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S EPT. I 3, 1901.]

THE INTERNATIONAL ENGINEERING CONGRESS AT GLASGOW.

(Continued front page R23.) TaN large attendances and practical business-like

briskness which characterised the proceedings of all the nine sectiollB of the Congress at the meet­ings of Tuesday, the 3rd inst. , which we reported in last week's issue of ENGINEERING, werefullysusta.ined right to the close of the Congress ; and the result, recognised on all hands, has been that the papers read-which of themselves impar ted useful informa­tion on a wide variety of subjects- provoked discus­sions that in many cases were unusua11y valuable in their wealth of suggestion. This-the most im­portant advantage of the Congress--was due in large measure to the considerable number of foreign guests who took part in the proceedings and con­tributed the results of their experience and their research in the solution of problems which they had probably approached with a freedom from that bias that t radition and a successful past are inclined to engender in the British 1nind. Thus those who study our reports in last week's issue and now appended may find, if not new light, at all events some stimulus towards renewed effort.

All the nine sections met on Wednesday, the 4th inst., in one or other of the University rooms, and the Iron and Steel and Mining Sections concluded their business, so that there were seven sections at work on Thursday morning, and the attendances were, for summer meetings, exceedingly well main­tained until the close. We will now pro~eed to give a report of the discussions in the various sec­tions on Wednesday, the 4th inst.

SECTION I. RAILWAYS. In this section Mr. Alexander Rosa, one of the

vice-chairmen, occupied the chair in the absence of S ir Benjamin Baker.

RAII.WAY SIGNALLING.

Th~ first paper was on "Modern Practice in Rail­way Signalling, , by Mr. J. A. Timmis. This paper we shall print in extenso, with its illustrations, in an early issue.

At the conclusion of the paper Sir Douglas F ox said it was about nine years ago since the author put his system of electric signalling, under his ad vice, into actual practice in connection with the Liverpool Overhead Rail way. Very little was then known as to what the result would be, but it was felt that a railway system in which there was no shunting done except at the two termini was an excellent opportunity of testing the applicability of magnetism to operate the signals. The Board of Trade were at first properly very cautious as to sanctioning the experiment , and required regular returns of the extent to which the system failed to act. Of course, every failure meant delay in the traffic, because the signals were always at danger. At first there were minor difficulties, but they were simply in connection with the action of the magnets, and experience was gained by degrees. He might say, speaking on behalf of the Company, that the signals on the intermediate stations, of which there were twelve, had given great satisfaction, with the result of the saving of the services of a dozen signalmen during the whole of that t ime. He did not then feel satisfied in authorising the introduction of the electrical system..at the termini, where there was a certain amount of shunting to be done, and where it was necessary to introduce the human brain as the directing power. It seemed to him that the system at Crewe had a great future before it. He could not believe that the low-pressure pneumatic system could come into anything like serious competition with electrical signalling in the end, because of the large number of pipes involved, which were more likely to get out of order, and cause heavy Axpenditure for repairs. He was quite convinced that in the case of underground railways, where electricity was available for the purpose of electric traction, electric signal­ling presented very great advantages. They had not experienced any difficulties caused by leakages or induction, and he thought that the last-named evil would certainly have been brought out very strongly, if i t had existed, in the Liverpool Overhead Railway, because i t was worked electrically, and the electrical conductors were in close juxtaposition to the operators of the signals. They were indebted to Mr. Timmis, and it was hoped that he would have great success in

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working out this very important innovation in rail­way signalling.

Mr. F. C. Webb (London and North-Western Railway) said Mr. Timmis was to be thanked for allowing his company to use the long-pole magnet in connect ion with their work. So far as they were concerned, they did not require a track system to a large station, in regard to the crossing of one line and the other ; because all the points had to be worked automatically and in connection with the electric system. At Crewe, where some 60 miles of E: hunting sidings had lately been put down for exchanging wagons to all parts of the system, the whole of the signalling and the points were worked electrically ; and when the pas~ enger station was completed, he trusted there would not be a single wire or point- rod to be seen on the ground. It was 2! years since the first main-line junction was opened at Crewe with the motor­worked facing point s, and up till t he present the system had given ent ire satisfaction, and had caused fewer delays in the traffic than any other arrange­ment. Small details, such as levers and lockings, had been considerably improved, and the system was now as perfect as it could be made.

Mr. W. B. Worthington (Lancashire and York­shire Railway) asked what was the supposed advantage of the low-pressure pneumatic system. It seemed to him that where four or five pipes had to be worked in connection with every pair of points, there must be much complication and diffi­culty in their maintenance. In the New York Central Railway that system was used, and it was clearly proved that pipes for distant signals were very disadvantageous as compared with an elec­trical wire.

Mr. Timmis, in reply, said the system at Crewe was, to his mind, all that was r.equired, and he had to thank not only Sir Douglas Fox for his advice, and Mr. Webb for his assistance, but also Mr. Thompson, the very able signalling superintendent of the London and North-Western R~ilway at Crewe. In conclusion, he pointed out that if t he low-pressure pneumatic system had been used at Crewe, there would have to be considerably over 1200 pipes put down, which would have caused much trouble.

THE SUDAN RAILWAY.

Major C. B. Macauley, R .E. , read a paper on the ''Sudan Government Military Railways." This paper we publish in extenso on page 385.

Sir Benjamin Baker, in opening the discussion, explained that the paper originated really from the committee of the Engineering Section, who thought that, considering the Sudan Railway had been so very much before the public for some years, it was rather remarkable that no authoritative description by any of the engineers employed had been sent down.. The railway was first prospected about 1865, by the la~e Mr. Walker, the contractor of the Manchester Ship Canal, the Severn Tunnel, and many other great works. Then, some years later, Sir J ohn Fowler sent out another expedit ion. Later still the scheme was revived when the Gordon Relief Expedition was sent out; and then Lord Kitchen er and his adviser, Lieutenant Girouard, were consulted ; and the last-named, at least, had made a great reputation by this work.

Sir Guilford Moleswor th said it often happened, in pushing on a rail way like this for military or political purposes, it was quoted, sometimes with impatience, by the public with regard to other railways which did not make so great a progress. He himself had been officially connected with a large number of railways which were pushed for­ward for military or political purposes, notably the desert lines across Baluchistan, that up the Bolan P ass, the Ra wal Pindi line in the Ky ber Pass, the Burmese Railway, and the Uganda line. The Baluchistan and Uganda railways formed a contrast. On the former, 95 miles were completed in about two months, and the last 20 miles were made at the rate of 3! miles per day; while in Uganda it took a year to complete 100 miles, at a maximum of I ! miles per day. In Baluchistan the gradients were about 1 in 2000 on a dry, barren, treeless, houseless plain, rising all t he way, as against gra­dients of 1 in 50 up to 1 in 66 on the permanent line, and 1 in 30 on the temporary diversions in l Tganda. Then, in Baluchistan the desert was absolutely smooth and plain, while the other was mountainous, broken and rolling in parts, with long stretches of fiats. In the former there were prac­tically no curves, while in Uganda the sharpest

347 were 573ft. radius on the permanent, and 400ft. on the temporary line ; there were 46 miles of curves in 200 miles. In Baluchistan the effective hauling power of the locomotives was about eleven times that in Uganda. Then there was no clearing and grubbing. In the Uganda Railway, in the first ~00 miles there was 13i per cent . of open country, 19 wtth open country with scrub and j ungle, 5t with patches of forests, 11 with thin jungle, o-t with dense forests, and 45i per cent. of dense thorny jungle. The work was very heavy in parts in Uganda. As to bridges, there were none on the Haluchistan line, whereas in Uganda there were 43 spAns, from 10 ft. to 60 ft., in 200 miles, excluding culverts and spans of less than 10 ft. , and the large Macupa trestle bridge. In the former native labour was plentiful, while in the latter almost all was imported, under plague restrictions ; it was new to the country and its condit ions, and there was great difficulty in obtaining subordinates. In Baluchistan the transport of India was avallable, but in Uganda there were no transport animals, and a '"ast num ber that were imported died from the tsetse fly. In fact, everything had to be imported there. In Baluchistan water was good and plentiful, and the healt h of the labourers excellent ; but in Uganda there was much sickness and the water had to be distilled. Then, in Baluchistan there were no temporary diversions, while in Uganda 21 miles were required in 200 miles, which involved 98 tem­porary bridges. There, too, many coolies were eaten by man-eating lions, sufficient rolling stock was not obtainable, and some had to be purchased from India. Platelaying was very difficult on account of gradients and curves. I t would be seen, therefore, that a comparison of the progress of the two lines would be absurd.

Sir Douglas Fox said it was very unfair, without a full knowledge of the circumstances surrounding the case, to make invidious comparisons either as to speed or cost. I t was absolutely necessary that this line should be constructed, and therefore special means had to be adopted. It was regrettable that so many different types of locomotive should have been used, which would lead to an ultimate with­drawal of a large number and the relaying of the permanent way, or else there would be serious difficulty and cost of maintenance. Such a system should certainly not be introduced except where military urgency called for it. Under the circum­stances they must praise the way in which the diffi­culties were overcome. With reference to the Atbara Bridge, he could never understand how there could be any difficulty in getting an ordinary drawing of it. One point in the paper which had been read gave him infinite satisfaction, which was that this line must fonn a part, in the future, of the Cape to Cairo railway, on which many British engi­neers were actively at work. The line had arrived 1500 miles from Cape Town towards the north, and whoever it was who had had to settle the question of gauge was to be congratulated on having adopted the 3 ft . 6 in. guage, which no doubt would be extended down to the coast of Egypt , and form, he should think, the standard gauge of that portion of Africa. They, as engineers, ought ever to endeavour, as far as possible, to deprecate break of gauge, and en­courage a uniform system. He felt sure that this Sudan railway must lay the foundation of what must be the gauge in the future in that country. Referring to the R hodesian Railway, he said it now extended nearly 2000 miles, the gauge being 3 ft. 6 in., with 60 lb. rails, and steel sleepers . masonry piers, steel tops to bridges, ballast in all soft ground, complete arrangements for the water supply, passing-places every 15 miles, and a supply of rolling-stock which enabled them to carry on con­siderable traffic in spite of the difficulties of the war. The average cost of the line up to date had been about 4000l. per mile, which, taking into account its length, was not a bad result.

Sir Benjamin Baker agreed that the Sudan line was not to be taken as a model with regard to loco­motives, as the constructors had to take what they could. Other engineer officers in South Africa had also taken what they could, and it would be inte­resting to note their inventive genius in some in­stances, notably, their taking the driving wheels from the locomotives, boring out and repairing them, and using them for their gun-carriages. This he considered to be a highly creditable per­formance. With regard to the Atbara Bridge, he thought that the British makers were caught nap­ping. They could have done it perfectly well, there was no doubt. As an instance of quick work,

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he mentioned a case of a bridge having been blown crossed the canal and of the question of the masts up by the Boers, when he (the speaker) was asked of ships. He did not think the headway of 75ft. by. the Cape Government to get it replaced as had ever stopped a single steamer coming to qu1ckly as possible. He got it done in this Manchester. In a district such as that with which country in the period of three weeks. He moved Professor Timonoff was dealina there was not the a cordial vote of thanks to Major Macauley, the sl~ghtest d~ffi.culty in constructing railway bridges author of the paper, and t he motion was carried w1th openmg spans. Coming t o the question of with acclamation. . the desirability that the seas on the coast of the

AUSTRALIAN RAIL w A.YS.

A paper entitled " Australian Rll.ilways" was read by Professor W. C. Kernot, M.A., M.C.E, M. Inst. C.E. This paper we publish in abstract on page 386. ~t the conclu~ion of the reading, Mr. Hall Blyth

satd a great pomt, which had been fought about over and over again in this and other countries, was the break of gauge. It was settled long ago in this country, and it appeared to be the view of the author of the paper that it would have been better for Australia if some arrangement could have been come to for a uniform gauge out there. The question was not altogether an abstract one now, because it was arising every day here with light rail­ways. There were many advocates for a narrower gauge than the 4 ft. 8i in. No doubt, from an engineering point of view, narrow-gauge lines were more cheaply constructed, but that would be a great deal more than counterbalanced by the difficulty and inconvenience which occurred when goods had to be transferred from the narrow to the broad gauge lines. That certainly was the almost universal opinion of rail way engineers. There were, of course, isolated cases in which it would be impossible to bear the cost of the construction of the broad gauge, but he (the Chairman) was satisfied that in light rail ways it would be far better to adhere to the ordinary gauge, so t hat they could connect at one end or the other with existing lines.

A vote of thanks was then passed to the author, and the Section adjourned.

SECTION II.-WATERWAYS AND MARITIME WORKS. The second sitting of the Section was held on

Wednesday morning, the 4th inst., Sir John W olfe Barry presiding.

PROPOSED WATERWAY BETWE~N THE BALTIC AND - WHITE SEAS.

The first paper read was on ''A Proposed Inland Waterway between the Baltic Sea and the White Sea," by M. M. E. de Timonoff, of St. Petersburg. In this paper, of which our space will only permit us to give a brief abstract, M. M. E. de Timonoff reviewed the hydrography of the North West of Russia, and laid down certain obvious conclu­sions, namely, that a seaport on an inland water­way should be designed so as not to hamper ulti­mate development of the waterway, bridges being a noteworthy consideration ; that inland water­ways should be opened with the utilisation of lakes, to the ad vantage alike of commerce and natural defence ; and that such schemes should be carried out in sections, so as to bring early return upon the capital expenditure. Professor de Timonofi"s main object, however, was to describe and advocate the construction of a waterway from the Baltic to the White Sea, utilising the lakes Ladoga, Onega and Vyg. It is not necessary, however, to describe the details of the project, as, if it were carried our., it is just probable that while the main features would be adopted, the details would be varied.

Baron Quinette de Rochemont thought that M. Tiruonoff's conclusions were right in principle, but that it was difficult to separate t he practical from the theoretical. He saw very great difficulties in cll.rryina out the work, especially having regard to the I ck of population in the district through which the canal ran. The waterway on t he Manchester Ship Canal had only a rise altogether of 70 ft ., whereas M. Timonoff's scheme had a much greater rise and the work would be very expensive.

Mr. W. H. Hunter said with regard to the Manchester Ship Canal, the Runcorn Bridge ex­isted before the canal was built, and consequently it furnished a gauge which limited the head­way and the height of masts of vessels. The limiting headway of t~e Runcorn Bridge above ordinary water level m the canal was some­thing like 82ft. or 83 ft., while the limiting head­way on the canal itself was 75 ft., a figure arrived at after considerable consideration of the diffi?ulties of th~ railwar communic~tions which

same count ry should be connected by deep navig­ab~e wat~rways p~ssing through the country, it was a httle difficult to accept that conclusion generally. Some years ago he was connected with a project for uniting the Forth with t he Clyde by means of a waterway, which would have enabled the largest ironclad of the fleet to pass from coast to coast of the country. Very moderate assistance from the Government would have carried that scheme t~rough. B.ut th? Government of this count ry, t1ed by pubhc feelmg, could do absolutely nothing, and the scheme was abandoned. M. de Rochemont spoke without much sympathy for the project of the Canal de Mer, but a French Commission ap­pointed by the French Govern;11ent were at Man­chester only a week or two previously, going over the Ship Canal, in view of the revival of the project of which M. de Rochemont spoke with such little faith. There could be no question that the scheme fer connecting Lake Ladoga with the sea was a useful one. Some progress had been made, and he hoped it would be pushed through on account of the enormous resources that were to be found in the northern provinces of Europe, that were pract ically unavailable at the present moment. . Mr. W. Brown, of Woolwich, said t.hat if dredg­mg could do the work, Professor Timonoff, who was a great authority in Russia on that point, would carry his scheme through.

Mr. Mavor questioned the commercial practic­ability of the scheme. The ad vantage of a water­way for ocean-going vessels up t he river to Ladoga, and through the river to Onega, was, of course, beyond dispute, but beyond that the country was undoubtedly a poor one. The population was exceedingly sparse in the region through which the canal would pass, and on the northern coasts the population was a merely summer one. It appeared to him that it was to the South-West that increased facilities of water communication should be pro­vided, in the densely populated portion of the country. The question of providing a way for war vessels ·from the Baltic to the White Sea was a strategic one, but to some extent its necessity from a Russian point of view had been reduced by the opening of the new ice-free port on the Mourman coast within the last year or two.

Mr. C. H. Moberly objected to the scheme, which he thought meant the moving of the port of St. Petersburg, or the greater part of it, some hundreds of miles away, to a place where there was practically nothing doing. The great complaint of the commercial world at St. Petersburg now was that there was a block on the L adoga canals. There were two canals, and there ought tu be no difficulty i:n keeping them to the depth required. He thought it would be better to spend the money in clearing and properly working the existing canals, instead of spending n1illions of money to force the com­mercial world to go where t here they did not want to go. With regard to the strategic part of the scheme, whether it would be an advantage to the Government to take their men-of-wart~ the White Sea, or not, he did not pretend to know. Men-of­war wanted to get to the ocean, but the White Sea was not the ocean. Supposing the vessels got there, they would have a port which was only open for five months in the year, which was hardly what they wanted.

Professor Timonoff having briefly responded in French,

The Chairman said that as he happened to be connected with the Suez Canal, he might take the opportunity of saying t!lat the objections which were raised against the Suez Canal from an engineering point of view were based upon defective data, which had been supplied by a survey made several years previously, and which was relied upon as showing._that there were different levels between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean ; but apart from that, the commercial success of the Suez Canal had been entirely based upon the great development of steam ~avigation. It was rat~1er interesting that the subJect of a canal connectmg two seas should be brought forward in Scotland, because one of the earliest works connecting two seas was constructed in Scotl&n<l itself, in the great

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Caledonian Oanal constructed by Telford, which now existed as a monument to that dist inguished engineer, and to the enterprise of our forefathers a hundred years ago. Unfortunately, it had not been a commercial success, or answered its strategic purpose. So far as the commercial results were concerned, he imagined that the northern part of Professor Timonoff's project would not be very encouraging, but the southern part pointed to much more interesting questions from the commer­cial point of \liew. On general principles, and speaking as an engineer, it was, no doubt, very interesting to join seas, but the question of cost and difficulties had to be considered. He was sure the m em hers all wished Professor Timonoff every success in the prosecution of his enterprise.

IMPRO VEl\! ENT OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.

A paper was then read on ''The Improvement of the Lower Mississippi River," by J. A. Ockerson. I t will be found on page 381 of the present issue.

Mr. Whiting, referring to the fact that at the present day dredging on the .M.ississippi was carried out by means of water jets, said it was a fact that when the dredgers were provided with Mr. Bates' cutters, the output was very much greater than was obtained by the water jets.

Mr. W. li. Wheeler asked why more use had not been made of the transporting power of the water instead of removing the material. He paid a great deal of attention to the subject some few years ago, and for the last few years he had had in operation an eroding dredger, with which he had deepened a number of shallows in a river where the material used to cost something like 1s. 6d. a yard for removing, but which was now removed for about l,d. per cubic yard. It seemed to be a very economical way of deepening the river to stir up the material and make the water do its own transport. Then another question was, Why stone was used for the mattresses instead of clay 1 Stone was expensive, and clay was much better for the purpose. In the Fen rivers large mattresses were not used, but fascines about 6 ft. long and 1 ft. in diameter. He had drained a river with a depth of 20 ft. at low water, and a current of 4 miles an hour, without any trouble with the fascines. The fascines should be laced together, and the quantity of earth be more than the weight of the fascines. Some of the work on the Fen rivers had been done for more than three-quarters of a century, and it stood the heavy wash of steamers of several thousand tons, and a very large fleet of fishing trawlers, which were always running into the banks.

Mr. William Brown, of Woolwich, said that with regard to better work being done by cutters than by water jets, his firm had constructed 10 or 12 dredgers a year, and never t wo alike, and he thought it would be agreed it was hardly possible to say that one dredger was better than another. Each dredger was made for the local conditions with which it had to deal. With regard to Mr. Bates' system, the results brought out on the previous day were very good, particularly in dealing with dense clay. It was quite possible for builders in this country to build a dredger for 7500l. to do 8000 tons an hour.

Mr. Vernon Harcourt thought one of the reasons why the cutters were suppressed was on account of the t runks of trees in the Mississippi, and what were called "snags." It was found where bars had been recently formed, chiefly of sand, that the water jets stirred up the material sufficiently well, and gave a better resul t than the cutters, which were liable to be damaged by any obstacles which might happen to be amongst the bars. He could hardly believe that the American engineers would use stone for the mattresses if clay did quite as well, and if it was cheaper.

The Chairman said the mere statement of the immensity of the problem of the Mississippi was in itself most interesting, and it was very interesting to see how the American engineers had adapted local materials to their requirements in the con­st.ruction of the enormous matt.resses.

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Il\IPitOVEUENT OF THE DANUBE.

The third paper was on" Recent Improvements effected in the Navigable Condition of the Sulina Branch and Outlet of the Danube, " by Mr. 0. H. L. Kuhl. This paper we shall print next week.

Ir11 commencing the discussion, Mr. W. H. Hunter said there was one point in the paper which was interesting as showing the extraordinary difference of opinioll which appeareq to obta~n in different

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par_ts of t he ear th. H e referred to the paragraph wh10h stated "For the p rotection of the river works, groynes, and revetments, steamers of m.ore than 800 registered tons are not allowed to navi­gate to a. speed exceeding 8 knots an h our . S~aller st.eamors c!'n go as fast as they please., ~ts experience, wh10h was a lengthy one, pointed In exactly t he opposite dit·eotion. The smaller steamers would run at 8, 10, 12, or 14 miles an hour, and they would pile up a wave that no ocean steamer could possible produce.

The chairman said the paper had a special interest because the works on the Danube took t heir origin from an International Commission, which com­menced its operations at the conclusion of the Crimean War. That International Commission had been of the very greatest benefit to the com­merce of the world, and it was a happy circumstance that the Commission had been able to carry on its

' work uninterruptedly without any · national predi­lections or j ea.lousies, working with one idea, viz., the improvement of the great waterway of t he Danube, the granary of Europe. The International Commission of the Danube was t o t hat extent smne­what differen t to some of the Concerts of E urope that had been heard of in other places, and all one could hope was that the example of the International Commission of the Danube might be followed in other instances where the great European nations were interested. There was in some cases too lit tle of the international view and too much of private in­terests. The paper was of great interest to him per­sonally, because one of his dearest friends had been the engineer to the International Commission ever since its origin. Sir Charles H ar tley's name was well known in all parts of England, and almost in all parts of the ivorld, as one of the dist inguished engineers in his branch. I t was a matter of great congratulat ion that the International Commission was fortunate enough to secure the ser vices of Sir Charles H artley, because it. required no little skill and firmness to msist on the fact that the Sulina mouth was the one to be treated. He knew that great pressure was put upon Sir Charles Hartley in favour of the Kilia Mouth and the St. George's M outh, but Sir Charles stood firm, and he thought it would be realised that the results obtained at a compa.rative1y small cost at Sulina could never have been obtained at either of the other mouths of t he Danube. Many of t he great works so much ad­mired depended almost en t irely upon the develop­ment of dredger plant which had taken place within the last ten or twen ty years. L ooking back twenty years one realised how great that development had been.' For example, dredging in .the open sea was a matter of comparatively modern experience, since but a short t ime ago dredging in the open sea, especially in bad weather, was considered almost impossible. The great work of the Suez Can~l oould never be maintained at its present depth if it were not for the great development of dredging plant . .

RIVER OLYDE AND GLASGOW HARBOUR.

"The River Clyde and Harbour of Glasgow" was the subject of the next paper , by Mr. W. M. Alston. . .

Mr. W. M . Alston, who is Engineer-In-Chtef .to the Clyde Navigation Trust_ees, reviewed the ~~s­tory of the riyer, a!ld desc~1bed the works carrie.d out in connectiOn w1th the r1ver and harbo~r. ~ts paper is valuable alike as a g~ide to the engmeer1ng visitor and a record of splendid work ; but the suc­cessive additions to the facilities of the porb have been illustrated and described in E NGINEERING, and we may here refer to articles in rec~nt vol?m~s. *

Several questions, which are suffiCiently Inclteated in the reply, were asked by m em hers presen t, and t he discussion was opened by Mr. W. H . Hunter, who said it might be imagined that the absonce of lock-gates or entrance-gate.s .wou~d lead to a con­siderable increase of the silt~g 1n the docks, and that the docks would become h t tle better than cess­pools. He should be glad to ~ear what ~he reas<?ns wer a t hat led to the conclusiOn t hat t1dal basms were preferable to locks.

Mr R Gordan Nicol said the work done on the Clyde. might be alm0st termed a canalisati<?D: of the river and it reflected great credit on the c1t1zens of Glasgow t hat they had oeen able to transform a

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very shallow river into such a. magnificent water­way. As in other cases, the peoplo of Glasaow had been rather short-sigh ted in allowing so m

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uch of the ground to pass out of their hands in the vicinity of the harbour, ground that had to be acquired a fterwards at a very great cost. One feature of the paper was the system of two-storey shods, 75 ft. wide, which had beenadoptedatPrince's Dock. In ... berdeen he had adopted the system, following the example of Glasgow, on account of the limit in quay space, and he found that the upper storey was very much more valuable than the ground floor. On the ground floor it was neces­sary to allow a great amount of carting space, but the top floor could be filled up solid. With regard to the quay walls, he thought the method of sink ­ing caissons was an admirable one, and cer tainly allowed going down to a very great depth without the expense of coffer-damming and taking out the foundations. He thought all work should be faced with some hard s tone, as the amount of wear and tear that went on on the face of the quays neces­sitated a very hard surface.

Mr. Vernon H arcourt said t he Clyde had a per­fectly-protected entrance, and that had been a great advantage. Mr. H unter objected t o the open basins, but, of course, it was a great advan­tage to have open basins if there was not too much rise of t ide, as it did away with all the difficulties of locks and gates and machinery. Southampton was another place with open basins, and there were river q uays at Antwerp. With regard to the question of the weir, he wished to know in what way i t was worked. He also desired to know what proportion the actual maintenance of the depth of the river bore to the amount of dredging that was carried out 1

Mr. W . M. Alston, in reply, said the deposit­ing of the dredgings on low-lying land was very ex pensive, and the carrying out to sea was adopted for the purpose of saving expense. The objection to deposit ing in L och Long was considered to be very sen timen tal, and it was held t hat the people themselves did far more harm than the authorities. There was no diminution in the depth of the water, and, notwithstanding most careful soundings, nothing could be found of an objectionable nature. The result of going so far away was the construction of larger barges to contend with the rougher weather, but it was found that the stuff was being carried rather more cheaply, due to the fact that larger barges were used. The space between the monoliths was purposely kept, as shown in the diagram, to permit of a digger gett.ing in betw~en the caissons after they were sunk. and excavating the space, which was ultimately filled up with con­crete. But before that operation took place the piling was driven, and that piling went down to the top of the shoe . The concrete went down as nearly as possible to the bottom of the p ile. Mr. B rown seemed to favour the making of the space larger but the view taken was that the holes should be only such as would be sufficient for the digger to fairly work in, and t hat the more bri?k­work which could be put on the better ~o give weiaht to the caissons. So far the contentiOn had pro~ed correct, because no ~eights were . be~ng used in the sinking of the caissons, the sink~ng being done sim]Jly by a grab worked by a derrick crane · t he water was not taken out, and the grab worked through the water. At first rolled joists were used to carry cross walls, but it seemed to be expensive, and timber was adopt.ed. After . the brickwork had set, there was practically no wetght upon the t imber. The shoe was set up near low­water level and about one-half of the height of the monolith was built in situ. Digging commenced, and was carried on to a certain length, and then the other half was built, and digging -resumed, and the cai:)son was run down to its intended depth. The steel work extended to only 25 ft. in height, every­thing above that being built in brickwork and concrete. With regard to the face of the quay wall, freestone had been used to a very large oxt~nt, and moulded concrete blocks ;, b.ut the latest _Idea was to face the wall with vitrified blue ~r10ks. With regard to t he possible wan~ of fo~esight of the Clyde Trustees, it was exce~dmgly diffic~lt for them in past years to see how thmgs were gomg to turn. When t he new lines were adopted and .dykes built, the land that was reclaimed from the river­from hiah-water mark to the dyke-fell to the

* ee ENGINEERING, vol. xlix.' page 19 ; v_<?l. li., page: landed p~oprietors, and in many ?ases the trustees 106, 439; vol. lv., pages 810, 819, 820 ; v~~· lvu., page 689! J had to buy that land back. W1th regard b-.) the vol. lx., pages 174. 293. 381, 474; ~ol. lxu., pages 469, 620' two-storey shed, possibly they wou~d have been vol. lxiv., pages 330, 756; vol. Ixv1. , page 287. . I

349 made single storey i f there had been width of ground : but the docks were all constructed within city limits, and it could be well understood that the ground was very precious, and every possible effor t required to be made to minimise land and water space. It was thought necessary to provide space for one line of rails between the coping and the shed. The weir wac; not the work of the Clyde Navi­gation, but was being done by the Corporation. Originally the weir was built to preserve the founda­t ions of the lowest town bridge, which it did for many years . Then the water had to be maintained in connection with the water works, and various Acts of Parliament prevented the trustees removing the weir unt il a certain water supply was introduced. The weir from first to last existed for over 100 years. I n 1881 it was removed, with very injurious result; the river banks gave in, and the Corporation and proprietors were at very great expense in pro­tecting the banks, which became extremely offen­sive at low water. It was decided to adopt the same system as at Richmond, and he understood the gates were to be raised at every tide, so that the river could have a free scouring effect. With regard to the tidal docks, the Clyde Trustees were authorised to construct two docks, which were to be docks with gates. T4e work was not constructed for several years, and then the question was raised whether it was necessary to have gates at all. It was felt to be much more important to allow vessels to have liber ty to come and go at any t ime of the tide than to consider the question of im­pounding water. Very large steamers t raded on the Clyde, and there was not much objection raised by them.

Mr. Hunter asked whether the Anchor Line boats or the Clan Line boats, or any of the liners, took the ground 1

Mr. W. M. Alston said that all the liners actually took the ground.

Mr. Hunter said that , with him, if they only touched the ground there would be a very great row.

Mr. W. M. Alston continued, that with regard to the proportion between the new work and main­tenance, last year the proportion was about half and half.

The Chairman said the case of the Clyde always reminded him of the gentleman who said that it was an example of the beneficence of Nature that Providence had made great rivers run by the side of great cities. That was not done by Providence in the case of Glasgow, but by the dogged perse­verance of its inhabitants. A friend of his had told him that he remembered riding across Glasgow on his horse and fording t he river, with perhaps a foot and a half of wat er, at the very spot where now the largest ocean-going ships could be seen passing. The Chairman ' pointed out that the caisson and cylinder foundations had been used by t he inhabi­tants of India for many thousand years. I t was a very interesting question to know to what distance it paid, under modern condit ions, to t ransport t he dredgings to the sea as compared with pumping on the land. It was quite an open question whether the t ime had not now arrived when the dredgings of Glasgow might be pumped on to the foreshores a.s cheaply as they were conveyed 46 miles by sea. Mr. Alston had said that it was impossible to state with certainty if any change had taken place in the high-water level of . Glasgow. .A. pri01·i it . seemed that if t he hydrauhc mean depths of a r1ver was increased, and the tidal wave greatly accelerated, it was almost necessary that the level of high water must be raised in order to destroy the momentum of the tidal wave.

The Section then adjourned unt il the following day.

- --SECTION ill. MECHANICAL ENGINEERING.

The proceedings in this Section were resumed on Wednesday morning, when there was again a large attendance, and the proceedings were most interest­ing, the papers giving rise to very ? seful discu~­sions. Mr. W. H. Ma.w, the Chauma.n of this Section, again presided.

THE uSE OF HIGHLY -SUPERHEATED STE.UI IN ENGINES.

Mr. R . Lenke, of E rith, contributed the first paper on '' Some Experiences and R esults derived from 'the Use of Highly-Superheated Steam in Engines, " which was. read by the ~ecret_ary, Mr. E. Worthington. Th1s paper was printed ~n e:ctenso on page 342 of our last issue.

