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MARINE REVIEW. 13 The New Revenue Cutters. There is every reason to believe that statements made by Chief Engineer J. W. Collins and other officers of the revenue cutter service regarding the speed of the revenue cutter Gresham are correct, and it can therefore be said that, having attained during a short spurt a speed of 18.25 knots, or 21.01 statute miles, she is not only the finest vessel now in the service, but is among the fastest ships on the lakes, not excepting the North West and North Land. The Gresham will not, however, retain for any great length of time the honor of being the finest of United States revenue cutters, as a vessel some- what more costly is being built by the Cramps for the Pacific coast station, and contracts will be let in Washington shortly for two more cutters for the lakes that are to be fully equal to the boat just com- pleted in Cleveland. Mr. Collins with several other officers of the revenue cutter bureau took the Gresham from her builders, the Globe Iron Works Co. of Cleveland, on Saturday, for an official trial. Assistant Secre- tary Ireland and Assistant General Manager Newman of the Globe company, together with Mayor McKisson, ex-Mayor Gardner and a few other prominent citizens, were-aboard on the trip. The engineer force was sufficient to carry ona trial along lines followed by the navy, but not, of course, quite so elaborate as the trials of big war ships. The speed required in the specifications was 16 knots with the engines developing 2,000 horse power. Mr. Collins said after the trial: "During the first two hours and a half the vessel made a seed of 17 knots or 19.6 statute miles; the main engine making an average for this entire run of 160 auolations per minute. Had it not been for a plate which was carelessly left off one of the air ducts a higher rate of speed would have been obtained. Under. natural draft and with only 120 pounds of steam, the throttle being but two-tenths open, an average speed of 144 knots or 174 statute miles was 1nain- tained, the main engine making 140 revolutions per minute. The last hour of the trial was under maximum conditions. The steam pressure averaged 155 pounds, the average revolutions was 167, . and the speed for the hour was 17.53 knots, or 20.16 statute miles. The maximum speed during ten minutes of this run was 18.25 knots, or 21.01 miles, when the engine made 171 revolutions. The speed as calculated from the revolutions of the engine was 20.9 knots; this' would make the slip of the propeller only about 13 per cent., which I consider to be aremarkably good performance. I have carefully calculated the maximum power, by means of a planimeter, and find that the main engine developed 2,523.2 horse power. The air, circus lating, and feed pumps, and blowing engines, developed 127.6 horse power ,thus making a total indicated horse power for the main engine and its auxiliaries of 2,650.8. The average total horse power for the last hour was 2,593. I designed the engine to develp only 2,000 horse power, and am highly gratified with the results obtained. Under the old system of premiums for increased power on government vessels the Globe company would have received a bonus amounting to about one- third the contract price of the vessel."' The Gresham is of open-hearth steel throughout, and is 205 feet long over all, 188 feet on the water line, 32 feet beam and at a mean draft of 10 feet 6 inches will displace about 900 tons. She has two pole masts and a small spread of fore and aft sails to steady her. She has a steam windlass, steam steering engine, steam heating apparatus and an electric light plant of 135 fixed lights together with a power- ful search light. She will carry five boats in all, including a 28-foot steam launch. Her only armament at present is one six-pounder, rapid firing Drigg-Schroeder rifle, but she is capable of carrying a much 'heavier armament when necessary. The stem is fitted with a 15-inch torpedo tube, located about 6 feet above the water line. Propelling engines are of the vertical inverted, direct Baia triple expansion type, having cylinders 25, 374 and 564 inches in diam- eter respectively, with a common stroke ae 3C inches. piston and connecting rods and the front columns are of the finest forged steel obtainable, and were made by the well-known Bethlehem - Iron Co. Steam is supplied by four Scotch boilers, each 11 feet 6 inches in diameter by 10 feet long. Each boiler has two corrugated Fox furnaces, 42 inches in diameter, and the total grate