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MARINE REVIEW. Teo CHICAGO LAKE INTERESTS. WESTERN OFFICE, MARINE REVIEW, t No. 210 So. Water Street, CHICAGO, LIL, Feb. 4. Very little is doing in marine circles here this winter. About once a week a boat goes to the elevators for grain. It is now the Emily P. Weed's turn. The demand so far for winter loading has been small, but vessel- men have not worried themselves about that as they feel there will be plenty of grain before spring. Just now a great deal of interest is center- ing on the Cleveland iron ore situation. Chicago vesselmen are bulls, and it will take better than $1.25 from Ashland to get them. E. P. Henry has become local agent of the Lehigh Valley line... Mr. Henry, although a young man comparatively, is an old salt water dog and has sailed on many seas. I have watched him these five yeas as he rustled for the Lehigh Valley, and can testify that he has a "get-there' move on himself. The Lehigh did a wise thing when he was made local agent. There is any quantity of talk about increasing the passenger fleets on Lake Michigan the coming season. The Seymour line is trying to secure another boat to run in connection with the Petosky. The Northern Michigan people have some big scheme with a hotel in it, about all of which they do not say much. One or two new routes are to be opened up. It's the World's Fair that is stirring up the boys. The deep water delegates to Washington did good work, to judge by the dispatches. The press dispatches at any rate helped the cause along in good shape. If this Congress makes an appropriation for the 20-foot channel, the people who worked so hard for the Detroit convention can take considerable credit for it. I still think that if the Detroit convention had adopted the list: of light houses prepared by the Cleveland Vessel Owners' Association and not been chary generally of the word "local," its scope of usefulness would have been much broader. As it is, the fight for light houses and that for deep water have had to be made in detail, thereby weakening both. The Milwaukee & Eastern Transit Company had thé City of Fremont here a week trying to get her across the lake into St. Joseph. There was probably not much profit in her cargo. Winter navigation for boats not especially built for itis both risky and unprofitable. Some people are now finding it out. The number of sailors who call at the Custom house or barge office for blank hospital certificates is astonishing. Itseems that half the sailors in Chicago are now suffering from some malady, which requires a visit to the marine hospital. Customs officers have had a deal of trouble here to - convince captains that they must give these certificates to sailors whether they believe the latter are sick or not. It is for the hospital staff to pass upon the severity of a sailor's complaint, not the captain's. 'The certifi- cate shows simply that the applicant is entitled to the care of the marine hospital corps. This isa very simple point, but it frequently causes complaint at the custom house. Then an officer must be sent to inform the captain he must issue the certificate if the man has sailed with him. | | ; Fixing Wages of Engineers. The managers of the Cleveland Vessel Owners' Association are at work on a schedule of wages for engineers, boats being graded as to power. Although all of the details have not been completed, it is very probable that the schedule will show an advance of at least $10 a month over last season's wages. There will be four or five classes, the first being metal boats with water bottoms and triple expansion engines,which will very probably pay $125 for chief engineers. Other grades will run $115, $110, $100 and probably $90 for the lowest class. The wages of seconds are pro- portionately higher. Official announcement of the schedule will be made within the week. Convertible Quadruple Expansion Engine. . A recent number of Industries of London describes a con- vertible quadruple expansion enginedesigned by Mr. Frank Chaese of Hartford, Conn. The fullsized engine has cylinders 14 inches, 22 inches, 32 inches and 45 inches diameter, and 28 inches stroke, and is intended to work at a boiler pressure of 200 pounds per square inch. The inventor's aim has been to construct an en- gine for marine purposes, which shall be serviceable atter any ordinary accident. 