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----- ST EL? bo Re Se er MARINE REVIEW. 5 Around the Lakes. George $. Wright, known as Banker Wright, died at his home in Cleveland last week. At one time he was a shareholder in a number of lake vessels, and held a part of such interests at the time of his death. Just asthe last form was being printed last week it was learned that the names of the two northern line passenger ships the engines of which were illustrated in that issue of the REVIEW, would be North America and North West. Great Northern and Great Western would, it seems, have been more suggestive of uni- formity. The river reporters at Detroit and Port Huron object to the statement that the Vance was reported with the Samoa after she was sunk, as a reflection of the care they take in reporting vessels. Asa matter of fact the river service this season has been very good, and even if such a mistake was made it was a matter of habit. Talk of an indefinite suspension in the constructing of whale- backs seems to have been a little previous, as in spite of the de- pression which has put an end to all thought of new freight ves- sels in other yards, Capt. McDougall says work on the boat at present on the stocks at West Superior will be resumed shortly. The long distance telephone is instantaneous, and as the American company has opened an office in Cleveland, vessel own- ers can talk with their correspondents at Detroit, Buffalo and oth- er places, with advantages over telegraphy in many cases. Ap- pointments are made for conversations free of charge, and the offices are open day and night. By means of cabinets privacy is secured. 'The Cleveland office is at No. 197 Superior street. Thc lakes can now boast of a hydrographic office, located at No. 1621 Masonic building, Chicago. Although it will not fur- nish information of icebergs and storm areas, as do the coast offi- ~ ces, yet it will prove valuable to captains of lake vessels who will take the trouble to call on the officers occasionally. Nearly 8,000 charts of all the waters of the earth are kept on hand for free use of navigators, and sailing directions will be given when requested. Trade Notes, No. 1, Vol. 1 of The Bulletin, published at Detroit, Mich., has been received. It is from the Penbertlay Injector Com- pany, and incidently mentions that company's injector. If you will send your name on a postal card it will probably be added to the mailing list of the new publication. The Berlin Iron Bridge Company, of Hast Berlin, Conn., has received the contract for the new power station for The Atlantic Improvement Compafy, Astoria, L. I. There will be two build- ings, a boiler house 62 feet wide and 85 feet long, with a dynamo room 70 feet wide and 130 feet long. The dyamo room is con- trolled by a traveling crane, to be furnished by the same parties. The American Shipmaster's association, New York, classed last week the American three-masted schooners Dora Matthews, Geo. E. Dudley, Laura and James E. Bayles, British barkentine Africa, British barks G. S. Penry, Wm. Wilcox and Holland, and the schooner Mary Rose, American barks Gerard C. Tobey and Martha Davis, Swedish bark Hedvig and Russian schooner Karl Johan. It was reported that the Pawling & Harnischfeger steer- ing gear was removed from the Hand & Johnson tug at Buffalo, but such is not the case. The following letter furnishes a good denial: 'The machine works] all right and is almost univers- ally pronounced the leading gear out for tug boats. Its smooth running and noiseléssness surprises every one. Mr. Ash, president of the company, a very practical man, and Mr. Hand both declare it to be what they have been looking for." Output from the Mines. On the 3rd inst. shipments of ore from Two Harbors aggre- gated 520,152 tons, of which 258,245 tons was from the Chand- ler mine, 217,795 from the Minnesota, 21,643 from the Canton and 9,917 from the Cincinnati, 9,338 from the Franklin and 1,213 from the Hale. On July 30 the total from Ashland was 653,023 tons, divided among the different mines as follows: Ashland 26,465 tons, Aurora 99,279, Colby No. 2 17,540, Tilden 66,236, Germania 4,975, Iron Belt 7,544, Montreal, south vein 1,347, Montreal, north vein 24,175, Brotherton 14,643, Comet 5,035, Carey, west 26,333, East Norrie 49,751, Eureka 20,867, Newport 57,410, Norrie 125.414, Pabst 79,520, Sunday Lake 17,524, Davis 7,314, Jack Pot 1,651. Tips from the Man on the Dock. At different times there has arisen considerable discussion over the alleged throwing of blades from sectional propeller wheels. Every now and again a ship makes port minus a blade or two and all hands are unanimous in the assertion that "they never touched a thing, she just threw it off in clear, deep water." Singularly enough we never hear anything about solid wheels throwing away their blades like a lobster shedding his claws. Now under ordinary circumstances the sectional wheel is the stronger, because the root of the blade being nearer the tip, the leverage tending to break the blade is less. Another reason is that in order to get sufficient base to afford room for bolts, the hub must be increased in dimensions, so that the width of blade at the base is generally much greater than in the solid wheel. I have always been something of a sceptic concerning this bus- iness and I claim that no sectional wheel ever discarded its blades without at some time or other striking an obstruction. It does not follow by any means that the shock and the rupture should be co-incident. The solid wheel would probably simply let go at the time and that would end it, but the sectional wheel being necessarily stronger would hang on and let go later. So the other day hearing a good deal of talk concerning the blade-throw- ing habits of a certain steamer, I armed myself with a few of the leading points and betook me toa well known mechanical en- gineer in this city to secure his opinion. It is unnecessary to say here that all the discarded blades had brokeu at the same point--close up to the flange. So listen to the words of wisdom: '"The area of metal at the fracture is 140 square inches. 'The force necessary to break this, applied at the tips of the blade, would be 18,440 pounds. The total effort of the engine at the radius of the fracture was 105,665 pounds, which, divided among four blades, gives 26,416 pounds on each, or equal toa load at the tip of only 6,600 pounds, as against the 18,440 pounds which the blade was capable of sustaining.' It appears, then, that the blades were actually almost three times as strong as it was nec- essary to have them according to the figures. Of course no builder would think of sailing so close to the wind as to make a wheel without large allowances of strength, to provide tor strik- ing logs, floating ice, etc., but I had no idea that there was any such excess as appears here. "Itshould be borne in mind too," said my expert informant, "that I have assumed that the whole force exerted by the steam was transmitted to the wheel without loss--a condition impossible of attainment, as the loss varies from 5 to 15 per cent. according to the type of engine, etc., and more over I have assumed the maximum duty ot the engine in question. It may be said with safety, then, that although owners, skippers and engineers who claim to have thrown blades away without touching anything may be sincere in what they say, as they have no positive knowledge to the contrary, they are only placing themselves in a position to invite the ridicule of those who hrve looked into the subject, when they make such claims. Ee x se Since I started to look up this wheel business I found one instance where a new steamer with sectional wheel had parted with several blades (thrown off, of course), and in deference to the owner's wishes the builder had made new ones very much heavier, but the lobster act continued. The owners grumbled when the bills came in and thought that while the blades seemed too light the bills seemed too heavy. Finally a set of blades lighter than any of the previous ones were fitted and they are still there and in their thirdseason. It is only fair to say that some changes took place in the crew at this same time, beginning with the bridge and extending to the engine room, and possibly this may have had something to do with it. It has struck me too that possibly the putting on of the blades had something to do with their going or staying. By the way, one of the officers of the American Steel Barge Company told me a little story the other day bearing on this subject. One of the two steamers sent by that company to the seaboard lost a couple of blades from her wheel. To emphasize the statement that " she never touched anything," both captain and engineer declared that they were sitting aft when suddenly they saw oneof the blades fly out of the water, describe a para- bolic curve, give a "' kerplunk" and down she went. Their tale might have been accepted if they had not taken the last remain- ing grain of probability out of it by adding that while they looked at each other in astonishment, another blade did the same thing! Perhaps some of the fellows who have " been there them- selves" may masticate this, but I confess it a little too tough for me.