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MARINE REVIEW. ii Hamilton's Valve Gear. The gist of this invention lies in the device by which a single eccentric is made to effect the reversing movement of an engine. By referring to the illustration it will be seen that the valve-stem link is provided with a pivotal point which does not change its position relative to the link, but which may be shifted to and fro to positions on opposite sides of the valve stem. When the link is in the position shown in the cut it merely acts as a connection between eccentric rod and valve stem; when the yy n chin rh i as => ft oT ii H | a | | { | Power, N.Y. pivot and link are pulled to the opposite end of the are by the hand lever, the link acts as a rock arm, transferring the motion of the eccentric rod to the valve stem in a reverse direction, thereby reversing the engine. When the link is in an interme- diate position, the pivot is in line with the valve stem, and the latter, of course, has no motion. 'The inventor of this valve gearis James Hamilton, Bridgeport, Conn.--American Ship Builder. Cruise of an Ancient Mariner. (INVOLVING SOME FACTS IN LAKE SUPERIOR HISTORY,--CONTRIBUTED. ) Our old friend and quondam ship-master, Captain George P. McKay, has lately been renewing his youth and his old time friendship by a cruise to the upper lakes. The desire to get on the bridge again and snuff some air uncon- taminated with coal smoke and to have a quiet afternoon "watch below," has been growing for several years and finally carried him on board the Northern King on her last trip up, leaving Cleveland at midnight on the 19th ult. A most delightful voyage of exactly seventy-two hours found the King passing the pier heads of Duluth harbor. The weather was perfect, and the yarns of the genial master of the ship, Campau, would have made even a foul weather voyage pleasant. At Duluth the 22nd was spent most delightfully in inspecting the very complete and altogether fine plant of Capt. MeDougall's ship yard and dry dock,and by a drive with Capt. Wolvin over the famous boule- vard and a dinner at the club with old-time friends and shipmates. In the after- noon, by the courtesy of Capt. Inman, a tug was furnished for a trip across the bay to old Superior, to hunt up the mortal remains of the schooner Algonquin, on which Capt. McKay served his apprenticeship asa very light- weight foremast hand away back in 1846, 'The bones of the little craft were found, where she died at the dock, many years ago. Not much is left of her, only her frames and a few planks, with her stem and sternpost solid, and her outline yet preserved. After a precarious trip through the mud the party got on board the wreck, where the captain was at once struck with the smallness of the craft. His experience of late years as a master of passenger boats and steam barges has made a schooner of 45 feet in length and of 75 tons measurement seem small, although she was quite a ship in the days when he began sailing. The schooner Algonquin was built by Geo. W. Jones, still a resident of Cleveland, at Black River, O., was sailed to the Sault and hauled over the portage there, and launched in Lake Superior in the fall of 1839. The same fall the schooner Mary Elizabeth was hauled oyer the portage; later she went ashore and was wrecked on the beach between Whitefish point and Two Heart river. Previous to this,the brig John J.Astor,in 1835,had been put together and launched above the Sault. Her frames and timbers had been got out by the same builder at Black River, shipped up the are and put together and launched there. These three, the brig Astor and schooners Algonquin and Mary Elizabeth, were the pioneers of the fleet from the lower lakes. Of course the stay at Duluth was too short to see the half of it. It was very interesting, and its growth and development, after an absence of eighteen years, was amazing. But this was distinctly not a cruise ashore, so after noting the fact that a light is very much needed on the west pier at Du- luth to distinctly mark the entrance to the harbor, the ancient mariner boarded the Jay Gould, and at l'a. m.-on the 23rd ult, took departure for the Portage lake entrance. Next -morniiig, when the. -forenoon watch turned out, it was to find the ship moving very. 