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20 TAe MarRINE REVIEW DEVOTED TO EVERYTHING AND EVERY INTEREST CONNECTED OR ASSOCIATED WITH MARINE MATTERS ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH. Published every Thursday by The Penton Publishing Company CLEVELAND. . CHICAGO: MONADNOCK BUILDING. PITTSBURG: ° PARK BUILDING. NEW YORK: 150 NASSAU STREET. Correspondence on Marine Engineering, Ship Building and Shipping Subjects Solicited. Subscription, $3.00 per annum. To Foreign Countries, $4.50. Subscribers can have addresses changed at will. Change of advertising copy must reach this office on Thursday preced- ing date of publication. JG The Cleveland News Co. willsupply the trade with the MARINE REVIEW through the regular channels of the American News Co. European Agents, The International News Company, Breams Building, Chancery Lane, London, E. C. England. Entered at the Post Office at Cleveland, Ohio, as Second Class Matter. MARCH 8, 1906. PRINTED IN AN OPEN ::.SHOP. SCIENTIFIC LAKE NAVIGATION. The Marine Review will begin on April 1, one of the most valuable departments that it has ever established, and that is a department devoted to scientific lake navigation. This important depart- ment will be in direct charge of Mr. Clarence E. Long, who for the past year or more has been pub- lishing the Nautical Magazine at Sturgeon Bay, Wis. The aim and end of the department will be that of practical assistance to lake masters and mates. An abridgement of the course as published in. Mr. Long's Nautical Magazine will be published in the Marine Review, together with a question and an- _swer department, wherein light will be thrown upon every possible problem. This department will be so thoroughly conducted that its service will be equal to a course by correspondence in any standard school of navigation. Probably the extent of the depart- ment is best told in Mr. Long's own words, as fol- lows: "T will illustrate and demonstrate all views, laws and principles by practical examples only; I will not advance a single theory unless I know it works out in practice and can be easily applied; will use the simplest language in all explanation; will use only simple arithmetic and explain in algebra, ge- ometry and trigonometry whenever necessary to use these mathematics, and this can be easily done, In all compass problems, such as finding its devia- tions and corrections by adjustment, will take actual examples; would have the different masters send in the deviation of their compasses and from this data would work out in detail the entire problem from A to Z and then describe simply and concisely how this compass could be adjusted by any master, This is something unknown and therefore never at- tempted. Any master may send his raw deviation table ashore, have it: analyzed and returned to him with a remedy to cure.' 2 Mr. Long's work on scientific navigation during the past year has attracted considerable attention along the chain of lakes and has interested a great number of masters. The course presented to them will now be amplified in the Marine Review and any question which any master sees fit to ask will be promptly considered and replied to at length, The instruction will be priceless to the masters and its projection a source of deep gratification to the owner who, as his floating property is constantly increasing in value, is desirous that it should be safe-guarded from every possible standpoint. That there is need of scientific navigation on the lakes, and that the subject is one to which owners are keenly. alive, is demonstrated by the fact that the Pittsburg Steamship Co., during the winter establish- ed free schools of instruction in four cities for the masters of its fleet of vessels. The Marine REVIEW school will be one to which every master on the lakes may come. GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS. What accounts for.men bidding lower on work ad- vertised for by the government, than on work for pri- vate parties, corporations, etc.? Is it based on sup- posed opportunities of getting large prices for extra work not plainly called for by the contracts; or is it based on the supposition that government inspec- tors can be bribed? A prominent founder, in speaking of government contracts, made this remark: ie "You never hear of a concern that has filled one government contract for iron work, getting another. The prices bid on such work are so low and the in- spection so unusual, that contractors seldom make anything." While that may be true regarding iron and steel, it does not apply to construction work. It seems the rule, however, that the prices bid for construction work, especially in connection with river improve- ments, are entirely too low, the reason for which is not easy of discernment. Undoubtedly, some contracts were taken with the hope of placing enough extra work to make them