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MARINE REVIEW. - d How the Umbria's Shaft Was Repaired. To the practical vessel man the most interesting feature in all the detail concerning the accident to the Cunard line steamer Umbria was the skillful work of her engineers in repairing the broken shaft. On the afternoon of Friday, Dec. 23, with the great single-screw flyer breasting the gale beautifully, and leav- ing eighteen miles behind her each hour, Chief Engineer Tom- linson felt worried about his charge, for he had discovered a bad spot in the thrust shaft. This isthat part of the big shaft which takes up any lateral motion that may occur in the line or main shaft. He watched the machinery anxiously. The ship was running right into the teeth of a tremendous winter storm, and the strain on the big shaft and screw was enormous. At 5 o'clock the great piece of steel showed signs of succumbing, and to Cap- tain Horatio McKay, standing on the bridge, there came the startling message from the engine room: "Thrust shaft crack- ing.' In obedience to instant orders the big Cunarder's screw ceased to: revolve and her race against time was done. Luckily the ship had been heading so directly into the storm that she lay head on when she stopped. The various attempts of the captain and officers on deck to secure a tow while the big broken down steamship drifted in the furious gale from Friday until the following Monday, and the feeling of anxiety among the passengers as each of the several vessels sighted failed for one cause and another to render material assistance, have all been graphically described in the dispatches from New York, but during all this time there was some mag- nificent work going on deep down in the ship. Chief Engineer Lawrence Tomlinson worked continually for forty-eight hours after the accident, then yot two hours' sleep without taking his clothes off and went at it again. The engineers of the Umbria lacked a blacksmith shop, a steam drill, a steam hammer, and a dozen other things. 'They were cramped even for room to work | in, and the tossing and rolling of the big hull did not add to the comfort of the men who were trying to patch np the great shaft. Soon after the accident to the thrust shaft it was found that the fracture was in a bad place. It was between the two collars nearest the engines, and ran diagonally across the shaft, extend- ing along and inside of one collar for niore than three parts of the circumference of the shaft, then running crossways next to the after collar. "Then the fracture ran horizontally to the for- ward collar. 'Thus the thrust shaft was practically, if not theo- retically, severed. il OT IU, THE SHAFT SECTION OF SHAFT SHOWING BREAK AND REPAIRS. The shaft was twenty-six inches in diameter. As it had no support for a length of twenty-six feet, it was decided to support it by chains which were fastened to the dome of the shaft tunnel. . The the top of the shaft tunnel was trussed so that it could sup- port the strain. After that there began the most laborious task imaginable. Without many tools, without many necessary parts, the engineers started on their task. With no other appliances than hand vices, hand drills, cold chisels and hammers, the work 2 _coupling bolts fitted to them. of sinking deep key ways or gaps into the iron shaft was begun. To find bolts which would serve in holding the shaft together, Mr. Tomlinson ransacked the ship. At last he founda number of tunnel shaft coupling bolts, and decided to make them answer. A clamp as large as could be got in between the collars was then made and bolted fast, and the collars themselves were then cut down to the body of the shaft in four places, and 5-inch spare This work took seventy-two hours. At last the work was finished, and at 3 o'clock on Tuesday morning the engines were started up with much an- xiety. They were turned over very slowly, indeed, but the shaft seemed to hold and the ship made fair progress for two hours. At 5 o'clock in the morning the head of one of the bolts broke and the ship lay to for Sixteen hours till a new bolt was put in. At o'clock that night she started up again, and ran until 6:30 o'clock on Wednesday night. 'Then another bolt broke, and it required until 8:30 p.m.on Wednesday to repair it. 'The engines were Started up again at that time and the ves- sel worked her way slowly along the coast at the rate of about six knots an hour. Luckily the weather was moderating steadily and the sea was calming daily. On Thursday the Umbria took on her pilot, and early Saturday morning with a white haze lying over the bay, the big ship steamed into quarantine at New York. Irrepressible Holman. There will be no river and harbor bill introduced at this session of congress, but among the secretary of the treasury's estimates is one of $16,115,750, to continue work already author- ized and under way. Of course, the irrepressible Holman will oppose the appropriation. He designs to cut it down to $4,- © 000,000. Chairman Blanchard of the committee on rivers and harbors, knows the necessity of it, however, and will fight against any reduction whatever. The work in question was authorized only after the most careful investigation by the army engineers, and must be completed. Delays are expensive, and hence it will be economical to push the work to completion, which can only be done by the prompt appropriation of the sum recommended by the secretary of the treasury. Holman got several black eyes during the last session; he should be effectual- ly squelched at the present one.--Marine Journal. Successful Feed Water Heater. A feed water heater and purifier that is in use on twenty- five lake steamers must have merit. A good many different kinds of feed water heaters have been tried on lake steamers, but have come to grief through some defect or another: 'The inven- tor, who is a practical lake engineer, says that he found the best way to keep a boiler clean was to prevent the sediment from get- ting into it. This is accomplished in his apparatus by gravita- tion. 'The water is subjected to the same treatment as it receives in the boiler, except that in the apparatus the water is heated by direct contact with the steam. 'The water starting at.the top of the purifier, falls from one plate to another, being agitated into spray and heated in its downward passage. It reaches the set- tling chamber, where it passes under the division plate and through separators before it rises and passes through the center tube on the way to the boiler. - Not only are all substances having a higher specific gravity than water excluded, but those of lower gravity are kept out by the equalizing tube in the cen- ter, extending below the surface. Through heating the feed water the unequal expansion of boilers is prevented and the life of the boiler prolonged. The only attention required is the turn- -- ing of a valve to clean out the settling chamber once in six hours. The Union Dry Dock Company, the chief engineer of the China, and many others recommend it highly. R. Hammond, Lake Erie Boiler Works, Buffalo, says: 'It is the most perfect feed water heater and purifier we ever saw. The water enters the boiler almost perfectly pure at a temperature equal to that in the boiler.' For further particulars as to sizes, prices, etc., write Robert Learmonth, 200 Bouck avenue, Buffalo, N. Y.