Mr. Bryan Don~in was the first speaker, anq . '

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S!l.id that he would be glad if the author could the increasing load. Studying Mr. Lenke's paper, give some information as to the quality of lubri- he realised the solution of the problem which had eating oil used in the engines worked with super- troubled some users of superheated steam, because heated steam, as it was a matter of importance with steam pressure of 100 lb. the temperature of with ~eference ~o the ec?nomy, diftic?lt~es .being sat?rated steam would be about 340 deg. Fahr., som~hmes expe~1enced ow1ng to the variatwn In th.e 1 wh~le that of superheated steam was 500 deg., indi­quahty of. the oil. He presumed tha~ the exper1- cati~g a 160 deg. of superheat, which seemed to him ments whiCh were so fully analysed In the paper to gtve t he satisfactory economy without involving ~ere chiefly with Continental e.ngines. The author, any of the trouble indicated in Mr. Lenke's paper. 1n the paper, stated that with saturated steam But he would like to know from the author what engines 20 to 25 per cent. of admitted steam was was the difference in the benefit de1·ived from usina oo~den~ed during the .admission period, and while the 660 deg. to 700 deg. Fahr., which Mr. Lenk~ this nug~t be true I~ some cases, he ~oubted regarded as the temperature giving the fullest wh~ther 1t held. good 1n the case of well-Jacketed advantages, and that adopted at his works, namely, cylinders. While an advocate of the system of 500 deg. This was an important point, in view of superheating, he was not quite satisfied that the the fact that while 700 deg. necessitated special economy indicated by the author would show such conditions, his own experience would show 500 deg. a. high percentage of saving if comparison were involved no trouble, and gave satisfactory economy. m.ade against really well-designed engines working Mr. Mi~hael Longridge, in con1plimenting the w1thout superheated steam. author, said that the subject might give rise to

Mr. C. C. Leach, of Seghill, Northumberland, almost endless discussion, but as time was limited said he would like to have some information as to he would confine himself to one or two points. the economy which might be expected to result Mr. Lenke had restricted himself to a consideration from the use of superheated steam in such engines of one of several uses and advantages of super­as were used at the pithead, where the coll con- heated steam, and that one dealt with in the paper sump~ion was not such an important element owing was perhaps the least important so far as the mill­to the low cost of fuel. There the engine had to owners of the North of England were concerned be designed so that a large power might be utilis- in view of the low cost of fuel. The first use of able for short periods, such power being greatly in superheated steam was to heat or evaporate water, excess of the normal duty, while the speed usually and this was practically the primary object in its was comparatively low. He would be glad if the application by Mr. McPhail, of Wakefield, who author could indicate what degree of economy passed the superheated steam into the boiler, re­might be attained by the use of superheated steam ducing it to the state of slightly superheated steam, in such engines, having in view particularly the and as such passing it on for use in the steam fact that their working was frequently interrupted cylinder. The saving effected in this case was not so and that the load was very varied. much in the engine as in the increase in eYapora-

Mr. Henry L ea, of Birmingham, also desired tive power, an advantage which enabled, for in­information as to the application of the system in stance, electric light stations to put an overload compound engines now working with saturated upon their boiler without increasing the permanent steam, where the valves, stuffing-boxes, and piston steam-generating plant or going to the dangerous rings were constructed in the usual way and of expedient of forcing draught. Incidentally, also, the ordinary materials. He would like to know Mr. McPhail was the first to demonstrate the im­what degree of superheat could with safety be portant fact that steel tubes could be subjected to applied under such circumstances, and if it were great heat, and thereby he greatly advanced the necessary to alter any of the parts so as to conform possibilities of the use of superheaters. The to the conditions laid down in the paper. He felt second aim in applying the superheated system was that if a satisfactory degree of economy could be to dry the steam, and, ~as Mr. Lenke had stated, obtained without the necessity of practically throw- this was realised by obviating cylinder con­ina away existing engines, manufacturers would be densation with multiple expansion. But to quite satisfied to adopt the system. attain this it was not necessary to adopt that

Mr. J . Hartley WICksteed gave some interesting degree of refinement which was indicated in the particulars of the application of the system of paper, and thus in print works, bleach works, and superheated steam to existing circumstances at his iron works, where there were a number of small establishment, which he adopted eighteen months engines situated at considerable distances from the ago "without knowledge and without fear " on the boiler st~tion, 100 deg. of s~perheat "':ould probably recommendation of Messrs. Musgrave, of Bolton. be suffiCient to be beneficial, even In the case of The boiler to which the superheater was applied large and otherwise economical engines. At the was of the Lancashire type, 8 !t. ~in. ~n diameter, same time, he questione~ whether . th~ perc~ntage with a furnace flue 3 ft. 6 1n. In dtameter, the of economy could be as htgh as was mdiCated In the steam pressure being 100 lb. to the square inch. pap.er if the engines other'!ise were of satisfactory The superheater consisted of long ~-sha~e~ ~ub~s design. Steam of n~arly o~O deg .. Fahr. tempera­huna down from a cast-iron box with a dtv1s1on In ture could be used In engtnes wtth the ordinary the ~iddle of the box, so that the steam passed Corliss valves without any trouble; and if there was down the side of each U furthest from the flame<; no difficulty with the valves, there would be none and up the other leg, the hot gases impinging o.n with the pistons. He noted the author's remark the pipes right opposite the furnace flue. Thts that temperatures of 660 deg. to 700 deg. Fahr. boiler was the central source of power for wo~ks were necessary to obtain the f~ll benefit; ~ut when covering three acres of ground ; .one of the P.nn- ~>ne remem~ered the . complicated castmgs for cipal engines was as near as possible to the boiler- Jac~eted cylmders w~1ch would be necessary to house another drivina hydraulic pumps, was also restst unequal expanswn, he thought he would be in clo~e proxim'ity, while a third adjoinin~ ~as used chary ab~ut recomme.nding such a temperatur~, for blowing furnace cupolas. But 1n additwn there more pa~tiCularly as with the low co~t of c~al, as In were a couple of engines 150 ft. distant from the Lan?ash1re, the p~rce~tage of s~vm~ ~u;{ht n~t boiler for driving three lines of shafting, and there j uRttfy the comphcatwns. The prinCipal d~si­were also steam hammers and a small engine for deratu.m in a mill was ~ot so much low coal c?n­driving the smith's fan, with a sand mill engine also s~mptwn, but the certamty o~ cons~ant runn10g at considerable distance, SO that half the steam Wlthout anr stoppag~ ; an~ w.h1le engmeers pla?ed power of the boiler had. to be transmitted 150 .ft. as. he was, In conne?t10n wtth 1n~urance compantes, The engines were of different types : some with nught be charg~d 'Y1th c?nservat1sm, h~ fe~t that. he ordinary slide valves, others with double-beat val~es would ~ot be JUStified 1n su~h cases 1n Involvmg for admission and Corliss valves for exhaust; wh1le expend~ture of other peoples money, as well as the steam hammers had piston valves, and yet ~ot grave risks. . the sliahtest difficulty had been experienced with Professor Rtpper was t.he next speaker, and re­the superheated steam. Indeed, there was no indi- ferred at ~he out~et of hts remarks to the ~alue ?f cation of the use of it, excepting for the records of the experience w1tl~ su.J::erhea~ed steam gtven .In temperature taken periodically at the engio.es. the paper. The mam pomt at 1ssu~ seemed to htm l'h obsen·ati0ns showed that dry steam was supplied to be the de~ree of superheat engn1eers would .be in et he cylinders of the enginEs 150 ft. distant wise in adoptm.g. If he were a m~n~facturer, w1th from the boiler, whereas formerly the steam was good pla.nt already fitted, he certamly would be very c >nsiderably saturated with wate~. Another slow to Intr?du~e such a system a~ ~dvo?ate~ b1 result was that less trouble was exper1enced from the author, 1n v1ew of the many dtffic~lt1es Indt­water _hammering in the cylindera and at the ca.ted ; ~ut these, he felt, were associated only

· · · t The enaines worked more cheerfully w1th a h1gh degree of superheat. In the system r~pe h01f~· sg made m~re revolutions per hour, and adopted by Mr. Wicksteed, he thought that the ac~o~~o~ated itself mos~ satisfactorily to turning immunity from trouble was, perhaps, due to the

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apparatus being upon the same lines as that of Mr. McPhail, where the highly-superheated steam was passed through the water in the boiler before it passed to the engine, and at this remark Mr. 'Vick­steed interjected the remark, " No, it does'nt." Pro­fessor Ripper amplified his remark by saying that instead of passing through the water, the steam was allowed to pass through along lines of pipes, which gave the same result, although the heat radi11ted by steam when traversing the pipes did not evaporate water, as in the McPhail system. Thus, with relatively low superheat the mechanical difficulties did not occur, and he felt that we have enough practical experience with low superheat to justtfy its application with safety, and certainly with con­siderable economy-to the extent of 100 deg. or 150 deg. Fahr. If the phenomenal results indicated in the paper had to be obtained, they were only possible with specially constructed and, perhaps, complicated engines.

Professor Good man asked Mr. Wicksteed if he would indicate the amount of economy obtained with his system. His own experience, he added, was to the effect that for every 50 deg. of super­heat a gain in economy of 10 per cent. might be anticipated ; but this gain considerably decreased proportionately to the temperature when 100 deg. were exceeded, and this he felt was due to the fact that for the first 50 de g. they had the ad vantage of dryness as well as superheat. .

Mr. Hall-Brown, Govan, wished to have some information about the application for marine pur­poses, and the extent of superheating desirable on shipboard, and, moreover, asked for further infor­mation as to the losses on account of temperature variations in the cylinders, as the author mentioned that they were smaller than with saturated steam, because the loss of heat from superheated steam had lower calorific value than the latent heat of saturated steam. Mr. Hall-Brown would like to know from the author how he j ustified th11t state­ment. He also asked Mr. Lenke to inform them as to whether 700 deg. Fahr. was the maximum prac­ticable temperature, and if this was determined by the mechanical difficulties then becoming insuper­able. With regard to the decreased prime cost due to the reduction of boiler po·wer to the extent of 30 per cent., indicated in the paper, he thought that sufficient account had not been taken of the counterbalancing increase in cost due to the more expensive type of engine and the necessary refine­ments introduced. In regard to oil consumption, the author seemed to forget that with some marine engines no lubricating oil was now used within the cylinders, the consequence being a greater purity of boiler feed.

Professor Watkinson, Glasgow, was the next speaker, and said that Mr. Lenke seemed to hav~ omitted any reference to what he regarded as one of the most important advantages of the use of superheated steam-the leakage past valves, &c., with such steam being considerably less than that with saturated steam. As to the use of a higher quality of oil, he mentioned that on one occasion in connection with the lubrication of a Corliss engine, when difficulties arose, a &uperior oil, cost­ing 5s. per gallon, was used for a short period, after which t.he ordinary oil at 2s. 6d. a gallon was found to work most satisfactorily, and has since been continued. In reference to Mr. Lenke's remarks about the absence of great advantage in multiple­cylinder expansion when superheated steam was used, and the possibility of triple-compound engines being consequently discarded, Professor Watkin­son remarked that the author seemed to forget that there were other ~d vantages and economies, in addition to the question of reducing initial con­densation, and for these reasons alone there was no likelihood of the multiple-expansion system being superseded.

Mr. Lenke was then called upon to reply, the time available not permitting further discussion. In reply to Mr. Donkin, he said that the oil used had a high flash-point - about 180 deg., and that lately an oil was obtainable in London which gave a very satisfactory result, and cost only 2s. 6d. per gallon. Mr. Donkin was right in assuming that the experi­ments referred to in the paper were all of Conti­nental origin. There were very few engines using highly-superheated steam running in this country. His observation as to the initial condensation being 20 to 25 per cent. in engines using saturated steam was really an average taken from many trials. l t had been proretf on trial by Professor Schroeter on highly econom1~al triple-expansion engines that

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with superheated steam having a temperature of 480 deg. to 500 deg , the economy was about 16 to 17 per cen t. in ~;team consumption, and from 16 to 16 per cent. in coal consumption, and the.:e results had been confirmed in other trials. It was importan t. further, to note that the measure of economy did not take into account the conde~sation in the pipes, which was, of courl'e, greater with saturated steam; and if that economy were included, the advantage in the case of the super­heated engioe !flight b? as . high as 20 per cent. There was no difficulty m usmg superheated steam of a temperature of 480 deg. Fahr., and the saving in .coal would certain)y ?e from 12 to 14 per cent. \~1t~ reference to w1nd1ng and hauling engines for mmi~g purposes, the system of superheating ~as apphed 1n some cases on the Continent the average temperature bein~ from 450 deg. to 4so deg., and the experience of from 10 to 15 months showed that when the engine was stopped for a few minutes the rise in temperature was not great ; t.he economy in such cases was from 10 to 12 per cent. in coli consumption. In the c1se of one hauling engine, a temperatur~ of 660 deg. Fahr. was now applied, but the engme had not been running long enough to enable any definite conclusion to be arrived at. He did not advocate any excess over 700 deg. Fahr. becauEe the conditions might not be quite satisfac­tory ; above that temperature the tubes begun to anneal, and became permeable, so that the super­heater was of short life and waq not reliab1e. With regard to the question raised by Mr. Longridge. Mr. Lenke remarked t hat he purposely refrained from mentioning constructors or designers, his aim being only to deal wi th the effect on engines of a high degree of superheat. It was quite true, and was indicated in Table I. gi ven in the paper, that the greatest percentage of economy was ob · tained from the first 100 deg. owing to the drying and superheat. With r egard to the temperature desirable for various works, that must be left to the engineer after consideration of local conditions. As to the application in marine engines, a superheater of very large size had quite recen~-1y been fitted to a North German Lloyd 's steam Fr. and this would be put into senrice in the course of a few weeks, when interesting resul ts will doubtless be obtained. As to the question of the reduction of leakage conse­qufnt on superheating the steam, raised by Pro­fessor Watkinson, he was making experiments, but at present was not quite ~ati sfied that there was less leakage at the valves than with saturated steam.

THE REMUNERATION OF LA BOUR.

Three papers dealing with this important subject were next read, with the view t0 their being dis­cussed simultaneously. The first was by Mr. J ames Rowan, of Glasgow, on ''A Premium System of Remunerating Labour, ,, and this we print in full on page 383 of this issue. At the con­clusion of his paper Mr. Rowan pointed out that under the system be h:\d described no man could earn double wages. Presuming that a worker euniog 8d. per h0ur was allowed 100 hours to do a given job (~he co&t for labour to the employer being, under such circumstances, 800d. ), and he did ic in 50 hours, he reduced the time taken 50 per cent., and h is hourly w::.ge became 1s. infltead of 8d., while the cost of labour to the employer became 60 x 12 = 600d. But supposing he did the work in one hour, hi:; wage was increa£cd by 99 per cent., becoming 15 92d. per hour, while the total cost of labour to the employer was 1o.9d. In other premium systems where t he man was allowed 100 hours and reduc~d the time occupied to 1 hour, the wage became 40id. per hour, a state of affairs that any employer would object to, and would be a great temptation to cut down their rate.

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E N G I N E E R I N G. gas, was totally different from that of a mechanical engineer, who experienced keen competition at home as well as abroad. But the fundamental princi­ples he had in view in carrying out the profit­sharing principle at the •outh Metropolitan 'Vorks ought to actuate engineers also- the benefit­ing of the employe as well as the employer ; such schemes must be of mutual advantage, or they soon came to nought. The papers t.hat had been read dealt satisfactorily with the employers' view, and at the same time they tended to increase the interest of the worker in the concern to turn out the work to the greatest advantage; and from this point of view the premium system was admirable ; but he was afraid they fell short in one particular -they did not render the workman any permanen~ good. The real question was, What did the men do with the money 1 They worked harder, and used the tools to greater advantage; but be was afraid that in nine cases out of ten the money was spent to no purpose-a remark which was greeted with many contradictions. Mr. Livesey quoted the view of Mr. George Thomson, a large woollen manufacturer in Huddersfield, in support of his view, to the effect that such schemes did more harm than good, because the thriftless presumed upon them, and sometimes spen t their bonus in advance. His own experience was that such a plan would 11ave been dead long ago in connection with the South Metropolitan Works, whereas the scheme he had carried out had been of lasting ad vantage. I t was based on an adaptation of the sliding scale to the advantage of the worker, who secured a bonus accord­ing to the reduction in the selling price of gas. From the first they sought to encourage the men to lf ave the bonus in the hands of the company, and allowed interest at the rate of 4 per cent., which, however, had ultimately been reduced t o 3 per cent. , the workers at the same time having leave to withdraw their money at a week's notice. About 45 per cent. left their bonus in the company's hand~?, but the greater proportion took it out year by year, and it did them no good. Now, it was compu1sory upon the worker that half the bonus must be left in the hands of the company, and for thifl the workers got shares in the ordinary stock of the company, and the result had been that many left in the whole of their bonus, and at the present time about 3000 of the workers owned 140, OOOl. of the company's stock, about 2000 of the workers having 100,000l. stock. About 90 per cent. of the workers were now saving the whole of their bonus. The result was a permanent gain to the men. From this point of view he thought that the premium system might be improved upon, becaus~, with a boom in trade, he felt that it was only a case of the liquor bill increasing, and that there was no per­manent benefit. In Messrs. Weir and Richmond's paper he noted that there were no representatives of the workers on the "Friction Club., He thought this was a mistake, and instanced the fact that upon the board of directors of the South Met ropolitan Company they had bad for over three year3 two working men directors who had risen to the full dignity of their responsibility and had become in the full est sense of the word re­presentatives of the company, and not, as was feared by many, merely delegates of the workers. In this way the employe appreciated confidence. The workmen's ' ' Suggestion Scheme" mentioned in the same paper was admirable, but he thought the authors had been unfortunate in their reference to the National Cash Register Company, where, not­wi t hstanding such projects, there was now prevail­ing one of the worst strikes of recent times. The company had aimed at doing good, but in the wrong way. Concluding, Mr. Livesey said that the em­ployers were not called upon to be a Providence for their men; what they should aim at was to put them in the way of helping themselves : let them become capitalists in their small way.

Mr. Wigham Richardson asked if the shares of the South Metropolitan Gas Company were sold to the men at par value, and received the reply from 1\ir. Livesey that th~y were transferred at market price. Mr. Richard~on also asked Mr. Rowan how his scheme was regarded by the trades

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The second paper was by Mr. W11lia,m Thomson, Glaf:gow, on ''Some F actors Affecting the Econo­mical Manufacture of ~1arine Engines,,, which is printed in full on page 379 of this issue; while t he third paper was on "Workshop lVIethods; Some· Efficiency Factors in an Engineering Business, , by 1\'Iessrs. 'Villiam Weir and ,J. R. Richmond, Glas­gow. This paper also will be found in extenso on page 376, so that we may proceed at once to report the discussion on the three paper~, which proved of great interest.

!vir. George Livesey, the Chairman of the South 1\-Ietropolita.n Gas Company, and Chairman of Sec­tion VIII. of the Congress, opened the discussion, and rem~rked that his business, the manufacture of

Mr. Arthur Greenwvod said that they had in one section of their works adopted the premium system almost on the lines indicated in Mr. Rowan's paper, with the result that a very much better feeling prevailed between the men and t he fore­man in that particular department. At the same time there was a iarge increase in the amom1t of

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work turned out, "the system having for the first time in his experience encouraged the workmen to bring forward suggestions for increasing the outp.ut , and this, it seemed to him, was one of the most 1m­p01·tant advantages. While he greatly appreciated the scheme carried out so successfully by Mr. Livesey, he questioned whether it could be adopted in all works, because t he workers not infrequently moved from shop to shop, and thus only. a propor­tion remained permanently and could be mterested financially in the establishment. The department in which they adopted the premium system was that for the manufacture of torpedoes, in which 200 men were engaged, and their experience was very satisfactory. They had a very good piecework system in other departments of the works, but he looked forward to the time when they would extend the premium system to other departments.

Mr. W. H. Allen, Bedford, referred to the great improvements which had recently been made in the shops for the comfort of the workers, a develop­ment in which Germany had led the way, and by which they bad been able to remove conditions which were most pronouncedly a reproach upon the capitalist of not remote years. At his works at Bedford they had a scheme for suggestions some­what similar to that described in the paper read by Mr. Richmond, but he found that it required much whipping up to maintain the interest of the ordinary employe; and be thought that the per­centage of men who exercised their brains in such matters was comparatively small. One of the most hopeful signs of the times was the fact that men who had been trained in a uni"ersity were turning more readily to the pursuit of mechanics, and in his place alone there were 15 men froll' Oxford and Cambridge, and the fer tility of their brains was wonderful. They had also in operation a jury system for the adjustment of disputes, and his experience was that not on1y were t he work­men more guarded in presenting a grievance without real basis to such a jury of their fellow­workers than they would be if they bad only their employers to deal with, but the decision of the jury was more readily acquiesced in, and in his case he never failed to accept t he decision . Mr. Alien was doubtful as to the ultimate success of the premium system in all cases, and was anxious to know if it gave the workmen a permanent increase in the amount of their year's earnings.

Mr. A. Saxon, Marchester, said that in his experience of general engineering work he was gratified to find to what extent standardising could be adopted, and he believed that there were few practical obstacles to the adoption of the premium system.

Mr. Hans Renold, Manchester, said that he had early sought to introduce piecework under most favourable conditions so far as repetition work was concerned, as he produced about 2! millions of one piece in a week, but he found that the quest ion of the ultimate passing of the product interfered with the result. He had, about three years ago, adopted the premium system for some half-a-dozen operators, and had since developed it to forty, but he still felt that the scheme did not give t he full benefit that he would like, and he sympathised greatly with the remarks that Mr. Livesey had made. In­deed, he had in contemplation a scheme which was not dissimilar to that described, but he did not feel confident yet in launching it . One important essential in the premium system was to fix a fair standard, so that the mediun1 class of workman would make a satisfactory wage, and a more intelli­gent one something more, and the weaker artisan even a little extra when he did a litt le extra wotk. The standard must not be cut down in any way, because nothing was more discouraging to the workers. What he believed would bring a satisfactory re~;ult was a greater attention on the part of the manager of t he works. He was also certain that the premium system could never enable them to dispense with careful inspection. "The wage of liberty is etern11l watchfulness.,,

1\-Ir. T. Hurry Riches, Cardiff, said that the papers read raised a problem which he regarded with considerable anxiety, because he was not quite clear as to the advantages of the premium system over piece work, a~cl whether it held out the same inducement to get over a larger volume of work. Moreover, it could not relieve them of the necessity for a proper inspection of the work. Again, profit sharing was satisfactory to the men so long as a profit was being earned, but as soon as depression came and rr0fits diminished , they

- 352 wanted to ~now where the profit had gone, and we:~:e not disposed to take less money. H e had been, nevertheless, g reatly interested in the success of Mr. Livesey's scheme, but it should be remem­bered that special conditions prevailed, because the commodity supplied was not only a n ecessity for the great majority of the people, but there was such a~ arrangement for arranging the selling price· according to the cost of production as to enable a fair profit t o be insured at all times, so that some measure of gain must always be credited to the men. He had known many cases where provident and saving arrangements had been made for the men, and was surprised and regretted the small extent to which they were taken advantage of. A more general education of t he work men to be more provident was really what was wanted. He was much struck wi!ih the fact that more work was got wit h the adoption of stronger machines. This he had al ~ays contended for, and had always fitted t ools to g1ve a heavier cut ; but into this question h e was not disposed to enter; he cordially approved the consultative armngement described, and corn­mended the idea of placing con6dence in the work­men .. It seemed to him that the principle of the premium system was somewhat illusory, the price fixed being more or less fictitious, and t here must always be a doubt in the worker's mind as to whether the employer should always get the one­half of t he economy in the time tak en. With a piecework price t here was some finality, and the duty of the employer was to see that the very host appliances were placed at the disposal of the. men, and by this means the cost of production was re­duced.

Mr. Walker, of Wigan, said that at his works he experienced no difficulty in extending t he principle of piecework to general work, and found that the men were so satisfied with i t that there was some j ealousy on the part of those n ot on piecework.

Mr. J ames R owan was then called upon to reply to the discussion. He said that they had received many proposals from the men, having for their object the improvement of the output of the men, knowing that it was to their interest to do so. I t was 3§- years since they had adopted the system described in his paper, and the men now earned from 35 to 45 per cent. increase on their wage. He laid great stress on the fact that the premium rate should not be r educed, and he believed t hat it was because of this fixity that the men so readily suggested improvements. In reply to Mr. Wigham­Richardson, he said they had n o knowledge as to how the trades unionists looked upon the scheme ; but the workmen viewed it with great favour, and any suggestion to revert to the day wage would be a sad blow to them. Iu his opinion the same amount of inspeclion was required whether the men were working on the hourly rate, on the pre1nium system, or at piecework. As to the greater output due to heavier machines, he thought that was a questim1 for Mr. Thomson to deal with; but they were adopting heavier machines with that aim in view. He felt that the criticism of Mr. Li vesey was partly due to his want of knowledge as to t he class of men with w horn t hey were dealing in the Clyde district. Like Mr. Livesey, his aim was to enable the men to help themselves, and he felt that the workmen in q uestion were as able t o benefit by the increase in their earnings as any gentleman in the meeting.

Mr. \Villiam Thomson, in r eplying t o t he ques­tion raised by l\1:r. Riches, pointed to the Table in the paper giving exact information of increased output due to heavier machines and · deeper cuts.

Mr. J . R. Richmond was also called upon to r eply to t he discussion. He said that the more remote they made the workmen 's reward, t he less ad vantage would accrue. When a man received his premium bonus periodically, he felt he was getting something tangible for his increased effort ; and as to the spending of this money rat ionally, he might mention t he fact that while the bonus was generally paid every four weeks, t he men desired t hat t he payment should be deferred, so t hat they would have an eight-week bonus to lift before the holiday seasons- at midsummer and at Christmas. Mor eover, the number of cycles used by the men in travelling to and from their work suggested that the cycle trade must have benefited considerably from the bonus system. Mr. Alien had pointed to a possibility of relaxed interest, and in reply to that he would only say that it was absolutely necessary t hat the principals in the business should give their attention to all such schemes. Unless that was

E N G I N E E R I N G. done, any scheme would flag, and the men become listlet:~s . Their experience was that the men who 1uade suggestions turned up 1nonth after month, displaying brain power and ingenuity, and thus the scheme was an indirect means of enabling them to choose workers for promotion.

T HE M ETRI C SYSTE~1.

Mr. Arthur Greenwood read the next paper, which was a very c0mprehensive view of the ad­vantages which accrue from the application of the metric system to workshops, but as the time for adjournmen t had arrived, and the members were anxious to p roceed on one or other of the impor tant visits arranged to differen t works, it was agreed that the discussion should be deferred until t he meeliing on t he following day.

SECTION IV. NAVAL ARCHITECTURE AND MARINE ENGINEERING.

On the second day of the Conference, W ednes­day, September 4, the members of this Section ags.in assembled in the Humanity Theatre of the University, the President of the Institution of Naval Architects, the Right Honourable Earl of Glasgow, again occupying the chair.

SHIPYARD EQUIPMENT.

The first business taken was the r eading and dis­cussion of two papers. The first by Professor J. H. Biles, on "~hipyard Equipment," and the second by Mr. Robert Robertson, on "Electrical Power Supply in Shipbuilding Yards and Marine Engine Work~." These t wo papers were read con­secutively, a joint discussion being taken on t hem. We print Mr. R obertson 's paper on page 384.

Professor Biles pointed out in his paper the necessity for constant improvement in labour- saving tools, and discussed t he division of the work of a shipyard into iron and wood work sections, after which further consideration was given to some iron-working tools. The structure of a ship, and the method of shaping the different parts, was described. Descriptions, accompanied by illustra­tions thrown by the lantern on the screen, were given of each of the following machines and tools : Punching, shearing, countersinking, and planing machines ; plate-bending rolls and straightening rolls ; plate-edge planing, beam bending, joggling, and bevelling machines ; hydraulic punching, shear­ing, flanging, and riveting machines ; pneumatic tools for riveting and boring, and a few electric­driven tools. The general subject of cost of pro­duction, and t he relation between design of structure and shipyard plant, was n ext treated of. The general arrangement of plant in a shipyard was described, tog~ther with the principal considera­t ions determining the relative positions of, numbers, and power of differen t machines, and the general transportation plant of a shipyard.

Mr. H. M . Napier was the first speaker. He said that Professor Biles deserved great credit for pre­senting so simple a paper, more especially when it was remembered how he r evelled in mathematical formula. Referring to the machinery for dealing with plates described in the paper, the speaker said that shipbuilders would remember how, in early day~, only small plates were used. The machine­tool maker then came into the field, and produced machines of larger size and greater power, capable of dealing with heavier plates. The steel maker, who might have t hought himself wise in his gene­ration, charged higher prices for these larger plates, and the consequence was that their use for a t ime was checked. This condition of affairs righted itself ult imately, so that ship plates have gone on increasing until they have arrived at their presen t di1nensions. Referring to Mr. Robertson's paper, he said that there could be no doubt but t hat the electrical t rannmission of power had a great future before i t . His own firm had started, two years ago, with an installation of 60 horse-power, which was thought to be ample at t he time. They speedily found it altoget her too small. He agreed with the author that small electric motors did not give efficient results. In one machine he had seen the power required go up 100 amperes at a single squeeze of t he press. They had t ried machines first of five horse-power, then of ten, and had now increased that to 15 horse-power with advantage. What was needed was an ample margin. In con­clusion he would say that in aH new plants the shipbuilder should look on electricity as his best friend.

Mr. de Rusett s1id tlu.t in the yard of his firm,

[ SEPT. 13, 1901. •

Messrs . Swan and Hunter, of Wallsend, they used all t hree systems of power transmission-electric, pneumatic, and hydraulic. They had not found pneumatic riveting less costly, but it was un­doubtedly useful, especially in confined spaces, such as intercostals. For pneumatic riveting, how­ever, the work had to be closely screwed together, a<J the air-driven machines were not like hydraulic riveters, which held t he plates closely t ogether as the operation proceeded. In chipping, caulking, and drilling there was considerable economy in the use of the pneumatic system. The speaker referred to the cantilever crane which had been erected for ship construction at the Wallsend W orks of his firm, and to the overhead cranes in the sheds over the shipbuilding slips ; the very great advan­tage of dropping materials down from the top could hardly be exaggerated. It enabled the work to be carried on continuously in any part, for gaps could be filled up afterwards. Mr. ·Hunter had been the first to establish at Wallsend this system of over­head cranes, but the Americans had since taken the matter up, and had considerably enlarged on what had been done, introducing machinery of increased dimensions. When the cranes were first installed, they had had, as a matter of course, some tr.ouble with the workmen. That was no more than was expected: The men wanted all the advantages accruing from the outlay of capital necessary for the installation for the new appliances. The firm therefore discontinued the use of the plant, return­ing to the old methods, and in a short time the men were glad to modify their terms, and allow the owners some share of the profit due to the advances made. In the building of the I vernia 50 ft. of the ship had to be outside the shed, and i t was a striking object lesson of the great difference between the old and the new methods. His firm owned their own electric supply s tation, but Mr. de Rusett considered that t he country wanted an extension of t he electric supply companies with large central stations scattered t hroughout the centres of industl'y, so that power might be pro­duced in bulk. Pcobably it would be advisable for the works of these corn panies to be placed near the coal supply. I n conclusion, he would say that, as a general principle, whatever can be done by a machine should not be given to a man to perform. The man should do the thinking, and the machine the labour. If that principle were ca rried to t he fullest exten t economica1ly possible, the mini­mum cost of production would be reached.

Professor Biles said, in reply to t he discussion, that t here was nothing more for him to do than to thank the speakers for their friendly remarks.

Mr. Robertson, in reply, desired only to say how pleased he was to hear Mr. De Rusett inform t he meeting that the covered shed system was intro­duced by Mr. Hunter, on the Tyne. I ts use was spreading, especially in Continental shipyards. One disadvantage of the system was that with increased size of ships the sheds were apt to become t o::> small.

F LOATING DocKS. The next paper taken was by Mr. T. Gibson

Bowles, M .P ., and was enti tled "A Memorandum on Floating D ocks," of which we subjoin an abstract.

Mr. Bowles in his paper pointed out that the floating dock had developed greatly and rapidly. It had passed through the same phases as ships ; growing from wood to iron, and from iron to steel ; increasing in size, altering in form, and having been as much improved in design and details as ships themselves. The older types, such as t he old Bermuda Dock, shaped like a capital U, with double sides and bottom, were even more obsolete than a battleship of that date (1868) would now be; nor could that dock be t hought of to- day as an adequate provision for to-day's warships. The original floating docks \"\' ere long iron vessels, with gates at each end; the whole floated on the water. '£he ship entered t he dock at one end; the gate was swung to behind her ; she was shored up in­side, and the water inside the dock pumped away from around her. This was a dock differing from the graving dock only in that it floated on t he water instead of being hollowed out of the ground. Then came t he lifting dock with open ends, which first sank in the water, was then pumped out, and raised the ship as it rose. Its typical form to-day is that of the large and powerful new Bermuda Dock, which is the type probably best adapted for general use.

There are also the L-shaped docks, which are of

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thre.e kinds : 1. ff shore docks connected by booms to pt.les n.qhore. 2. D epositing docks with a floating outrtgg~r. 3. Off-shore docks wit h a fioatina out­rigger. The two latter are ent irely fioatina

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wholly free from all connection with the sho;~. T he British Governmen t has recently ordered

a ~ew and larger floating dock, costing 195, OOOl. , dehvered on the Tyne, or 230,000l. in all de­livered at B ermuda. F or it is to be tow~d to B e:muda to. take the pl.ace of the one already there. Thts dock IS self-dookmg, and is 545 ft . over keel blocks, ent rance 100 ft. , capable of taking vessels drawing 33ft ., with a lift ing power of 15,500 tons. We also find that the United States Governmen t has r ecently ordered one 525 f t . over blocks entrance 100ft ., with l ifting power up to 18,000 tons, for New OrleanEZ, where these docks have been t ried since 1866.

'rhe qualities of importance to be considered in a comparison of docks were said to be seven in number : 1. Advantages and disadvantages of the general mechanical principle employed. 2. Cost io which is included original cost, cost of up-keep: and cost of working. 3. Time required for the con­struction of the dock. 4. Mobility of the dock. 5. Adaptability of the dock for its work under all condit ions. 6. Certainty in construction of the dock, both as to time and cost. 7. L ength of t ime r equired to ber th and safely dock an ordinary vessel under ordinary circumstances. E ach of the abovo qualit ies was discussed in detail by the author.

Discussion on this paper was opened by Mr.

E N G I N E E R I N G. Ilis own firm at the presen t time had in hand de· signs for floating docks having 100,000 tons l if ting capacity.

Admiral Sir Gerald Noel remarked that there waq little doubt but that tho author had said all there was to say on floating docks. U ndoubtedly the Admiralty preferred graving docks to floating docks ; that was their decision . But that did not mean that floating docks had not a sphere of ut ility in positions where graving docks were not possible. H e was at the Admiralty at the t ime that the n ew dock for Bermuda was projected. 'J.1hey tried everything possible to get a g raving dock . They made borings everywhere, b ut could fi nd no suit­able place, and so had to fall back on the floating dock . In regard to the old Bermuda floating dock, he did not know that it had been quite so badly treated as the author had stated ; but he did know that they had had a great deal of t rouble in clean­ing it . He had made a suggestion at the time in regard to this mat ter, which had come out of the experience he had gained when in command of a vessel that was zinc sheathed . That ship had been l'ammed, not badly, but sufficien t to make it neces­sary for it to go into dock. When they had stripped off the zinc sheathing they found the steel plating of the vessel in an admirable state of preser\'a tion. H e thought, therefore, that it might be worth while zinc sheathing a floating dock. No doubt the sheathing would have to be renewed, perhaps every fif teen years, but the dock itself would be kept in a perfect state of preservation. The gallant Ad­miral did not think the suggestion of Mr. Bowles - that a dock would go out and b ring in derelict vessels- was practicable ; for such a service a float­ing dock of special stability would be needed. For his own part he would much sooner get his wounded ship into a graving dock . In r egard to the details that had been given of the experience of float ing docks at H amburg, there was no doubt it pointed to the enormous utili ty of these structures for the purposes for which they were used at that p or t. The author had made some comparisons as to the expense of the two forms respectively. He thought , ho wever, it would have been fairer had Mr. Bowles taken some other place than Gibraltar as a basis of comparison, for there the cutting was exceptionally expensive, owing to the nat ure of the rock. If H ong K ong had been selected, the figures would have come out differently, as the soil was more favourable to excavation.

Mr. E . Tennyson d 'Eyncourt said there was one detail in favour of the floaGing dock to which reference had not been made, although it migh t not., perhaps, be of great impo~·tance. In t he graving dock the smaller the shiR the more pumping had to be done in order to empty the dock. On the other hand, with the floating dock less p ump­ing was required to raise a small ship than a larger one. I t had been p ointed out that during t he life of a dock the length to which ships were buil t might increase. If ships ou t-grew docks, it would be easier to lengthen the floating structure than the graving dock. Speaking as a shipbuilder, he would naturally advocate the floating clock, as it was a naval architect's and mechanical engineer 's con­struction, whereas the graving dock was more the business of t he excavator and the mason.

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SECTION V. IRON AND STEEL. During the second day of the meeting of this

Section t he chair was again occupied by the P re­sident , Mr . W. Whitwell, and the proceedings were opened by Mr. C. H . Ridsdale, who read in abstract and commented on his paper on

THE CORRECT T REATMENT OF S TEEL.

