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1901. ] MARINE REVIEW, 17 twenty-four hours from evaporators and 70 tons per twenty-four hours from distillers. These are designed to work with the exhaust'steam of the auxiliary system at a pressure of 25 lbs. per square inch or with boiler steam at the same pressure. The boilers are of the ordinary Belleville type with economizers. They are thirty-one in number, arranged in three boiler rooms, the forward set in each boiler room of the single-ended, and the after set of the double-ended type. As they have te work under assisted draft, there are four fans and two furnace air pumps in each boiler room. For ventilating purposes there are two fans in each engine room. There will be a complete installation of electric light, including six searchlights. The vessel with her armor and powerful armament is designed for a speed of 23 knots. The Monmouth's armament will consist of two twin 6-in. guns forward and aft in barbettes, four 6-in. guns in casemates on upper deck and six similar guns in casemates on main deck, eight 12-pounder 12-cwt. guns, two 12-pounder 8-cwt. boat and field guns, three 3-pounder quick-firing guns, and eight Maxim guns, in addition to which the vessel will be fitted with two submerged tubes, one on either side, for the dis- charge of 18-in. Whitehead torpedoes. The big guns are so arranged that a heavy fire can be maintained in any desired direction. The barbettes around the 6-in. twin guns are of 4-in. armor. The ammunition for thee guns will be served through heavy armored trunks from the magazines and shell rooms below. The casemate fronts:are of hard steel 4 in. thick, with rear plates 2. in. thick, and the conning tower, fitted above the fore- castle deck, is of 10-in. armor, with a communicating tube 6 in. thick carried down to the protective deck and containing the connections to all the gear throughout the ship. The side bulkhead, casemate, and conning tower armor is made by Messrs. John Brown & Co., Ltd., and the bar- bettes by Messrs. Wm. Beardmore & Co., Glasgow. In this connection it may be stated that invitations for tenders are about to be sent out by the admiralty for the battleships and armored cruisers to complete the naval program of the year. There is no likeli- hood this time of delay for want of the armor plates, because the produc- tion of armor has been greatly increased since the last admiralty orders were placed. Sheffield alone can now turn out nearly 30,000 tons per annum, besides the new plant of Beardmore & Co. at Glasgow and of Armstrong, Whitworth & Co. at Manchester. RECONSTRUCTED CRUISER OLYMPIA. The Olympia, formerly Admiral Dewey's flagship, is at present in dry dock at the Charlestown navy yard. Nearly all the changes in her have practically been completed. All of the main battery and part of the secondary battery guns are in place. The new stem and stern ornaments attract much attention, although the ship's: hull is still a dirty white and the figures themselves have not been gilded. It is interesting to note that the new coaling device invented by Naval Constructor William J. Baxter, and which promises to selve a problem which has for years greatly both- ered naval officers the world over, will be used for the first time aboard the flagship. This device has been given a test since it was fixed in place on the ship, and the result was most satisfactory. Mr. Baxter's appliance has been approved by the navy department. It is somewhat like a coal elevator in respect to the way it works. Had Schley's ships carried these -coal handlers perhaps the famous controversy would never have occurred, because the admiral would have had no need to worry about being able to coal at sea. Two portable jointed I beams, extending over the side from the posts, fixed about amidships, serve as railways for trolley gear, which will-receive bags of coal from a lighter and convey them to chutes leading to the bunkers, release them and travel back over the side for another load. It is expected that the device as now set up on the Olympia will prove as effective as any coal elevator on the water front, and it has the additional advantage that it may be taken apart and stowed away. The present system is to pass the bags from lighters, by hand, through the lower ports for the lower bunkers and to hoist bags on board with the davits for the upper bunkers. By Mr. Baxter's arrangement the lower bunkers may be filled by hand as usual, and his device will take care of the upper bunkers in remarkably short order, or, in the case of an emergency, will place coal on the upper deck to be stowed away conveniently by the crew. It is sure and economical, and by its use it is estimated a ship may be coaled in one-third the time now required. INGENIOUS KEROSENE OIL MOTORS. _ The British government, through officers in the army of India, is said to have had plans prepared in this country for wagons carrying kerosene oil engines. It is proposed in one instance to build a kind of automobile having as a driving power an electric motor, the current for which is supplied by a dynamo, which in turn is driven by an oil engine. The primary object of this carriage is to provide electric current to: operate search lights. The electric motor is used to drive the carriage rather than have the oil engines do it direct, for the reason that a very flexible con- nection is thereby provided. This carriage is to be built for rough work in the field with a large army corps. Kerosene oil is used for the reason that it is not dangerous, like gasoline, and is almost universally obtainable. It has been so difficult to' obtain fuel and water for steam engines used in the field with an army that the resort to the much simpler oil engine is 'a necessity. In addition to this automobile electric plant, it is proposed to construct oil traction engines for drawing supply wagons, and oil-driven machine shovels for making excavations. Oil for these engines will 'be supplied by tank wagons especially constructed for the purpose. "These plans are additional proof," says an engineer who has given attention to the subject, "that for powers up to 100 H.P. the steam engine with its complications and frequent repairs will soon be a thing of thé past." It is not possible to predict what changes the