surface is 186 square feet. One of the features of the steam machinery is that it can be used for either fresh or salt water, the vessel being fitted with a surface condenser, distilling apparatus, ete. The Review has excellent photographs of lake ships. The shafting, » Big Orders for Artificial Draft. Whatever may be said of the enthusiasm that has been stirred up over the successful operation of water tube boilers in the latest of the big British cruisers, it would seem that the manufacturers of artificial draft apparatus have no cause for complaint in the number of orders they are getting. A letter to the Dry Dock Engine Works of Detroit from James Howden, the Scotch inyentor of the Howden hot draft, reports that during the month of November he booked orders for the draft to go into twenty-six new steamers, while the number of instal- lations during the year was 120, applied to 357,900 horse power, chiefly in large steamers and not including those of this country. This makes a total in all parts of the world to Noy. 30, 1896, of 1,383,500 horse power to which the Howden system has been syayolbesh The Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co., which is the greatest steamship line in the world, having a fleet of vessels aggre- gating 300,000 tons, seems to have unlimited faith in the Howden draft. In a description of the India, the latest and largest big liner built for this company, and which has six cylindrical boilers, each of 14 feet 10 inches diameter, the Engineer of London says: "The boilers are fitted with Howden's patent sytsem of draft, a principle of accelerating the combustion in furnaces already too well known to need description. Incidentally it may be stated that the Peninsular & Oriental company tried the Howden draft for the first time four years ago. Today it has, includng the India, China, Egypt, Arabia, and others under construction, seventeen steamers fitted with this system. Nothing special aictivenienes the system on board the India from that already in use on board other important vessels of the fleet. The air for combustion is supplied by three blast fans. These fans are cased, 8 feet in diameter, and each is coupled direct to a compound single-crank single acting engine, which drives the fans at a speed of about 250 revolutions per minute. The three fans are collectively capable of delivering about 150,000 cubic feet of air per minute, the air being drawn in at the top and discharged at the bottom to the passages conducting to the air heaters and reservoir on the boiler fronts."' The Dry Dock Engine Works has closed a contract with Capt. Norton of Marine City to compound the steamer Kate Buttironi, and to build for her a new cylindrical boiler equipped yas Howden draft apparatus. Stocks of Grain at Lake Ports. The following table, prepared from reports of the Chicago board -- of trade, shows the stocks of wheat and corn in store in regular eleva- tors at the principal points of accumulation on the lakes, Dec. 12, 1896: Wheat, bushels. Corn, Pushels. Oliteagoe hit eee eee 1,497,000 4 836, 000 Duluth oie see Seer et heeds 2,077,000 St AOR: Milwaukee. 6.25.3) oo tee, eee 348, 000 3,000 | Detroit'... oe eae, eee 404,000 57,000 Moled@ ae ie Gen one 1,123,000 229,000 Buftalo *6. oo eee ee 2,808,000 ~ 461,000 20,257,000 5,590,000 As compared with a week ago, the above figures show, at the sey- eral points named, a decrease of 607,000 bushels of wheat and and an increase of 116,000 bushels of corn. An apparatus for night signalling by means of electric light which would seem to be capable of very wide application at sea and on shore is known as the Crandall electric signal. It consists of a number of incandescent lamps arranged on a frame in the form of a monogram. This monogram contains the elements of all the letters in the alphabet, each of which may be shown in turn by completing the electric circuit in which they are arranged. This frame being hoisted to the mast- head so that the letters when exhibited may be visible abeam, or ahead, as may be desired, the wiresare led down to the deck and there connected with an instrument resembling a typewriter. The operator by touching any particular key sets the lamps which form that letter on the frame aglow, and any signal may be spelled out and read off from a distance. A photograph of the largest boat on the lakes, the Sir Henry Pee semer, will cost you only $1.50. Write the Marine Review. Holiday excursion tickets are on sale via the Nickel Plate road on Dee. 24, 25, 31, and Jan. 1, 1897. Return limitJan. 4. 409 Dec. 31