In this paper the author describes what is known, and form ulates cer tain views, asking for informa­tion and discussing the control exercised by the maker and user , thoir responsibilities, tests, and processes. As we shall publish this paper in extenso in an early issue, and as it was a communication to which it would be impossible to do j ustice in a brief abstract , we may merely r emark here that the author exhibited a large number of samples of steel to illustrate the points that he endeavoured to prove.

Mr. J. E . Stead opened the discussion by r e­marking t hat the author's obser vations on the brittleness i nduced by a blue ho1t were of g reat importance, and the restoration 0f good qualities by reheating were worthy of note. The size of the crystal grain appeared to have n o in fiuence on the t ensile strength ; but large grain induced great weakness under shock, owing to the clea"age planes, which were lines of weakness. If blisters were produced by the liquid p enetrating the metal, it was not very clear why the gas did not escape by the same passage ; but the author 's explanations were ingenious, and based on practice, and throughout his work was of a very valuable character.

Mr. .A. Me Willia.m thought that the chemical composit ion was thrust too much into the back­ground. In reality the composition was merely the foundation for all kinds of treatmen t, and pro­bably the author was inclined to regard the mat ter t oo much from the standpoint of the manufacturer.

Mr. T. Vaughan Hughes advocated a more ex­tensive use of the pyrometer. Men with fifteen y~ars' training might be able to tell te mperatures by the colour ; but, after a holiday, even t heir judg­men t was at fault. I t was doubtful whether makers should continue to rely on chemical analysis or on the micrographical investigation. Both were still sub judice, and there was likely to be more delay while Mr. Stead's proposed committee was investi­gating chemical analysis.

Mr. Ridsdale, in reply, stated that r eheating in itself was not always sufficient to reproduce such good qualilies as were desirable. To remove ex­cessive brittlen ess, for example, some working would be requisite. Chemical composition was a proper foundation if the treatment were n ormal, but sl ight variations in t reatment cause great d if­ferences in r esult. The errors in several pyro­meters working side by side were enough to disgust t he workm'in and the manufacturer, so that on the whole he preferred colour as a temperature indi­cator . After all, the composit ion mattered but little, if the correct results were obtained .

The President thought that the information con­tained in the paper would have been of great value to him when he was engaged in manufacturing bars, as so many had t'J be r ejected on account of V!irious defects. H e then called upon Mr. J. E . Stc 1.d to give an abstract of the papers cont ributed by him alone and in conjunction with Mr. F. H. Wig ham.

CoPPER, Ino~, A"ND STEEL.

As we intend to publish Mr. Stead 's paper on " I ron and Copper Alloys" in full at an early date, we need only say that it contains a '\"ery sat is fn.~tory explanation of the very varying statements pre­viously made as to the possibility of alloying iron and copper. The pure metals will alloy in any pro­p or tions, but the presence of carbon restricts the power of combination and causes the molten mass to separate into layers of iron and copper, contain­ing cer tain propor tions of each other. Copper does not seem to have a pernicious effect on cast-iron. Its behaviour in the case of steel has previously been shown to b e good by the author. ,

Clark, who said that in the main he could con firm the statements made by the author in the paper . He (the speaker) was much surprised to hear, a shor t time ago, t he official mouthpiece of the Ad­miralty say, in his place in the House of Commons, that no engineer would use a floating dock in any posit ion where he CO'lld place a g raving dock. Mr. Clark thought that no engineer would be inclined to make so s weeping a statement. The graving docks of this country had their origin in t idal creeks : when the under-water parts of a. vessel had t o be examined in old days, t he ship was drawn up a creek, and the water was dammed off after it had ebbed away. On t he Con tinent, where there was little or no tide in places, vessels were pulled out of water, and that led to slipways being int roduced. In H amburg the river was slightly t idal, and there, in 1848, a wooden floating dock was established. In the year 1859 another was added. Since then the number of floating docks had increased enormouely, and their individual capacity had gone up also in a surprising manner. In the meantime only t wo small graving docks had been constructed. At the yard of Messrs. Blohm and Voss at H amburg they were n ow building a float ing dock of 17,000 tons capa­city, and the plans were being prepared for another floating dock of 500 tons more. That the floating dock was cheaper than the graving dock in first cost was a matter beyond question. There came, however, t he problem of upkeep. The advocates of the graving docks said they would last for ever . E ven if that were true, it was a quest ion whether such structures might n ot be made to last too long. F or instance, a dock that would take a first-class lino of· bat tle ship of the end of the last century, such as the Victory, would not now accommodate a destroyer. Under these circumstances, was it n ot better to build something that was cheap, but effective, and would last its t ime 1 I t had been proved that floating docks would work for fifty years, and even then would be worth something to break up. In regard to upkeep, it had been found that the cost averaged between ! p er cen t . and 1.5 p~r cent . per annu~, the latter being the hi&host figure known. Thts was b1sed on t he earn!ngs, with the lifting power as a means of comparison. In r egud to working, there was n o differen ce of any importance between the two types ; the labour and attendance in a graving dock being as nearly as poseible the same thing as in a floating dock. Generally speaking, he wished to bear out what the author had said in his paper. That, perhaps, was natural, as the remarks of Mr. Bowles had been all favourable to the floating dock. H e would thank him, however, for g iving the facts wider publicity by bringing them before the Con­gress. In con clusion, he would point out tha:t the floating dock was the work of the naval ar~lutect, whilst graving docks came within the prov1nc? of t he civil engineer. I t was a notable fact that s1.nce his late uncle had r ead a paper before the Institu­t ion of Civil Engineers, many years ago, n othing had appeared before the Institution on this subject .

Mr. Napier said that undoubtedly from the point of view just enunciated by the last speaker floating docks were preferable to graving docks, but there were other considerat ions. F or instance, in lengthen­ing a ship weights could be moved on the solid bottom of a g raving dock without thinking about t he laws of stability. Those who had had tu shift the posi­tion of such a thing as a heavy stern frame on a floating dock knew that some care was r equired. Another consider:\tion of a commercial nature arose. A floating dock, if lying off afloat, must be insured, but there was no need to g0 to this expense on behalf of the graving dock. Both systems had, however, their positions and uses. Sometime ago the Clyde Trustees had p ut down a graving dock; he concluded they had adopted the t·ight course, as he had heard no adverse crit icisms on their decision. About the same time the Bristol authorities had erected a fl oating dock, and this also might be ta,ken as a wise course under the circumstances. H e had, however, great sympathy with tho Ad­miralty in their desire to secure a solid foundation for the heavy ironclads as soon as they cease to be water-borne.

After a vote of thanks had been proposed to the author of t he paper by L ord Gla~gow, the Section adjourned until the next day.

According to the second paper by Mr. Stead and Mr. F. H. Wjgham, it has been r epeatedly shown that copper in small quan tities does not materially affect the mechanical properties of steel rails and plates, but it was not cer tain whether it would affect wire made by cold wire-drawing. Pieces of steel rails previously tested by Messrs . S tead and Evans, and also two crucible steels were therefore

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354 E N G I N E E R I N G. [SEPT. I j , I 90 r.

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fully tested. The samples were made by dividing the fluid steel into two halves, and adding copper to one, EO that the ingots were identical in compo­sition, except for the copper, which ranged from 0.46 up to 2 per cent. Each sample was reduced to wire rod and drawn down in the usual way, with frequent annealings, to wire about 0.0! in. in dia­meter. At each operation the wire was tested for the number of twists in 8 in., and of bends to 180 deg. over a radius of a centimetre. The break­ing strain and elongation in tensile tests were also determined. In practically all the cases the strength deteriorated in the copper steels, as compared with the ordinary steels, as the drawing progressed. This was especially noticeable in the high carbon crucible steel samples, and part icularly in the bend­ing tests, which are very poor . After five draughts, the breaking stress was 98.1 and 114.4 tons per square inch for the cupreous and non-cupreous steel respectively. Possibly copper under 0.46 per cent. might have but little effect. on mild steel wire, but this point remains to be determined.

Mr. Stead also referred to some of the matters which bad arisen out of the discussion on the papers on copper and iron, which had been read at previous meetings, and he showed a small testing machine on Brinell's principle. A small sapphire ball, 0.6 millimetre in diameter, and loaded with 1 kilogramme, was pressed on to the sample, and the diamete.r of the indentation pro­duced was measured under a magnificat ion of 250 diameters. This measurement indicated the hardneRs.

In opening the discussion, Mr. S. Lloyd, of Birmingham, mentioned the condemnation of a large consignment of pig i~on made from cupri­ferous ores. This was explamed by Mr. T. Turner as probably being due to the sulphur, and not to the copper, derived from the mundio in the ore.

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The hardness and brittleness of the iron copper alloys were comparable with those observed in the copper-tin alloys. But in determining the hard­ness, it was always doubtful what they were measuring. Indentation methods showed duct ility and tenacity combined, and that was not the abrasion hardness of the mineralogist.. The inden ­tation test fairly followed the tensile strength,. and might be substituted. Mr. T. V. Hughes thought that scratching tests were not so useful as the indentation method to the metallurgist.

Mr. A. Wahlberg thought that the Brinell'd machine was better suited to works use, and Stead's small machine was well adapted for scien­tific investigations. At one Swedish works every charge was tested in a Brinell machine, and that was the easiest way, because the expensive prepa­ration of test pieces was avoided. The tensile and pressure methods did not follow quite uninterrup­tedly, as there was a break at the hardness point represented by 0.55 per cent. of carbon.

Mr. A. J. Atkinson questioned whether surface tension had any effect, and Mr. A. Me William noted that cutlery made with cupriferous steel kept its edge well.

In reply, Mr. Ste1d pointed out that copper was not oxidised before iron, and the effect of long heat­ing o1· burning was due to the oxidation of iron, and not of copper. His small machine was designed

to obtain individuil tests from a large number of points on a small sample, and not, like Brinell's machine, to get the average hardness of the metal. The eff~ct of copper in tool steel had not yet been determined, but an old French tool steel containing 0.25 of copper gave good r esults, though it was very liable to be brittle.

CALOlUM IN F ERRO-SILIOON. •

Mr. C. Watson Gray, in the next paper r c:ad, gave full analyses of six samples of high-grade ferro-silicon containing cabium. One of them showed n o less than 14.40 per cent. of calcium with 68.65 of silicon, and only 9. 91 of iron. Two others contained about 7 p er cent. of calcium. F erro-silicon might easily be produced free from that element in the electric furnace, but very possibly the calcium might be beneficial in steel manufacture, aud in t hat case of course, no precautions would need be tak en . S~me notfs on the analyses of these materials were ap­pended, but they are practically a repetition of those r ecently published in the J otwnal of the Societ·v of Ohem.1'cal I nd1tst?'IJ · In reply to Mr. Hughes, the author stated that all materials were tested for purity.

B L AST-F URNACE GA . Mr. B. H. Thwaite then r ead an abs~ract of hie

paper on the profi table utilisation of p ower from

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SEPT. r J, rgo1.]

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E N G I N E E RI N G. 355

SHEDS FOR THE EASTERN RAILWAY OF FRANCE.

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blast-furnace gas. Mainly he dealt with th e ad­vantages of using blast-furnace gas to drive gas engines at the electric generating station, and pointed ou t some of the industries to which this cheap electric power may be applied. All th e gas from t hese furnaces should b e used in this way, the b last.furnace being regarded as the equivalent of a waterfall, and all the p ower for running the blast-furnaces and the gas for heating the hot blast stoves must be derived from other sources.

The discussion turned m ainly on the problem of removing the dust fron1 the gas. Mr. E. Theissen mentioned that his apparatus for washing gas waC) being adopted by Messrs. B olckow, Vaughan, and Co., and this statement was confirmed by .Mr. Richards, who stated that it was to be used for cleaning the very dusty gas from a spiegel furnace.

Mr. A. Greiner gave details of a number of plants using t his machine. In one case a 2-metre fan, driven at 700 revolutions by a 120 horse-power engine, passed 70,000 cubic metres of gas per hour, and used 140 cubic metres of washing water. The gas was cooled from 200 deg. or 300 deg. down to 20 deg. or 30 deg., and the dust was reduced from 2i down to 0. 2 or 0. 25 grammes p er cubic metre. The nature of the dust r cquu:ei investigation to deter­mine the method of th e treatment to be adopted.

Mr. Th waite, in r eply to a request from th e Pre­siden t for practical details , stated that all methods which did not utilise t he sensible heat of the gases were wrong. His arrangement was pract ically a tubular heat economiser, provided with scrapers to deal with the dust.

The President then announced that there were three other papers, but th ey would have to take them as read .

SPECTROSCOPY.

The first of these papers was by Professor W. N. Hartley, F.R.S ., and Mr. Hugh Ramage. I t was entitled "On the Spectra of Flames at D ifferent Periods during the Basic B essemer Blow."

In t his paper the authors give an a:!count of their investigations on the spectra of the basic process to supplement t he accounts given of similar phenomena connected with t he acid converter flame. The main difference between t he acid and basic process is the elimination of p hosphorus in the basic vessel, and though the spectroscope sh ows when ot.her ele­ments are eliminated, it unfortunately gives n o clue to the behaviour of the most impor tant . The authors limit their statement by the words '' up to the presen t , '' but they do not otherwise offer any hope that further r esearch will give i nforma­t ion as to the behaviour of t he phosphorus. The general behaviour of the flame and the spectra ob­served differ considerably in the two processes. The b asic flame gives a continuous spectrum with a very much larger number of lines than in the acid process. This is due, in parb, to the multitude of elements int roduced in t races by the lime additions, but they are chiefly caused by the elements which have n ot been recognised hitherto in Bessemer ores. The manganese bands and lines are less pro­minent, but the potassium lines are more intense ; and, in fact, a new potassium line with variable intensi ty wa.s discovered. The continuous nature of th e spectrum from the brilliant yello·N flame of the overblow indicate3 th~t the temperature is com­p aratively low, and that t he light emanates from a torrent of very minute puticles at a yellowish white heat.

HARDNESS AND OTHJ~R PROPERTI ES OF I RON .AND STEEL.

E N G I N E E R I N G.

Suffice it to say that the value of annealing is strongly indicated for all wrought work. Even annealing from 350 deg. Cent. produces a 1narked improvement in the elasticity and tenacity without affecting t he absolute str ength, and higher tempe­ratures are still more b eneficial.

The next series of tests were made with th e same materials under impact at temperatures of + 30 deg. Cen t ., and also at - 24 deg. t o - 28 deg. Cent., with notched and with plain bars . The impact tests were made with a t up falling on to one end of the bar, which was firmly h eld at the other end instead of r esting on two supports, as is more usual in t his count ry and in America. The average work endured by all the specimens b efore f,racture at + 30 d eg. Cent. was 145 metre - kilogrammes (1048 foot-pounds), as compared with 95 metre­kilogrammes (687 foot-pounds) at the lower tem­perature, the bars being 30 millimetres ( 1.18 in.) square . As with the ten~lion tests, the effects of treatment and composition are also fully dealt with.

STRAINS AND FRA.CFURE I N I RON .AND STEEL.

In the third paper, by Mr. Arthur Wingham, on "Internal Strains in Iron, and their B earing upon Fracture," the author contends t hat there is always existent a poten t ial disruptive force in metal, due to the relation between the crystal grains and the eutectic, and that t his is aided or retarded in its effect by all external causes. Repeated or vibratory strains are especially potent in disturbing the connection between the two con­stituents, starting microscopic flaws or intercrystal­line disintegration, thereby leading to fracture. Annealing is held to produce its effect by breaking up the crystal grains and by allowing t he eutectic to attack and amalgamate with the crys tal faces.

The Iron and S teel Institute did not sit for the r eading of papers on the third day of the Congress, that and the subsequent days of the meeting being devoted to visits to works, and excuraions.

SECTION VI. - MINING. The Institution of Mining Engineers r esumed

their si ttings on Wednesday, in the Greek L ecture Theatre of the U niversity, Mr. James S . Dixon presiding.

lMPERli'ECT P u LVERISATION OF R ocK BY MEANS OF S TAMPING.

M1·. E. D. Chester submitted a paper on "The Imperfect Pulveris~tion of Rock by means of Stamping, and Suggestions for its Improvement." The following is an abstract of t he paper :

The second paper was by Mr. Axel Wahlberg, and was entitled "On Brinell's Method of Determining Hardness and Other Properties of Iron and Steel."

The 40 paaes of this paper form the continuation of the 55 pages contributed at the last meet ing by Mr. A. Wahlberg, and contain a full account ?f the tensile and impact tests to supplement the Infor­mation g-\ined by Brinell's special method of measuring t he inden tation produced by a ball under heavy pressur~. The ten~ile tests were m~de to determine th e mfluence of d1fferent modes of anneal­ina and hardening, and were performed with 13 different descriptions of sbeel, each subjected to 31 d ifferent modes of tre:l.tm ent. All the resul ts are presented in tabular and g raphic form under many arrangements, so as to bring out each ~ar­ticular feature, and even the effect of chem1eal composition is not n eglected. The author 's com­ments occupy several pages and cannot very well be shortened so reference to t he original paper must be mai~ if th~ general deductions are d esired.

Tho author said that in dry crushing it is essentml, as soon as the rock enters the rolls and bee;omes crushed, that it should be sprE>ad out, so that the rolls can come into con­tact with the whole of the material, and still further reduce it. This result has been secured to a great extent hy the Wegerif roll, in which the rolls are so mounted, the one partially above the other, that their axes cro~s each other, or lie in parallel horizontal planes, b?t m different vertical phtnes, so that the planes of rotat10n of the rolls are oblique to each other; and, consequently, the particles passing betwee!l the. grind.ing-faces of ~he rolls are subjected to a tearmg, d1srupt1ve, or spreu.dmg action (in addition to ordinary simple crushing or grinding), whe.reby t~e grinding action is ren~ered more efficient. Th1s obhqmty of the. roll-axes mvo!ve~ a concave hyperboloidal configurat10n of the grmdmg or crushing faces of the rolls, in order that a con­tinuous line of contact or bite may be obtained. As, however the direction in which the material enters between' the rolls more or less approach~s t?e ho~·izon.tal, but should be wholly in a downwardly mclined d1rect10n, it is essential iu order to insure an even distribution of the material' alono- the line of bite, that this line of contact should itself be as nearly horizontal as poss~ble, so that the material fed into tho rolls will not gravitate towards one end of the line of bite. Were the rolls made in the form of a complete hyperboloid, either one or both of their axes would necessarily be placed out ~f the horizontal, and the efficiency of the rolls wpuld m .any ca.se be seriously impaired. rrhe paper included drawmgs of such a mill, and a detailed description.

Mr. T. A. L ongden s tated that those gentlemen who cared to proceed to R enfrew in the afternoon would see the plant in operation at t he works of M fssrs. Edwa.rd Chester and Co., Limited. They would be better able to understand and grasp t he b enefits of the machine than by a cursory or even a careful perusal of the paper. Quite r ecently h e had occasion to go to Gate's works at Chicago, and he there had a.n opportunity of inspecting one of the finest plants he ~ad ever seen.. Howev~r! he had no pr~ctical experience of metalliferous mtntng, and the visit to Mr. Chester's works would be as agreeable to him as to t he other members of the Institu ~ion.

l SEPT. 13 , 1901.

Mr. Chester stated that t he machine was capable of breaking any kind of rock or material.

The President said th ey were chiefly interested in the breaking up of oo~l, and i t was rather difficult to get a perfect machine for such a hard substance. The best machine he had been privileged to see in op eration was at Bannockburn Colliery, in S tirling­shire. The machine described by M r. Chester was, however, as well suited for the work as any other.

TRANSIT THEODOLITE.

A paper by Mr. H. D. Hoskold was, in his absence, r ead on " A Civil and Mining Engineer's Transit Theodolite for Connecting U nderground W orkingFJ and the Surface, vice versa, and for G enera.l P urposes." The following is an abstr3Ct :

In 1842, Mr. J. C. Bourns, in driving the Box Tunnel on the Great Western Railway, transferred his surface lines down to the level of the tunnel, by sighting with an ordinary theodolite down shafts of unusually large diameter. This plan has frequently been followed since, and special instruments have been designed to facilitate the work. Most of these are, however1 quite unsuitable for sighting down the shaft of a deep p1t; and hence the author has been led to design a speCial transit theodolite for this purpose, but one which at the same tin1e can be used for all ordinary survey quite a readily as the common pattern. The central vert ical axis, which is screwed to the underside of the horizontal vernier-circle, is made much larger than usual, and it has a hole 1 in. in diameter drilled through its entire length, S') that it resembles a thin c:ylinder with a wide flange at the upper end, and the oxtenor surface from the flange downward is turned slightly conical. The outside hollow vertical axis, the fhtnge of which is screwed to the underside of the divided horizontal circle, is also enlarged sufficiently to receive the inner vertical axis ; and with a view of reducing the friction of the outer rubbing-surface of the two axes to a minimum, a wide band of metal, at three places in the length of each, is turned down a little below the level of the general surface. This is very necessary, in order to give a free motion when the vernier-circle is revolved horizontally. A corresponding hole to that in the inner vertical axis is made in the central part of the vernier-circle, so that a telescope-sight may be taken through the centre of the transit-theodolite and continued to the bottom of shafts of any depth. The transit-theo­dolite is mounted with a much longer and more powerful telescope thn:n i~ u~ual when the divided circl~ are. no more than 6 m. m d1ameter. In order to avOid VIbrat10n, the standards or Y's are made much lower than is cu to­mary ; and to get over the difficulty which would appettr to be introduced by having a transit telescope, the half of which is longer than the height of the Y's, and conse­quently would not revolve vertically, the telescope is nicely fi tted into and made to slide in the long socket of the horizontal axis by means of a rack-and-pinion screw. When, therefore, a perpendicular sight is required to be made through the centre of the instrument and down a shaft, the milled head of the rack-and-pinion screw is turned, 1tnd t~1e telescoP.e is slid through th~ .socket until the object1 ve-end will pass the cross sprr1t level mounted on the vernier-circle, and then it is focussed for clear vision in the common way. On the contrary, when it is necessary to obser~·e objects having ~t·ea~ elevation, it may be up to the zemth, the telescol?e lS slid through the axis-socket in the reverse way until1ts eye-end, carry­ing a long diagonal eye-piece, a~d m_icrometer-appar~t.us, will pass the top part of the vermer-01rcle, and clear VlSlOn is obtained by turning the focus scre'':· For gen~ralland operations, and underground work m large drifts and tunnels the telescope is slid in the socket half way, or to its nor~al position, and held firmly by its O\\rn rack-and­pinion screw, which acts as a clamp-screw.

Mr. George D. Ridley asked if any information could be given as to how th e machine could bisect a point at a depth of 2000 f(i. under the shaft. He noticed tha.t the theodolite there for inspection had a larger telescope t han was ordinarily used, and he would be glad to h~ve some information on the point .

Mr. W . Walton Brown, Eecretary, suggested that the next paper on the list dealing with a similar subject should be read, a.nd the discussion taken on the two papers. This was agreed to.

CoNNECTION OF THE UNDERGROUND AND S u RFACE S URVEYS.

The Secretary read a paper , of which we give an abstract herewith, on ''The Connection of the Underground and Surface Surveys, " by 1VIr. G. R. Thompson.

In determining boundaries for royalties and the like in the case of mines, it is necessn.ry to accurately con· nect the underground and the surfn.ce surveys. If the general survey is correct to 1 ft. in the mile run, tho direction of the surface base should be trtmsferred below ,vith an anguhu error of not more tlum 40 seconds of arc ; whilst if the error in the general survey amounts to B ft. per mile, the transfer need not bo accurate to more than 2 ruinutes of arc.

The followi.n~ are the principal methods of obtaining .a common mer1d1an for two surveys : (1) By the magnet1c needle ; (2) by the transit-theodohtE:' 9r transit-in~trument using one shaft only; (3) by suspendmg plumb-lmes do,~·n one shaft; (4) by suspendmg plumb-lmes down two dtS·

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E N G I N E E R I N G. tan~ shnH , n.1.1d s.ur\'eying between thE'm ; and (5) by sur­veymg down mchne-s from the Rurfaco. l\Ingnetic im~tru­men~s can be constructed to rL't\d to 1 or 2 seconds of arc, ~ut tt may be do~1btfu~ whot.hcr ~hc~1· use is justified, s ince m rorth Anten cn. churmtl vnnatwns of - G to + 13~ seconds hnve been recorded. 'rho ycnrlv vm·jntion i also not con tan~, so thn,t if precise m~\gnet'ic instruments ttre to be u ·ed, ~1mu ltaneous ob crvations should be taken n:t the sur fa?e and below ground. Bvon then, errors are hkely to ar_lSe from ~he unsuspected pre once of mn es of magnetic ~atel'lal. 'I~ he tran it - theodolite g ives accun\ te .results 1f tel~scopes of ufficient power are used. Thu , w1th ~ mn~1fi~tion of GO diameters we could expect to adJu t t11e line of collimation to one-third of a ~ec~md t\t a. depth. of 1000 ft ... ? r to ·adjust a, wiro there w1 thm 0.019 m. ~f 1.ts true pos1t1on: To obtain a reading t\Ccurato ~o ~.14 m. m one observation, we should require the t.m\gmfymg power of tho telescope to be incrct\sed to 90 dtnmeters.

assil)tance in a ve1y delicate operation. The opera­tion was so delicate t hat he was rather inclined to object to having an ordinary man d o this special operation, in addi t ion to the rough er work of underground sm veying. He was inclined to t hink any manager or mine owner would be well advised to get a special surveyor instead of the 01·dinary man, who, p erhaps, once or twice in a lifetime was called upon to d o th~t work.

Mr. George D . Ridley said that h e had some experience io this matter of plumb lines. The shaft was a. clear one, nearly 200 fathoms deep. One side of tho shaft had no openings from top to bottom, t he other bad five openings on one side. \Vhen h e came to test these wires h e found by immers ing them he got t h em very steady, consider­ing t he d epth ; but h e d id not get them vertical, and that was wh ere t he difficulty came in. They had t he air current steady in the mine, but i t was holding the wires to one side and keeping them in one position. He had a means of -testing this by putting single wires down two shafts a considerable distance apart-three chains- whe re he got one sigh t between the wires at a. very suitable angle. By that mean s he found that one of the wires was so far out of p erpendic ular that it gave a divergence of nearly a half degree.

.f\n en or in tho. ndju~ tment of the transit-axis to the 1~01'1 7-0ntnl of ~ m.mute would displace the underground lme nbout 3~ m . m a haft of lOO ft. deep · but its effect '~rould be otherwise negligible unless the' underooround l~ne wore tn,ken off at a high angle. The axis of c~llima­tu:~n sho';Jld, ~ow~ver, be at right angles to the tran it ax1 . V1bratwn m all form must be avoided in such a ea e as this, seeing that the angle of adju tment i about 0.20 ccond. hould a connection be required at the bottom of .a . shaft ~00 ft. deep with equal accuracy, t he other cond1t10ns bemg the same, the magnifying power of the telesco~e 11eed only be about nine diameters : such a telescope a IS po~ essed by an ordinary 5-in. theodolite · while in a haft 900 ft. deep, the ~ame m trument could onJy be expected to give a, resul t accurate to 9 minutes · a. tacheoutet~r. wit~ a telescope m.agnifying 20 or 30 dtametc~-s gn'lng 1t to 3 or. 4~ mmutes. By tn.king several mdependent observat iOns, the probable error in each of these cnse can be reduced.

\ Vith two plumb-bob~ suspended down a shaft good results can be obtained with sufficient care. Errm!a tend to arise throu~11 t\ir currents and material dropping down the haft, wb1ch cause the wires to vibrate about their mean po~ition. '+"his mean position, howeYer, appears to .vary .shgh~ly w1th the ~a.. of the weight suspended.

ttll, wtth smtablo precautwns, a 6-ft. base line can be transferred down a shaft in this way with an error of not mm:e than 2 minutes of arc. The plan of sighting between bobs uspended do\\'11 different shafts is eldom available ; but if the shaft .. are 3000 ft. or so apart precise results can be obtained by making an under~ ground traverse between the two. Surveying down in­clines presents no difficulty unless, as in many metalli­ferous mines, these inclines are very steep, in which case n theodolite with an eccentric telescope is necessary.

Mr. Longden said i t seemed to him that this was one of t he most important things t here was in con­nection with mining engineering, and it was a t hing which, someh ow or other, t hey did not seem to get to the bottom of. It was the easiest thing imagin­able to mak e an absolutely accurate underground sur vey, and the same could be said wit h r egard to t he surface survey ; but t he difficulty was to connect the two. Mines were being exha usted in all districts, and were working up to imaginary barrie·r-s, which were only, perhaps, 30 yards in width. He was of opinion t hat when the time came these barriers would be found not to exist at all. He was, perhaps, p essimistic en ough to look forward to the t ime, not many years hence, when in a great many of the deep collieries which were getting up to workings le ft a long time ago, they would find a lot of water to contend with th ey never a n ticipated, and he t h ought that would be largely due to t he fact of the underground surveys not being in a p roper position with those on the s urface. He did not think the connection between t he surveys underground and on the surface should be made by any thing else than plumb-lines. That was a point mioiog engineers should give attention to.

Mr. James Barton, Dundalk, mentioned a n instance which occurnd in connection with this kind of operation in Sir D ouglas Fox's dealing with the Mersey Tunnel. He sen t the wires down through a pipe; t he difficulty in using the pipe was the probability of touching the sides. The pipe, of eourse, relieved t he q uestion of side curren ts of air, and so on . He managed i t by pas3ing an electric current through the wire, which, by an electrometer, at once indicated where th ere was the slightes t touch of anything which would interfere with t h e perfect freedon1 of the wire.

The President said t hat from his experie-nce as a sur\'eyor some years ago h e had good r eason to be fairly well satisfied in a g reat many instances with the accuracy of the magnetic needle. It was a s ubject he had often had before him, and h e had tried the differen t systems of plumbing. Very often he had t o fall back and rely on the needle after all. If the needle was tested carefully at a p lace where there was not likely to be any att rac­t ion , a good d eal of dependence could be placed upon it, according to his experience.

MINERAL REs ouRCES IN QuEBEC.

A paper on ''Mineral Resources of the Province of Que bee, Canada," by Mr. T. 0 balski, inspector of mines, was, in his absence, h eld as read.

The paper g ives a short geological account of the province, and then briefly explains how t he minerals are worked. They are iron, copper, gold, asbestos, chromite, mica, and apatite. The annual value of the crude products at th e mines is about half a million sterling. The industries a re generally prosperous, and return good dividends on th e in­vested capital.

M TNING AND TttEATMI~NT oF CoPPER ORE IN SouTH AUSTRALI A.

In t he absence of Mr. H. Lipson Hancock, a paper by him on ''Mining and Treatment of Copper Ore at the Wallaroo and Moonta Mines, South Australia," was submitted .

The following is an abstract of the paper :

The Wallaroo and Moonta copper mines arc 10 miles apart, and are (3 and 11 ruiles distant respectively from the port of vVallaroo. They have been in operat10n for 40 years, and have produced ore to the vnJue of t-n millions sterling. Annually, 200,000 tons of vein stuff are mised, gi '~g 37,000 tons of dre oed ore. This ore, as raised, consists chieAy of sulphides of copper, with a matrix. This constitutes a low-grade material, the bulk of which varie~ in copper contents between 2 and 4 per cent. , and needs a comprehensiYe system of treatment in order to afford sntisfactory result>~. The appliances used are the result of many years' study and experiment. The paper describes them in detail, and illustmtes mttny of them by drawings, its interest lying in the method by which the low grade ore is treated successfully, and comparatively inexpensively, to raise it to a point at which it can bo smelted economically. The interest lies in the details of construction and working, which need to be explained fully if thoy ttre to be understood. Much of tho appttratus ltppear to be due to the late manager, 1\Ir. li. R . H ancock.

A NEW DIAORAlVI OF " ' ORK.

357 V2

phically by plotting the curve represented by - -h

= constant., V being the discharge t hrough a given passage way in cubic feet, and h the bead producing flo w. The . ecretary said h e considered this paper of high value, and it was doubly so because the writer was a working man at the present moment. The author p ossessed mathe­mat ical attainments of a very high character, and he felt sure that if an opportunity were given him of leisure and of training in mathematics, h e would become a very clever man, and th e only question was as to whether his deductions were right or wrong, and so far as he had followed and tried them - and h e h ad tried t hem very carefully­he had found t hem fairly correct .

A vote 0f t hanks w as awarded the writer.

THE MAN UFACTURE OF COI<E.

The Secretary read extract~ from a paper by Mr. F. C. ICeighley, on "The M~nufacture of Coke at t he Oliver Coke Works."

The following is a brief abstract of t he pap er : The Oli ver Coke \Vorks are nt Union Town, Penn.,

U .S.A., and comprise 708 beehive ovens, 12ft. 3 in. in diameter by 8ft. in height, inside measurements. Until recently this was the second largest works of the kind in the world. It is now the third, but it is the intention of the owners to increase the number of ovens to 1100, making it the largest plant. A quarter of a million sterling is invested in it. The output for J900 was 4GG,618 tons, but the full capacity is 500,000 tons. 'l'he coal is from the celebrated Connelsville seam, and is used without preparation as it comes from the mine. The total cost of making coke on the present scale of wages is not far from 6s. 3d. (1. GO dollars) per ton of 2000 lb. , this cost being made up about ns follow!'i :

Coal ... ... ... Yard expenses . . . . .. Repairs, wear and tear Interost ... ... . .. Taxes, insurance, &c .... Sinking fund .. . . ..

Totals ... ...

s. d. Dols. ... 4 4.1 1.042 ... 1 5.6 . 0. 352 ... 0 1.6 0.033 .. . 0 1.6 0.031 ... 0 1.2 0.025 ... 0 0.9 0.017

. .. 6 3.0 1.500 The yield of coke is 67 per cent. The paper gives

specifications for building the ovens, and de cribes the method of working.

The President said t his was a record of making coke under very favourable circumstances. He did not think t here was anyt hing particularly novel in t he paper except th e remarkable cheap­ness of coke. He was in t hat district some years ag(), and th ey were at t hat time selling coke at 1} d ols. per ton-about 5s. They did n ot seem to be making much profit. It showed, however, t he advantages th~y had in t hese reg ions for the pro. duct ion of coke.

The author was awarded a vote of thanks. •

AnvANTAOEs OF ALTRRNATE Cu1tRENTS FOR USE IN MINES.

The r epresentative of the tate of V ictoria in Aus­tralia, referring t o t heir practice there, said that in curying down the radiant they had found, as t he r esult of their experience, that with two copper wires, with an appropriate mechanica l appliance for lowering the wires with plumbs, and by taking observations at different levels, they had been able to establish a means which gave them a point beneath t h e sur­face almost exactly at right angles to a level on the surface. B y that means, and immersing the end of the plumb-line in oil, they ob tained as close an accuracy as was possible for practical purposes. They had had difficulties, and no slight d ifficulties either, with air currents. He would be happy to contribute a. paper in future on the results of his experience. He agreed wit h the last speaker that i t was of the g reatest importance t o mining engi­neers to have the matter settled on truly scientific lines, and it could only be settled by operations extending to 3000 ft. below t he surface.

