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MARINE REVIEW. VoL. XIV. CLEVELAND, O., DECEMBER 17, 1896. No. 25. Important Changes in the Ore Business, More changes leading to a consolidation of big interests in the iron ore and vessel business have been closed up within the past few days. Details of the large ore and transportation deal between John D. Rockefeller and the Carnegie Steel Co. are coming to light. It is officially anounced that the Mountain Iron mine, the principal Rocke- feller property on the Mesabi range, has been leased to Mr. Carnegie, or rather to the Oliver Mining Co., which he controls, for a period of fifty years, which means practically a sale of the property. This mine, with the Oliver of the same range, is capable of producing easily 1,200,000 tons of ore annually, and it is understood that there is also an arrangement between the two interests whereby the ore of the two mines is to be moved over the Rockefeller railway to Duluth and in Rockefeller ships to Ohio ports, but there is no positive informa- tion on this score. The Carnegie Steel Co. now controls the two best mines on the Mesabi range, and these two properties are capable of producing all the Mesabi ore that the company can use for some time to come. A circular from §. 8. Curry, president of the Metropolitan Tron & Land Co., announces the appointment of Pickands, Mather & Co. of Cleveland as general sales agents for the company, for the handling and sale of the Norrie and Pabst ore, formerly handled by E. C. Pope of Cleveland. The circular adds that by a mutually satisfactory ar- rangement Mr. Pope will hereafter be associated with Pickands, Mather & Co. The Norrie and Pabst mines are capable of producing a million tons of ore annually, and this agency will, of course, be a big acquisi- tion to the business of Pickands, Mather & Co., who are already hand- ling as much ore as the biggest of the Cleveland agencies and are oper- ating about forty steel ships. It is also announced that Mr. Frank Billings, well known in con- nection with large manufacturing enterprises in Cleveland, will take charge of the ore and pig iron business of Tod, Stambaugh & Co., which was under the direction of the late John Tod. Battle of the Boilers. Immediately following the announcement that the British: cruiser. Powerful, which is fitted with water tube boilers, had proved herself, on her steam trials, to be the fastest vessel of her class in the English navy, there was quite a stir in eastern engineering circles. The New York Herald used lengthy articles on the subject as leaders in three issues of last week and added interviews with the best known ship builders and marine engineers. Interviews with Gen. Hyde of the Bath Iron Works and Charles H. Cramp, president of the Wm. Cramp & Sons Ship & Engine Building Co. of Philadelphia, were somewhat surprising. Mr. Cramp said: - -""T have no doubt that the water tube boiler has come to stay as far as naval construction abroad is concerned. One great advantage claimed by the naval promoters of this type is that at the end of about ten or fifteen years the boiler, if of good design, is as good as new, as the tubes have been replaced from time to time or one by one as they gave out, thus keeping up the uniformity and integrity of its first con- struction. This, I think, is a strong point in their favor, as after a few years the best of the old-fashioned or cylindrical boilers must deteriorate, thereby lowering the power and speed without reducing the consumption of fuel in a proportionate degree. When the cylindrical boilers have to be replaced the work must be done as a whole, and the cost of new boilers in vessels like one of the great transatlantic liners would be so great.as to leave doubts whether it would not be better to build anew ship. This cost is due to tearing out foundations, opening up the decks, destroying or defacing cabin work, electric installation and ventilation plant, and would be largely in excess of the cost of the new boilers alone. We should also consider the great loss of time in making the changes. On the other hand the general effect of the substitution of new parts from time to time in the water tube boiler is to keep it practically new. If it was desired to replace the water tube boiler with.a better one the parts of the old one could be taken up the hatches, and the new one could be taken down the same way without disturbing a single element of hull construction. Whether the advantages, some of which are enumerated above, offset the disadvantages due to increased number of parts and the necessity of greater care in operating is now under consideration by the steam engineering world. I look for further improvements in water tube boilers, sufficient to decide this question in their favor, in the near future. In general, I would say that the present time is a period of transition, the length of which can be determined only by further improvements in the water tube system. The cylindrical boiler has been developed to its ultimate point and is hence at astandstill. I con- sider that the thickness and weights required in the St. Paul and her class for the high pressures of quadruple expansion have reached the limit of practicable construction under the cylindrical system, and that therefore any further progress in the direction of high pressures and economy of fuel must.be made on water tube lines."' Miers Coryell, who has attained prominence in water tube boiler circles in this country through his connection with Belleville, the French inventor, directs attention to a change of fire-room forces which he says is certain to,accompany the advancement of the water tube boiler. Fire-room forces must be improved, according to his view of the immediate future, and he adds that the adoption of the ~ Babcock & Wilcox boiler for big vessels in this country will bring about this change here, just as the Belleville and other types will re- quire it elsewhere. Mr. Coryell, in fact, seems now to look upon the Babcock & Wilcox boiler as the coming water tube boiler here, on account of its merits, and also from the fact that it is an American product. He says the Babcock & Wilcox people are securing an advantage both in England and this country in the number of mer- chant ships in which they are fitting their boilers. As Americans he congratulates them upon this success, but he adds that they are meet- ing with little competition in ferchane work from the English manu- | facturers of the Belleville boiler, Messrs. Maudslay Son & Field, who are said to have more than two year's work ahead on boilers for the German, Italian, Spanish and Russian navies, and are therefore not in a position to collet merchant work. Reforine more in detail to~ improvement of fire-room forces Mr. Coryell says: "It is evident to all practical. engineers that the higher pressures now coming into general use will force a more intelligent management in the fire- rooms, in order to secure complete combustion by the observance of natural laws relating thereto, which in one regard is the regulation of air supply as the fires demand it, varying as the gases are set free from the fuel and never representing a uniform quantity. It will, of course, be impossible to improve the firemen asa whole. The change must come through mingling a more intelligent element with the ordinary firemen. The new men, who will have general direction in the fire-hold, may be termed fire-room engineers. The intelligence required of them is such that they should rank with first or second as sistant engineers and be given the same wages. Managers of ships must soon realize that the burden of caring for such auxiliaries as- electric lighting plants, steering engines, etc., together with possibly ventilating and refrigerating plants, involves so many calls upon engineers that it is impossible for them to give proper attention to the fire-room, and high coal bills are the result."' In a recent interview in one of the Duluth papers Capt. Alex McDougall again expresses the opinion that the vessel owners of the lakes, together with the United States engineers who are carrying on St. Mary's river improvements, are to be badly disappointed over their efforts to secure a 20-foot channel. He holds, of course, that the principle of dredging the river to secure deeper draft has not had the effect that was expected of it, and he says that the increased draft in the Sault river during the latter part of the past season may have been due in part to the dredging but it was mainly on account of a high stage of water brought on by natural causes. When we have another low-water period, he says, we will be again down practically to the light draft of previous years.