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16 3 MARINE REVIEW. [November a8, OVERHEAD TROLLEY SYSTEM AT NEW LONDON, CONN. The Review has hitherto devoted some space to a description of the overhead trolley system at the yards of the Eastern Ship Building Co., New London, Conn. It is now enabled to go into the subject more fully. The fundamental points to be considered in the design of a successful system for handling material over ship building ways are: First, complete immunity from accidents which endanger life and property; second, a simple and rapid arrangement for hoisting, distributing and locating material where desired in any part of a vessel building. Speed of working is, of course, one of the most essential features, and the most successful overhead traveling crane or trolley system for ship building purposes is naturally the one that will hoist, arrange or put in position the greatest number of pieces of material or the greatest tonnage in any stated time. In this.respect the managers of the New London works feel that they have a most efficient system. It is an entirely novel and original scheme for handling material over ship building ways. It was conceived by President Hanscom, he having previously utilized a somewhat similar principle in a much smaller and simpler way in other establishments where he was, as a prominent official, connected for several years. This trolley system consists of three vertical masts erected between the ships, one at the bow, one at the stern and the third or central one midway between the other two. Thése masts are each about 140 ft: high respectively from foot to cap, and they rest upon immense foundations. To each mast is fixed a large horizontal yard, rectangular in section, and built as light as consistent with required strength. The yards are situated on the masts at a height of about 90 ft. from the ground, and at sufficient height above the highest point of vessels under construction so that long heavy plates or beams can be carried with ease and very rapidly to any AMERICAN MERCHANT MARINE ON THE OCEANS. Editor Marine Review: The undisputed facts, as contrasted with the many theories respecting the ocean merchant marine, appear to be these: First--Ocean freights on articles of export and import from and to ports of the United States amount to $200,000,000 more or less, annually. Second--In the last fiscal year about 8 per cent. of this amount, or $16,000,000, was paid to United States vessels, while the remaining $184,000,000 was paid to foreign vessel owners. : Third--Our citizens do not build, own and operate vessels in the foreign trade because they cannot do so with profit under existing com- petitive conditions. fe Fourth--The competitive disadvantages to which our citizens are subjected cannot be determined with exact mathematical accuracy, but they have been carefully studied and approximatively estimated with an accuracy sufficient for business guidance. ; Fifth--The United. States requires a merchant ocean marine and prosperous ship building industries for the security of the country in time of war. These are believed to be undisputed facts and the queries they suggest are whether, as a nation, we need and must have ship building industries and ocean vessels as essential to our safety and welfare in peace and in war. If we decide, as a people, that we need and must have ship yards and ships, it only remains to decide what we must pay to secure them. Our past experience shows that we cannot obtain an ocean marine rely- ing simply upon the chance of profit from the business. There are many minds at work upon this problem. Some are trying to consider it calmly, judiciously, as a great national non-political question. Others, unfortu- nately, are less unselfish and regard it as a question out of which useful political capital may be made. Others are disturbed because money is to a VIEW OF EASTERN SHIP BUILDING CO.'S WORKS, NEW LONDON, CONN. part of the vessel desired. The masts are securely stayed in fore-and-aft directions by strong steel wire stays or guys, securely anchored in rock. In addition to the water-end stay the after mast is held in position by a steel strut or compression strong-back. Steadiness in athwartship direc- tion is. obtained by steel guys, similar to those forward and aft, running from the ends of the yards, and these are also securely anchored in rock. A strong fore-and-aft steel wire stay connects the end and middle of each yard, and diagonal wire rope guys run from the ends of each yard to each mast. The yards are supported from the masthead by large steel wire guys or lifts, and the two end yards are well braced and trussed with heavy wire rope tension guys. The working field of the trolleys is a large rectangle, 600 ft. by 175 ft., supported over the vessels and securely held in position by masts and guys. Material can be carried to any position in the rectangular field by means of fore-and-aft traveling carriages' on thwartship moving cables suspended between cars running on tracks on top of the yards. The motion to the cars and carriage is obtained from electrically-operated machinery, which was also built and designed by the Eastern Ship Build- ing Co., contained in a house, or operating station, located on the middle mast just under its cross yard. This house is supported by immense brackets securely attached to the mast, similar to a "fighting top" on the mast of a war ship. The electrical operators of the machinery in the station house are constantly in full view of their field of work. The sys- tem possesses many advantages. Its principal advantage is its flexibility and the very large number of usages to which the frame work and guys of the structure can be placed. Such a system could be designed to take any number of traveling trolleys, each having transverse and longitudinal motion, whereas other systems confine the number of hoists made at the same time to one or two. The system now in successful operation at New London is designed for four traveling trolleys at work simultaneously each, with one of the heaviest members that enter into the construction of the largest vessels ever built or projected. The pra¢tical' working of the system has clearly demonstrated its superior worth. It might be of interest to quote Prof. Von Halle of Berlin, Germany, who, after having inspected all the prominent American ship yards, just before his return to Germany, said during an interview in Yew York: "The overhead sys- tem of handling material at the works of the Eastern Ship Building Co., By ee is the great feature of the most remarkable ship yard in the world. For navigation charts apply to the Marine Review. be paid out of the national treasury and received by the citizens who may be thus induced to own and operate merchant ships upon the oceans, forgetting that governments like individuals must pay for the service they need. It is impossible, of course, that everyone, ready with an opinion upon this complex question, shall have given it any really thorough and val- uable study, without which no opinion can be useful. One after another various impracticable propositions have been presented, considered and abandoned. We have slowly but surely been obliged to accept it as a fact that if the nation wants a merchant marine it must be prepared to pay a reason- able and necessary consideration to obtain it, and that this payment must take the form of a direct subsidy or bounty to those who are willing to undertake to render the service. If the amount of the payment is too small to meet the competitive conditions the service cannot and will not continue to be rendered. It is not an occasion for a false petty economy. If the amount of the payment proves to be large enough to give vessel owners an undue profit, competition will be sure to return the excess to our people in reduced rates of ocean freights. It is for the people to decide through their president and representatives in congress whether there shall be a reasonably liberal subsidy paid and a national merchant marine created and sustained on the oceans; or the effort to enact subsidy legislation defeated and our ocean carrying abandoned to the vessel owners of foreign nations. While the question is important from a commercial point of view it is vastly more important on the score of national independence and safety in time of war. FRANK J. FIRTH. Philadelphia, Nov. 26, 1901. Canada's department of public works has completed estimates for the proposed 20-ft. navigation between Georgian bay and Lake Nipissing. The total cost is placed at $4,000,000. It'is proposed to make connection at Callender with the Grand Trunk, and at Northern bay withthe Cana- dian Pacific. Minister Tarte, referring to the matter, said that within the next few years the export of grain from Manitoba "afd the Northwest territories alone would be 100,000,000 bushels, and thé only Way to' prevent its being diverted to American channels is to complete thé above 'short route through Canada. An increase of $7,000,000 in' the ageregate foreign trade of Canada for the first four months of the present fiscal'year ending Oct, 81 over the corresponding period last year is reported by the cus- toms department.