Professor L ouis, Newcastle , pointed out that some recent German instruments were probably better than anything yet done in the way of plumb­ing. The theodolite seemed to him to offer great

Mr. Sydn ey F . Walker read a paper on "Alter­nate Currents and t heir P ossible Application to Mining." He said there were two distinct sets of advantages : (1) For distribution of power from a cPntre , and (2) for use when driving machines under­ground. In this country and A merica it was usual, he remarked, for several collieries t o be owned by one firm, often with a n ironworks to feed. At present, b oilerd we1 o fixed at each colliery an d iron works, and often at different portions of the works. These boilers were usually worked at 30 lb. to 80 lb. Economy, in his opinion, dict 1ted t he uEe of h igh­steam pressures, and that the generation sh ould be done at one central spot and dlbtributcd to t he dif­ferent collieries, &c. For distribution by electrici ty high pressures were necessary for economy, if t he distances were great nnd the pow er large. Economy varied roughly as the square of the pressure. High pressure above 2000 vol ts could not ba worked con­veniently. with continuous currents owing to in&ula ­t ion difficulties ; with alternating c urrents t h ey might go as high as they liked . American a were using up to 60,000 volts . Alluding t o its advantages for use underground, h e said that by using the alter­nate-current induction motor two advantages were obtain ed: t h ey had only a low pressure in the d efeloping portion, where difficulties of insulation came in, and t hey had no commu tator, so that they had no sparking. There was sometimes used a temporary arrangement for switching in resistance

The Secretary submitted a paper by Mr. H. for starting the motor against a load; but that need W. G . Hal baum, en titled "A New Diagram of not be done if it was objectionable. The possibility the Work of Mine Ventilation, " in which h e pro- of danger of sparking from broken cables was p osed to solve problems in min~-ventilation gra- 1 slightly in favour o~the alternate current, s ince the

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a~ternate spark did not persist so much as the con­tinuous under similar conditions.

The President remarked that people seemed to be rather afraid of t his system, but from what he ~athere~ ~rom Mr. Walker it was the coming thing In electriClty.

Mr. Watt asked what Mr. Walker considared the dan~erous limit for tension, supposing a man received a shock, or any part of t he machine ~appened to be exposed. Did multiphase current Involve the use of collector rings ~ And if so was there any sparking under conditions of that ki~d

Mr. George A. Mltchell remarked that he had heard it said that while a voltage of 1600 or 2000 was very dangerous and fatal to life where the voltage was much higher- say, 10,000 'or 20,000-there was not the same effect. Mr. Walker might be able to answer that. Again, was there not some difficulty in using this alternating current as regards the starting?

Mr. Walker, in the course of his reply said he took it that Mr. Watt wanted to k~ow the d~ngerou.s limit of alternating currents. It was rather drfficult to answer that, because as with . ' continuous currents, it depend~d entirely on how they took the shock. It would be perfectly safe to say they could kill a man with 100 volts, either a~ternating or continuous, if they gave it in the ri~ht way, that was to say, through the brain. In the cal'e of an overhead conductor, as in America. a. man, if his bare scalp touched a 600-volt wire: would probably be killed, but he might not. The probability was that he would. On the other hq,nd it was possible to take a. very high pressure ; if, fo~ instance, they had very thick and dry boots, with horny hands well covered with something which did not allow the current to pass quickly or very easily. Pt"rhap3 the point Mr. Watt wished to know ~as the diffdrence between alternating and con. tlnuous. As for shocks, the alternating current was certainly more dangerous than the continuous. The multi-phase working did not involve the use of collector rings. They could have absolutely no sparking if they close, bar such as not be caused by the bre~king of a wire. Mr. Mitchell a~ked about 1600 and 2000 volts being dangerous and 10,000 not. Ten thousand or 20.000 or 100,000 volts pressure was not dangerous if the current was given at an enormously rapid rate; that was to say, if it was an alternating current and the oscillations were some­thing like 1000 per second. Apparently the current had not time to jerk one up in an appropriate way and kill him ; but if they had the 10,000-volt alter­nating current at the ordinary periodicity, 40 to 50 complete periods per second, 10,000 volts would kill probably very much more quickly than 1500. Regarding the difficulty of star ting, he said the alternating-current induction motor would not start under a load. There were two ways of getting out of the difficulty. They might start ih, like a good many other motors, off the load. There was the simple way, apart from starting resis tance, of having the motor considerably over its power. With a start­ing resistance, they put in a resistance in the rotor circuit, a.nd, of course, that partially neutralised the gain which he bad mentioned.

Mr. Mitcbell said that in the United States, where electricity wa<3 n1uch more employed for power, it was very largely the alternating system which was employed. That itself spoke in favour of this particular system.

This concluded the discussion and also the read­ing of papers, as the Section did not meet on Thursday, the 6th inst. Before, however, the pro­ceedings concluded, Mr. Geo. A. Mitchell said he should like to take the opportunity of thanking Mr. Dixon for his conduct of the meeting, and the address he gave in taking the chair. He thought they would all agree with him that they had never had an address which showed in such a practicl\l wRy an interest in the subject of mining. Princtpal Story had referred to Mr. Dixon's gifh from the University point of view, but they could not let the matter pass without ex­pressing their gratification th11t that gift should have been given by him while he was their President., and that he should have intimated it at one of their meetings ; while the gift w0uld, to some exter.t, be directly associated with Mr. Dixon, it must also be associated to some extent with the Institution of Mining Engineers and with that Congress. He concluded by proposing a vote thank~.

Mr. Jas. T. Forgie seconded. The President briefly returned thanks. This terminated the proceedings of this Section.

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E N G I N E E R I N G. [SEPT. I j, I 90 I. "'

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THE " BULL " ELECTRIC MOTOR . CONSTRUCTED BY THE ANGLIAN ENGINEERING COMPANY, LIMITED, STOWJ\IARK.ET.

(For Descri;ption, see Page 365.)

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SECTION VII. - MUNICIPAL. The Municipal Section resumed their deliberations

in the Engineering Lecture Theatre on W ednesda.y, the 4th inst., when Mr. E. George Ma.wbey again presided.

THE BIRIDNGHA?!f wATER wORKS.

Mr. James Mansergh, F.R.S., President of the Congress, gave an interesting account of the great works now under construction for providing..Bir­mingham with an adequate water supply. The city, with the district around it, which the Corporation supply, had, he explained, an area of 130 square m1les, and the present sources of supply were six wells in the red sandstone and four or five compara­tively small streams upon which there were re~er­voirs, the JargPRt holding 400,000,000 gallons. The pre~eot d~mand for watf\r io ordinary times was about 18,000,000 or 19,000,000 gallons a dn.y. During the last dry season they supplied 24,000,000

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gallons, but they were in terrible straits, and bad not gone a year too soon to Parliament for powers to construct these new works. It was a curious coincidence that thirty years ag0, when he was con­tractor 's engineer on the Midland Railway, which passed t hrough the district, he spotted this place in the Elan Valley, situated between Radnorshire and Breconshire ; and when in 1890 the Corporation asked him to advise them on the whole matter of water supply, it was therefore a simple thing to prepare a scheme in time for the ensuing session of Parliament the same yf>ar. The source of supply was the River Elan, a tributary of the Wye. The distance from the reservoir, from which the water was taken, to the centre of Bir­mingham was about 18 miles, and between that reservoir and the service rest-rvoir at Frankley was a distance of 24 miles, which was chiefly traversed by tunnelling, cut and cover aqueduct, with iron and steel pipes crossing the valleys. He ~howed on the screen a large series of photographic views intended

SEPT. I 3, 1901.] E N G l N E E R l N G. 359 3 • re s se

• COMPOUND SINGLE-ACTING RAM PUMP . CONSTRUCTED BY :MESSRS. FRANK PEARN AND COMPANY, LIMITED, ENGINEERS, ~J\NCHESTER.

(For Desc'ription, see Page 365.) • . ·~--~----- __ ,_ ·- J?te.9 ..

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to illustrate the progress of the works from the watershed down-stream to the outlet, explaining the ddferent features as he went along. The culvert in the Caregddu dam was 9 ft. in diameter, with a large cast-iron mouth to facilitate the inflow of the water. When he first delivered a lecture on this subject to the R oyal Institution some years ago, the question of stone dams was very much to the front, because the Bouzey dam in France had given way and done an enormous amount of damage. He exhibited sections in profile of the Caban and Bot1zey dams. The Botizey material and mortar were very poor, but he did not think there was anything wrong with the Caban one. A sketch plan showed the way in which the flood water was dealt with during the construction of the works. The quantity of water they bad in time of high flood at the maximum would be 700,000. cubic feet a minute. They had already measured 550,000 a minute, and he was sure they had not yet had a record flood. They had already had 17 ft. head of water on the inlet of the two cui verts at the dam. Two houses were shown, the sites of which will soon be under 100 ft. of water. In one of these Shelley once lived ; it was a little above the Elan. The other was the old church of Nantgwillt. A bit of tho cut and cover aqueduct in course of construction, sections of the culvert-s, as well as the culverts, were in turn exhibited and explained. When they began the first contract for these culverts the construction was somewhat after this eort : Every 3 ft. they put in a band of steel ribs just to hold the feet together, filling in with con­crete between the ribs and lining with blue brick on the face. It was rather a costly construction, and they had since diminished the price by using for the side of the culvert 6-in. moulded concrete slabs, 6 or 7 ft. high and 2 ft. wide, and these

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were fortified _by expanded metal on the outside. They submitted these slabs at the same bearing to very severe tests, and they found that the ex­panded metal was of admirable assistance to the concrete. H e also illustrated the way in which they crossed the Worcester Canal. To get lateral strength they put three pipes over instead of the two by which the water was elsewhere carried. They had a length of 400 ft. of pipes simply carried on piers until they came to the River Severn, which they crossed with a girder bridge. The service reservoir at Frankley was in semicircular section, built with concrete and brick lining. It was 30 ft. deep, and held 200,000,000 gallons; it was divided by a central wall. They had to pump for a high level, up to 800ft. Perhaps 80 per cent. of the water would be delivered by gravitation, and the rest would have to be pumped. The River Elan was shown at the point where a village has been estab­lished for the workmen. The village accommodates about 1200 people, and is furnished with schools, recreation hall, canteen, baths and washhouses, hos­pitals, and everything fitted up in first-class style.

Mr. Harpur, of Cardiff, in moving a vote of thanks to Mr. Mansergh for his able address, remarked that the district described was undoubtedly one of

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the finest watersheds which could possibly be con-ceived, and the works which were being constructed were the very best of the kind which up to the pre­sent time had been attempted. The provisions made for the habitation of the workmen were excellent in the extreme, and particularly the "doss-house" for the temporary accommodation of new hands. The arrangement was one to which sanitary engineers should pay special attention. Mr. W. '¥eaver, Kensington, seconded the motion.

Mr. Mansergh, acknowledging the vote of thanks, said that all the work in the valley which he had described was now being done without a contractor under administration.

DISPOSAL OF SEW AGE.

Mr. A. B. M 'Donald, City Engineer, Glasgow, r ead a paper on " Disposal of Sewage," of which the following is an abstract :

The aim of the paper is to afford to members informa­tion regarding the Glasgow Main Drainage Scheme, which they will visit. The territory dealt with stretches along both sides of the River Clyde for a distance of about 15 miles, the superficial extent being 39 square miles. The first section is about 11 square miles in extent, and the works are situated at Dalmarnock. The second section is of 14 square miles. The works are now in process of construe·

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tion on the river bank at Dalruuir, about 7 miles below Glasgow. The third section is 14 square miles. The wor~s for the disposal of the sewage of this area are to be Situated on the river bank SJt BrSJehead, about 4 miles neSJrer Glasgow than Dalmuir. The volume of dry­w~the~ sewage w~c~ will ultimately be treated at Dal­mutr will be 49 m1llion gallons, and the corresponding volume at Braehead will be 45 million gallons.

The system of treatment at Dalmarnock is chemical precipitation by means of under-surface continuous flow. The sewag~ i~ of a complex and most intractable cha­racter, consiStmg for the most part of industrial refuse charged with suspended matters that vary from 20 to 250 grai:ns per gallon. The chemicals employed are hydrate of hme and sulphate of alumina. It was resolved to adopt at Dalmuir and Braehead the same method of sewage treatment as that which has for the last seven years been in use at Dalmarnock, with the exception that sludge pr~es are to be dispensed with, and the liquid sludge earned out to sea. The working result of the sewage treatment at Dalmarnock is that every trace of SUSJ?ended matter is removed, and that 30 per cent. of punficatio:n is attained, calculated on the basiS of ox.ygen a?sorbed m. four h?urs at 27 deg. Cent. The sewage is d1scharged mto a t1d81l stream of vastly superior volume.

Furtlier down the river, at Braehead and at Dalmuir the 94,000,000 gallons of purified sewage will come i~ contact with 3,000,000,000 gallons of tidal water.

The precipitation tanks now in course of construction at Dalmuir, which are to be worked on under-surface contiJ;luous flow, are each about 750 ft. in length, thus allowmg opportunity for more complete precipitSJtion than is afforded in the shorter tanks at the Dalmarnock Works.*

Towards the end of last year the author was instructed to report to the sewage committee on the extent to which bacterial methods might be adopted in treating the sewage at Dalmuir, with a statement of the relative cost of the system already in use at Dalmarnock, as con~rasted with the cost of the works necessary for the bacterial treat­ment of sewage. In conjunction with the late J\IIr. W. Santo Crimp, 1-I. Inst. C.E., he found that in capital expenditure alone the installation of pumps, sedimenta­tion tanks, and filter beds required to dispose of the sewage at Dalmuir would be a.t least ten times greater than the estimated outlay for ordinary precip1tation works, without taking any account of the cost of renewing the filtering plant. An experimental plant was installed at Dalmarnock for the bacterial treatment of sewage at the cost of 1000l., exclusive of the original charge for the construction of the tanks. The plant consists of one open se12_tic tank, and four first and four second contact beds.

The capacity of the four first contact beds when empty -that is, before the fil tering material was put in- wa.-, 72, 996 gallons; and the working capacity-thn.t is, after the filtering material was put in-was estimated at 50 per cent. of this amount, VlZ., 36,498 gallons; but when the beds were set in operation, tests gave a capacity of only 32,617 gallons, equal to a capacity of 40.9 gallons per square yard, or 197,956 gallons per acre for one fillmg of the beds. In December, 1900, the capacity wa,s found to be 19,700.64 gallons, which is equal to 24.7 gallons per square yard, or 119,548 gallons per acre for one filling. In March, 1901, the capacity was 17,492.52 gallons, equal to 21.9 gallons per square yard, or 105,996 gallons per acre for one filling. In lVIay, after n. rest, the capacity was 21,412.67 gallons, which IS equal to 26.8 gallons per square yard, or 129,712 gallons per acre for one fi11ing. In August the capacity was found to be 20,321.949 gallons, which is equal to 25.48 gallons per square yard, or 123,323 gallons per acre for one filling.

The final result was : Capacity of beds when matured in relation to empty

beds (that is, before the filtering material is put in), 27 per cent. Gallons per acre for two fillings per 24 hours. 239,096, or 4.18 acres per million gallons for two filling-, with a double contact. The degree of purification attained by double filtration was 95 per cent.

The result drawn from the trials was that for the em­ployment of ba{}terial methods at Dalmarnock, a surface of 75 acres would be absolutely needed for an operation that is satisfactorily carried on just now in the space of 5~ acres. The space required at Dalmuir for filters, on the aEsuruption of three fillings a day, would be 133 acres, and the space required for sedimentation tanks would be 31 acres1 or 164 acres in all for the bacterial treatment of 49 million gallons of sewage, which, accord­ing to the design now being carried out, will be satisfac­torily accomplished in the space of 23 acres.

MUNICIPAL SANITATION.

Mr. Wm. Weaver, Kensington, next read a paper on "Municipal Sanitation," in which he dealt with the duties of a municipal a uthority, especially those relating to sewerage and drainage, water supply, habitations and their occupants, h ighways, and refuse.

Mr. G. Midgeley Taylor, Westminster, proposed a vote of thanks to the authors of the two papers. The result obtained by the chemical treatment of the sewage at Dalmarnock was something mar­vellous. He did not know of any other instance where by chemical precipitation the effiuent was made absolutely free from suspended matter. He noticed that not only was the suspended matter removed, but there was an average of 30 per cent. purification attained ; and this amounted to 65 per

* The Dalmarnock ' Vorks were illustrated and de­!cribed in ENGI~EERING, vol. lx. , pages 208 and 250.

E N G I N E E R I N G. cent. purification of the crude liquid. Under these circumstances, and viewing the large a mount of stream and tidal water into which the effluent had to be discharged, they must all agree t hat the engineer had been wise in advising the Corporation of Glasgow not to attempt further purification of the effluent.

Mr. G. Chatterton, Westminster, in seconding, remarked t hat the city of Dublin had much the same sort of difficulty as Glasgow, but with this difference, that the upper part of the Liffey h ad much less tidal river in flood than the Clyde, and would beat it at its very worst. In 1891 h e wds asked to prepare a scheme for Dublin, and he pre­pared one exactly the same as that of Glasgow, without knowing what Glasgow was doing at t hat time, but knowing the value of precipitation. But he never went in for sludge-pressing. lie went in for taking the sludge and dropping it into the sea ; but the conditions in Dublin Bay were simpler than those in Glasgow. By another coincidence Dublin and Glasgow each had had a Royal Commis­sion, and recommendations advising that the sludge should be taken a good deal out into the open sea. That was ten or more yeara ago, and neither t own had done so yet . He wished Mr. M 'D onald had g iven a little more description of the method of constructing the large sewers. He had had very great difficulty in that matte1· in Dublin, and h e had been using a sewer driven with shields 8 f t . in diameter. He understood that some such system was going to be operated on in Glasgow.

Mr. M'Donald, in r eplying, stated that the delay that had taken place in the construction of the Glasgow works was not quite so bad as Mr. Chatterton put it. The Dalmarnock Works, which were authorised in 1891, h ad been in operation for about seven years . The main drainage works were autliorised in 1896 and 1898, and although a regrettable amount of time had elapsed without serious action, it was to some degree explained by the advance in the pdce of monoy consequent on the outbreak of the war and an edict issued by the Corporation forbidding, for the t ime being, further capital expenditure. But for these circumstances, instead of having four miles of large sewers con­structed, they would have had at least ten miles, and the works at Dalmuir would probably have been in operation . He had since received authority to resume the work.

Ivlr. Weaver, in ackowledging the vote of thanks, said there was not the slightest doubt that the labour question was a leading difficulty for the future, especially to the municipal engineer, and it would have to be faced.

The Section then adjourned. •

SECTION VIII.-GAS. The second day 's proceedings of this Section were

presided over by Mr. William Foulis, Glasgow.

PROPOSED GASH OLDER FOR AMSTERDAM.

Mr. J . Van Rossumdu Chattel, Amsterdam, read a paper on " The Principles of the Proposed Con­struction of a Modern Gasholder for Amsterdam," of which the following is an abstract:

This paper contains a description of a. modern gasholder (capacity 3~ million cubic feet), to be erected for the city of Amsterdam. The drawings which accompany it show the principal details of the construction, and deal more e pecially with the annular or ring type of the tank, made of steel. On account of the inferior natura of the subsoil, and for other reasons, this tank will be erected above ground, so that it w~ll be possible. for a: locomotive ~nd train to pass beneath It, no centre pier bemg used. Bemg, perhaps, th~ . largest ~nnular tank constructed . under similar cond1t10ns, speCial care has to be taken w1th the foundations and the stability of the structure. On this account the paper gives an ?ntrc;>ducti?n il_lto the necessary calculations and mathemahcalmvestigatiOns of the forces acting on each part of the structure.

The Chairman said he should like to have it made clear that it was necessary to adopt such a peculiar construction of tank. Mr. Du Chattel explained that the configuration of the ground almost neces­sitated the form of tank described in his paper.

Mr. Hunt said he gathered that the method of construction described had been followed in order to secure proper rail way access to t he works. He did not notice a description of the framing in the paper and asked, was it simply joist irons braced 7 and wbat w11s the object of the h~nd railing for each lift 1 Mr. vVood, from the United States, said that it occurred to him that the taking of the whole weight of water, on an annular ring, was a pretty sure test of unstable ground. I t seemed to him

[SEPT. I j, 1901.

that ground s ufficient to sustain that might sustain a holder of simpler construction.

Mr. Du Chattel, in reply, said that he would be pleased to answer any criticisms, and to give all necessary information for publication in the pro­ceedings.

COKE OVENS.

A paper by Dr. F. Schniewind, New York, U.S.A., was read, entitled "The Production of Illuminating Gas from Coke Ovens," of which the following is an abstract :

This paper describes the pro~ess made in the United States and Canada in recovermg illuminating gas from by-product coke ovens. It discusses its bearing upon the smoke problem of large cities, and gi ,~es particulars of various allusions to the subject in past literature. It deals with the fuel supply of large cities, and ~ves figures showing the comparative amounts of bitunnnous coal and anthracite coal used in some American cities for the year 1900.

It then gives a general description of the combined coke oven and gas process, compares 1 t with ordinary gas retort practice, and gives a description of a plant of 100 coke ovens of the latest type of the United Coke and Gas Company ; including the system of coal and coke handling, the arrangement of gas mains, the condensing plant, the t reatment of the tar produced, and the methods adopted for the further enrichment of the rich gas by the benzole extracted from the poor gM.

I t then proceeds to discuss the principles of the dry distillation of coal in coke ovens, and gives figures as to the yields of 8"as, tar, and ammonia, &c., of various American coals m use. It details the quality of the gas made during the vt~..rious periods of the coking process, and gives figures showing that the operating results approximate very closely to those obtained in the various tests made. The question of heat balance is then care­fully discussed, und comparisons wade of the heat dis­tribution in products of distillation from Otto H offman ovens, and ordinary gas retorts. The subject of the enrichin~ of coke oven gas is then carefully discussed, and tables given showing the distribution of illuminants in international coal gns. The author then deaJs with . the application of coke plants to the gns supply of large 01t1es, and gi,Tes fi~ures showing the approximate ga consumption of a. 01ty of 400,000 inhabitants supplied by a coke plant. The fluctuation in gas consumption is again introduced, t\nd the methods of meeting it by means of auxiliary producer plants, auxiliary water-gas plants, and combined blue-water gas and producer plants are discussed.

The author concludes by claiming for the system serious consideration in the solution of the smoke problem, and argues that it is Ct\pable of forming a central station for the supply of light, heat, and power.

Mr. Sydney Stevenson remarked that according to the paper 9000 cubic feet per ton had been got by the use of these ovens. It would be interesting to know what the coal referred to would have given in the ordinary way, carbonised in retorts . Of course, a l~uger value was got out of the residuals .

The Chairman said the idea was to make gas the res idual , the main object of the ovens being the production of coke.

Mr. Hunt, Birmingham, said they could all agree as t o the desirability for a more extended use of smokeless fuel. They were all makers of smokeless fuel, and th e only difference in the processes was a question of corn parati ve cost. B efore thE' process described in the paper could be adopted in this country, one of the problems to be solved would be that of heating the oven s by some other means than by a portion of the gas produced.

Mr. Barrow, in the course of a. long s peech descriptive of the American coke-oven works , remarked that if h eating gas could be conveyed to the houses as readily as lighting gas, it would be a, great economy.

Mr. Herring, Edinburgh, said that in his experi­en ce h e had found the introduction of a combustion chamber for the burning of gas to b e a dis­advantage. He should therefore like to have the point cleared up as to whether or not it was really a combustion chamber that was described in the paper.

Mr. W. W. Hutchinson inquired if it was found necessary to prepare the coke in any way for domestic purposes. He a]so said that an idea of the capital cost per ton of coal carbonised, as com· pared with the ordinary gasworks practice, would be of interest.

The Chairman remarked that t he paper was worthy of consideration of all gas engineers. Practically, the process was t he distillation of coal in bulk. The point as t o whether a portion of the gas should be utilised for heating hhe r etorts, or whether the retorts should be heated in some other way, was a q uestion of detail, to be deal t with under each circumstance.

Dr. Revay, replying on the discussion, said than ovens were heated by very poor gas. He could not give a proper comparison between the coke

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SEPT. I 3, I 901.]

oven and the ordinary retort, as he had not the figures by him ; but he should say that the results were much superior. As regarded a market for the coke, they had had to create one in the United States, and he did not see why that should not be done in the United Kingdom. In the vicinity of Boston, almost every one of the houses used coke for domestic purposes. The combustion chamber referred to was simply a. fluo about 17 in. wide. The cost of production, of course, varied very much, according to local circumstances.

ELECl'ROLYSIS OF GAs PIPES.

Dr. Leybold, of H amburg, then read a paper on "Electrolysis of Gas Pipes, " of which the following is an abstract :

~he auth9r commences _by detailing the various causes whiCh have m past years mtiuenced the durability of gas and water pipe , and then proceeds to deal with electro­lysis. H e. gives pnt:ticula:s of the p:actice prevailing in Germn:ny m connectwn w1th the laymg down of electric tram hnes, and deul~ with the conditrions existing in gas and water pipe , both when within the influence of the ~lectric current, and also when practically outside such mftuence. He de cribes the electric system in Hambuq~·, and then discusses the action of the electric current m producing the destruction of metals . . He gives particulars of damage done to service pipes in one of the streets of Hamburg, and shows how such damage was proved to be caused by electrolytic action. He gives an analysis of the substances found at the point of corrosion, and also of the earth in the vicinity of the pipes. He describe3 some experiments made on pipes coated and protected in various ways, and discusses the question of the value of such protection. He then deals with the manner in which the Hamburg authorities have endeavoured to minimise the danger. due to electrolysis, and mentions the steps taken by the German Electrical Technical Associa­tion toward i drawing up in tructions for the protection of gas and water pipes. He concludes by raising the question as to whether the destruction of gas-meter drums, go~erno~ bells, &c., is not at times partly due to electro­lyhc act10n.

Mr. Livesey considered t hat the point to be kept in view was that users of electricity, for any pur­pose whatever, must keep it to themselves. If they allowed gas to escape, and caused a nuisance of any kind , they were liable, and had to make good the damage. All that they asked was t hat eleo-

. t ricians should do the same. There was no doubt but that t he Board of Trade would take further action in the matter. They must persevere until they got the protection they n eeded.

~Ir. Carpenter remarked that what t hey had to do was to be on t he watch. In every neigh­bourhood, where there were electric tramways, g~s engineers should watch for indications of some­thing different going on to that with which they were familiar. They wanted t he co-operation of all engineers where electric tramways were running. If electricians were to have their way, the damage to gas and water mains would be much la rger than they could a1low to pass. Mr. Munier, in the course of a few remarks, suggested that what they really wan ted was evidence.

Mr. Gisbert Kapp gave an interesting description of bonding adopted in Germany (and Glasgow), to which he attributed the fact that little damage was done in Germany to .either gas or water mains. The Board of Trade limit of 7 volts had been adopted because at the time they knew no better. They now knew that a pipe could be eaten up by 2 volts.

Dr. Leybold having returned thanks, the proceed­ings were adjourned.

---SECTION IX.-ELE0TRIOAL.

HIGH-SPEED R AILWAY CAR OF THE A.LLGEl\lEI NE ELEKTRICITATS-GESELLSCHA..FT, B .EBL lN.

At the second day's meeting Mr. W . E. Langdon again occupied the chair, and at his request Mr. 0 . Lasche, chief engineer to the A. E . G. , communicated in abst.ract his paper on "High-Speed Railways. "

Mr. Lasche had very much to say which was of great interest, and the chief value of his paper lies, perhaps, not so much in the descript ion of t he apparatus and machinery as actually adopted - for, after all, the experiments described have so far been confined to the works, and t he real trials have not begun yet-as in the clear expositions of the scientific deduct ions and experiments which led to the particular constructions. I t is the old story, that we learn a great deal from unsuccessful attempts ; and if the experimental car should prove not to be the high-speed motor car of the near fu ture, Mr. Lasche's researches will not be less valuable. A full account of the car has mean while

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E N G I N E E R I N G. appeared in this month's issue of TRACTION AND TRANSMISSION, and we need not, therefore, abstract the paper here. Mr. Lasche emphasised t he general arrangement of the car, the weights of different projected constructions, the suspension and gearing of the motors, the novel electrolytic starters and regulators, and t he brakes.

The discussion was very cordial and general, very uncrit ical, and not particularly instructive; it occu­pied another hour. Sir William Preece, upon whom Mr. Langdon called first, expressed his opinion that the electrical world of both hemi­pheres was indebted to the A. E. G. , and to their director-general, Mr. Emil Rathenau (who was present) in particular, for allowing Mr. Lasche to bring so clear, candid, and exhaustive an account of these experiments before the Conference. A great deal of money had been spent on a magnifi­cent experiment - that was t he German way; here in this country more money had been spent for the purpose of opposing experiments. He referred to the Liverpool-Manchester scheme. Twice a Com­mittee of the H ouse of Commons had declared the principle to be sound; but only now had they obtained power to carry out experiments; and if members had heard the rubbish which had been talked in the Committees, they would blush. In Germany the experiments had been made at the instigation of the Emperor ; here it looked as if we should have to wait for a German Emperor to find the money. J u~t as the triphase system in general, so this application of it came from Germany. High-speed electric railways were only possible with triphase-current distribution. The triphase system was, in fact, more continuous than con­tinuous currents; it swept away many complica­tions, and saved us 30 per cent. in machinery. To mention one detail, he had found a similar method of car suspension and spring-bearing device to answer very well on the Valtelina Railway, now under construction, which he had just seen in Italy. But he did not wish to enter into details: this was not an occasion for any carping criticism.

Mr. E. Rathenau thanked the meeting and Sir William Preece for their kind welcome. This was a new problem in which engineers of all classes would have to co-operate. He did not wish to replace the eteam engine. The electric locomotive was no more to ruin the steam locomotive than the electric light had killed the gas light. If this ex­periment succeeded, electric railways would spread, and electric works would be busy for ever. Sir William Preece had referred to the German Emperor. They were proud of his sympathy. But they looked to England for the practical develop­ment of high-speed t raction; for in Germany rai l­ways formed practicaiiy a monopoly, and free com­petit ion was necessary for the growth of industrial enterprise. They were ready to continue their experiments, and should be pleased to report progress again; yet England might, possibly, be the first country to adopt high-speed electric railways.

Professor Silvanus P. Thompson congratulated Mr. Lasche on his epoch-making paper. With regard to Sir William Preece's two ways of spending money on experiments, he should like to repeat what he had said two years ago, when President of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, that t here was a third way of spending money, viz., on wrong experiments. They had had a sad example when an experiment in elect rical traction was made at E arl's Court, from which nothing could be learned, because everything concerning the con­ditions was known; whilst everybody was anxious to have experiments on triphase motor propul8ion. Among the experts who had recommended that experiment was Sir William Preece. Two points, he thought, would strike members. Firstly, that the days of the commutator were gone for such work, though the sections had two papers on com­mutator prol)lems .on the list ; and, secondly, the ad vantage of liquid variable resistances over solid step-by-step resistances. The problem was of the highest importance. But where was t he British firm that would spend time, brains, and money like the A. E. G. had done ? and that company stood not alone in this respect among German firms.

As leader of the party of the Institution members who visited Germany in June last, Mr. Alexander Siemens said he was glad t.o have this opportunity of thanking Mr. Rathenau for the splendid and hospitable reception t hey had met with in Berlin. These remarks were afterwards fully endorsed by the Chairman. Mr. Siemens also informed the

Section that one of the chiefs of Messrs. Siemens and H alske had, at the last moment, to his regret, been preven ted from a ttending the Congress ; for he would have told them what Messrs . Siemens and H alske had done in the high-speed traction problem. We should bear in mind that the motor car of the A. E. G. had still to stand the actual tests; and if we were to have high-speed electric rail ways in England, the permanent way, amon~ other t hings, would have to be seen to. Professor Thompson had condemned the continuous - current motor. That question had been fully discussed at the Paris meeting last year, and they had agreed that the direct-current motor held the field for great and frequent speed variations. Mr. Lasche had said in his introduction that cost was not the deciding factor, and that we used the electric light although it often remained much more expensive than ga3 light. Mr. Siemens would rather put it t hat the electric light would not have been introduced if it had not proved to be indirectly cheaper.

Mr. Zipernowsky, of Budapest, contented him­self with congratulating Mr. Lasche on his success in a q uestion which he first brought before the Frankfort Congress ten years ago.

Mr. Kolben referred to the ingenious liquid starter and current regulator of Mr. Lasche, con­sisting, it will be seen, of a centrifugal pump provided with a valve and such an electrode arrangement that the liquid remains cool, and that both the speed and the starting period can be varied. This device was yet a weak point, for we wasted current, and we had to remember that real progress had not been made in electric traction before the series parallel controllers had helped . us over this speed regulation difficulty. It was, however, also possible with t riphase - current motors to reduce the speed to a half and even a quarter simply by altering the connections.

Mr. Gisbert Kapp, the Secretary-General of the V erpand of German Electricians, conveyed to the Section, with admirable tact, the fact that the A. E. G. was not alone in these experi­ments. Mr. Alexander Siemens' remarks had not -rendered it clear whether Messrd. Siemens and H alske had really constructed a car. Eighteen months ago, Mr. Kapp stated, he had ridden on the first high-speed car of Messrs. Siemens and Halske, and what had impressed him most was a feature upon which Mr. Lasche had not toucbed, namely, the safety of the arrangements. Instead of finding danger notices, '' Not to be touched," everywhere, he saw that everything was earthed, that everything might be touched, and the feeling of discomfort quickly gave way to perfect ease. As regards the liquid resistances and waste on them, he would point out that they would rarely be wanted, for we did not want to crawl on a high­speed track; the liquid resistance was certainly superior to the metallic rheostats of the J ungfrau Rail way, which soon got hot though careful arrange­ments were made for cooling.

Professor Carhart, of Michigan University, spoke next. He granted thau they had had no actual experiments in high-speed traction, so far. in the United States. But he 8tated t hat experiments would soon be commenced in Michigan-he would not men· tion apy names-and that 10,000 volts would be in­troduced directly into the car ; it would be mono· phase currents, and the motor would be kept at constant speed. They would some day get back with interest in the United States what they had contributed to the electric locomotion problem. But that locomotion was still in a transition stf\ge ; standardisation had not been possible so far, and when he mentioned t hat in Detroit , e.g. , a 40-mile tramway network had soon had to be extended. to 80 miles, the fact would not be wondered at. ·

Professor Oarus- Wilson, the ]ast speaker upon whom the Chairman called, dwelt particularly upon the t horoughness with which so many problems had been worked out, and all within a space of nine months. In connection with Mr. Siemens' remarks, he referred to the vital point that the Berlin- Zossen military railway is practically a straight line ; on the Liverpool-Manchester line we should have curves. We should therefore do well to follow the German example, and thoroughly in­vestigate every point experimentally before start­ing on building a line. That was the chief lesson which the paper conveyed to him. In closing the discussion, the Chairman, Mr. Langdon, briefly expressed the hope that the great British firms and railway companies would soon recognise that

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E N G I N E E R I N G. [SEPT. I 3, I 901.