oil engine will worl'in this line of industrial development but it seems destined in many brariches of industry to outrival the electric motor because of its independence of an outside source of power. me 4 i Mr. Francis G. Hall-of the Naval Electric Co., 95 Liberty street; New York, has been engaged during two years past in developing'for the Rus- sian. government 'the applicatidn of the oil engine to special purposes. " » 10 BGhI tigen Vg } eat W. Robinson. member of the American Society of Civil En- giheers| formerly 'ofthe Bucyrus Co., South Milwaukee, Wis., has been appointed consulting engineer to the Canadian government for river and harbor improvements and dredging plant. OLD STYLE ARCHES IN WOODEN SHIPS. Editor Marine Review: I take the liberty of writing to you to ask if any of the boats of the Rutland line, formerly the Vermont Central line, have now or ever did have high arches such as the steamers Empire State and Badger State have. There has been a good deal of discussion over the matter here and we would like to have it settled by you. DOCK SUPERINTENDENT, Ashtabula, O., Nov. 26, 1901. Vessels of the Rutland line (formerly Vermont Central line) are the A. McVittie, F. H. Prince, Gov. Smith, H. R. James and Jas. R. Lang- don; all wooden steamers of 2,040 tons each, built in 1889 and 1890; the W. A. Frost of 1,322 tons, built in 1883, and the Wm. A. Haskell and W. J. Averill of 1,550 tons each, built in 1884. All these vessels were built by the Detroit Dry Dock Co. None of them have arches of the kind in the Empire State and Badger State. The high arches in the Badger State and Empire State are what are known as the Bishop arches, named for the inventor. They were discarded about 1880 when the Union Dry Dock Co. of Buffalo built the steamers New York and Rochester. Both the New York and Rochester were fitted up with steel chords and diagonal iron straps, a method of stiffening that displaced the high arches used in the Empire State, Badger State and other vessels. It will be noted that all-the Rutland line boats were built some years after the practice of steel chords and straps was adopted. It is well known, of course, that the steel chords extend under the main deck and under the between deck the full length all around the vessel, and that the straps are worked in diag- onally between these chords. The steel chords are usually 18 in. wide and 34 in. thick. With the straps they form a truss, that is a very strong support in a wooden ship.--Editor. SHIP BUILDING IN NOVEMBER. During the month of November ninety-two vessels of 21,099 gross tons were built in the United States and officially numbered by the bureau of navigation, treasury department. A summary of the vessels and their tonnage, prepared by the bureau of navigation, is as follows: WOOD. STEEL TOTAL. San. STEAM. SAIL. Sream. Gross Gross Gross Gross Gross a tons. ae tons me tons. No,| tons. ||N°-) tons. Atlantic GN OULE 68 c, 46 8,391 | 13 Cal ea i 7,075 || 66 | 15,807 Pacific 5} 3,511) 6 TOS epee ba ee ie ll 4,214 Great lakes.... sbvesal Cocancoeiee a OO Hse ltr lo roles cetee ] 99 Western' rivers.:..:..¢:04\i.c lac, 14 SI ee ea 14 979 1,902) 1 34 | S100 eel 7 7,075 || 92 | 21,099 No steel sailing vessels were built in the United States during the month of November. | EARLY HISTORY OF PIG IRON. The first blast;fuirnace of which we have any reliable record appears to have been built in France, and,it is said that one of the earliest makers of pig iron in England iuportgd.a workman from France to teach him the art. The first furnaces built in England were necessarily small and im- perfect; nor do we find that smelting operations were carried on on any- thing like a large scale until the beginning of the second quarter of the present century. It was found necessary in 1581 to enact stringent laws to. prevent the consumption of timber in any new ironworks within 22 miles of London; but even so recently as 1825 there were no more than 615,236 tons cf iron produced in Great Britain, while, in 1840, the produc- tion had increased to 1,395,900 tons. In the interval between these two dates, Mr. J. B. Neilson of Glasgow took out his patent for the use of heated air instead of the cold blast, which had alone, until then, been used to support internal combustion in the blast furnace. In three years, by the use of this process, the quantity of coal necessary to smelt a ton of iron was reduced from 8.20 tons, coked, to 2.25 tons used in the raw state, and the production of iron was at the same time generally increased, owing a to the use of a larger size of furnace.--Iron and Coal Trades eview. A New York dispatch announces that Sir Christopher Furness, who » sailed for England this week, carried away with him contracts for twelve freight steamers of 6,000 to 10,009 tons capacity. Besides these the dis- patch announces that he has made arrangements with the Clergue interests at Sault Ste. Marie for the erection of a great ship building plant at that point--probably a matter of the distant future. Sir Christopher is credited «with claiming to have discovered why the American manufacturer is crowding the British producer. He is quoted as saying that it is because economy in handling material has been brought to a science in this coun- try. An American locomotive will haul twice the load that an English locomotive hauls with half the expense. ee J. P. Morgan & Co., managers of the syndicate that underwrote the - United States Steel Corporation, returned to the members of that syndi- cate last-week the money that was called from them when the syndicate was formed.' But $25,000,000, being 12% per cent. of the $200,000,000 subscribed was called and returned. The return does not mean that the syndicate has been dissolved. The syndicate managers retain the profits which were made in its operations, and these profits, according to current Wall street reports, -at-present approximate 15 to 20 per cent. on the $200,000,000. Théasyndi- 'cate agreement was for fifteen months from March last. The: managers, _ however, may, dissolve the syndicate when they see fit. 12 jsiae Mr. C. B. Orcutt of the Newport News Co. has anounced that the company. contemplates making extensive improvements in the ship yard in the near future. Among the improyements will be two new electric cranes.