The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

238 mediate ports. With such service, at least 250,000 gross tons of steel prod- ucts could annually be distributed from the Pittsburg district to Ohio and Mississippi river ports. In fact, with improved facilities for shipment at the mills and for receiving, storing and forwarding at the important ports the volume of business cannot now be estimated, but it would not un- likely, be close to one-half million' gross tons. The accompanying drawing shows the type of barge being constructed. 'It is 200 feet long over all, 36 feet beam, and 10 feet 6 inches deep, the deck be- ing crowned 8 inches at the center. The sneer at bow and stern is 18 inches. After due consideration, the scow type was adopted, the rakes fore and aft being the same. The barge is of steel construction through- out with the exception of a 4-inch wood floor in the hold. Plates, an- gles, beams and channels such as are ordinarily rolled are used throughout, no special section being employed. Five transverse water-tight' bulkheads and a longitudinal truss divide the hold into eight compartments. Open- ings are located in the deck centrally over each compartment and are made large enough to receive rails 33 feet in length below deck. A cargo box covers the greater por- tion of the deck, and this also is built entirely of steel plates and shapes with the exception of the sides, which are of galvanized corrugated steel. Three sliding doors on each. side of the barge and one at each end permit of loading and unloading of nails and other wire products, ample space hav- ing been provided for trucking the material on the deck. Provision has also been made for loading materials through the roof of the cargo box, hatches having been provided imme- diately over the deck openings so that rails, pipe and structural material can® be lowered by a crane through both Openings into the hold. Provision has also been made for loading 60-foot rails, and 70-foot structural material through the two central roof hatches, this material, however, to be carried on the deck and not in the hold. The roof hatches have steel plate covers, amply stiffened with angles and de- signed so as to be weather-proof. As it is customary to carry mixed cargoes, it was necessary to make barges of sufficient cubical capacity to carry the bulky and comparatively light mate- rial such as field fencing and barbed wire, and when such cargoes are car- ried a cargo box will be required. For rails, pipe and structural material, if THE Marine REVIEW not over 33 feet in length, the hold only will be needed to carry the ma- terial, but for the long lengths of structural material and rails the deck will be used, although other materials can also be carried in the hold. The draught of the barge loaded to its ca- pacity is 9 feet, provision having been made for 18 inches free board. The barge light will draw 26 inches. The American Bridge Co. has fre- cently completed three barges for car- rying bulk oil for service at New Or- leans, ten coal barges, a wharf boat at Memphis, and two 14-car transfer barges in use at Profit island in the lower Mississippi river, conveying gravel for ballasting several hundred miles of track for the Illinois Central railroad. There are now being built four barges to be used by the United States government at Greenville, Miss., for river maintenance work and a steel floating dry dock also for the government at Vicksburg, Miss. TALBOT STEAM BOILER. A steam boiler, similar in general de- sign to that used by the White steam automobile, has been perfected by Paul Talbot, of the Talbot Genexating Co., Tatpot BoitEr, SHOWING TuBEs, SHELL AND OL BurNER. of Seattle. Oil fuel only is used with the boiler, which consists of a number of headers placed horizontally above each other, connected by horizontal tubes. Around the headers and tubes is a jacket, made of No. 14 sheet steel, lined with metallic lath rivited close to the sheet and covered with 1 in. of asbestos cement, giving strength to the asbestos and having no metallic connections pro- jecting into the furnace interior. The operation of the boiler is automatic, the oil fuel feed being controlled by a pres- sure gage regulator, attached directly to a tube and operated by the linear con- June, 1910 traction and expansion of the tube. As the percentage of water increases in the tube, the heat and its linear expansion decrease, closing the water intake valve. DETAILS OF TALBot STEAM BOILER. Steam with any degree of saturation or superheat is obtained by adjusting the thermo regulator. The general dimen- sions o1-a 150-H.-P: boiler are: Vength, ~ Photo taken from above. 25-H. P. Tarsor Borer anp 4% x 9 x 6 HetsHorr. COMPOUND ENGINE IN 32-Fr. LAUNCH.