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DANGERS FROM TROLLEY WIRES, AND THEIR PREVENTION.

Professor _t\.ndrew Ja.mieson, M. Inst. C.E., of Glasgow, the author of this paper, was requested by the Chairman to be brief. He did not read his paper, but gave a. lecture on the subject; the alteration, however, did not secure brevity. After referring to the series of accidents that occurred in Liverpool in February last, and mentioning that Glasgow had fortunately been spared fatal accidents, Profeseor J a.mieson described and exhibited the new guards, since adopted at Liverpool by Mr. C. R. Bella.my. In these a strip of wood, rounded above, is held, not by a. clip with a. T-piece in the wood, but by two steel strips, connected by a bolt. Professor Ja.mieson then alluded to the Board of Trade regulations on guard wires, and the Post Office regulations, which prescribe two guard wires for one or two trolley wires, or

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three guard wires for two trolley wires up to 3 ft . boxes, and give keys, moreover, only to the engi­apa.rt, and four guard wires, i .e. , two for each neering staff, but not to drivers, conductors, or trolley wire, when the distance exceeds 3 ft. If car inspector&. This was to be regretted. A very these regulations were faithfully carried out, he good plan would be to place an earthing switch in thought we should hear little of accidents caused each car. In case of severance or disconnection by broken telephone wires. But the multiplicity of a. trolley wire, the driver or conductor had only of these wires was objected to, though they to break the glass of a special switch and turn the had been adopted at Bradford. Passing to causes s witch or insert a plug, thus earthing the line of breakages of guard and trolley wires, and of through the trolley pole and car wheels to the contacts between such wires, he recommended rails. The abnormal current through the feeder that guard wires and their bindings should be to the section would at once blow the station made of silicon bronze, which would be stronger, fuses. This simple device was being tried at have greater conductivity, and withstand atmo- Leeds. In Glasgow they had three authorities spheric corrosion better than the wires now dealing with these matters : the Postal Engineering applied. Prevention could be effected by placing Department ; the National Telephone Company, fuses and automatic cut-out switches in the supply which had no power to open streets ; and the stations, or in each of the half-mile street pillar Corporation, which has just started a. telephone boxes, which should contain a. telephone. The exchange, and placed all wires in underground latter practice was unusual, as electricians object to cast-iron pipes where they approach the tramway multiplying these devices. They would only put lines. There can be no doubt, the Professor con­main-feeder hand switches and a. trolley wire section eluded, that the only sure and safe plan to avoid hand switch, together with a telephone, in these trouble is to place all non-tramway electrical con·

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SEPT. I 3' 190 1. J E N G I N E E R I N G. •

COMPOUND BLOWING ENGINES AT THE ASKAM IRON

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ductors of whatever kind underground. Thfi' tables on tests of trolley, span, and guard wires added . to the paper are due to Mr. John ~oung, general manager of the Glasgow Corpora­tiOn tramways.

Nobody took up the challenO'e which Professor Jamieso~ threw out to all non-t~amway men. Mr. M. B. Fteld, of Glasgow, mentioned, in explanation of the minor troubles on the GlasO'OW tramways that the system was still in the ha;ds of the con: tractors; b~t he had no time to enter upon details. He was agatnst guard wires, and thought that the Board of Trade had much better pay attention to the span of telephone and telegraph wires. They had, to quote an example, a trolley wire fixed in nine places under one span of telephone wires. After calling ~pon Mr. Ernest Gerard, of Bruxelles, who atated tn a few words that no system of accident­preventing devices was perfect, Mr. Langdon asked that further criticisms and remarks should be oommunicatad in writing.

ELEOTRIOITY SUPPLY METERS OF THE EL'EOTRO­LYTIO TYPE.

Mr. J. R. Dick, B. Se., M. I. E. E., of Brighton, oondens~d the substance of his paper-which, being of a speCial type, rarely discussed in the Insbitution, might have claimed extended attention-into a few minutes.

Mr. Gibbinga having brought a paper on un­shunted electrolytic meters before the Institution in 1898, Mr. J. R. Dick devoted his remarks to shunted electrolytic meters, and especially to such in which mercury is deposited from mercurous salt. When a shunt is used in connection with an elec­trolytic meter which has a back electromotive force, some compensating electromotive force has to be inserted in the cell circuit in order to obtain a. constant linear ratio between the main and shunt currents. Mr. Arthur Wright, of Brighton, to whose meter the paper is practically confined, does this in several ways. The most practical method is to place a shunt R across the mains and to interpose a portion r of this resistance R in the cell circuit, such that with a back electromotive force in the voltameter of 1. 5 volt, the ratio r : R is the same as 1.5 to the supply pressure. The resistance r will then counterbalance the electro­motive force of the cell, and no current will flow through the cell when there is no current in the mains. It would be preferable, however, if we could avoid the continuous waste of purrent in the meter and the complication, by choos­ing an electrolytic cell without any back elec­tromotive force. The old Edison cell, with its two equal zinc electrodes immersed in zinc sul­phate, should have had no counter electromotive force ; but it had nevertheless an electromotive force of 0.0085 volts, which, while negligible with strong currents, produced an error of 8.5 per cent. with currents of one ampere. This was, however, not the reason for abandoning the meter ; it was more the trouble of having to change and weigh the electrodes, and refix them, to which objection was taken. Mercury salt cells, generally mercurous nitrate, which is very soluble, offer the great advan­tages that their electromotive force is very low, and that the mercury liberated need not be weighed by taking the apparatus to pieces, but can be collected and measured in graduated vessels. Such meters were constructed in 1892 by McKenna, and by Anders and Kottgen. These cells are connected across a low-resistance shunt R in one of the supply mains, a comparatively high resistance r being put in the cell itself, which thus receives only a small fraction of the main current. Their chief defect was that crystals would ·deposit at the anode surface, and that the consequent increase in the resistance could not be prevented by agitation. One of the meters devised by Mr. A. W right, was, in the author's opinion, free from those defects. The total resistance of shunt and cell is 40 ohms, of the platinoid resistance in the main circuit 0.2 ohms, and the maximum current about 0.015 ampere for a meter of 5 amperes capa­city. The anode is placed above the kathode, not below, as in the previous type. The anode mercury is contained in a circular trough, which is of such a height that the concentrated solution formed by the electrolytic action, falls off the curved surface of the mercury by gravity, and mixes the liquid. This diffusion by gravity would become ineffective if the mercury in the anode were to sink below the level of the lip of the trough; but this is prevented by adding an anode feeder,

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which resembles a " bird fountain · " as the anode mercury is electrolysed and the le;el lowered, the flow f:om the anode feeder restores the mercury level tn _the trough, while a corresponding amount of solut10n replaces the mercury thus withdrawn from the trough. The kathode is a hollow cone of platinum or carbon, concentric to the anode trouO'h, The circulation of the electrolyte is reinforced

0

by the . kathode, as . the lighter liquid produced tends to rtse and to d tsplace the dense solution at the anode. With this diffusion and the large anode sur­face there is no tendency to crystallisation and no needforagitation. The anode feeder arrange~entfur­t~er keeps the electrode surface and their respective d1stances constant, which is, of course necessary to render the internal resistance con~tant. The mercury deposited falls into a glass funnel and a s~phon V-tube. W~en this syphon tube has recetved mercury equtvalent to 100 units the syphon will come into play, and the whole' mer­cury be drawn into a receptacle. One division of this receptacle is equivalent to the whole volume of the syphon. A 5-ampere meter furnished with these two di~ls will register up to 1200 units; and the range of ~he Instruments is practically limited only by the we1ght of mercury which it is advisable to put into the anode feeder. When a full record has been obtained on the meter, the instrument is tilted up, so that the mercury flows back into the anode trough. A consumer with a 5-ampere demand on a 250-volt circuit would not have to reset the meter ":lore than once a year. As there is no gas evolu­tlOn, the glass tube can be hermetically sealed up, and barometric changes do not affect the instru­ment; the temperature correction can easily be made ; freezing has ' to be guarded against, but is not likely to occur. Direct Board of Trade unit readings can be easily arranged for. The counter-electromotive force of the cell is stated to be 0. 0001 volt, and the diffusion to be efficient to prevent any electromotive force due to concen­tration differences within the solution, which might give rise to an electromotive force of 0.016 volt. The temperature coefficient of the electrolyte is negative, that of the resistance in series with it positive ; thus a constant total resistance can be secured. The paper discusses these points some­what at length, and proceeds to duration tests of the meter extending over five months. There is a considerable error for the first ten units, because some of the deposited mercury adheres to the platinum kathode ; when it falls off, however, the error corrects itself, and a carbon kathode avoids this trouble entirely. Of late, a maximum demand indicator has become a necessary adjunct to meters. The electrolytic meter is combined with a thermal demand indicator, the heating resist­ance serving as shunting resistance for the elec­trolytic · meter, so that no further loss of pressure is entailed.

When lamps are grouped on the three-wire system, two ampere-hour meters are generally required. Mr. Dick manages with one, by split­ting the neutral wire into two equal low resist­ances, and connecting the meter across the ends of these resistances ; the current through the cell will then always be proportional to the sum of the currents C1 and C2 in the two halves of the in­stallation. Mr. Dick concluded by saying that after eight months of working these meters under con­ditions equivalent to five years of ordinary installa­tion practice, the proportion of mercurous nitrate in the solution was found unaltered, and only traces of mercuric nitrate could be detected, and that the lingering objections to electrolytic meters should therefore vanish.

The crux of the problem is the diffusion of the liquid. But as there was no time for discussion, the point could not be debated. Reeent researches, carried on particularly in France, Germany, and the United States, have more . and more confirmed the view that voltameters require very careful treatment. Ordinary voltameters, in which water is decomposed into oxygen and hydrogen, are unreliable, even when the sulphuric acid is replaced by phosphoric acid, as Mascart proposed, and the ozone for­mation is prevented. Copper voltameters, though much better, are h&rdly regarded as scientific instruments by some physicists. The silver volta­meter is exact and reliable, but not convenient. If mercury voltameters have so many advan­tages, we may wonder why scientists have not used them. But the curves which Mr. Dick exhibited certainly show a remarkable accuracy of his meters for currents considerably weaker

•

(SEPT. 13, 1901.

than those we have to deal with in private electric lighting.

KELVIN's ELECTRic MEASURING INSTRUMENTS.

In calling upon Professor Magnus MacLaan, D.Sc .. , M.I.E.E., to read this paper, Mr. L:mgdon explatned that the Oouncil of the Institution of Electrical Engineers had deemed it appropriate and a matter of general interest to ask Lord Kelvin for a communication on his scientific inventions, and Pro­fessor MacLean had been good enough to compile the paper, copies of which were in hand. Professor MacLean at t:>nce declared that he would bear in mind the well-known eharacter of most of the in­struments and the shortness of the time, and he really confined himself to a few remarks on novel features. His paper enumerates the patents which Lord Kelvin has taken out since 1858 on telegraphic and on measuring apparatus, and briefly describes them under the four headings of electrometers, electro-magnetic instruments for measuring cur­rents and differences of potential, electro-dynamic instruments, and instruments arranged for record­ing and integrating electric currents. Specimens of all the instruments were on the table. Of recent years Lord Kelvin has reverted to the syphon-recorder type with a moveable coil in a fixed magnetic field. Weber's electro dynamo­meter was the first suspended coil apparatus, his fixed coil acting on a moveable coil. The firs t coil, moving in the tield of a steel magnet, was con­structed by the Rev. H. High ton, and used by the British and Irish Telegraph Company about 1856. Lord Kelvin improved this form by introducing, in 1867, a fixed soft-iron core in the syphon recorder, and now there are six different types of these moveable coil instruments. The portable pattern is applied in the rail test for determining the con­ductivity of tramway rails. The ampere gauges for use on switchboards have recently been perfected in two ways. To obtain a more uniform field, two copper tubes are placed within one another, both spirally cut ; the one right-handed, the other left­handed. Further, the soft·iron plungers are now suspended from a sector which maintains the move­ment of the plunger in the same vertical straight line.

Mr. Chamen, Chief Engineer of the Corporation Electricity Depart ment, of Glasgow, mentioned that he was using more than 100 of these instruments, and that he found them most valuable and con­venient ; the record sheets are preserved, and there is no need for log-book keeping. Professor MacLean deserved the vote of thanks accorded to him for the able and discreet manner in which he discharged his task.

(To be continued. )

LOCOMOTIVE RUNNING SHEDS ; EASTERN RAILWAY OF FRANCE.

THE la~ing do~n of en~ine· houses i~ close proximity to the mam statiOns of Important ratlway systems is always a more or less difficult problem. These build­ings require to be easy of access and of sufficiently large dimensions to afford every facility, and they have also to contain all the necessary devices and appliances for the rapid cleaning and re-coaling of the engines. All these conditions are met in the new locomotive depot which the Eastern Railway Company of France have built at a short distance from their Paris terminus, at Noisy-le·Sec, at the junction of their main lines with the Grande Ceinture Rail way that surrounds the Metropolis, and in the centre of their sidings and branch lines which serve for the marshalling of trains.

The round-houses are at present two in number, but the necessary space is provided for a third, which is t3 be built as soon as an increase in the traffic renders it necessary. They are 70 metres (229 ft. ) in diameter, and are illustrated on pages 354 and 355. From Figs. 4 and 5 it will be seen that the main iron framing is independent of the circumferential wall, the arched ribs reaching down to the floor level, where they are made to bear on hinges; at the top the ribs abut on a ring 3.2 metres (10ft. 6 in. ) in diameter. Each house is built for 32locomotives and their tenders; the loco· motive fronts face the outside wall, a hood being fitted over each chimney for the escape of smoke. A turn· table 17 metres (56 ft.) in diameter is provided in the centre of each round-house.

The depot, as it now stands, meets the requirements of 92 locomotives, namely, 58 ordinary freight engines, 16 fast freight engines, and 18 shunting locomotives, but is sufficient for 120 locomotives. When the third round house is built, the plaut will be sufficient for 200 engines, There are ati pre)ent in the dep6t Ill

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SEPT. lJ, 190!.]

engine·drivers, · 107 stokers, and 131 workmen and bbourers.

As shown in Figs. 1, 2, and 3, the two round-houses are joined together by a building which CO\'ers the offices, stores, repair and maintenance shops, and the necessary accommodation for the engine-drivers and stokers, such as dormitory, dining-room, and bath­room. . The reference letters in Fig. 2 apply to the followmg :

A Engine B Turning and screw · outting

lat hes 0, E, F Drilling maohines D Grindstones G, H, I PlaninJ.r machin('S J Foreman's office li Cleansing bath L Water supply M Double smith-hear t hs N Anvils 0 Vices for hot bending

P Round h earth Q Forge frame 1t Regulus mel ting hear t h S Boilermakers' benoh T Surface plates U Tables V Ventilator X Gramme dynamos Y Work benohes Z WeighbridJe W 12-ton lift tng tackle

On an ~verage lOO to 125 locomotives are repaired per year 10 these shops ; the general small repairs are carried out methodically, each freight or shunt ing engine being taken into the depot for inspection and repair after it has completed about 19,000 miles, when the tyres are replaced if necessary, the mechanism overhauled, the cylinders re-bored if necessary, and other work carried out. The engines are sent to the company's works at Epernay for extensive repairs only, such as the replacing of tubeplates, fireboxes, cylinders, &o., and this is done as a rule when the engines have completed, say, 200,000 miles.

The depot contains about 10,000 tons of patent fuel, small coal, and coke; small coal forms about 77 per cent. of the t otal, and the patent fuel about 10 per cent. About 85,000 tons of fuel are handled during the year, the loading and unloading being car­ried out with the help of a 1!-ton steam crane, 12 metres (39 ft.) in radius, which works a grab weighing 4~ cwt. empty and 10 cwt. when loaded. The cost of handling the coal amounts to 26d. per ton.

The freight engines on the Eastern Railway burn almost exclusively small coal, of suitable mixture to form a semi-bituminous fuel ; briquettes are only used for lighting - up, and also at those pat·ts wbE\re a great tractive effort is required of the engines; coke is also used for lighting - up, and forms the fuel of shunting engines. The fuel consumpt ion on fast engines with tendera is 15.84 kilogrammes per kilometre (56 lb. per mile), of which 87 per cent. is small co~l, 9 per cent. briquettes, and the remainder coke. The coal and coke dust raked out from the smoke-boxes is coJlected for burning in the apparatus used for heating the rooms which are placed at the disposal of the pe1'sonnel, and in the engines that drive the water-lifting pumps. About 50 tons of this refuse is collected per day, and when it cannot all be used for the above purposes, it is mixed up with the small coal for consumption in the locomotives.

The stores shown on the plan mostly contain the necessary lubricating oil for the engines; this is Rnesian mineral oil kept in wrought-iron tanks, served by pumps.

Fig. 6, reproduced from a photograph, shows t he two round-houses and intermediate building.

THE ~'BULL, ELECTRIC MOTOR. THE Anglian Engineering Company, Limited, of

Stowmarket, Suffolk, make a series of electric motors to which the distinctive name "Bull " is applied. One of these, designed for driYing a pump, is illus­trated on page 358. It will be seen (Fig. 1) it is provided with a vertical spindle which has a coup­ling attached at the lower end to be joined to a corre­sponding coupling on the upright shaft of the pump. The entire weight of the armature and its spindle is carried by a ball bearing at the upper end, where it is perfectly accessible. The details of the bearing are shown in Fig. 4. At the top of the spindle are two lock-nuts, and below them is a collar which is keyed to the spindle, but is ('apable of sliding end wise for adjustment. Underneath the collar is the upper ball race, while the lower conical race is supported by a sleeve, which is embedded in a bored seat in the framing.

Below the ball bearing is a. gun-metal sleeve sup­porting the spindle sideways. This sleeve, together with the lower race of the ball bearing, is carried in a casting which is supported by a flange on the top of the main frame. Consequently after the uuts are removed from the end of the spindle, both bearings can be withdrawn together. There is an oil channel leading down to an annular space round the bearing, and boles leading from this space to the spindle. The oil which leaks out at the bottom of the bearings cannot run down to the commutators, but is caught by a cup screwed on to the spindle, and rises up the side of this until it finally is thrown over ita edge into the channel made to receive it (Fig. 5). A pipe from this channel connects to a similar channel at the bear­ing below the armature, while a second pipe leads the dirty oil to a tank. The lower bearing is similar in construction to the upper one, but has a narrow collar

E N G I N E E R I N G. •

above it to prevent the oil crefpiog up th 'l Priodle towatd.d the armature .

The armature is built of notched plates driven by a key sunk partially into the spindle, and the plates are clamped between end castings. The magnet cores are of bi?.h permeability magnet cast steel, and are hollow. They are secured to the frame by external flanges and screws, and can be readily removed to give access to the field coils and armature. E~ch magnet face is provided witlt a slot parallel to the armature (Fig. 2), extending to the hollow centre of the core, and affording efficient ventilation. The brush holders are of cast brass, arranged for radial carbon brushes. They slide in a long machined slot , and are pressed against the cumulator by a light pivoted lever con­trolled by a special spring. The motors are stated to run perfectly sparklessly, even at very considerable overload.

"Bull " motors are made both in this and the bori­zontd form, and in sizes from ~ to 15 horse-power. They show evidence of very careful design, and should give excellent results in working.

C0!\1POUND BLOWING ENGINE AT THE ASI{A M IRON WORKS.

W E illustrate on our two-page plate, and also on pages 362 and 363, a compound blowing engine, built by :Messrs. Galloways, Limited, of :Manchester, for the Askam Iron Works, and which formed a feature of special interest on the occasion of the recent visit of the Institution of Mechanical Engi­neers to these works. Messrs. Gallowaya, it may be added, have made a speciality of engines for iron and steel works, and, in fact, have supplied the blooming mill engines in use at the Lora.in Steel Works, Ohio. The mill in question claims to bold the record for the production of 4·in. billets, having turned out 1260 gross tone in 24 hours, from ingots measuring 18 in. by 20 in., and weighing about 5500 lb. each.

Coming back to the subject of our illustration, we may recall that until recently the air pressure used in British blast.furnace practice has ranged from 4 lb . to about 6 lb. per square inch; but it has lately become apparent that, following American examples, higher pressures up to, say, 20 lb. per square inch are needed. The engine shown has been designed to fill this want . As indicated in Figs. l, 2, and 3 of our two-page plate, the engine is of the cross·compound inverted type, with the air cylinders placed above the steam cylinders . The cranks are set at 90 de g., and the designed speed is 50 revolutions per minute, the pressure in the high-pressure steam chest being 125 lb. per square inch. Each half of the engine stands on its own bedplate. These bedplates are massive cast­ings weighing 35 tons each. 'rhey measure 10ft. wide and 18 ft. long, and the height from the bottom to the centre of the crankshaft is 5 ft. 7 in. To each of these b~dplates is bolted a cast-iron standard, constructed in halves suitably jointed together. As shown in Fig. 7, these standards are bored to serve as guides to the crosshead blocks. The weight of each standard is 21! tons. The high­pressure cylinder is 42 in. in diameter, and the low­pressure cylindH 60 in. in diameter, the stroke in each ca~e being 60 in. The weight of the high-pressure cylinder is 13 tons, and of the low-pressure 27 tons. Corliss valves are used for the steam and exhaust valves of t he high-pressure cylinder; whilst the low­pressure cylinder is fitted with two piston valves, as indicated in the cross-section (Fig. 4). The low­pressure valve casing is provided with movable doors, giving ready access to the valves when desired. The two air cylinders are each 84 in. in diameter by 60 in. stroke. They are shown in section in Fig. 6. The pistons are 12 in. deep, and are of the box type, with radial strengthening ribs as indicated. The packing consists of adjustable metallic rings. The air valves are fia.t gridiron valves of the "Southwark " type, and are mechanically controlled. As indicated in Figs. 1, 2, and 3, they are placed on the covers, so that the clearance in the cylinders is reduced to but 1! per cent.

The crankshaft is of mild steel, having journals 21 in. in diameter by 36 in. long, swelled in the centre to 23 in. in diameter to receive the flywheel. The cranks, which are of the balanced type, are of mild steel, with pins cast in one with web, and are machined bright all over. The piston-rods are 8 in. in diameter at upper part, and 10 in. in diameter in the lower por­tion, and are coned into their respective air and steam pistons. The lower portions of the piston-rods are forged solid with the main crosshead, which is fit ted with phosphor-bronze steps, and has attached to it cast-iron slippers. The connecting-rods are 8~ in. in diameter at the small e11d, and 11 in. in diameter at the large, having a length of 11 ft. 3 in. from centre to centre. The upper end is of the jaw form, and is fitted with a steel crosshead-pin, the journal measuring 10 in. by 12 in. [!he bottom ends, which connect to the crankpins, are of the marine type, and have phosphor­bronze steps 12 in. in diameter a,nd 14 in. long, forming the crankpin bearings. The governor is of the high-

Ppeed centre-weight type, positi Y"eJy driven from the high pressure crankpin by means of a drag link and shaft; but gears are used for connecting the same to the governor spindle. Provision is made to govern the engine closely at any speed between 20 and 60 revolutions, and the go,~ernor is set to directly control the cut-off from 0 to 70 per cent. of the stroke, so as to regulate the output and pressure of the air. The low - pressure piston valves are actuated by eccen­trics from the crankshaft, and are adjustable by hand. The steam, on its passage from the high to t he low pree­sure cylinder, is passed through a superheater receiver 20ft. long, fitted with internal coils.

The flywheel, which is in halves, is placed between the bedplates, and is 24ft. in diameter, and weighs 45 tone; the rim being oast with teeth for the barr-• mg gear.

For giving access to the various parts of the engine, a series of platforms are conveniently arranged, and are shown in plan in Figs. 4, 5, and 6. They are reached by means of steel staircases from the engine­house floor. The first or main platform is continuous, and completely envelops both high and low-pressure engines. It is carried on rigid brackets and entab­lature beams ; the flooring being of chequered steel plating, with a deep angle-iron on the pHiphery to prevent any loose materials from falling below. The second plat form, which is fixed from side to side of the engine, gives access to the upper cylinder coverP, steam pistons, &c., as well as to the gear for the air' cylinders at the lower end. The two upper platforms allow of access to the interior and upper parts of the air cylinders, as well as to the gear wQrking the air valves. The construction of the whole of the plat· forms is substantially the same as the lower main platform.

The lubrication system is of a very complete and extensive character, being provided with oil pumps, pipes, distri buting boxes, leads, &c., with tell-tale and sight-feed drops: so t hat the engine is self­lubricating, and can be run continuously for long periods.

For purposes of starting, a double-cylinder barring engine is provided, being arranged on the maker's patented design. The barring ~haft is fitted with two helical feathers, and carries a pimon rifled so as to slide on these feathers, and gearing into t he spur­rim cast with the flywheel; when put into opera­t ion the pinion bears against the collar on the end of the shaft, and is thus compelled to turn with the shaft, forcin g the flywheel round; but when the eugine receives steam, and the periphery speed of the fly­wheel exceeds that of the barring pinion, the latter instantly and automatically disengages iteelf and slides out of gear.

PEARN'S COMPOUND SINGLE-ACTING RAM PUMP.

WE illustrate on page 359 a. single-acting air·pump of novel design now being introduced oy Messrs. Frank Pearn and Co., Limited, of West Gorton, Manchester. As shown, two pumps are mounted side by side on a single bedplate, on which is sup­ported the crankshaft and flywheel. By a peculiarity of construction practically the whole work of each pump is done on the down-stroke of its corresponding steam piston, with a nearly uniform efleotive pressure, and hence but very little power passes through the connect­ing-rods and crankshaft, which eau, therefore, be of light construction. The means by wbioh this end is attained will readily be understood on reference to Figs. 2 and 3, which show the relative positions of the piston and valves at the middle of the down and up strokes respectively. As these diagrams show, the engine is a compound one. The high-pressure cylinder, howeyer, being single acting; whilst the low-pressure is double acting. The effective areas of the upper and lower sides of the low-pressure piston are, however, very different; since that on the upper is, as shown, a mere annulus, having an area of but 36 square inches; whilst the area of the lower face is 80 square inches. In the down-stroke position, represented in :Fig. 2, the steam entering the engine flows round the valve J into the high-pressure cylinder A, and at the same time steam also flows from the receiver H past the slide K into the low-pressure an­nulus C. At the same time the bottom of the low-pres­sure cylinder is open to exhaust, as shown. The cha­racter of the diagrams obtained is represented in Fig. 4. On the up-stroke the relative position of the valves ·is as shown in F ig. 3, in which it will be seen that the high-pressure cylinder and the lower end of the low­pressure cylinder are in equilibrium, whilst the annulus at the top of the low-pressure piston is open to exhaust. Referring to Fig. 4, it will be seen that during the down-stroke the effective pressure tran~mitted to the pump ram G is 3732 lb., while on the up-stroke, the pressure on the high· pressure piston beiDg in opposi­tion to that on the low, the effective upward pressure is but 792 lb., so that the work done on the up or suction stroke of the pump is but 21 per cent. of that done on the down or delivery stroke.

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AGENTS FOR "ENGINEERING." AUSTRIA, Vienna: Lehmann and Wentzel, Kiirntnerstrasse. 0APB TowN : Oordon and Ootch. EotNBURon: J ohn Menzies and Co., 12, Hanover-street. FRANOB, Paris : Boyveau and Ohevillet, Libra.irie Etrangbre, 22,

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-CONTENTS,

PAOB The International Engi·

neering Congress at Glasgow .. ......... .... 347

Locomotive Running Sheds; Eastern Railway of France (l1l«3trated) ............ 364

Tbe .. Bull " Eleotric Motor (Illustrated} . . . . . . . . . . . 365

Compound Blowing Engine at the Aekam Iron Works (Illust rated) . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

Pearn'ct Compound Single· Actint:r Ram Pump ( l llus.) 365

The Trades Union Congress 367 Pictet'ct Oxygen Separation

Process (illu,strated) . . . . 368 Tbe Disposal of Waste

Liquors . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . 368 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369 High-Speed Eleotrio Trao·

tion in Germany . . . . . . . . 869 The New German Atlantic

Liner u Kronprinz Wil· helm " . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370

Quadruple · Rxpansion En-gines.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sil

Water-Tube Boiler Trials .. 871 High·Pressure v. Low·Pres·

sure Steam in the Sugar Refinery .. .. .. .. .. .. • • .. Sil

Tbe New Laboratories at the Glasgow University ....•. 371

PAGE Notes from the North .... 372 Notes from South York·

shire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 872 Notes from Cleveland and

the Northern Counties .. 372 Notes from the South-West 372 Miscellanea. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S73 Notes from the United

States ......... ... .....• 374 Heavy Horizontal Turninl(

and Boring Machine (ll· lust1'ated) .. ............ 874

Diag rams of Three Month's F tuotuations in P rices of .Metals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • • . . 37 4

Industrial Notes ......... • 876 Workshop Methods . . . . . . 876 The Dortmund aod Ems

Canal (I llustrated) .. . ... 377 The Manufacture of .Marine

En~ines .. ... •... •• .... 879 The Improvement of the

Lower Mississippi Rh·er 881 Improvement Works on the

Clyde Estuary .. .. .. .. .. 382 A Premium System of Re­

munerating Labour . . . . 883 Electrical Power Supply .. . . 884 Sudan Government Military

Railways (lllustrated) . . 386 Australian Railways ...... 386

With a Ttoo-Pagt E'nf}raving oJ the COMPOUND BLOWING ENGINES AT TBB .4SKAM IRON WORKS .

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E N G I N E E R I N G.

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CONTENTS OF No. 6. PJ.OK PJ.Oit

The Law of Elect.rolysls. By W. I 'rhe llurgdorf-Timn Elect.rlo Rnll· YL\Ientlue Ball........ . . . • . . . . . . l ,way (PlAtes V. 1\nd V I . and lllu&-

The .Educl\t.lon of t.he Elect.rlcal t.n\tloua In Text.) • . . . . . • . • • . . . 32 Engineer. By Dr. J. A. Florolng, Ulg h Speed Eleohlo Tract.lon In F.ll..S. (Plat.e!4 l . to I V. and Illus · Uormrmy. ll)• 0 . I~oho (Pln.t.es t rutlQna In Text.)................ 7 VlJ. to XVI . nnd lllustmtlooa

Elootrorool>lles In Public Se.rvlco.. 10

1

In Text.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • • 42 Muulclpal Trud lng : J>neurontlo 'f y r03 for Hoovy

(d) By the H on. Robert P. Vohlolll!l. lly 1'h . .Qum1 .. .'.. . 60 Porter .. . . . . . . . . . • . . . . • • 20 Elect.rlclt.y nt. t.ho Tangorm Undo

(e) By n Borough Engineer.... 21S Sugar \Vorka .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 63 (I) By Ocorge R. Du noli • • . . . . ~.

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ENGINEERING. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1901.

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THE TRADES UNION CONGRESS. THE thirty-fourth Trades Union Congress has

completed its sittings, and its proceedings and resolves are now matters of history. The Mayor and Corporation of Swansea attended on the first day, and welcomed the delegates, several Members of Parliament being P!-"esent. Mr. Lewis Morris wrote a poetic welcome, which was read to the audience, the poet being called upon for a speech. The inhabitants generally gave a welcome to the Labour Parliament ; indeed, so profuse was it that a Scotch delegate rose to protest, but was ruled out of order. All the hours not required to be spent in Congrees were fully occupied by meetings, banquets, garden parties, trips, and other festivi­ties. The new rule, which provides that the chairman of the Parliamentary Committee shall preside over the sittings of Congress, came into force for the first. time, Mr. C. W. Bowerman, Secretary of the London Society of Compositors, occupying that position. The A_.qsociated ' Black­smiths of Scotland were no longer represent~d at the Congress. Two of the oldest bod!es- the .e~gi· neers and smiths-have severed their connectiOn with the Congress, after being among the first to institute these annual gatherings.

The report of the Parliamentary Committee dealt with the various measures before Parliament during the past session, with deputations to Ministers respecting those measures and other matters ; with some labour :disputes, ~specially the Penrhyn quarrymen's d ispute ; and with the recent decisions in t he House of Lords. Naturally, the interest of the Congress was centred in that part of the report which dealt with the Lords' decisions in the two recent cases relating to trade unions-the right to sue and the liability to be sued. So far, however, the right to sue is not at issue, whereas the liability to be sued is. The paragraphs in t he report dealing with this subject were drafted by the counsel to the Committee, and were at once professional and popular in treatment. The report says that the decision in the Taff Vale case "put in the shade every other in the trade union movement." It is called" remarkable," and quotations are given from the writings of .men who had to do with trade union legislation, in order to show that the power to sue and to be sued was intentionally left out of the Trade Union Acts, 1871 and 1876, though the question was raised at t he time by some who took part in the movement, and supported legislation.

The Presidential address had not the discursive­ness which characterised former utterances from the chair ; its salient f~ature was its closeness of touch with matters pertaining to practical issues. It was a kind of revised edition of the Parliamen­tary Committee's Report, condensed for the occa­sion. It was in the nature of a manifesto, for it had been submitted, in proof, to the Committee before

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delivery. It left socialism severely alone. It in­dulged in no flights of fancy respecting the fut':lre of labour, and gave no countenance to Utopian schemes or drean1s. It was the sober declaration of a respected official of an old.' well cond?ct~d, and powerful union, representing the pr1ntmg trades, one of the most important industries in the country. The address claimed that much of the progress of the working classes was due to trade unionism, and it appealed to the delegates assembled to carry on the work by combination, by united effort, and desire. The special practical matter before them at present was the difficult position of t rade unions, resulting from the recent legal decisions in the House of Lords. To that their energies 'should be directed, so as to avert the disaster which was threatening them by litigation.

The resolution submitted to, and adopted by, the Congress as to the legal position of trade unions was drafted by the Parliamentary Committee, with the assistance of their "standing counsel;" it was approved by the Standing Orders Committee, and amended on the motion of Mr. R. Bell, M.P., Secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Rail way Servants, one of those involved in the Taff Vale case. Th~ points in the elaborately-worded resolu­tion briefly were : (1) That a test case of picketing should be taken up and carried through to the House of .Lords. , (2) That a general fund be established to fight out in the courts all such oases. (3) That trade unions should so amend their rules as to avert, if possible, such actions at law as that of the Taff V ale case. ( 4) That an alteration in the law be sought by legislation. 1Vith respect to the proposed revision of rules, the Parliamentary Com­mittee, with the aid of counsel, will prepare draft rules and submit them to all the organised trades of the country. The suggest ion as to an alteration of rules will scarcely meet the case: The rules of the union were not attacked ; it was the action of mem­bers of the union for which the society was held to be responsible. The debate on the question was, as a rule, judicious ; but naturally some political heat was engendered, as t he Court of Appellate Jurisdiction was bJZ. . some confounded with t he House of Lords ·as a legislative body.

