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a great deal of bulky. cargo ito sbe carried if desired. Notwithstanding the large beam in proportion to length, the 12 B. H. P. Thornycroft motor enables a speed of 8% miles per hour to be comfortably attained. The motors, which are the same in both boats, have two cylinders, 44 in. diameter by 5 in, stroke, and run TAE Marine REvIEw travel upon each other and in or out of the case an equal amount. Each pair of wedges is furnished with a suitable tongue and groove so as to avoid a possible binding action, and the ends of the screw are milled with a square of hexagon heads, so that any standard wrench can be used. Ratchet wrenches, however, can be provided with THORNYCROFT MOTOR LAUNCH FOR BORNEO, at 1,000 revolutions. The Borneo spirit is vaporized by means of the now well-known Thornycroft vapor- izer. Low tension magneto is used. Steering is by tiller and a Thorny- croft reversing gear, with bronze solid propetler, is fitted. KEYMER WEDGE KEEL BLOCK. The Keymer wedge keel block is a steel device designed to take the place of the wooden blocks now used under the keel of a ship and which probably have been used since the time of Noah. The Keymer patent keel block (patent applied for) has two pairs of wedges mounted in suitably arranged recesses in the case, and are caused to slide upon RAISED each other by means of a right and left hand threaded screw and rotating nuts; said screw being held in a fixed hori- zontal 'position by an ingenious ball and socket device, thereby causing both the upper and lower wedges of each pair to each set of blocks if desired, so that the blocks can be placed in any close quar- ters and still be easily operated in either direction. The bevel of the wedges is made flat LOWERED enough so that they stay in any position placed, regardless of the load or strain they are subjected to, should it be neces- sary to remove the screw for any reason of which we cannot conceive, as all parts are proportioned with a very large fac- tor of safety. k The standard size block is designed to raise a load of 20 tons with the power determined by the following formula for wedges: W;h; P: 1, and for screw W: Pitch; P: N L. Therefore at the end of a 15-in. wrench handle it would re- 65 quire about 283 Ibs. of force to raise 20 tons resting on thecover of the block, or in other words the weight of two average size men, by neglecting friction. If 18 per cent be allowed for friction of steel on steel slightly unctuous, we would have to add 3 Ibs. to above total power of about 290 Ibs. required to raise 20 tons of weight, including that absorbed by friction. Now, if but one man per block were available it would require a 3-ft. wrench handle instead of 15 in. to get the same results. The advantages claimed for these blocks are that they can be readily re- moved and replaced in any position with a few minutes time. The average ver- tical movement of the cover being 2 in. although that points may be regulated by the size of the blocks. Now if all the blocks under a new ship were low- ered simultaneously it could be launched from its ways within a half hour from the time operations were begun, and not a single block would have to be re- duced to kindling wood, but all be fit to use again as often as necessary. On another occasion one block was placed under a boat in the great lakes yards at Detroit between two blocks 9 ft. on centers, so that this block was from one block and 5 ft. from the other, and the entire end of the ship was raised enough to knock out the blocking 4 ft. away with a blow from a ham- mer. These blocks are manufactured by the Keyiner Mfg. Co., 2021 West 100th street, Cleveland. P. Keymer is the in- venter of the block and P. H. Brandt designer. NEW SPUR GEARED CAPSTAN. The accompanying cut represents a new style spur geared capstan, re- cently put on the market by Gillett & Eaton, of Lake City, Minn. Having had a number of inquiries and real- izing the real need of a spur-geared steam capstan, that could be easily changed from single to back geared and vice versa by the simple move- ment of a lever. The firm in this machine fill a long felt want. All the gearing is of steel, thus over- coming any danger of breakage. The engine is of superior design and con- struction, and built for high steam pressure and heavy service and is reversible. One lever operates the gearing; one extremity of same giving 'the single gear fast motion to the spool and the other extremity giving the back geared, slow and powerful motion and the same direction of rotation. The lever placed in the center notch re- leases the spool and spindle entirely, permitting same to be turned either