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18 "MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE RECORD. SUBMARINES--PEACE, WAR AND EXPLORATION. While as an engine of war the submarine is of doubtful ex- pediency it would seem as though it might be of some service in the prosaic business of salvage. How much better it would be for submarine inventors to direct their attention to recov- ering the lost treasures of the deep than it would be to maintain expensive lobbies at Washington for the sole purpose of selling to the government submarine torpedo boats whose usefulness is yet to be moved. Salvage offers a rich field for the ingenuity of the inventor. Beyond a certain depth, and a very limited one at that, there is at present no practical means of recovering ves- sels or their cargoes. So enormously does pressure increase as one descends below the surface of the sea that vessels be- come mere shattered hulks. Occasionally imaginative or op- timistic wreckers endeavor to salvage vessels at unusual depths but the story is one of unbroken failure. Cavaliere Pino is the first submarine inventor to discard the submarine for purposes of warfare and to turn his energies to essentially practical lines. If all accounts are to be believed he is pursuing some very interesting experiments in the gulf of Genoa with what he calis his "under-water working boat." He has designed a boat to resist the enormous pressures that accumulate with depth and has been so successful as to have descended in safety to a depth or 400 ft. The boat is spherical in form with a diameter of 10 ft. and has accommodations for a working crew of two persons. Its practicability lies in the fact that it is equipped with arms passing into the boat through universal watertight joints and possessing powerful gripping qualities. Reliable data concern- ing this invention is not yet at hand, but if it can descend to so great a depth as 4oo ft. and is a moderately controllable body at that depth, it has in so far widened the field of legitimate salvage. The mind of man is so constituted that flying machines and submarine navigation have qualities which appeal irresistably to it. A man may have a diseased imagination but perfectly sound judgment so that his common sense is forever waging war with his credulity; or he may have unsound judgment with a per- fectly healthy imagination; and if he belongs to the latter cate- gory he will attempt to fly or to reach the north pole in a sub- marine boat. In the Review of April 23 it was related that Herr Scholl of Munich and Dr. Anscheutz Kuempfe had under- taken to discover the pole by the under-water route. Since then Dr. Kuempfe has elaborated his plan. He has discovered an interesting circumstance--that the field of pack ice never exceeds a diameter of more than 3 miles or so. 'The "or so" is somewhat indefinite but no matter. : this ice, says Dr. Kuempfe, does not exceed 80 ft. The proposed vessel will be capable of descending to a depth of 160 ft., where it will be entirely removed, in Dr. Keumpfe's opinion, from the influence of colds, storms and ice pressure and the way to the pole will be open. No mention is made of the pressure of the water itself. The length of time during which the submarine will be able to remain below the surface of the water is calculated at a maximum of fifteen hours, which at the modest rate of 3 knots will allow it to cover a distance of 50 miles. In the not alto- gether improbable contingency of no opening being met with 'within the fifteen hours there remains the possibility of opening a way by blasting at a weak point in the ice "to be indicated without possibility of mistake by the help of the manometer." It probably has not occurred to the professor that there may be no weak spot in the ice, and even if there were what would be the effect of the blast upon the submarine itself? | However these are merely details. Let us quote the professor. "On arrival at the ice pack the direction of the first open 'water will be taken by the compass, and the boat being sub- -merged a course will be steered for it. If after an hour or so the light shows that an opening has been reached the vertical screw will be stopped and the boat will rise by its own buoyancy, and in the case of a wide opening or channel leading northward the voyage will be continued on the surface, giving an opportuni- ty for scientific work. Supposing no gleam of light appears when six hours have elapsed an ascent to the lower surface will be made with caution and the voyage continued slowly until by the reading of the manometer, it is found that a thin place has been reached. Here attempts will be made by blasting to effect an opening which, however small, will be sufficient to supply air for another fifteen hours, while in case of failure there will still be time to return to the last opening that has been felt whence the voyage will be prosecuted in a slightly different direction." Does not Dr. Kuempfe know that once he is below the sur- face he is in total darkness, that his compass is beset by influ- ences which render it inoperative and that his submarine is as blind as a bat? The amazing thing is that an undertaking of this kind so excites the credulity of a fair portion of mankind that they willingly advance money to further it. The submarine as an engine of war is at the best merely the instrument of the weak. A powerful navy has no need of it. The indifference of Britain to the submarine arouses the suspic- ion that it has the means to effectually overcome this type of craft. At any rate the submarine torpedo boat destroyer is beginning to be talked about. It would appear from what Capt. Charles A. McEvoy, ari English naval officer, says that the pres- ence of the submarine can be discovered. In her case discovery 'means destruction because the submarine has no other means of defense than invisibility. The