The proposal in favour of compulsory arbitration was rejected by 676,000.votes, by card, to 366,000 ; majority against, 310,000. It seems strange that so many delegates supported any such proposal. It would seem that some of the labour leaders desire a court something after the Irish Land Courts, with power to fix the rates of wages and hours of labour, as_the latter do'' fair rents.'' The power is to extend to coercion ; to force men into the unions. It is a foolish dre!}m in any case. The men, as a rule, who ask for more law, complain most .bitterly of existing law. But, then, they themselves want to frame the law _and enforce it; all others would have to obey. Britain .has not yet arrived at such a conclusion, in spite of the votes of Congress delegates. In the dis­cus'sion on the proposal to amend the law so that foreign shipowners should be compelled to pay com­pensation in case of injury, it was stated that the new Factory Act had put foreign owners in the same position as English owners, but a further amend­ment of the law was needed. Congress passed a series of resolutions on the subject of education, in which it was proposed to raise the age limit of children to 15 years. This was opposed by several delegates, and one said in reply that the Factory Act had , been forced down the throats of the operatives; a statement quite the opposite of truth. What they have done is to oppose any too speedy incre!\Se of age limit. ·

The Congress was less socialistic than any for the last ten years. An amendment moved to a resolu­t ion, reviving the proposal of the nation taking over all the means of production, distribution, and ex­change, was defeated by a show of hands, and, upon being challenged, by 685,000 to 264,000 votes . A resolution to suspend the standing orders, with the view of discussing the South African war, was defeated by 138 to 115, and then by voting cards by 724,000 to 333,000. A resolution in support of the Mines Eight Hours' Bill was carried. The resolution for .an eight hours' day for all trades and occupations was also carried. . On the whole the proceedings of the Congress

were orderly and businesslike. · They were more after the lines of the Congresses from 1871 to 1889. The recent law cases necessitated a definite pro­gramme. In view of the attitude of some employers to appeal to the Courts, tpe delegates could not afford to waste much time upon questions of the

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far-off future ; dreams of Utopias and milleniums. Work nearer at home engrossed their attention. The reputation of Congress will not suffer in conse­quence of this change of position. If it is to have weight, its decisions must be of a practical character, within the purview of possible early realisation by legislation. London is chosen for the next Con­gress. Several great public meetings were held during the week, ending in a monster demonstra­tion of the local trades on Saturday.

PIOTET'S OXYGEN SEPARATION PROCESS.

M. RA.OUL PIOTET, the well-known Geneva physicist, has recently brought forward a plan for separating oxygen from the air, on a commercial scale, by means of a process of fractional distilla­tion. If liquid air is allowed to evaporate, the gas which first comes off is almost pure nitrogen, whilst after nine-tenths of the liquid have evaporated, the remaining tenth is nearly pure oxygen, which can be collected and stored in any suitable receiver. The production of liquid air, in the first place, is, of course, a somewhat expensive operation, but by a. system of heat interchanges M. Pictet utilises the gases evaporating off to lower to the point of liquefaction the fresh supplies of air passed into his apparatus ; so that were it possible in practice to make use of perfect conductors of heat for the coils of the interchanger, and of absolute heat in­sulators to prevent the passage of heat in from the exterior, the apparatus would work indefinitely without any diminution of the original charge of liquid air. In actual pract ice, however, it is im­possible to avoid leakages of heat ; and it is there­fore necessary to maintain a constant supply of energy to the apparatus, sufficient to compensate for the loss of liquid air evaporated by heat flowing in by conduction, or by heat generated by the friction of the moving fluids in the interchanger. This supply of energy is readily afforded by keeping the air in the inlet pipes under a pressure of 30 lb. to 40 lb. per square inch, whilst the exhaust takes place at atmospheric pressure.

M. Pictet'e plant is represented diagrammatically in the annexed figure. It consists of ten stills, num­bered I to X in the diagram. These, it will be seen, are placed in a pile, one above the other. At start­ing, each is filled with liquid air to a level fixed by an overflow pipe, the overflow from each passing through this pipe into the still below. Immersed in the liquid in each still is a coil of piping represented by the series of small circles. Each of these coils opens at one end into a central vertical pipe passing through the whole column of stills into a filter chamber at the top. At the other end, each coil is continued by an interchanger coil, forming a series of windings round the central chamber of each still, and terminating at the inlet main shown to the left of the diagram. By means of heat insulating partitions between the successive windings of the interchanger coils, the gases evaporated from the liquid in each still flow round these coils as they pass out from the apparatus. An interchange of heat therefore takes place between the fresh supply of air entering the still through the coils, and the outgoing gases. By using sufficiently long coils this interchange can be made practically com­plete, so that on their final escape from the appara­tus the gases evaporated are at ordinary atmospheric temperature, whilst the incoming air on reaching the central chamber of the still has been reduced to a temperature corresponding to the boiling point of the liquid in the still. The latter is, however, at atmospheric pressure, whilst the in­coming air is at a pressure of some 40 lb. per square inch, and accordingly condenses to a liquid. The la$ent heat set free in these condensations passes out through the walls of the submerged coils, and evaporates a corresponding amount of the liquid in the still. The liquefied air passes next from the submerged coil into the vertical pipe, and is delivered into a filter at the top of the apparatus, as already explained. In passing through this filter, the solidified carbonic acid gas is strained out, and may be collected for bottling. The liquid passing through the filter is delivered into No. 1, the topmost still. Since, however, this still re­ceives the whole amount of the incoming liquid, and only performs one-tenth of the total evaporation, nine-tenths of what it receives passes on to No. 2 still by the overflow pipe, and similarly for the remain­ing stills of the series. Nitrogen has a boiling point of about- 195 deg. Cent., whilst oxygen boils

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E N G I N E E R I N G.

at - 183 deg. Cent. This difference of 12 deg. Oent. at these low temperatures is proportionately as great as one of 40 deg. Cent. at a temperature of 60 deg. Cent. Hence, in the top still practically pure nitrogen is alone evaporated, and as a consequence the liquid in this still contains more oxygen than an equivalent weight of common air. A portion of this liquid passes over into No. 2 still, as already explained. In t his still, again, next to no oxygen is evaporated, so that the overflow to No. 3 still con­tains proportionately even less nitrogen than that from No. 1. This holds throughout the series : the liquid as it passes down the column through the overflow cont.aining less and less nitrogen as it approaches the bottom still, the contents of which consists of oxygen t o the extent of well over 90 per cent. The distillate from the five uppermost stills is 90 per cent. nitrogen. In that from stills num­bers 6 and 7, the nitrogen is in about the same proportion as in common air, while from the re­maining three stills the discharge analyses 55 per cent. of 0. In certain cases it may be convenient to collect separately the distillate from No. 10, since this is over 90 per cent. 0 ; but for many indus­trial uses the gas obtained by combining the dis­charge from the three lower stills will serve every purpose.

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Certain precautions are needed in the purifica­tion of the air before it enters the apparatus, as it is essential that it shall be quite free from moisture, which would deposit as ice and clog the interchanger coils. This moisture M. Pictet extracts by cooling the air well below the freezing point of water by an auxiliary refrigerating plant. The 1noistur~ in it can be thus deposited in some readily accessible chamber, and the pure dry air passed on to the dis­tilling plant.

The commercial importance of a really cheap method of preparing oxygen on a large scale can hardly be overrated, as it would lead to an enormous saving in fuel, particularly in the case of metallur­gical operations. In many of these, the desideratum is temperature rather than heat units. The specific heat of nitrogen is high, and as this gas forms three­quarters the weight of ordinary air, the tempera­ture attained in the air furnace is limited, rand is far below what can be obtained by burning the same fuel in an atmoaphere of oxygen. Hitherto, the great cost of oxygen has prevented any attempt to replace air by this gas in industrial operations; but M. Pictet hopes that with his new plant the cost may be reduced sufficiently to render the sub­stitution commercially possible. With a plant treating some 500 tons of air per day, he estimates that 110 tons of a distillate containing over 50 per cent. of oxygen could be obtained. At the same

(SEPT. 13, 1901.

time about 0. 25 ton of solid CO? would be collected, which could readily be increased up to two or three tons if desired, by adding washed furnace gases to the air supply entering the apparatus. At one-third of present prices for liquid C02, this bye­product would, M. Pictet claims, pay the whole of the expenses of working. Assuming, however, that no market could be found for this product, the cost per 1000 cu hie feet of 50 per cent. 0 would, making due allowance for interest on capital depreciation and the like, not be more than about lid. per 1000 cubic feet ; whilst if 90 per cent. oxygen alone were pro­duced, its cost wou]~ be 3id. per 1000 cubic feet. The power req uired to run such a plant would amount to a total of nearly 700 horse-power, of which 100 horse-power would be needed for the refrigerator used in de-hydrating the air. For me~allurgical operations in which the final product is carbon monoxide, the plant in question should theoretically suffice to burn 110 tons of coke per day.

THE DISPOSAL OF WASTE LIQUORS. THE disaster which took place at the end of last

month at Hackney Wick, and w hi eh was directly attributable to the exceptional rainfall, has brought attention forcibly to bear upon the danger which petroleum at tar-distillation works presents to the population resident in their vicinity. Although the rider to the verdict suggested that in the interests of public safety the storage of inflammable liquids in underground tanks should cease, we are not disposed to urge stringent action on this head, because it was an exceptional climatic disturbance which caused the trouble at Messrs. Capel, Carless, and Leonard's works, and there is no evidence whatever to show that under ordinary circumstances such methods of storage are attended by any danger, or, at any rate, by more than the minimum of danger inseparably associated wit·h such inflam­mable material. Of course, no mere trouble or inconvenience should be allowed to stand in the way of public safeguards, but, at the same time, it is impossible to insure complete immunity from disaster resulting from what is vaguely known in contract clauses as '' the hand of God," as any accurate forecast of the form which such special visitations may take is inherently difficult. There are, however, one or two points arising out of the evidence given at the inquest which invite attention, bearing as they do upon matters of every-day pro­cedure in works, such as rubber works, where these inflammable liquids are in regular use. Not the least important of such points is the difficulty surrounding the disposal of waste liquors. Of course, it is a fact that in rubber works pure and simple practically the whole of the volatile sol vent which is used is either condensed for use over again or is dissipated into the surrounding atmos- -phere, where it has never been found to give rise to ~ny complaints, or, at any rate, not to complaints wh10h could be substantiated from a hygienic standpoint. I t is really only where experiments are being carried out, either on a laboratory or practical scale, that the necessity for disposing of waste naphtha arises, and the position in this case is hardly likely to give any cause for concern.

Still, even where the quantity to be disposed of is quite small, it cannot be too strongly urged that the free-and-easy method of emptying into the adjacent sewer is one fraught with danger, if not to t~~ immediate surroundings, at any rate to locahttes somewhat removed. The statemen·t of Dr. Alexander at the inquest referred to above is not ~y any means that of an alarmist; it presents sucCinctly an ever present danger. A sewer in which the contained atmosphere is surcharged with petroleum vapour is necessarily a latent source of danger which needs only the presence of a lighted match to develop results of a more or less disastrous character. We are not here going into the theory of explosions, so pointed reference need not be made ~o the actual conditions requisite to produce explosiVe effects of a greater or less magnitude. I t will suffice to state as a fact which cannot be ~isputed that the presence of inflammable vapours 1n enclosed spaces, such as a sewer, is a source of danger which should be strenuously guarded against. It is therefore somewhat disquieting to hear that miles of sewerage in certain districts of London are in such a condition that the introduction of a light would probably be attended with danger of an acute character. Such a condition of affairs now that forcible attention has been drawn to it' certainly calls for r~medial measures, tha applica:

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SEPT. 13, rgor.J

tion of which will, of course, be met with the usual outcry that they will have the effect of driving away industries which provide a source of employ­ment to the resident population in their vicinity.

But we are not considering here the places where inflammable liquids are manufactured or dealt in on the large scale, being concerned rather with their immediate application, and the danger sur­rounding which cannot really be said to be of such magnitude as to call for serious notice. Still, it is prudent to recognise that even a gallon or two of such liquids as light petroleum or carbon bisulphide, if carelessly poured into drains, may prove a source of danger. The wording of the clauses relating to sewers in the Public Health Act, 1872, is not very explicit, as it leaves rather too much to the persons chiefly concerned as to what may or may not be considered objectionable. Besides, there is always the difficulty that chemical reaction of a disagree­able or dangerous nature may take place between substances put into sewers by difl'erent persons occu­pying adjoining premises, although such substances when kept apart may be innocuous. Although it may seem somewhat of a hardship, we strongly hold to ihe opinion that no substances which give off inflammable vapours at temperatures such as are ordinarily met with in these climes should be allowed ingress into public sewers, and it should be impressed upon those possessing private sewers and drains that they incur great risks by counten­ancing any such procedure on their own premises.

When the bulk of liquor to be disposed of does not exceed a few gallons, it may be conveniently poured on to waste land or a cinder heap, or, with due precaution, it may be burnt under the boiler fire. In the case of rubber works, the substance which presents the greatest difficulty is the waste cold cure liquor, because, unlike naphtha, it con­tinues to be objectionable long after it has been poured away on waste land, and it is not at all desir­able to use it as fuel for the boiler, owing to the corrosive nature of the sulphurous fumes given off on combustion. In some cases where its disposal has become an acute question, arrangements have been made for sending it back to the manufacturer, if he happens to be within a reasonable distance, the responsibility and danger thus being thrown on to shoulders n1ore capable of bearing them. We do not propose to enter further upon the questions involved on the present oceasion, and are conscious that what we have said will not do much to illumine a dark subject, but it is often useful to draw attention forcibly to matters which, though of recognised importance, yet often fail to attract their due share of notice until some catas­trophe compels energetic action on the part of those who have lived in an atmosphere of false security.

NOTES. EMERY-COATED TooLs.

THE use of emery tools has been limited because the material does not lend itself readily to shaping ; we are practically confined to grinding surfaces

· of simple forms. The galvanic process invented by Joseph Rieder, of Leipzig, however, allows us to make use of any kind of emery powder, and to arrange it in various shapes, so that we are presented with a new sty le of emery tool. Rieder is known as the inventor of the electro-engraving process, whose characteristic feature is a machine which returns the plaster negative to its position with mathe­matical a(;curacy, so that the galvanic etching, which has to be interrupted several thnes a minute to secure uniform electrolytic action, practically re­mains continuous. In order to fix the emery sand on the tools referred to above, he first coat~t the emery with a varnish obtained by dissolving wax or paraffin in benzine. Graphite will adhere to the grains when they have been treated thus, and in this way the emery surface is made electrically conductive. The tool, e.g. , a disc, is placed in the sulphate of copper bath, and the prepared sa.ad dropped on it. Each grain will become embedded in a coating of copper, and the grains will thus be fixed just as gems have been mounted for some time by means of a galvanop]astic process. The sand can also be treated with a glycerine paste, which is then applied to the surface to be covered with emery. As soon as a thin film of copper has settled on the steel, the glycerine is washed off with hot water, and the copper film is afterwards thickened in the bath, In this way emery tools are obtained7 which

E N G I N E E R I N G.

are said to wear very well. Their disadvantage is that they do not cut deeply, because the interstices are filled up. But such discs can be revolved at a much higher rate than we could venture to adopt in the case of an ordinary emery wheel of the same din1ensions. Another ad vantage is that we can construct tools of this kinq in almost any shape - hollow drums, cutters of various profiles, reamers, convex or concave lenses, knives, engrav­ing tools, and even files. When the electrolytic file-sharpening process came up about ten years ago, the invention was ascribed to and claimed by several inventors. In that case the file is the anode. Here we have a kathodio process which may also have occurred to several scientists, though we are not aware that anybody but Rieder has put emery-coated tools on the market. ·

MINERAL PRODUCTION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. THE progress of a country, especially in mining,

is too often measured by stock exchange operations and so it has been with British Columbia. The truer proof is the value of the minerals won, and here it is gratifying to notice a steady adv~nce, although it is not by any means commensurate with the ideas of the stock jobber. Last year the total value was 3,269,000l., as compared with 2,479,000l. in the previous year, while in ten years the annual output has multiplied six-fold ; but the progress is more pronounced in the baser metals, a fact which carries with it the greater satisfaction, for with them there is less likelihood of violent fluctuations, or of the supply giving out. As a result of placer mining, the production in each of the two past years has been 260,000l., double of that in any of the preceding 10 years; but 30 years ago the value was 700,000l. These figures include the value of the silver in the gold, which varies from 10 to 25 per cent . The gold won from lode mines has steadily increased in recent years, and now reaches nearly 700,000l., while from the silver mines the total last year was 462, OOOZ., not by any means the highest level of recent years ; the lead won is worth 640, OOOl., and the copper 305, OOOl. It is in coal, however, that t,he most satisfactory pro­gress is being made ; there has been few set-backs to the steady advance, and last year's ou~put is the highest in the history of British Columbia, the quantity being 1,439,595 tons, and the value 864, OOOl. There is, after all, more money to be made out of coal, sometimes, than from goldmining.

THE BRITISH AssociATION. The British Association for the advancement

of science is holding its meeting this year, and, for the fourth time, in the commercial capital of Scotland ; being attracted chiefly, no doubt, by the Glasgow Exhibition. Following so quickly on the Engineering Congress, one might expect that the proceedings would be a trifle dull in the section with which we are chiefly interested, that devoted to "Engineering ;1

' as the new title now is, in place of " Mechanical Science,, by which Section G was formerly known. To judge by the gathering on Wednesday evening, however, when t he new president delivered the customary inau­gural address, there will be no falling-off in the importance of the proceedings. The President this year is Professor Arthur Rucker, M.A., D.Sc., LL.D., who has long taken a leading part in the organisation of the Association, and is well known in the world of science as Principal of London U ni­versity and Secretary of the Royal Society. Among the vice-presidents this year are the Earl of Glasgow, President of the Institution of Naval Architects, Lord Kelvin, Sir Andrew Noble, Sir Archibald Geikie, and Dr. John Inglis. In the sections, Major P. A. MacMahon will preside in Section A, Mathe­matical and Physical Science ; Professor Percy Frankland in Section B, Chemistry ; Mr. John Horne in Section C, Geology; Sir Robert Giffin in Section F, Economic Science and Statistics ; in Section G, Engineering, Colonel R. E. Crompton will preside ; whilst the new section-L-de~oted to Educational Science, will have the Right Hon. Sir John E . Gorst as President. It is now sixty­one years since the British Association first met in Glasgow, the president on that occasion being the Marquis of Breadalbane. One does not now associate his name with any great development of science ; though in the course of six decades even a respectable contemporary reputation may be lost in the galaxy of scientific talent and genius that has adorned the latter half of the last century. In t hose days, however, the Aesooiation7 not so

strong as now, depended a good deal on aristocratic support. It was not so far removed from the era of powerful and wealth! patrons, who, .after all, did so much to foster sCience, art, and h terature, in a less instructed age. The presidential address in Section G is likely to be, perhaps, more than usually interesting, as Colonel Crompton has chosen for his chief subject a question of ~pecial. impor~­ance in the present day, and one w1th wh10h he IB

especially well able to deal, namely, the probable future development of passenger and goods trans­port. We shall, however, in accordance with our usual custom, print this address in full shortly, and need, therefore, make no further reference to it here. There will also be in this section a paper contributed by Sir W. C. Roberts-Austen on "Aluminium ;" whilst Professor Wilson will con­tribute a paper on the '' Commercial Influence of Aluminum." Mr. Mark Barr will read what should be an interesting paper on "Machinery for Engrav­ing ;" and it is arranged that there shall be an exhi­bition of such machinery in operation. There will also be papers on" Railway Rolling Stock," by Mr. Macdonald ; on the ''Transport of Goods by the Electric Trolley System," by Mr. Gibbings; on the "Diesel Engine ;'1 on "Chain Driving," by Mr. Garrard; on "Rolled Steel Joists,, by Mr. E. T. Ed wards ; on ''Tunnelling through Quicksands, 11 by M. Gobert; and on ''The Measurement of Hardness of Materials," by Mr. T. A. Hearson. The latter should be a most interesting paper; and if the author can introduce a simple and trustworthy method of testing and tabulating the degree of hardness in metals, he will have done a most useful service to engineers. There will also natur­ally be the inevitable but no less useful paper, on the exhibits at the Glasgow Exhibition. In our next issue we shall commence our usual report of the meeting.

HIGH-SPEED ELECTRIC TRACTION IN GERMANY.

By 0. LASCHE, Berlin. SoME time since a scientific committee (Studien­

gesellschaft ftir Elektrische Schnellbahnen) was appointed in Berlin for the purpose of studying the technical and economical requirements of high­speed electric working on long-distance railways. The maximum speed limit for the trials was at first decided upon at 200 kilometres (125 miles) per hour. After caref~l calculations and a con­sideration of expert opinion on the subject, it was decided to use a line already existing, the German War Department having placed such a one at the disposal of the association. The construction of a special experimental line would have involved great loss of time and very heavy extra expense. The railway on which the trials will be commenced shortly is the military Berlin-Zossen line. This is specially suitable for the experiments, as special trials can be made on it with reference to the relative merits of different methods of super­structure, permanent way, rail sections and joints, &c.

It was decided that two cars should be built for the purpose of experiment, one by the Allgemeine Elektricitats Gesellschaft, of Berlin, the other by Messrs. Sietnens and Halske. The car* of the A. E. G. has now been tried at the testing stand at the factory, and these trials have answered all ex­pectations so far as the conditions of working can be determined under stationary tests.

The oar was tested with a peripheral speed of the wheels of about 66 metres per second corre­sponding to a car speed of 200 to 210 kil~metres per hour.

The present article relates exclusively to the construction and testing of the car, and to the investigations and experiments in connection thereto. The second part of the work will shortly commence-namely, the running tests on the line which, when concluded, will afford the material fo; future articles.

THE PROPOSED RUNNING TESTS ON THE LINE. a. Attavnment of a Speed of 80 to 100 kilomet;res

(60 to 62 miles) pe1· howr.-In the first instance it is necessary to ascertain what speeds are attainable

* At the International Engineering Congr~s, 1901 at Glasgow, Mr. 0. Lasohe, the chief engineer of the·A.E:G., read. a p~per ~efo~e the Electrical Section (Section IX.), ~eahng wtth th1s. h1~h·speed oar, and a detailed and fully­l llustrated desortptton of the car appears in TRACTION AND TRANSMISSION, Part VI., September,

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wit hout involving alteration or reconstruction of existing lines. The question is to find out h ow much less will be t he wear and tear by electric car on the track, and consequently its maintenance, when running at the same speeds which have already been obtained by steam locomotives on some high-class lines. In many cases it may be t hat electrical working with single motor cars offers t he possibility of handling a r~pidly-increasing traffic on the existing bridges and tracks, where t he heavier steam locomotives or longer trains would require alterations. The attainment of hi<>'h speeds would, to a certain degree, prove generally ~ atisfactory. Distances would be covered in shor ter t ime, and t he public would not have to wait for a small number of long trains in the day. The absence of smoke is an additional point in favour of electric t raction.

The centre axle of each bogie is only a running axle, the outer axles each carrying a motor of 250 horse-power, capable of developing a maximum of 750 horse-power. The diameter of the car wheels is 1260 millimetres (42.21 in.),!and the speed about 960 revolutions per minute.

INVESTIGATIONS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE MoTOR CAR.

The problem put before the designer was the creation of something altogether new, namely, the construction of an experimental motor car, outside any existing type of low-speed electric locomotives, or of street railway oars. The only aim in view in making the investigationA was the construction of a motor car to run long distances at the highest attainable speed.

The weight of the electrical equipment in the first design was not less than 60 tons for the re­quired output of 3000 horse-power, but by modify­ing the construction of starting apparatus, motors, and transformers, the weight in subsequen t design~ was reduced to 30 tons. A large proport ion of this weight was made up by the transformers, which may possibly be dispensed with altogether in the future.

To attiain these ends the construction of motor c~rs presents no difficulties, and no special altera­t ions of the t rack, or of the signalling arra.nge­Inents, are necessary, while the ordinary working condit ions remain unaltered. The trials to be shortly carried out will provide a further basis for t he introduction of an elect ric system of working, and will also show the economy of such a system applied to existing railway lines. It is not neces­sary that electrical working should prove more economical than steam working ; in many cas~s it will be sufficient to prove that travellin~ by elec­tricity is more pleasant and convenient to the public, and that the management meets modern requirements.

b . .Attainment of a Speed OJ 200 Kilomet?~es (125 Miles) per Hou·r.-The special object of the second part of the trials is to show the possibility of attaining good working conditions for running at higher speeds, the limits of which can only be determined by detailed experiments. For such high speeds the present system of signalling must be altered, and the crossings and switches aban­doned. I t will prove t he absolute necessity of e3tablishing all high-speed service on separate tracks, and of constructing special lines, exclusively for such a service, in both directions. The local and aoods traffic lines must be built separately.

Th: necessary investigations relate to motor cars, to construction of t rack, and to the possibility of insuring safety.

CoNSTRUCTION oF THE MoTOR CAR.

The motors are arranged directly on the car, and no separate locomotive is used. Each car is capable of accomn10dating about 50 persons. The motors have altogether a normal output of 1000 horse-power and a maximum output of 3000 horse-power. The tests will prove whether such a large amount of power is requisite or no~, and will show t~e ~on­sumption of current at different speeds~ taktng Into consideration adverse, head, or cross winds.

Having regard to. the end in v~ew for t~e con­struct ion and workmg of long-distance railways, the three-phase alternate-current system could only be considered. As a matter of fact , the gene­ration of thr ee-phase current of from 40,000 to 50 000 volts and its conveyance to long distances, pr~sent no 'difficulties. For t~e line now to ~e experimented with, only a tenswn of 12,000 vol~ IS required, the distance from. ~he central generatl!lg station of the Berlin Electn01t~ Works to the p~mt where the line commences being . only 12! k•.lo­metres (7 . 7 miles), and the leng ih of the hne 24: kilometres (15 miles). . .

The transformers, wh10h convert the tension from 12,000 down to 400 volts, a~e lo~a~ed in the motor car but for future constructions It IS an open question ~hether it will not prove better to use medium-tension motors, of, say, about 30~0 volts, and the same voltage on the overhead ~rres. In such a case it would be necessary to bu1ld trans­former houses at determined intervals along the track, and so con vert the volt.age from 50, 00~ down to 3000. Transformers, as IS known, requue no attendance in comparison with rotary converters.

The car has a driver's platform ~t each en~, from which control is effected. All parts carrying cur­rent are arranged in a central space called the apparatus room, which is separated ~rom the. ~est of t he car by means of a double sheet-Iron partit~on, so that passengers and attendants cannot come Into contact wit h dangerous tensions. The to~l length

f the car is about 22 metres (72 ft. ), and Its other ~imensions correspond with the standard profiles of the German State rail way carriages: The car body is carried by two bogies, each with three axles.

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A question of the greatest importance was the mechanical connection between the motors and the wheel axles. It was, of course, understood that all intermediate gearing was out of the question owing to its unavoidable wear and tear. Although from the beginning the object was to obtain an elast ic connection between the motor and the axle, various designs and constructions were tried ; in some the motors were rigidly coupled to the wheel axles, and in others a spring arrangement was pro­vided. The solution of the problem of providing a spring device, to work at about 1000 revolutions per minute and 750 horse-power per motor, was, of course, extremely difficult, and required a most serious and critical examination of the designs. The problem has been solved by a special arrangement, in which the power developed by the motor is trans­ferred to the wheel by an elastic and sliding coupling, and by an elastic suspension of the motor, which from a soft movement in the beginning turns into a suspension of increasing rigidity. I t followed from this arrangement that each motor must have a hollow shaft, and the speed in the bearings is nearly 16 metres (49 ft .) per second. A careful study of the friction at t his speed has been made, and experiments also carried out with speeds up to 20 metres (82 ft.) and 25 metres (98 ft. ), and with great bearing pressures.

Starting resistances for motors of 260 to 750 horse-power have already been used in practice ; but the ques tion of starting resistances for four 750 horse-power motors enclosed in a very narrow space, and for their continual regulation, had neYer before been contemplated. The individual merits of liquid and metal r esistances were considered at length. The use of the former seemed to be out of the question, whereas the latter involve a great number of con tacts, brushes, connecting cables, and resistance material, and were consequently too heavy and complicat ed.

Four motors, each with three armature circuits, give a total of 12 phases, in each of which was inserted a resistance divided into 12 steps. Not­withstanding this sub-division of the resistances, the difference of the currents was still intense from step to step; and the regulation , done by jerks, was very unsatisfactory. The difficulty was overcome by the design of a patent starting resistance, such as can also be used for large winding engines.

Although the res.istance m<1terial here. is . a solution of soda, this apparatus has nothing In common with the ordinary liquid starting resist­ance-a fact which has been proved by trials made on a large scale. .

Taking into consideration the speed of 200 kilo­metres per hour, it was desirable to provide, besides t he W estinghouse air brake of the usual type, an electric brake which may be used bo~h in connection with t he source of current and Inde­pendently of the latter ; the braking action may be made soft or energetic at will.

In addition to these main points, many other • •

investigations and exper1ments were necessary m regard to the details. Judging by th~ results obtained from t he factory t est, there 1s every reason to believe that the motor car will meet all requirements so that we are now enabled to take in hand the 'other aspect of the question of high­speed railways- viz. , t he running on t he track.

[SEPT. 13, 1901.

THE NEW GERMAN ATLA.NTIC LINER "l{RONPRINZ WILHELM."

ON Tuesday next there will start on her maiden voyage to New York a new competitor for the "blue riband, of t he Atlantic, a distinction which carries with it popularity amongst the more opulent of the Trans-Atlantic voyagers. There can be no question that it is in some measure a reproach to British enter­prise that this vessel is German· built and German­owned, being the third high·speed liner excelling British· built craft sent from t he shipbuilding and engi­neering works of the V.ulcan Company at Stettin. At the same t ime it should be stated that there can be no doubt about the ability of British builders to construct such steamships; this is proved by the mere fact t hat we are at t he present t ime building some twenty armoured cruisers of 23 knots speed, in which the limitations of weight greatly increase the difficulties of desigo. As to financial results, we under­stand that the large German ships have yielded a profit on each separate voyage, even the winter months secur­ing a sufficient number of passengers to pay all charges. The new liner, owned by the North German Lloyd, and named the Kronprinz Wilhelm, has, as equipped for service, cost within a few pounds of 650,000l. sterling, while her sister ship the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, completed three years ago, cost 550,000l., the difference being due to the greater cost of material, and some effective improvements made in the equip­ment. On this lat ter large capital cost, however, it is understood that a profit of 10 per cent. per annum is obtained, and it seems the more surprising that Brit~h owners do not enter the lists.

The Kron-prinz Wilhelm is not quite so la~ge as the Deutschland, the difference in length being in the engine·room. Practically the only change made in the engines as compared with those of the Deutsch­land, which we illustrated fully in December last, is in the arrangement of the valve gear for the tandem engines. In the Deutschland a high-pressure cylinder is placed over each of the two low-pressure cylinders, and the piston valve of the high-pressure cylinder is actuated by means of a rocking lever pivoted on the co,·er of the low-pressure cylinder, and operated by separate links and eccentrics. In the new ship, however, the spindle of the high-pressure cylinder, still working on a lever pivoted to the cover of the low-pressure cylinder, is connected to the top of the spindle of the slide valves of the low-pressure cylinder, so that the one pair of eccentrics, with their gear, suffices for both low-preesure and high­pressure cylinders, and this arrangement we hope to illustrate later. The first intermediate cylinder is at the forward end of the engine, and the second intermediate at the after end, the four cranks and the reciprocating parts being balanced on the Schlick system. The two high-pressure cy­linders are 870 millimetres (34.2 in. ) in diameter, the intermediate cylinders being 1750 millimetres (68.8 in. ) and 2500 millimetres (98.4 in.), while the t wo low-pre3-sure cylinders are 2600 millimetres (102.3 in. ), the stroke being 1800 millimetres (70.8 in. ). The engines are to run normally at 80 revolut ions, although 83 or 84 can easily be obtained ; the normal indicated horse­power, which has already been developed on t rial with a comparatively early cut-off, is 33,000. The speed attained on the trial, of 23.34 knots, gives every promise of an interesting competition with t he Deutschla.nd, whose record speed is 23.51 knots. The crankshaft of the Kronprinz Wilhelm is 610 milli­metres (24 in. ) in diameter, the thrust shaft 600 milli­metres (23. 6 in. ), the tunnel shaft 580 mil1imetres (22.8 in.), and the propeller shaft 630 millimetres (24.8 in.), while the four-b1aded propellers, of bronze, are 6.650 millimetres (21 ft.. 10 in.) in diameter, and of 10 metres (32 ft. 9 in. ) pitch. To enable the screw shaft to be withdrawn from the outside of the hull, a. large flat coupling has been fitted to the -propeller shaft, the weight of the coupling being about 11 tons. All the pumps are separate from the main engines, as well as the condenser, which latter has a length of 2604 millimetres (8 ft. 7 in. ), with 1910 square metres (20,559 square feet) of surface; thi.s being, of course, the measurement of both the main condensers, while the auxiliary condensers are 1600 millimetres (63 in.) long with 60 square metres (646 square metres) of surface. The air pumps are by Messrs. Weir and Cathcart, who have also supplied the feed pumps and feed heaters. There are twelve double-ended and four single·ended boilers, and these, unlike those of t he Doutschland, where Howden's system is in use, are to be worked under natural draught with an open stoke­hold, as was t he case with the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse. The boilers, which work to a pressure of 213 lb. per square inch, are 5100 millimetres (16 ft. 9 in. ) in diameter, the length being 6300 millimetree (20 ft. 8 in.) in the case of the double-ended boilera, each of which has eight furnaces of 1150 millimetreE ( 45 in. ) in diameter. The weight of the double-ended boilers is 104 t ons. The total heating surface is 8720 square met res (93,865 square feet), t he grate area. being 251.16 square metres (2702 square feet).

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SEPT. I 3, I 901. J The boilers are arranged in four batteries, each with a funnel whose height above the firebara is 110ft. , the diameter being 4~ metres (14ft. 9 in.}. There are bunkers on each side of the boiler compartments, but the principal one is between the second and third boiler-room, an arrangement which not only precludes the possibility of more than one· hg,lf of the boiler power being put out of action by a ship colliding at the point of connection between the bulkhead and shell-plating, but it confers the still greater advantage of enabling the central part of the ship to be given up to dining-room and other passenger accommodation.

