receipts at Buffalo by lake ran high, the railroad grain elevators ignored the rights of the boatmen, and put off the loading of canal boats in order to empty the railroad line steamers with all possible dispatch. Low water and breaks in the canal had but little effect in decreasing ship- ments. ‘To crush canal competition the railways made such low rates that the elevators having rail connection, were swamped with the grain arriving, while at the same time ele- vators haying no rail connectiun were kept idle, to the loss of both vessel owners and the canal boatmen. Superintendent Hannan, of the State Department of Public Works, reviews the improvements on and increased expenses of operating the railroads which compete with the canals, and referring to the New York Central road, sxys: The total cost for maintaining and repairing that road and its equipment, was the enormous sum of $7,418,283,10, a sum equal in amount to that required to maintain aud operate the canals for 10 years; this was paid in a single year, and this road is only one of the competitors of the Erie canal. By these liberal expen- ditures for maintaining their roads in first-class condition and by the improvement heretofore noted, the railways have been able to reduce the cost of carrying freight to one-third of the price which it cost 20 years ago. The whole number of tons of freight carried upon the can- als of this State during the season of navigation was 4,563,472 tons and was composed of the following described class of ar- ticles: Product of the forest, 1,206,986; agriculture 1,171,192 manufacturers 109,387; merchandise 250,083, other articles 1,825,824. Of the total amount of freight moved 3,190,331 tons were carried east and 1,373,141 tons were carried west, and of this amount 2,651,838 tons were through freight and 1,911,634 tons were way freight. Comparing the tonnage of 1891 with that of 1890, there is shown to be a loss of 682,630 tons, but during the year of 1890, much ice was transported upon the canal so that the loss this year, as compared with the tonnage ef last year, exclusive of the ice is 215,093 tons. There has baen but little profit to the carrying business on the canal during the past season. The prices for carrying cargoes have been solow that boatmen kaye only been able to subsist. Whatever profit has been derived from the carrying has been made by those of them who operated steam canal boats, Of this class of boats there were 60 engaged up- on the canals last season, + ee RUNNING THE RAPIDS. A question regarding the steamers that first made the pas~ sage through the Rapids of the St. Lawrence River is ans- wered by James Mooney, superintendent of the Brockville & Westport Railway, who takes exception to the statement made in connection with the recent decease of Capt. Richard Chap- man, of Ogdensburg, to the effect that that gentleman took the steamer New York down the rapids when she was sold to the American Government. Mr. Mooney states further that the New York was not the first steamer to run the rapids. She was preceded by both the America and the Canada of the same Line, and the man who took them all down was a pilot named Rankin, who, he thinks, belonged to Beaubarnois. Capt, Chapman was in command of the New York at the time she made the passage, but did not pilot her through the rapids. These boats, Mr. Mooney informs us, were the finest steamers, both as regards size, speed and equipment, ever established on the St. Lawrence. They belonged originally to the Great Western Railway, and for atime ran between Hamilton and Cape Vincent, They were built at Niagara, and some of them were inspected on the stocks by Mr. Mooney who, at that time, was a chain-bearer on a railway survey being made in that section by Walter Shanley, in war times, probably 1862 or’63, they were sold to the United States Government and Rankin took them down the rapids, A law suit followed the service, Rankin claiming that he was to be paid $5,000 in cash if the trip was made in safety. a4 oD oO or hy 8,- Tue estimated total production of pig iron in 1891 196,127, gross tons, against 9,202,703 tons in 1890, a of over 1,000,000 tons.