maximum depth of _ [May 21, SOME REASONING AND A PROPHECY. Is it not one of the most amazing things that men who have labored all their lives to found their business and who know by what patient toil, by what stress and strain, by what nervous worry and cruel tax upon resource the business was gradually placed upon a successful basis, is it not amazing that these same men- will complacently turn over their factories and their work- shops and accept in payment therefor sheafs of new securities whose actual value in the market is an indeterminate factor? In this manner are combinations made and so-called trusts estab- lished. Stock which has meant cash and time invested is re- placed by a security which represents nothing but promise. Not always so, as there are cash considerations in some of the best combinations, but promises enter largely into most of them. The factory is gone and in its place is a strong box containing reams of finely embossed paper with the captivating stamp of 7 per cent. upon it. Then comes the long wait for dividends and for the enormous profits which are to grow out of the single item of eonomies effected.. The dividends do not come and the econ- omies are not sufficient to stifle competition. The weakest adver- sarv of aggressive individualism is the latter-day trust. Exper- ience ought to bring wisdom with it; but there are business men who close their eyes to the force of their own reasoning and bask in the sunshine of the prospectus. Credulity and cupidity are the two elements in human nature which transmute the pro- moter's paper into currency. Common sense should teach men that the same serious work which made their own business a sticcess will be required to make the combination a success. Of course there are combinations and combinations. A combina- tion which controls the supply of its raw resources is not in this reckoning; but this is a variety which may be counted upon the fingers of one hand. It is the ordinary combinations which do not lend themselves to monopoly that are under discussion--and their name is legion. Probably in the history of the world there has been no such period as has marked the past five years. Even in far away Manchuria trade has doubled; Europe has been under the wand of some magician; and as far as the United States is concerned Aladdin has rubbed his lamp overtime. The promoter has blossomed like the rose and money has been found to foster enterprises of such preposterous character as to stag- ger one's imagination. Certain conservative trades have seized upon the fertility and looseness of the soil to take a deeper root; but the majority have run to surface vines, showy, but of such tendril as to wither at the first blast. One is going to live; the other is going to die. It ill becomes one to croak, like a raven, at the golden shower; but common sense should teach one that the weather must change. The base of all this present prosper- ity is iron, and the greatest of iron makers says that iron is either a prince or a pauper. Such has been its history and such, it is fair to presume, will continue to be its history, probably not as marked in the future as in the past, owing to the existence of certain forces which exercise a partial control, such as the Steel Corporation. But even the Steel Corporation cannot create con- sumption. It is undeniably true that one of the great causes of the boom in production has been the wars of the past few years. They have been remote and the majority of people haven't troubled about their existence but they have been -very costly affairs and have consumed much of the world's goods. 'The Transvaal war was a mighty expensive thing and the replace- ment of material. destroyed meant work for thousands. Ships withdrawn from trade had to be replaced by others and the great non-producing forces of the army had to be fed, clothed, equip- ped and armed by the labor of others. 'The same is true of the Spanish-American war and its attendant troop of evils in the orient; and the same is true of the international designs upon China. But the wars are over. The ships are being returned to commerce and the men to the farm and factory. Already there are portents of a return to normal conditions. 'The railways are not as congested as they were; freight is getting the right of way; the production of coke is on speaking terms with its con- sumption, and the prodigious increase in the world's ability to create is fast overtaking the demand for products. 'The let-up must come. When it does come those enterprises which have a reason for their existence and which are solidly based will sur- vive; but those of a fictitious foundation will come down like all houses that are built upon the sands; those which are over-cap- italized will run rivers of water; those men who have few in- vestments and guard them closely will retain their gains; but those who have put their money and not their time into combi- nations and who have a dozen irons in the fire will find their withers wrung. A side launch is of rare occurrence on the Atlantic seaboard and considerable interest therefore attended the launch in that manner of the tank barge Pittsburg at Gibson's point, Philadel- phia, on Saturday last. The vessel was built by the Riter Conley Co. of Pittsburg for the Sun Oil Co. She is 176 ft. over all, 32 ft. beam and 12% ft. depth and will carry 300,000 gallons of oil in bulk. She is to carry Texas oil up the coast to Philadelphia. 4ue vessel was christened by Miss Winnie Jordan, daughter of O. C. Jordan, general foreman. Bids were opened Monday by the American Coke & Gas Construction Co., Philadelphia, for the construction of a steel tank barge for oil in bulk. The award was not to be announced for a day or two. 'The vessel is to be 193% ft. over all, 185 ft. keel, 33 ft. beam and 17 ft. depth, wi : : lons of oil, 7 epth, with capacity for 344,000 ga