As to the other mg,chioery in the ship, it may be said that there are three electric generating sets, and two of Linde's refrigerating machines placed at the forward end of the shaft tunnel, with a fourth dy­namo of 800 amperes well above the water-line. An interesting change has been made in connection with the steering gear: as in former ships, this gear is of the Brown type, by Messrs. Brown Brothers, of Edin­burgh; but in this case the gear has been entirely duplicated; thus, whilEl, a~ formerly, thel'e is a steering installation under th9 water-line, the rudder post is carried right up to the poop, where duplicate engine and gea.r are fitted which run idle under norma.l condi­tions, but will do the work should the under-water ge9.r become dislocated or injured. Although such gear is made of grea.t strength, there is always the possibility of a breakdown; and it s'3ems doubtful if hand wheels, or the light emergency gear sometimes fitted, is sufficient for vessels of such high speed and great displacement. Strength and reliability a"e also the characteristics of windlass and capstan gear, which, as in the case of all modern Atlantic boats, is by Na.pier Brothers, Limited, of Glasgow. The forward gear consists of two cable holders, suitable for cables of 74 mill imetres (2t~ in.) in diameter, with their brakes and coupling bosses fitted on the forecastle deck. Above the cable holders are drums for heavy warping purposes, and forward of t he windlass on the foreoa.stle deck a re placed two quick-speed capstans for lighter work, which can also be worked by hand. There are two engines of great power, with cylinders 17 in. in diameter by 13 in. stroke, and 15 in. in diameter by 12 in. stroke, each ca.pable of doing all the work ; and the wheel gearing is of oast steel and the wormwheeh of gunmetal. A light warpin~ capstan is fitted forward in the bow, on the forecastle head, with engines having cylinders 11 in. in diameter by 10 in. stroke, and on the promenade deck aft are fitted three warping capstans, each driven by one independent steam engine, one having cylin­ders 15 in. in diameter by 12 in. stroke, and fitted with a cable wheel for working the stream cable and s tern anchor; the other two engines having cylinders 11 in. in diameter by 10 in. stroke.

On the occasion of the launch of the ship 've gave some particulars about the hull (see ENGINEERING, vol. lxxi, page 486}, and we hope later to more fulJy describe the Yessel, so that here we need only give one or two general particulars. The vessel is 663 ft. long, 66 ft. beam, with a depth (moulded} of 43 ft. , but there are three decks above this, th~ total gross tonnage being about 15,000 tons, and the normal dis­placement 2 1,300 tons, including 4400 tons of coal and 5250 tons of cargo. The total number of pas­Eengers is 1651, including 650 first and 350 second­class passengers, while the crew number 520, includ­ing 69 deck hands, 241 in the engine·room staff, 51 in the kitchen department, with 150 stewards and 4 po3tal officials. In the equipment of the ship there are several interesting developments to which refer­ence should be made as an indication of the con­veniences and comfort provided for the present day travellers. In the first place there is a telephonic system, including not only the public rooms and official departments, even to the wine cellare, but also many of the private rooms; and :t.rrangement9 are provided so that the ship system may be coupled up to any land trunk lines-i.e., at ports of o~ll. A messenger-boy Eervice, with electric call-instruments, is also provided; the chief steward has an exceptionally large office, centrally situated, and equipped with all the con­veniences of hotel bureaux. Electric punkahs are provided in the public rooms. The electric call-bells, as ~ell as the light switches, are arranged in the

E N G I N E E R I N G. vessel there are special alarums, with the usual glass face ; and such alarums not only communicate the fact of an outbreak to the various officers' and firemen's quarters, but also set the pump at work. These and many other ingenious details, combined with the simple yet highly artistic decoration of the public rooms, all of which we hope to describe later, mark the Kronprinz Wilhelm as a great triumph in the shipbuilding art, and as testifying to the world, as the German Emperor has put i t, " that the energy and enterprise of the German people never elumber, but rise from generation to generation to ever higher flights to the blessing of their Fatherland." -

QUADRUPLE-EXPANSION ENGINES. To 'l1HE EniTOR Ol!, ENGINEERING.

Sm,-In your issue of August 16, page 213, there is the descript10n of a very ingenious high-speed quadruple­expansion engine, constructed by Messrs. Simpson, Strwk­la,nd, and Co., Limited, of Dartmouth, and shown at the Glasgow Exluhition.

A very analogous engine has been constructed on my own plans since 1889, when I was connected with the firm Fratelli Orlando. A view of it was published in your journal, issue May 29, 1891.

As can be easily ascertained, the arrangement of the two engines is much similar, the principal difference consisting in the type of the valve gears.

Instead of plain slide valves pl:l.ced on the axis of the engine, the firm Simpson- trickland have adopted piston slide valves laterally situated, which) in my opinion; may cause inconvenience, owing to the difference of the strain of the two slide valves connected to the same rod.

I remain, Sir, ~ours truly, SALVATORE 0RLANDO.

Leghorn, September 3, 1901.

WATER-TUBE BOILER TRIALS. To THE EDITOR 011' ENGINEERING.

SIR, - I read with great interest the report in your las t week's issue of the H yacinth and lVlinerva tnals, and your leading nrticle on the same (page 291 ante).

I was struck with the fact that, while the H:yaointh's boilers showed a better evaporative result than the Minerva's, the Minerva's engines, except at 8000 indicated horse-power, showed themselves more economical than t he H yacinth's. Engines working at a higher pressure and w~th a greater ~atio of ~xpansion ought to be more econo­mical than engmes destgned to work at a lower pressure · lVlr. Oram, R .N., in some lectures on water-tube boilers ' says, that as compared with a pressure of 150 lb. th~ (theoretical) gain in economy at 250 lb. is about 14 per cen~.; so this apparent.want of economy in the H yacinth's e~gJ.nes must b~ du~ e1ther to the engmes being charged with water which 1s really leaking from the boilers or else the steam supplied by the boilers must be m~ch wetter than the M1nerva's

In the trial at 5000 indicated horse-power the lVIinerva used rather more water for make-up than the Hyacinth, so t~ere , can~ot have been roue~ leakage from the H yacmth s boilers; and yet the lVlmerva's engines used over 10 per cent. less water than the H yacinth's.

. The ~nly concl~sion, it seems to mehi~ that the Belle­villa boiler supplies wet steam, and t accounts for the wonderful evaporati ve performances of this boiler in shore trials.

The des~gn of the Belleville boiler, I think is conducive to producmg wet steam. The direction of flow of the water in its passage from the water collector to the steam drum is reversed nineteen times, a.nd the bends are per­fec~ly sharp, so that the water m us~ tend . to get broken up mto fine spray and thoroughly Jnlxed wtth the steam a~d the volume of the steam drum is very small compared With other water-tube boilers. The ratio of volume of s~eam dr!Jm. t~ grate. area is only about .23 in the Belle­~~ille, while 1t lS .92 m the Niclausse, and 1.6 to 1.8 in the rhornycroft and Yarrow. (Of course, some allowance ~ust be made for the Thornyoroft and Yarrow being de­Signed to burn. much more coal per square foot of grate.} It . may be 5alld that the upper tubes in the Belleville boiler ~re part of the steam space, but the circulation in them lS, or ought to be, fairly rapid, so that the water gets no chance to settle down out of the steam till it reaches th~ drum, and I believe that in spite of separators and re~ucmg valves, a la~ge proportion of the water in suspensiOn reach~ the engmes ttnd produces the apparent want of economy m them.

September 4, 1901. I am, yours faithfully,

A. B. C.

?abms, so tha.t the passenger may operate them while 1n bed-~ot a usual convenience. The ship's clocks HIGH-PRESSURE V. LO\V-PRESSURE are eleotrwa1ly controlled. The look-out man in the STEA1Vf IN THE SUGAR REFINERY. crow's-nest on the foremast ca.n ascend to his position To ~HE EDITOR Ob' ENGINEEltiNG. by a. ladder inside the mast instead of outside· and Srn,-~Ir. Pnce Abell, in his statement, appearing in there is a speaking-tube down to the navig'ating your lssue of th~ 30th ult., that great economy resulted ffi ' 1 ·d I h f~om the adoptwn of lOO lb. of steam instead of 50 lb in o cer s )fl ge. n t e matter of safety, also, the s1x su ar factories · 1 w · ·

ship ?larks pr~gress. Only in the bulkheads in the li~uitsg of the .disou;~o~ 1{nvit~~ £;~:: gi~sabcei~:~ut~~ ~achmery. sect10n are there do~rs below .th~ water- faoto~y oruslnng cane by mill, and probably by multig le lm~, an? m all oast>s an hydrc\~hc system JS Installed crushmg, the steam reqUlred by the very powerful engiEes WhiCh 1s . so con~roll~d el~ctncally that the captain necessary 'Yould bear .l!' most material proportion to the on ~~e br.tdge or 1~ his cab1?, or officers from various ~team requrred for boiling, and _it is quite possible, and pos1t10ns m the shtp, .may mstantly close every door. mdeed probable, tha~ then t~e ~gher pressure w~mld give To combat fire, a spe01al pump of a capacity of 20 tons an economy. I adVIsedly limited my observatwns to a per hour is fitted, with a special system of piping sufar refinery .. throughout the ship, in which pressure is alwass l any c1as~, m th~ absence of figure~, the statement has Jnaintained, and at ma.ny statiollS throughout the I: v:b ue on Y prloportwnate to tha:t 'Yhioh cn:n b~ attached

o e persona factor concerned m it, and m hlB penulti-

•

371

mate paragraph I find that Mr. Price Abell is of. opin~o!l that (1) the exhaustion of 2000 gallons of wash of Its sp1r~t by 5lb. back-pressure steam (through open worm eVI­dently} resulted in as much as 1000 gallons plus very nearly t he number of gallons .of spirit actually distilled out of water from condensatiOn of the steam; and (2) such exhaustion by 5lb. pressure steam, directly reduced from 100 lb. pressure, resulted in only just about the number of gallons of spirit actually distilled out, of wa.ter from the condensation of the steam, so that the conclusiOn would have to be t hat by his wire-drawing Mr. Price Abell superheated the steam required for t~e distilla­tion to an extent represented by the heat mnts nearly, of about 10,000 lb. steam at, or about, 5 lb. pressure, and I find the order much too large with reference to the difference in total heat of 5 lb. , and of 100 lb. steam.

1\llr. Price Abell's fur ther statement that the latter st~am gave twice the quantity of proof spirit from the same quantity of wash, I take to mean simply that the runnings from the still averaging proof strength were about double the quantity, and not that the total quantity of spirit won, in terms of proof strength, was double. Mr. Price A bell says nothing a.s to the degrees of attenua­tion fallen through by the two washes, so that it is inlpos­sible to attach a value to this statement.

It appears to me that if the 100 lb. steam were expanded to 5 lb. at the worm, and not in a separate expansion or distributing vessel, total heat of the 100 lb. steam would come into play, and that then the 100 lb. steam, for a unit weight of 1t, would be more efficient than the 5lb. steam; but such an arrangement, speaking generally, is not one of the sugar refinery.

In the last pa.rag1·aph of my letter of the 23rd ult. there is a misprint resulting in the unintelligible. The portion of paragraph in question should read : '' . . . . and as the co.mparati ve total heat is alone concerned in the q_u~stion of boiler power required (for boiling, with reduo­twn of the heating steam to water of the same temperature in the cases compared}, the coml?arative .... "

Yours faithfully, FRANOIS N. G. GILL

THE NEW LABORATORIES AT THE GLASGOW UNIVERSITY.

To 'rHE EDI'l,OR o~· E NGINEERING. SIR, - W ould you allow me to correct two ~li_ght mis·

takes in your article of last week dealing ' Vlth thes~ laboratories ?

It is stated t hat the circular tanks below the floor of the hydra!Jlic laboratory are "e;ach capable of holding 10,000 oublC feet of water." This should be 1000 cubic feet; and again, the high-level tank holds 1430 cubic feet not 14,300. '

I am, Sir, yours truly, ARea. BARR.

250, Byres-road, Glasgow, September 11, 1901.

OuR ExPORT COAL TRADE.-We have now another month's experience as to the effects of the imposition by Parliament of a duty of 1s. per ton upon coal expor ted from the United Kingdom. This experience is not alto­together fa:vourable ; on .the other hand, the reduction oh?ervable m the exports IS not very material. The total shipments of coal, coke, cinders, and patent fuel in Aug~st were 4,003,009 tons, as compared with 4,173,499 tons m August, 1900, and 3, 758,781 tons in August, 1899. Coal, properly so called, figured in the 4, 003,009 tons for 3,816, 776 tons. The principal shipments in August com­pared as follows with the corresponding shipments in August, 1900, and August, 1899 :

Country.

Russia . . . . Sweden and Norway Germany . • • . France . . . . Italy . . . . . .

•• • • • 0

• 0 0

Aug., 1901.

tore 401,548 465.440 601,508 603,5:4 474,416 I

Aug., 1900. Aug., 1899. -

tons tons 54l.135 551,368 406,645 475,772 611,0·11 638,17-! 688,119 620,096 616,969 I 396,646

There was an increase last month in the shipments to De.n~ark, ~ortugal, Turkey, E gypt, Brazil, and ~nt1sh India ; b~t, on the whole, the ba.lance was m an ad ve~e duection. Our aggr~gate exports of coa.l, coke, omders, and patent fuel 1n the first eight m on ~hs 'yere .29, 080, 478 tons (coal properly so-called fis-urmg m th1s tota:l for 27,764,888 t?ns), as compared with 30,217,7~6 tons .m t he corresponqm g period of 1900, and 28, ~43,353 tons m the correspondmg period of 1899. The s!upments made to. the following countries in the first e1ght months of this year exceeded 1 000 000 tons each: ' '

Oountry.

Russia . . . . Sweden and Norway Denmark • • . . Germany . • . . France ..

0 •

Spain . . . . Italy .• . . Egypt.. . .

• •

• •

••

• • 0 0

• •

• 0

0 •

• 0

• • • •

1901.

tons 1,800,781 2,673,410

I 1,411,626 3,87i ,4g8 5,196,892 1,809,898 8,734,000 1,899,908

1900. 1899.

tons tons 2,308,687 2,438,251 2,871,6i4 2,950,269 1,332,417 1,329,F52 a ~5 t ,sog 3,326,921 6,624,647 4,601,036 1,668,662 1,526,966 1,676,684 3,786,165 1,262,071 1,889,236

These figures, it will be observed, leave matters very much as they were, although as a general result, the pro­gress of the expor ts appear to have been checked this y_ear. Our coal. e?'ports . fell off to August 31 this year to Holland and Bnt~h Ind1a ; but they increased to Portugal Turkey, and Brazil .

•

NOTES FROM THE NORTH. . GLASGOW, W ednesday.

Glasgow P tg-b·on lJ!lwrket.-Business remained quiet but firm last Thursday forenoon. Somewhere about 6000 tons change~ hands, .but only a small demand was shown for Scotch 1ron, wh1ch rose 2d. per ton, and Cleveland made ld. per ton advance. At the afternoon market about ot~er 7000 tons were dealt in, and the market finished fa,lrly firm. Cleveland at the close was ld. up per ton from the forenoon. The settlement prices were : Scotch, 5~. 7id. ; Cleveland, 44s. 10¥I. ; and Cumberland hema­tlte 1ron, 61s. 3d. per ton. The market exhibited renewed firmness on Friday forenoon when about 5000 tons changed hands ag~in at hard~r prices. Scotch warrants were .the turn better at 53s. 8d. per ton cash buyers, while Cleveland was done 2d. per ton up at 45s. ld. cash per ton. About 4000 tons were done in the afternoo~, the market still keeping firm, and the settle­ment pnces were: 53s. 9d., 45s., and 61s. per ton. At the forenoon session of the pig-iron warrant market on Monday forenoon, when the sal es were limited to some 3000 tons, Scotch lost ~d. and Cleveland. l~d. per ton. At the aft.ernoon. meeti~g n:bo_ut 4000 tons changed hands,. dealing bemg agam hnnted to Cleveland iron, of which only a few lots were sold and the price fell anot~er ld. Scotch iron was not na~ed. The settle­ment pnces were: 53s. 6d., 45s., and 60s. 9d. per ton. At the forenoon session of the pig-iron market on Tuesday son;te 4000 tons were dealt in, and Scotch fell !d. per ton, which Cleveland made. At the forenoon market 2000 tons were sold. Scotch was unohan~ed, and Cleveland lost ld. per ton. The settlement pnces were: 53s. 6d., 45s.,. and 60s. 7¥1. per ton. At the forenoon session of the rron ll?a.rket to-day some 8000 tons of iron changed hands, entrrely Cleveland, which rose l~d. per ton. In the afternoon only some 2500 tons were sold. Prices were firm, an<;l Cleveland closed up 3d. on the day. The settle­ment J?nCes were: 53s. ?d., 45s. 1~. , and 60s. 6d. The folloWing are the quotat10ns for No. 1 merchants' pioo iron; Clyde, 66s. per ton; Gartsherrie and Calder, 66s. 6d.; Lang­loan, 68s. 6d.; Summer lee, 70s. 6d.; Coltness, 72s. 6d. per to~-the foregoing a.U shipped at Glasgow; Glengarnock (shippe.d at ArdroSSc'tn), 65s. ; Shotts (shipped at Leith), 70s. Ope~t10ns th~ '~eek :have been mostly confined to Cleve­land 1ron, and 1t IS ev1dent that such warmnts must now be regarded more and more every day as the mainstay of the tr~e, and the pulse through which the condition of trade 1s to be judged. Scotch and hematite iron warrants are but little dealt in; still their prices are firmly maintained. ~"'rom America the repor ts as to the strike regard it as practically ended, and the net result of its occurrence seems to have been in favour of this country's t rade especially in South Wales. I ts adverse features may, however, appear . shortl.Y in fresh offerings of Amer~can pig iron oompetmg w1th home Rroducts. l\1eanwhlle this oom­petiti<?n. is reserved for ' Dominion " iron, of which large quant1t1es are already under wBty. From the Continent reports are flatter than ever, and further forced sales of pig--iron contracts are advertised, and there is still no ev1denoe of that autumn demand upon which the Middles­~rough iron district is so dependent. The bright feature m the outlook continues to be the home tra.de situation, which almost everywhere is of a most satisfactory nature. The stook of pig iron in :rYlessrs. Connal and Co.'s public warrant stores stood yesterday afternoon at 58 370 tons, ~against the same quantity yesterday week, thus show­mg no change for the pas t week.

•

F ilnishecl I 1·on wncl Steel.- There is a marked activity reported regarding the finished iron and steel trades. The mills are generally running five and six days per week at :Motherwell, and the demand for shipbuildmg steel is very good. Large outputs are being reported. :Makers are at present in a position to meet the keen ?OIDP.etition from America, and they are being helped m this by t he fact that some of the foreign plates do not rigidly stand the tests for shipbuilding purposes. :Many of the specifications are now beitlg framed in such a way as to bar foreign plates. British brands being preferred. Ship-plates are quoted at rather less than 6l. per ton, boiler-plates are quoted at 6l. 2s. 6d. per ton net, and for forged shell specifications 5l. 17s. 6d. net has been taken. In the finished iron trade, bar iron is in great request at the Clifton Works (W:ylie's), and at the W averley and Roohsollooh Iron and Steel Works, Coatbridge. The works named have generally about 25 puddling furnaces going, with the usual number of heating and scrap furnaces.

Sulphate of A WJn<m;ia.- In some quarters there is a brisk demand for this commodity, ~enerally at about lOl. 10s. per ton at Leith, where the shtpments last week amounted to 704 tons.

Steel Company of Scotlamd.-Notwithstanding the diffi­culties encountered, the directors of the Steel Company of Scotland st ate in their annual report that the accounts show a credit bRlanoe. The past year was one of excep­tional anxiety? due not only to the high pt'ioP..s of r~tw materials, which prevailed in the fi rst half of the year, but also to the difficulty experienced in securing orders at remunerative rates. Practically no relief was obtained from either pig iron or coal till the close of 1900, and before any reduction had taken place in the prices of these commodities, the prices of plates had fallen off 20s. per ton. Eventually they announce their resolut ion to recommend a dividend on the company's paid-up shares at the rate of 3s. per share, and that a balance of 2723l. lls. 2d. be earned forward to this year's accounts.

Ncilston W ater Svpply.-At the meeting of the county sub-committee on the water supply for the Yillage of Neilston, held recently, a report was submitted from 1\Ir.

•

E N G I N E E R I N G. Robert F. Miller, C.E., Glasgow on the cost of the pro­posed scheme of obtaining a supply from the Long Loch m the lVIearns. Parish. The total estimate was 1550l. The sub:oommttee approved of the report, and instructed the engmeer to proceed with the preparation of the necessary plans.

The Ooll01pse of the T alla Tunnel.-'rhe Works Com­mittee of the Edinburgh and District Water Trust had before ~hem the other day ~n interim report by lVIr. Hill, consultmg and water engmeer Manchester on the col­lapse of the Talla Tunnel. H~ made sever~l recommen­dations, and ~Ir. T~it, the local engineer, has reported to the W orks Committee that having consulted the con­traot?r, he was of opinion that a sum of 4000l. would be reqmred to do the work specially urged by Mr. Hill, who h.as sent a suppleJ?enta.ry report dealing 'vith t he posi­tiOn of the reservOir and the works at Talla in which he states that the work is being carried out sati~faotorily.

NOTES FROM SOUTH YORKSHIRE. SHEl<"'FIELD, Wednesday.

H't~Zl Coal Tntde still D ecZ.tintling.- The official report of the Hull coal t!·ade issued on Saturday shows that there wer.e sent to this port last month 371,644 tons of coal as agamst 438, 480 tons in the corresponding period of last y~ar a decrease of 66,836 tons. In the eight completed mont~ of the year 2,099,152 tons had been sent, against 2, 725,360 tons, a decline of 626,208 tons. The exports last month totalled 171,091 tons, which compa.red with 207,642 tons forwarded in August, 1900, shows a falling-off of 36 551 tons. The eight months showed a reduction of 425' 548 tons. Last month's coastwise trade amounted to 30; 780 t(;ms, against 46,352. tons ill August last year, and on the e1ght months there 1s a decline of 146,718 tons.

Extension of Elect,ric Light aJ1Ul, P ower in L eeds. -Since taking over the electric light and power undertaking the Leeds Corporation have spent 90,000l. UJ>On extensions. In the time of the old company the capa01ty of the plant was 4300 indicated horse-power, or 2400 kilowatts. At present there are installed, or on order, engines and alter­nators of a total capacity of 8740 kilowatts; and when the extensions of buildings now in progress are com­pleted, there will be accommodation for plant of an aggre­gate capacity of 19,940 kilowatts.

Gas v. Eleoflricity.- Speaking at the annual meeting of the S~1effield U nited Gas Light Company, Sir F . T. lVIappu~, lVI.P., contrasted gas with electricity, and drew conclusiOns in favour of the former, both as an illuminant and as motive power. Incandescent gas lamps, he said produced better results in street lighting than electric ar~ lamps, and only entailed about one-fifth to one-sixth of the cost. H e expressed surprise that in a place like Sheffield, where there were so many small manufacturers that more gas engines were not used, in view of the~· economical running.

T he A1~mat•wre. -.After being submerged in the cannl at Sheffield tlu·ee weeks, the armature which the British Thomson-H ouston Company has manufactured for the Sheffield Corporation, was successfully landed at the wharf-side on Saturday.

L ocal Oorwpcur~y .il1aet·tings.- T he general meetinoo of Kayser, Ellison, n.nd Co., Limited, was held at Sheffield on Friday. In moving the adoption of t he re12or t, which has already been published, the chairman (lVIr. C. '~· K ayser) said he was disappointed that the profits had fallen off so much, and mentioned that the company had expended about 67,000l. more in fuel than in the pre­ceding year. H e expressed his belief that the bottom of ·the bad t rade had not yet been reached. The report was adopted, and a resolution carried confirming the proposed payment of a dividend of 5s. per share, the placing of 2500l. to the reserve fund, and carry­ing forward of 658l. - The meeting of the Sheffield United Gas Company was held on Tuesday. The report stated that the increase in the quantity of gas sold during the past half-year was 57,609, 000 cubic feet. Owing to the inflated price of coal (which in six months cost the Company 35, OOOl. more than in the corresponding period), thecf.rofit earned was insufficient to pay the usual clivi­den , and 15, 639l. was therefore taken from t.he balances previously carried forward to enable this to be done. The report was adopted, a dividend at the rate of 5 per cent. for the half-year declared, and the retiring directors re­elected.

I ron aJ1Ul, Steel.-There has been very little change in these branches of trade during the week. The armour­plate and gun manufacturers continue to be employed to their full capacity. In general engineering there is a fair amount of work, but the lighter trades are still depressed. Work is this week being interfered with to some extent by the Doncaster races.

South Y o?·ksh·i1·e Ooetl T?·acle.- This week the output is restt'ioted in consequence of many of the miners attendi11g Donoaster races, and this will enable owners to clear their yards of all stooks. The local demand for hards is well sustained, and the general inland sale continues to improve. Prices are firm, South Yorl{shire bards averaging 10s. per ton. All kinds of small coal are this week slightly dearer, best screened slack making 5s. 3d. per ton, and good nuts 7s. 9d. per ton. The demand for house ~alities is increasing, a good tonnage being despatched to London. The local sale is also satisfactory. Best samples of Silkstones are quoted at 13s. to 13s. 6d. per ton; and inferior sorts 11s. tolls. 6d. per ton. Barnsley house) qualities are listed at 12s. to 12s. 6d. for best sorts, and 10s. Gd. to lls. per ton for inferior classes. 'rhe coke t rade shows a little improve­ment, and quotations for blast-furnace qualities are this week sligb tly higher.

•

[SEPT. 13, 1901.

NOTES FROM CLEVELAND AND THE NORTHERN COUNTIES.

MIDDLESBROUGH, Wednesday. .T he Cleveland I 'ron T·rade.-Y esterday there was a

fairly large attendance on 'Change; the inquiries were more numerous, and the market more cheerful than of· late, but the amount of business actually t ransacted was not large. At the same time, it was gratifyin~ to find buY,ers, ~v~o have bee;n very shy for some time, diSplaying a diSP.OSltJOn to enter m to contracts. Notwithstanding the plentiful supply of Cleveland iron, quotations were strong and probably the suggestion of changing some furnao~ from Cleveland on to hematite iron had somethinoo to do with. this. Such an alteration should im_prove ~atters ?ons1derably, for whereas the output of Cleveland iron JJ:? too large f01: the demand, east coast hematite is prac­tically unob~amable for early delivery. No. 3 g.m.b. Cleveland p1g was 45s. 3d. for prompt f.o.b. delivery. Sales were recorded at ~hat price, and sellers, as a rule, adhered firmly to It, but odd purchases were made at 45s. No. 1 Cleveland pig was 47s. 3d. ; No. 4 fou;ndry, 44s. ; grey forge, 43 ·. ; mottled, 42s. 9d. ; and white,. 42s. 6d., E~t coast hematite pi~ was put at 60s. for this month s delivery, but that quotation was nominal. For October delivery of mixed numbers some business was done at 59s. 6d. There was no alteration in the S_panish ore trade, Rubio being still15s. 9d. ex-ship Tees. 'l'o-day the market was steady. Quotations showed no alteration. So far this autumn the dem~tnd for pig iron for customers abroad has been very poor, but it is now picking up a little. This week inquiries on Continenta,} account have been fairly numerous, and exports for the remainder of the shipping season promise to be on a better scale. The effect of the recent poor foreign olea,rances has been largely co~nterbalanced by a good home consumption and large shipments to Scotland. ~1 a!fvu-facf;wrecl I ·ron a;ncZSteel.-These important branches

of thestaple industry continue in a very healthy state. Most firms .ar~ well supplied with orders, a.nd quotations for all descnptwns are strong. Producers are not at all necessi­tated to press sales on the market. Common iron bars are Gl. 5s. ; best bars, 6l. 15s.; iron ship-plates, 6l. 17s. 6d.; steel ship-plates, 6l. 5s. ; steel ship-angles, 6l.; iron sheets, 8l. 10s.; steel sheets, 9l.; and galvanised corrugated sheets, 12t.-allless the usual~ per cent. discount. Hea'ry steel rails keep at 5l. 10s. ; oast-iron chairs, 3t. 12s. 6d. ; and steel railway sleepers, Gl. 10s-all net cash at works.

Oocd. cvn,cl Coke.-Gas coke is in very good request, and quotat10ns are very strong.. Bunker coal is plentiful, but the l~r&'e demand keeps p~10es pretty firm. 'f he supply of coke 1s madequate, and priCes are co115equently advanomg. lVIedium blast-furnace kinds cannot well be bought under 16s. delivered here.

W ea?'Clale Steel (Jiftcl Coke Company.-The annual report of the W eardale Steel, Coal, and Coke Company Limited has been issued for the year ending June. ' The net profit was 175,590l. A dtvidend of 6 per cent. per annum on the preferred ordinary shares takes 30 OOOl. and a simila,r dividend on the deferred shares' tak~ 13,500l. The reserve fund receives 50,000l., and is thus br~ught up to 1001000l., and the depreciation account ola1ms 75,000l., while the balance carried forward is in­creased to 34,242l. The iron works ~tnd collieries have b.een well ~~Pl<?yed, and there is a fair prospect of con· tmued aot1V1ty m all departments.

NOTES FROM THE SOUTH-WEST. Oct11·d~ff,-The demand for large ste~tm coa,l has con­

tinue4 sa~isfa~tory, although t~ere has n~t. been a lar~e o~ ~ct1ye 11?-qUlry for future delivery. This IS due to tne dismclinat10n of buyers to book largely ahead, as there is a growing impr~'lSion that production is likely to increase. The market for smaU steam coal has been rather dull. The best steam coal has made 18s. to 19s. per ton, while secon­dary qualities have brought 17s. to 17s. 6d. ~per ton. H ousehold coal has shown little change ; No. 3 Rhondda large has brought 15s. 9d. to 16s. per ton. Coke has made former terms ; foundry coke has been quoted at 19s. to 20s. per ton, and furnace ditto at 15s. 6d. to 17s. 6d. per ton. As regards iron ore, the best Rubio has been quoted at 14s. 3d. to 14s. 6d. per ton, while Tafna has made 15s. 3d. to 15s. 6d. per ton.

. W ate-r Swppty of W estbwry.-New water works, de· s1gned by 1\llr. A. H. Stanley, C.E., of Trowbrid~e ~av~ been opened at Westbury. The pumping stat1o~ 1s situated on the Bratton-road, about a mile from the town. The well is 50 ft. in depth. 'l'wo of Tangye's gas engines, which a.re duplicated, supply the motive power, and the water is lifted through a 7 -in. main a height of 222 ft. to a reservoir situated at the bottom of Long Ri,rer, which will contain two days' supply, the storage capacity bein~ about 170,000 gallons, while that of t he well and adits 1s 47,000 gallons. From the reservoir the water flows through 7! miles of cnst-iron pipe mains, not only to vVestbury but also to vVe~tbury Leigh and Ditton Marsh. ,

P lym,outh SoU?ul. - Staff-Commander Haslewood and a surveying party returned to Plymouth on Saturday on the completion of the survey of Salcombe Harbour: to examine an area recently dredged in the vicinity of Bull Point jetty.

W ates (JfiU], l 'relwnd.-At the half-yearly meeting of the Great Southern and W estern Railway Company of Ire­land, Mr. W. J. Goulding, who presided, referred to the Fishguard and Rosslare route, and said that work on the line from W SJterford to Rosslare was get tin~ on well, while at Rosslare H arbour plans for an extension of the pier had been prepared. A favourt\.ble report on the bar· bour harl been received from Captain J arratt, who had

•

•

•

SEPT. 13, 1901.]

done good work for the Admiralty in surveying the coasts of Ireland, and who had also advised the Great W estern R ailway Compn.ny on their harbour works at Milford and Fishguard.

Armowr-Platc 1.'csts.- A sample armour-plate selected at random from tl. number of plates, manufttetured by ~Ie rs. Charles Cammell and Co., Limited, heffield, for the Bulwark, line-of-battleshiJ?, has been tested at "\Vhale I land under the usua.l condit1ons. The plate was nomi­nally of 9 in. thickness, but the exact mea urement was 8.8 m., and length and breadth were 14 ft. by 6 ft. 10 in., and the weight of metal was 360 lb. to the square foot. Three H oltzer armour-piercing shot each weighmg 380 lb. were fired at the plate from a 9.2 in. breechloll.ding gun, and the plate res1sted the attack in such a manner as to sati fy the conditions imposed by the Admiralty. Each shell was broken into fragments, the penetrat10n being almost nil. Although there were no cracks, there was a light flaking of the plate at the point of impact. The

no e of one projectile became embedded in the plate, but did not travel beyond the hardened surface. The velocity of the projectiles was about 1900 ft. per second.

E a;ete1· T rannways.-The British Electric Traction Com­pa.ny proposes to introduce electric traction upon the present Exeter tramways. The company also contem­plates an extension of the lines.

OuR Locoi\rOTlVF. ExPORTs.- There is now little doubt that 1901 will be a progressive period in the history of our locomotive exports. The value of the engines shipped in August was 1-!3,707l. as compared with107,059t. in August, 1900, and 125, 564t. in August, 1899. 'fhe great increase in the Au~ust shipments occurred in the deliveries made to Australia and to :r ew Zealand. The aggregate value of the locomotives sent abroad to August 31, this year, was 1,145,247l. as compared with 956,590t. in the cor­responding period of 1900, and 912, 992t. in the corresponding period of 1899. These figures are prim4 facie extremely satisfactory, but account should be taken of the fact that the cost of locomotives has been augmented this year by the dearness of the materials used in their construction. The principal exports mnde in the first eight months of this year compared as follows with the corresponding exports made in the corresponding period~ of 1900 and 1899 respec­tively :

Country. 1901. 1900. 1899. - - ------- ------1---- - 1--·--South America .. British S'luth Afric~ Brit ish India . . Australasia . . . .

• •

• •

• •

£ 170,338 127,507 297,522 233,780

£, 15f\,Q8 l

69.366 310,64! 108,698

£ . 13t,715

30,044 455,606

67,976

I t will be seen thn,t there has been a gre~"t.t increase in the demand for British locomotives in Australasia, and also in British South Africa, but that the Indian demand has been falling off.

OuR R..m.s ABROaD.-The exports of rails from the United Kingdom in August amounted to 36,283 tons, as cpmpa,red with 33,989 tons in August, 1900, and 39,420 tons in August, 1899; and it appears probable that the shipments will be maintained pretty well for the whole of 1901. The actua.l shipments to August 31 were 300,328 tons, as compared with 247,504 tons in the corresponding period of 1900 and 307,660 tons in the corres:Qonding period of 1899. The exports made in August to Sweden and Norway, Argentina, British India, British South Africa, Australasia, and Canada compared as follows with the corresponding exports in August, 1900, and August, 1899:

Country.