'slowly in a. thick fog, and with a certainty that she was somewhere among the Apostle islands. Here again the captain's log-book shows that with a good fog hornat the light-house on Sand island, and another on Raspberry island, the skipper might have known where he was without getting the point of York island so close aboard as hap- pened on this morning. The fog lifting as the sun rose higher, a pleasant run was had up Chequamagon bay to Ashland, where the Jay Gould put on the dock a part of her deck-load of flour, in order to have her hatches clear to take on lumber at Washburn. While shipping her lumber at Washburn a visit was made to La Pointe, on Magdalena island, to see old Capt. *'Jack"' Angus, a veteran skipper of seventy-nine years, who was a ship-master on Lake Superior in 1839. The talk with him (and he had known '" George"? from his very earliest days) was most interesting. Capt. Angus, then a Scotch sailor, was sent to Lake Superior in 1839 by the American Fur Company, to command one of their vessels, the Algonquin; was married atthe Sault, and settled at La Pointe the year after, and there he has had his home ever since. Both he and his wife are still hale and hearty, and quite abreast with the mod- ern idea, and very clear in recollections of the old days, before the times of steamboats and saw-mills. The time here was all too short, and the ferry-boat for Ashland broke up too soon this notable meeting of old-timers at an ancient place, altogether idyllic in its sweet. and picturesque beauty. In the path of bustling commerce this very old settlement retains all of its old quiet, natural beauty, and keeps alive all the old traditious of the vwoyageurs of the days of Frontenac and the early French explorers: A few hours were spent with old friends on arriving at Hancock and Houghton. Coasting on down to Marquette a day was passed here, with a drive to Presque Isle, and a spell of yarning on the cliffs, at easeon the dry moss and ferns, under the shade of birch and hemlock trees. At midnight the course was shaped for the Sault on board the Pontiac, and at the lock-gate the ancient mariner went ashore. Here he was at "home again," sure enough, fortwo whole days. At the Sault he passed his boyhood, away back in the forties, and here were many meetings with the old Frenchmen and half-breeds who were boys then themselves. It was a pleas- ure to see the old brown faces light up with smiles, their eyes sparkle with de- light,and to hear their tongues chattering the"F'rench of the country" with their old-time playmate " Gcorge,'"' who found at church on Sunday and on the streets rather saddening changes. As he expressed it, " It is not like the old village, and there are too many white people here." -Having seen the im- provements making under General Poe's direction and carefully inspected the lock, building in Her Majesty's dominion, the next thing was to find a boat bound down. . They were there by scores, but. it was the oft repeated story, they were loaded in many cases to 14 feet 10 inches and_ there was but 14 feet 8 inches of water over the mitre sill. But the delay of twelve hours was neither unpleasant nor unprofitable, and a visit with "old man Stiles," now a trusted employe on the government force at the lock, was espe- cially memorable. Stiles and McKay were shipmates on the old Independ- ence when she exploded and sunk in 1852 just above the Sault canal, and are the only survivors of the crew of the first steamboat that turned a wheel in Lake Superior, and which wheel,by the way, is lying in the lock yard now, and, as is becoming, is in charge of Stiles himself, along with the other objects of interest on the lock grounds. At last, on Sunday afternoon, the good ship Nyanza scraped through, and a warm Welcome was found on board. The trip down the St. Mary's was made after dark, affording positive confirmation of opinion as to the righteousness of Colonel Ludlow's contention with the light-house board. The ranges were run beautifully to the foot of Sugar island, There the boat slid off into unlighted gloom and had to feel her way unaided through the intricate passage until she was able to pick up the ranges at the " Dark Hole." The proof of the correctness of Col. Ludlow's scheme is there and just one night's voyage is needed to convince the most conservative and skeptical of the correctness of the Colonel's plan and the necessity of adoption in its entirety. Good luck was with the ship and the run to Detroit was without accident or unusual incident. At Bois Blane island the captain went ashore in the grey of early morning of the 31st ult., to spend a happy day at the light-house and on the Canadian shore, before crossing the lake on one of the regular Detroit and Cleveland boats, to return to duty in Cleveland. Cleveland, Sept. 2, 1892. Cae Lieut. A. E. Baker,U.S.N.,superintendent of the marine divi- sion of the World's Columbian Exposition,makes the announce- ment that there will be an office and headquarters for marine men and the ship building industries of the United States. The room will be furnished with professional literature and peri- odicals of interest, and those concerned are invited to take advantage of the facilities there offered. ;