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with Diesel-Electric Drive A belching cloud of smoke pervades Mark Twain’s classic chronicle of the Mississippi steamboats. It was the black herald that announced the approach of these famous river craft—that symbolized an era of crude, inefficient operation that has passed forever. No such cloud overhangs the new towboats in the service of the engi- neering corps of the United States Army. These three Diesel-electric, stern-wheel ships, the ‘‘Gillette’’, the ‘‘Burnette’’, and the ‘‘Gouverneur’’, equipped with General Electric propulsion apparatus, now ply the waters of the Ohio, Kentucky, and Mississippi rivers. There were good reasons why ‘“‘Uncle Sam’’, the most discriminating of buyers, abandoned tradition and purchased this new type of drive for this service. Diesel-electric operation provides greater flexibility and higher efficiency at varying speeds. These boats are controlled from the pilot house in much the same manner as a motorman operates a trolley car. The control is such that the pro- pelling motors operate at high efficiency over a wide range of motor speeds and a large percentage of primary power is converted into towing energy. 123-4 ELECTRIC tS ALES. OFFICES it Fs PRIN C1 P AL CiT.12 Ss MARINE REVIEW—April, 1927 53