'The crank shaft for this reason is made in, two similar sections, flanged and connected in the middle with a dowel having ample service in place of the ordinary coupling bolts, thereby greatly facilitating the disconnection of the engines. In case of a breakdown with the forward engines, the two sections of shafting are uncoupled and steam is admitted to the after en- gine by means ofa reducing valve. The aiter engine then runs as acompound condensing engine. Should this engine be dis- abled, the connecting rod is removed from the crank-pin and secured out of the way; connection is made between the first in- termediate exhaust and condenser, and the forward engine is then run asa compound condensing engine. The engine is of the vertical inverted type, with cylinders arranged in pairs, the high and first intermediate pressure cylinders forming the for- ward engine, and the low and second intermediate pressure cylin- _ ders, forming the after engine. A system of duplication of parts has been adopted, while the space required vertically and horizon* tally, has been reduced toa minimum. 'The'valves are of piston ' . type, the upper portions being made slightly larger in area than ~ the lower portions, in order to balance the valve gearing. The™ upper cylinders are supported on six short wrought-iron columns, * any one of which may be readily removed if required. The valve" gearing isa modification of the Allan straight link type. The link is suspended in- such a manner that the slipping of the link" block is reduced, and a quicker admission and cut-off affected.' The engines can be reversed either by steam or hand; for the ~ latter method a small force pump is provided, connecting to the" same oil vessel and levers as the steam reversing gear. A few ' strokes of the pump is sufficient to reverse the engine. 'The steam reversing device consists of a steam and an oil cylinder ' connected together, and giving motion to the valve spindles and links. A lever to the steam cylinder and a two-way valve to the" oil cylinder allow of reversal at will, and also of the fixing of the * cut-off at any point. A sensitive governor is provided, and the" eccentrics are keyed onto the shaft in the usual manner, with - the exception of the forward go-ahead eccentric, the angular ad- ' vance of which may be varied by a simple device which is rigid' when locked. 'The condenser is said to be very efficient. Water" from the circulating pump is discharged in two directions-- around the casing and through the tubes. The hot-well has- water guages, vapor pipe, and man-hole, and forms part of the» condenser casting. All the pumps are worked from the main engine. 'There are two feed-pumps and two-bilge pumps:- Hither feed-pump is sufficient for the boilers under ordinary works: ing conditions. 'The air-pump is single-acting, and is placed low' down on the condenser to avoid trouble in working. 'The cir=" culating pump is double-acting, and of ample capacity for water. of all temperatures, and the main injection valve being readily accessible. ge tea 'Lhere is an auxiliary engine bolted to the bed-plate, a worm from which engages with a wheel on the main shaft. A swing-' ing bracket and clutch allow the worm to be thrown out of gear: instantly, as this arrangement is only designed for turning the' main engines when overhauling, etc. This auxiliary engine: can be used for pumping purposes, suitable connections being' made to the condenser, hot-well, sea, or bilges. The thrust' block has a double set of conical rollers running in oil, which' take the full thrust of the propeller, while adjustable plates fore and aft take up the wear. rhe Boa v Miscellaneous Matters. Capt. James Davidson of West Bay City, has gone to Ber: muda and the West Indies, to be away about five weeks ~ L. H. Stone of Vermillion, C. H. Woodruff of Sannusky and James E. Mills of Cleveland were elected to membership at the. last regular meeting of the Cleveland lodge, E. M. B. A. Lumber dealers at the head of Lake Superior are figuring on a more marked increase on their business than that of last season, when this trade furnished employment to a very large number of vessels. It is #®ured that Mitchell & McClure and Merrill & Ring will alone send out about 100 cargoes. By a resolution of the last Congress the secretary of war was, permitted to grant arevocable license for the use of the govern; ment pier at Chicago to one of the railway companies entering that city. Vessel owners who signed a petition asking that this, permission be granted by the secretary of war found later that the. railway company was monopolizing a very large portion of the, river to the detriment of the general vessel interests. Mr. Dur- borow has now introduced a bill inthe House calling for the re- peal of the resolution. It would seem as though the New York capitalists in the American Steel Barge Company do not want to take up the scheme for an immense passenger steamer of the whaleback, type, which was proposed to run between Chicago and Macki- naw with the opening of the World's Fair. On his way to West. Superior after a meeting of the barge company in New York, Capt: McDougall went to Chicago, where he met parties inter: ested in the barge company and others who think of forming a new company for the ownership of the big boat. It is not, known whether anything was accomplished in this direction or not, but work on the boat has not been begun.