Sweden and Nor way Argentina . . . . British South Afr ica British India .. Australasia . . . . Canada . . . .

• • ••

••

••

• • ••

Aug., 1901. Aug., 1900. Aug., 1899.

tons 8836 4596 85 l

6770 6918 6208

tons 7,0!&4 6,549

667 10,380 8 ,837

• •

11

tons 8915 2073 1303 6877 6477

297

E N G I N E E R I N G.

MISCELLANEA. THE traffic receipts for the week ending Septem ~er 1 on

thirty-three of the principal lines of the United Kmgdom amounted to 2,184,17H., ~vhioh was. earned on 20,1.53! miles. F or the correspondmg week m 1900, t.he rece1pts of the same lines amounted to 2,118,284t., w1th. 19.885i miles open. rrhere was thus an ~ncrease ~f 65,887l. in the receipts, and an increase of 267f m the mileage.

The North-Ea tern Railway Comp.any _is construc~ing ten new engines, which '~ill surpass .m SI~e .and we1ght any other British locomot1 ve ev~r built. . Th1s depar~ure is to enable the company to dispense w1th the s~rvJCes of assistant-engines in the hauling of heavy trams .on steep gradients. The locomotives are to b~ made w1th drivm g wheels 6ft. 8 in. in diameter. ExclusiVe of tender, they will weigh, when in w~rking O~'der, 67 tons 2 cwt., or 9 tons more than the. engmes des1~ed by. Mr. J . F · Aspinnll, of the Lancashire and Yorkshire R ailway Com­pany.

A new use for a gas engine has, it seems, been discovered by our "brother Boer." 'l'he J oha.nnesburg agent of the Oampbell Gas Engine Company, Lin;tited, o~ Halifax, who has since June las t been engaged m traomg ~oods commandeered by the authorities of the late R epublic, re­ports that amongst these were four gas engines which, commandeered for the dynamite factory, were taken to an engineer's workshop in Pretoria for conversion into presses for forcing lead into the nickel shells of J\~Iauser bullet . 'fhe work was only completed on one engine before the ingenious mechanics and their superiors found more press­ing business elsewhere. The crankshaft was cut short at both ends, and a lot of spur gearing attached, in order to secure the necessary purchase. The cylinder cover had been bored out for the insertion of dies.

In a recen t issue of L a N ature, l\11. E. J. :!YLtrey de­scribes some experiments on the photography of stream lines in moving air. Whilst in many respects similar to Professor H ele-Shaw's experiment on stream line motion in liquids, l\1. Marey's differ in some minor particulars. The current of air is drawn by a fan through a box measuring 20 in. by 20 in. in section, and fitted with glass at the front and side. Steady motion is secured by means of screens of fine silk gauze at each end of the box. The stream lines are made evident by passing in smoke through a series of fine jets, arranged at equal distances along a straight line. The smoke filaments thus produced are photographed by means of a magnesium flash light burnt at one side of the apparatus. By putting obstructions in the pa.th of the stream lines their deformation is made clearly visible, whilst by setting the series of jets supply­ing the smoke in vibratiOn the filaments become undulat­ing, the number of undulations per inch run being a mea­sure of the velocity of flow.

In celebration of its jubilee, the Western Union Tele­graph Oompany has issued a pamphlet ~ving a short history of the origin of t he company and 1ts subsequent fortunes. At the outset the company was organised to operate a printing telegraph devised by l\llr. R. E. House, of Vermont, and it was only after consolidation with cer­tain bankrupt and moribund companies in 1854-5 that this was replaced by the 1\'Iorse system. The company paid its first dividend in 1857, and experienced no set­back afterwards. In 1861 it undertook the construction of a line to the Pacific, and in 1866 took over the lines of its principal rivals through a consolidation of interests. Rates have been continuously reduced, but still appear rather high to English ideas. They are not uniform, but vary witli the distance between the points of receipt and delivery. The highest price now charged is 1 dol. for ten words between New Y ork and San Francisco, whilst the lowest appears to be 25 cents for ten words, and there are numerous intermediate rates.

Not content with holding the record for high-speed travelling with the famous Philadelphia Atlantic City run, our American friends quite needlessly seemed moved to depreciate the really capital expreSs services now common throughout Europe, and more particularly in this country. Thus ~Ir. R. S. Callaway, of the Amencan Locomotive Company, and formerly president of the New Y ork Central and L ake Shore Railways, in an article published in a recen t issue of the .Railway !1Iaste1·

I t will be observed that the exports to Sweden and Nor- Jlfechwnic, states that the high-speed express trains way kept up well last month, but that Canada made the in Europe are generally made up of four coaches. · A best showing. The aggregate exports in the same direc- visit to King's Cross as the " Flying Scotsman " starts tions for the fi rst eight months of this year compared as out on its run of 395 miles to Edinburgh would much en­follows with the con esponding exports in the fi rst eight large Mr. Callaway's ideas as to the loads handled in Euro­months of 1900 and the first eight months of 1899 : pean express services. Fourteen to eighteen cars, in­-------------------:------- eluding two or three heavy restaurant cars, is much

Couotry. I 1901. 1900. 1899. nearer the average load ; and the time taken, inolu-----------1----1---- ---- si ve of stops, being Si hours, the mean speed works

tons tons tons out to 48 miles per hour. Still better time is made by two Sweden and Norway Argenlira .. .. British fou~h Afr ica British Jnd a .. Australasia . . . . Canada • • . .

• •

• •

••

••

• •

43,684 29,744 63,924 sleeping-car trains, which make the run in 7! hours, 48,46l 29,670 14,329 corresponding to an average speed of 51 miles per hour .

1~~:~~~ ~~:~~~ 1~~:~n In addition to the above, four other heavy expresses start 49,397 41,894 35,485 d:lJ: from the same terminus for Scotland, whilst very 28,894 7,826 13,082 si · ar services also run from Euston and St. P ancras . " I

In the course of his Budget statement in the House of It will be observed that there has been a general increase Commons, on August 16, the Secretary of State for India in the exports all alon~ the line, at any rate, so far as intimated that an expert "of very great experience and 1900 is concerned. RuSSla took 11,029 tons of British rails attainments" would be sent out to India to conduct an to August 31 this year, as compared with 1691 tons and inqui~y i~1to the ifi!tem of railway management and 14,675 tons in the correspondinli periods of 1900 and 1899 orgamsat10n preva g there. It was announced a few respe~tively. The exports to Chili in the fi rst ~ight months days later that the e~er~ selected was Mr. T. Robertson, of th1s year were 9846 tons, as compared w1th 934 tons late head of the Public Works Board in Ireland and 2266 ~ons. 1\IIuch h~gher prices have been also made an~ previously manager of the Irish Great Norther~ for the rails export~d this year, the 300,328 tons e~ported R,allwa,y. It has been semi-officially announced at to August 31 bemg .valued at 1,,835,554l., while the S1mla that :Mr. R obertson is to spend the ensuing 307,660 tons exported m the fi rst e1ght months of 1899 "cold weather " and that of 1902-03 in conducting were pr~ced at 1,473,2311. On the other .hand, the cost of I the projected investigation, Yisiting for the purpose product10n has, no doubt, been larger this year. every part of India. During the intervening summer

373 months 1\IIr. Robertson will travel in America, with a view to reporting how far ~he methods of manage­ment there prevailing are apphcable ~o the CB:Se of the Indian railways. An officer of the Ind1an Public Works Department is to be attach~d to l\1!1:. R ober ts?n throug~· out his Indian tours. P endmg the 1ssue of ~lS .report In the spring of 1903, the ~hanges in the org~rusat10n of t he Department named, whtch have for som~ tu,ne be~n. under consideration, will be postpo~ed, but 1t IS antiCipated that the Indian Government w1ll be able to p~ss orders on the report before L ord Curzon's term as V1ceroy ex­pires at the beginnin~ of 1904.

Following their acceptance of th~ proposal of tJle British Association for an ethnograph10 survey of Ind1a, Lord Curzon's Government have adopte~ the sugges­tion of the R oyal Society for the carrymg out of. a magnetic survey. The existin~ magnet1c observatones at Bombay and Calcutta bemg inadequate. as base stations for the vast area the survey will .cover, similar obser vatories are in course of construc~10n at Dehra Dun below the Himalaya , at K odaiknna1, in the JYiadras Presidency, and at R angoon. The Dehra Dun Observatory will be under the suyer­vision of Colonel Gore, R .E., the Surveyor-Genera of the Indian Survey (whose head-quarters are located there) ; but the other four will be in charge of JYir. John Eliot, the meteorological reporter to the Govern.men.t . The Survey and Mete.orological D~part~en ~s will, m fact be jointly responsible for the mvest1gat10ns. The field observations will be carried out by six or seven de­tachments of the Survey_ Department, and these will be controlled by Captain Fraser, R.E., who has recently been arranging in En_g,land for the purch.ase of. the neces­SM'Y instruments. Sind and the PunJab will first be taken in lmnd; and, as the country is now intersected with railways jn all directions, enabling field d~tachme~ts to quickly cover the distances from one obserVlng stat10n to another, it is anticipated that five Y.ea~ '"-ill suffice ~o complete the field work of the prelimm ary magnetic sun·ey.

In a paper read before the Buffalo Convention of the AJ;Uerican Institution of Electrical Engineers, :!Yir. A. J. W urts described the "N ernst " lan:!_p, as developed by the Westinghouse Company in the United States. ~l'he " glowers " ~re made out of a dough of rare earths m1xed with a suitable binding material, which is pr~.ssed through a die and cnt off into lengths, dried and baked. The " glower " for a 220-volt circuit is 25 millimetres long by 0.63 millimetres in diameter. It is a non-conductor when col9. In the original " N ernst " lamp, the conne~tio~ be­tween the "glower " and the leads was made by wmding a few turns of platinum wire round ea.ch end of the '' Prlower1"

but trouble occasionally arose from the shrinkage. r o av01d this the connection is now made by embedding a platinum bead with a wire tail in the mass of the "glower." Any shrinkage of the ''glower" then only serves to improve the contact. When used with continuous currents the electrolytic action results on a black deposit at the nega­tive end of the" &"lower " which gradually spreads towards the positive ternunal. With alternating currents nothing similar occurs, and the "glowers" have then a life of about 800 hours, which is much greater than when the lamps are used in continuous-current circuits. The best results are obtained when the "glower " is enclosed in a glass globe. It is necessary to place a steadying resist· ance in series 'vith the '' glower." since beyond a certain point the resistance diminishes with mcrease of cunent, o'ving to the better conductivity as the temperature is increased. The amount of steadying resistance needed is greater when the lamp is burnt in vacuum, or in nitrogen, than it is when burning in the open air. As a "glower" reaches the end of its life, the voltage rises rapidly; but up till then is pretty constant, and does not rise more than 2 or 4 per cent. The heater used to render t he ''glower" con­ductive in lighting UJ? consists of a porcelain tube wound 'vith fine platinum wrre pasted with cement, a pair bein~ used to each "glower ." These coils are out out automatl­cally so soon as the "glower" becomes conductive. Their life is some thousands of lamp-hours, and their value as scrap is some 90 per cent. of their first cost. F or power lighting a number of "glowers" are combined in a single lamp, a six-" glower " lamp being about equivalent in power to an ordinary enclosed arc. The watts J>er candle~wer are about one-half what is necessary w1th the or · ary

0 incandescent lamps. A number aggre~ating over 55,00 candle-power have been operating at Pittsburgh for some time, seventeen 6-"glower" lamps having been at work for over a year. In this case the average life has been about 800 hours.

P ERSON.AL.-The Atlas Company, Limited, 38, Leaden~ hall;street , Lond~n, E. C., inform us that they are intro~ ducmg the ohnudt system of superheated steam in the United Kingdom, under agreement 'vith M essrs. Easton and Co., Limited, anctuary Chambers, Broad Sanctuary, S.VIf.

DISPLACEMENT AND DlMENSIONS OF SHIPS : ERHATUM. -On page 344 of our issue of September 6 there were two errors in the reprint of JYir. J . A. Nor~and's paper on " The DiSSlacement and Dimensions of Ships." The line numbere " 2 " in the middle of the first column should read :

t)

2. W eights V(uryilt{} as the D isplacement!. The figure i was accidentally omitted. In the third column, at line 14, t~e formula should read :

Displacement of tlie new ship

Dt = 11,000 + 2. 51 X 330t + 3 X

3.51 X !_ 1436.7 = 12,585. 20

1'he remainder should be omitted.

374 E N G I N E E R I N G. l SEPT. I 3, 1901.

HEAVY HORIZONTAL TURNING .AND BORING MACHINE. DIAGRAMS OF THREE MONTHS' FLUCTUATIONS IN PRICES OF METALS.

WE illustrate on page 366 a.n exceptionally large horizontal turning a.nd boring mill, which is represen­tative of a whole series of these machines now being manufactured by :Messrs. John Hetherington and Sons, Limilied, engineers and machine tool makers, of the Ancoats Works, Pollard-street, :Manchester. The machine will turn work up to 32 ft. in diameter by ~ ft. <;}eep. The face plate is 19 ft. in diameter, a.nd 1s dnven by doublt-, treble, and quadruple gearing, giving a choice of 36 different speeds. The central spindle has a top bearing 24 in. in diameter by 27 in. long, and rests at the bottom on a gun-metal footstep belo~ the floor level. This footstep can be raised so as to hft the table clear of the bedplate when a. high spe~d of revolution is. required. The two uprights wh10h carry the cross·shde are of box section, and are accurately fitted, bolted, and keyed to the bed and to the top cross-stay. The cross-slide is deep and stiff, and is raised or lowered on the uprights by power. Its weight is balanced in the usual manner. The two tool­boxes have octagonal rams, and can be swivelled t o any desired angle by means of a qua.dra.Dt and worm. A graduated arc serves to indicate the degree of such swivelling. The lower ends of the rams are coned out and fitted with steel tool-holders arranged to take two tools for boring. turning, or surfacing. Each slide and ram has a quick adjustment by means of a hand wheel, pinion, and rack, and a fine adjustment by means of a traversing screw which can be operated from either end of ~he machine. Each ram is fitted with independent feed motions, which for turning and boring ranges from la in. up to ! in. per revolution of the table. These feed s, of which there are eight, can be changed without stopping the machine. The machine weighs complete about 115 tons, and occupies a floor space of 48 ft. by 34ft. The smallest size of the series, we may add, will l urn work up to 10ft. 6 in. in diameter by 6 ft. deep, and weighs 46 tons.

NOTES FROM THE UNI'fED STATES. PHILADELPHIA, September 4.

THE s trike situation continues unchanged, though both sides report moderate gains and losses. The dis· charged workmen of the Duquesne plant are trying to tie up the open·hearth steel plant of the Ca.rnegie works. The Amalgamated Association has about exhausted its resources to empty mills of union or non-union men. The August volume of business in crude iron and steel was very good. P rices in most finished products a.re pointing upward, and, in fact, advanc· in g. Numerous enlargements are in progress. The Illinois Steel Company has decided to double the capa­city of the South Chicago 'iV orks. An iron and steel concern is to be eatablishfd at :McKeesport, Pa. , a suburb of Pittsburgh, which will employ 1000 men. The construction of 200 ovens has been begun this week by the Maryland teel Company. The Sha.ron Sheet Steel Company is the name of a new company which will erect t en Pheet mills, to cost 600,000 dole., a t Sharon, Pa. A large iron and steel plant will be built immediately 24 miles east of P itts­burgh, on the line of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The Dominion Iron a.nd Steel Company's plant is being hurried forward. Two blast-furnaces and 400 coke ovens have been completed. The pig iron pro­duced has been distributed as samples among 125 consumers in Scotland, Canada, and t he United States. The president of the Republic Iron Company has resigned, and no successor has taken his place. The reports from all market centres are full of encourage­ment as to the autumnal and winter consumption of iron and steel. The railroad companies are contem­plating extraordinary improvements in a.ll sections, and especially in the north-western States and along the Pacific Coast, where mining and agriculture are the basis of activity. The demand for all manner of equipment is now assuming larger dimensions. This is especially noticeable in locomotives. In the Baldwin Works in this city ten thoueand men are at work. The output is four engines a day. The Pennsylvania Company has just ordered forty freight engines for quick delivery. Bridge ma­terial is also very active, and all railroad companies are interested in further improvements in bridges. A few of the larger systems will, in the near future, ent er upon t he policy of building stone bridges instead of steel bridges. The steel r ail production will reach 4,500,000 tons next year according to some recent estimates. Light rails are in better demand, especially for mining locali ties. Tramways are being also built as rapidly a s g irder rails ca.n be laid down. The balance of the year will be exceptionally active, particularly in view of the suspension of production, and which may be continued for some t ime to come.

R ussiAN CoAL MINING.-The production of coal in the Oural in the firstJ four montJhs of this year wa.s 9, 589,831 poods. The corresponding outputJ in the corresponding period of 1900 was 10,539,092 poode.

(Speciall;y compiled from Official Repo'tts of London 1l:1etal amd Scotch Pig-I1·on WCllrrant Ma'rkeb.)

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IN the accompanying diagrams each vertical line represents a market day, and each horizontal line represents ls. in the case of tin plates, hematite, Scotch, and Cleveland iron and ll. in all other cases. The price of quic~silver is per bottle, the contents. of which vary' in weight from 70 lb. to 80 lb. The metal prtces are per ton. Heavy steel rails are to Middlesbrough quota­tions. Tin pl&tes are per box of I. C. cokes.

SEPT. 13, 190 1.]

INDUSTRIAII NOTES. Tin~ United Kingdom has wiped out the reproach

of being far behind America in t he matter of labour sta.tistic3. Our records do not go back so far as those of various Bureaux of L!l.bour in the United States, some of which were in full working order in the early sixties ; but, for up-to-date facts, t he recent records of the L!l.bour Depn.rtment of t he Board of Trade will bear comparison with those issued in America.. In one respect, however, ·we arA still behind , namely, in international labour statistics. W e have even now to go back to some of the earlier reports of t he American Bureaux for facts and figures relating to the condition of labour in the chief European countriea.

The eigh th of a series of reports on the changes in the rates of wages and hours of labour in 1900 has just been issued. It is full of matter, and the tables are skilfully arranged, so t hat the full effeot of the various changes can be seen at a glance. I t appears that wages attained a. higher level in 1900 than in any year for which statistics exist. This is a. gratifying fact from the standpoint alone, if from no other, t hat it indicates pro3perous trade. Wages can only rise when labour is in demand and employment is remunerd.­th·e. Employers do not, as a rule, employ workpeople unless there is a profit upon the employment. That profit ma.y be small, in eo:ne easel even to vanishing point; but labour must be remunerative, or it will speedily cease. When employers are pressed wjth ordera, the question of wd.ges becomes secondary. If the demand for an advance is unduly large, there is resistance; but the employer will not, as a rnle, risk a stopp.lge of work unless there are strong reasons for EO doing. The degree of profit decides the question.

The Chief Commissioner of L~bour, }.Jr. Llewellyn mi t.h, Eays: "The year 1900 was the culminating

point of t he upward moYenent of wages which began in 1896. Not only did the general level of wages in the United Kingdom stand higher a.t the end of 1900 than in any year for which sta.tist ics exist, but the rate of increase d uring last year was unprecedently high . If we confine oursehres to t he industries for which i t is possible to obtain definite st!Ltistics, we find that no fewer than 1,112,684 workpeople, or about one·sevent h of the total employed, received advances during the year amounting to no less than 212,000!. per wedk, while only 23,010 sustained decreases to the unim­portant amount of 2800l. per week. The net weekly rise (in wages) of 209,0001. compares favourably with 91 ,OOOl. in 1899 and 81,000l. in 1898." He goes on to Eay that by far the large.r amount of the total increase went to the miners, whos~ wages advanced on the average nearly 4s. 5d. per week, t he aggregate being 168,000l. , or about 80 per cant. of the total weekly in­increase in wages. The Commissioner estimates that the total increase in 1900 amounted to no less than 6,000,000l. in wagE's alone.

I t is significant t hat a lthough the changes in wages were numerous and the alterations in the aggregate great, t hey were nearly all effected without strikes involving a stoppage of work ; only about 5 per cent. of the total ch!Lnges were preceded by strikes. The ot her 95 per cen t. were effected by peaceful meanE~, by sliding scales, boards of conciliation, direct negotia­tion, and similar methods. This is especially grat ify­ing , for it ind irates that both sides are tired of the wasteful industrinl warfare, in the shape of strikes and lock -outs, and that a better system is at least being tried.

Although some signs of de~line in t rade were visible towards the end of 1900, the yea.r a 'i a whole was characterised by good trade, steady employment , high rates of wages, and freedom from serious labour dis­putes of any magnitude, t he quarrym en's dispute being an exception. 1'he increMe in the weekly wages bill was nearly 215,000l. per week. The proportionate dis tribution of the increase is shown by t.he followii1g TablE>, in group 1 of trades :

A verages B :uecL on Total Number Emp~oyed in GrJups of Trades.

Groups of Trades.

Mining and qu~rryiog .. Engineering, shipl,utldi r-g,

metal trades . . . . Building trades . . . . Textile t rades. . . . . . A~riouttura.l labour . . . . R~il way employcs · . . Seamen (A. B.'s o.n1 fi, meu t A 11 ot her trade~ . . . .

. nnd

• •

• •

• •

. . • •

.. ••

Total IooreMe p er Week.

:£ 168,362

16, 2S5 6,640 6,0l0 9,939 4,503

38 12,<.76

Weekly A ,·er-nge I nc rease

p er head. 8. d. 3 lOt

0 3} 0 2

~ H 0 2t 0 (I~ o o:~

TJtal. . . . . . .. 2L4,771 0 6t ... Group 6 represent~ a deJ rea.3e baJed on earnings, and t group?

a decre:1se. In a fur t her Table it is shown to what extent the

workpeople p:uticipated in th~ ~ncrease of wa~es. The bgur~s work out thus : In mmmg and quarrymg, 705,437 - proportion of total e~ploved, 81. . ; in .the tex ih trades, 1 ~5,099-propo:tlOn, 10.3; eng1oeermg, shipbuilding, &c., 95,285- proportion, 7.~; buildi~g tradeo, 78,600- proportion, 9.6; employes of p~bhc a 1thorit:fs, 31,743; and miscellaneous trades, 91, l v1-

E N G I N E E R I N G.

proportion (both inclusive) 3. 7 ; clot hing trades, 8481 - proportion, 1.4. The aggregate participating was l , 135,786 work people, the proportion being 14.2 per cent. of the total employed. This total and the pro­portion are exclusive of agricultural labourers, and of the railway employ6s and seamen, who suffered de­creases, as shown in the above Table.

The total increa'3e in wages is given as 209,373l. net, or an average increase in weekly wages of 3a. 8!d. per head, the corresponding figures for 1899 were 1,176,000 work people whose average increase in wages amounted to ls. 6~d. per head per week. The total number participating in each year was nearly the same, but in 1900 the average advance in wages per head was more than double.

The methods of s9ttlement are shown by t he follow ­ing Table:

Modes of Settlement. Total Number Percen t-Affected. ages.

Sliding Ecale . . . • •• 183,889 15 Oo:1oiliation Bonrdd, &o. •• 4 0,157 42 Direct negotiation between the

parties • • •• •• • • 47L,740 42

T lltal and propor tion .. •• 1,135,736 100

The figures given ara reprod uced io a variety of ways as pertaining to the several groups, to propor­t ions and comparisons by years, eo that every aspect of the ~barges is presented to t he reader.

Reductions in the hours of labour wera complra­ti vely few; only 57,726 work people were affected. The aggregate working hours reduced were 238,043, or in propor tion 4.12 hours per week per head of t hosa affected. The chief reduction was in Lanarkshire, where 26,500 miners reduced their houra by six per week, ha.viog adopted the eight hours' system. The London County Council reduced the hours of 1510 tramway emploJ e3 six per week, and 8000 cabinet­maker'3 ia London had t heir hours reduced 2~ hours per week. The eight hours' day was adopted in private establishments employing 27,643 workpeople, and by public authorities employing 65 persons. Altogether 27,708 work people adopted t he eight hours' day. Here, again, the Lanarkshire miners swell the total. E x· elusive of those, only 1268 adopted the eight hours' system in 1900. In eight years t he eight hours' system had been adopted by 100,780 workpeople, while in the same period 1432 reverted from the eight hours to the longer working houra in force before its adoption.

Another case of pioketing, and of an application for an injunction, ha~ taken place. There is a strike at the cotton mills of :Messrs. Banister Brothers and Moore, Limited, Blackburn, whose premises have been picketed. In consequence, the firm, through their solicitors and counsel, applied to the Deputy Vice· Chancellor of the Palatine Court, at Liverpool, on September 3, for an injunction against t he officials and members of the Blackburn and District Weavers, ' Vindors, and \Varperd' Association, offices at Clayton­street, Blackburn, to restrain t ham from picketing near the plaint iffs' mills. As t he writ was only issued threa days previously, counsel for the defendants asked for an adjournment, on t he grounds that the writ was only served on the day previous, and one of the defen­dants was away at the Swansea Trades Congress. In consent ing to the adjournment, counsel for the plain­tiffs asked for an undertaking not to continue the practice of picketing in the meantime, which under­taking was given. As the Trades Congress resolved to fight a test case, here is one ready to hand.

The sts.tement made in connection with the Trades Congress at Swansea, and published in a. local news­paper, that the directorate of t he Taff Vale .Railway Company had resolved to issue a writ, claiming 20,000l. damages against the Amalgamated • ociety ot Railway Servants, is incorrect. The dam!Lges claim9d under the orig inating proceedings were not laid at any special amount. So far the action of the company has only gone to t he extent of making the society respon· sible. A perpetual injunction was granted, and the recent decision only supports the judgment of M r. Justice Farwell. That judgment made the society l i~ble for the acts of its members, and decided that a cla im for damages could be laid. Any ~pecific claim will have to be raised by another action, or by pro· ceeding to claim damages in the case which is still pending. It is alleged that no definite steps have as yet been decided upon by the rail way directors.

}.!r. Richard Bell, M.P., secretary of the Amalga­mated .ociety of Railway Servants, has issued in pamphlet upon the various decisions of the House of Lords in connection with Trade Union law. Those cMes will help t rade unionists and workmen generally to understand what the decisions mean, and to what extent t hey m!Ly operate to the disad,ra.ntage of the organised workera of t he c~untry. But it will need something more if workmen are to realise the effect of such decisions. The language of t he judges is often involved, always technic.l l, and therefore some more popular mtthod should be adopted, such as the

•

375 republication of articles in the law journals and other periodicals expounding the law.

The iron trade in the W olverhampton district has been steady, and quotations for all better classes of finished iron have been well maintained. The output has been regular ; new buying, on account of con­sumer's early wants, has been going on, and business on foreign account has been r egarded as satisfactory. Marked bars have been in good inquiry at best rates ; common unmarked iron has been on fairly good sale, while galvanisers have been ordering more freely of black sheets. Galvanised corrugated sheets have risen in price. Gas strip, rods, and hoops have been in fair dema.nd. Steel producers report an active demand, but prices have been kept down by foreign competi­tion. The engineering and allied trades continue f~irly busy for the most part, including ironfounders, boiler and tank makers, bridge and girder constructors, and workers io the rail way sheds. T he hard ware industries also continue for t he most part to be well employed, t hough here and there there has been a. slackening off in a few of them: but these, as a. rule, are not the larger br anches.

In the Birmingham district a firm tone has charaJ­t erised the iron market. Both for home and foreign account orders have been placed of sufficient weight to keep the producers well employed far into t he next quarter. There has been an improved demand both tor marked and unmarked bars. The engineering and allied industries keep fairly well employed; there have been no signs of serious falling off as yet. Workers in most of the iron, steel, and other metal-using indus­t ries ar e all fairly employed.

The position of the engineering trades throughout Lancashire is certainly better than it was, for, with the exception of one or t wo important sections, a fair amount of activity is everywhere noticeable. The exceptions seem to be in the machine tool branch, in some sections of which new work of any weight is noli being secured. Heavy stationary·engine builders also complain of slackness of orders. Textile-ma­chine makers continue slack, but au improvement is reported in some sections. As a set-off to this, locomotive builders are still very busy, with sufficient work in hand to carry t hem through next year. Boilermakers are also extremely busy, and in all branches of eleotrical engineering there is continued pressure of work. Other branches are fairly busy, so tlut there is no serious falling-off in employment . In the iron market there are variations- a lack of steadiness. It is possible that buyers are holding back in anticipation of imports from America, either to Liverpool, or through the canal to Manchester. In t he finished iron branches there is more steadiness, prices generally being well maintained. Bars are in steady demand, and prices are stiffening. Generally the outlook is encouraging rat her than depressing.

A strike of engineers has taken place at Leeds against the abolition of the breakfast half-hour. By the change t he working time would be divided into two instead of three portion~.

At Hull a curious case has arisen. Some union slaters have arrived to take the place of the union s]aters on strike. The executive of the union, it appears, consider that the strike is wrong, is adverse to unionism. The situation is a. strange one, but is not altogether unprecedented.

The fishermen's dispute at Grimsby is not settled. Though t he owners and sharesmen or skippers came to an agreement on Tuesday evening last, the trouble with the other parties to the dispute is not yet over; and one of the most powerful t rade unions has offered to finance the men s till standing out through the whole of the difficulty. It is reported that some 400 vessels are in dock, idle. The distress is, it is said, very acute. ~lost of the help com(s from outside of Grimsby, the wtll-to·do inhabitants not helping.

The conference of t he repreEentativ~s of the Steel Corporation and of the Steelmakers, held on the 4ch instant, ended most unsatisfactorily. It appeat s that the Corporation merely submitted its previous terms, which involve surrender. This the men's re­presentatives were not prepared to assent to. It is reputed that some 500 men returned to work on t be National Tube Plant, at ~IcKees Port, the day after the conference. At present it looks as if t he £trike were collapsing, but the men's representatives do not admit that it is so bad as that.

In the Bethesda district it is stated that quietude prevails. The Chief Constable has reported that the extrc1o police may not be furthu needed. At the Tr ades Congress at wanE ea the delegate3 warmly supported the proposals for continued support being given by t he t rade unions to the men on strike. This may result iu furth~r grants from some of the unions.

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Mf any have already largely contributed to t he strike unds.

A cur!ous case has a risen in con nection with a labo~1r; dispute at Barry. 1';1 M ay, 1900, the carp enters a nd JO.ners came out on st nke for an advance in waaes from 8.d . to 9d. per hour. They ha ve now decla;ed the st~·Ike. at an end, as the majority of employer s in the distri?t h~ve col!ce.ded the terms. The local master builders assomat10n d eny this and state tha t th~y do not r ecognise the new rate , ~s they p ay non­umon . men 8d. per hour. But the Barry Distr ict Counci l have recognised the 9d. rate, and call upon ~he. Wmks C?m~ittee to pay the advanced rate, and Insist. upon It In contrac ts . The Master Builders' Assoctat10n condemn the action t aken as baneful.

. The Hig~land ghillies on Lord Dalhousie's moor s, 1n Forfarshtre, have struck for an a dvance in pay from 27s. 6d. to 30s. per week. They say that their hours a~e from 7 a .m. till 11 at n ight, and therefore claim h tgher rates .. An A merican sportsman is the present tenant, an.d h1s g uests are put to great inconvenience by the stnke.

T he d.ispute of miners at Mountain Ash, pending for a long t1me, has resul ted in notices being tendered t o cease work, which was done on Saturday last. The men asked. for 6d. a ton extra because of difficulties and t~e long d tstance from the pit to the workings. The d1spute was referred to a rbitration, b ut it failed . Then the men met. the manager, a week ago, but no settle­ment was arrived at.

The m iners employed at the Intunational Collieries So~th Wales, have come out on strike against the non~ u.mon men, and .those who are in arrears of contribu­tJ.oos to the umon. There were some 150 when the dtspute began, but ?OW all the m en, except about twenty-fiv~, have patd up or entered tl::e union.

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WORKSHOP ME'l' HODS. Some Effiaiency Fact01·s iln wn Engin~e-ring Busilness. * By MESSRS. WILLIAM W EIR and J . R. RrcHllfONn,

of Glasgow. Swmnnwry.- T he paper gives an account of several

~chemes which have been inaugurated by the authors to m terest the staff and ~en iJ?- securing ~reater efficjency in th~ s.hops of a~ engm eenng establishment. Brief de­scnptwns a re given of the working and general results of:-

1. The Premium System. 2. A F oreman's Club, for the discussion and settlement

of shop problems. . 3. A Suggestion Scheme, whereby monthly awards are

IP-ven t o the employes for the best suggestions leadinO' to Improvements. t>

4: A T echnical . Commit tee, for dealing with new des1~s and expenmental work, and for tlie systematic consideration of complaints and defects.

5. An Intelligence D epartment, for the collection of data 01~ particular subjects, for the use of various depart­men ts m the works.

So many p~pers have been written, and so much litera­tur~ nm~ exiSts on the equ~pment and organisat ion of eng1neermg works, that a bn ef consideration of some less frequently treated factors in promoting efficiency in t he shop s may be of interest and possibly of value.

N o claim to novelty is made on behalf of these schemes a several of them are of trans-Atlantic origin but thei~· success when t ransplanted to this side shows 'that much can. be d one to interest the men and the staff generally in their work , .and to stimulate the initiat ion of improve­ments. It IS as true to-day as when J ohn Stuart Mill wrote that " Capitalists are almost as much inter ested as labo~rers in placing t he operat ions of indust ry on such a footm~ that those who labour for them may feel the s!l-me mteres~ in the work which is felt by those who labour on therr own account; " in fact, t he greater divi­sion of labour and specialisation of product , which are the .features of modern shops, require not only improved envu onment for the workers, but a lso some additional stimulus, apart from the daily round, to prom0te a live and hen.ltby spirit, if a high grade of efficiency is to be kept up in an establishment.

The schemes to be d escribed have now been in opera­tion for some time, so that a fnir idea. can be given of their working results ; and it is the experience of the a uthors that when judiciously introduced and governed by common-sense principle., they furnish mo~t valuable assistance in the conduct of business. The descript ions of the various efficiency factors following are not intended to be exhaustive, but ra ther suggestive sketches embody­ing practical points which experience has shown to be essential. Premi~vm System of Rem'l.vne'ratirna L abowr.- In a..n en-

gineering works which for man y years has worked wi th only time wages, workmen who have been employed for a long IJeriod in the establishment obtain generally a higher hourly rate than workmen who have only been em­ployed for a compara tively shor t period, d ue to their supposed better acquaintance with the work ; but in man y cases younger and fresher men ar e better and more productive than the "old timers," so that the relative

* P aper r ead befor e the In te111a t ional Engineering Congress, Glasgow, 1901. Section III. : M echanical.

E N G I N E E R I N G.

wages do not therefore represent the rela tive values of the men.

T o r emedy this state of affairs, and to obtain a system whereby every man receives the same standard rate of ~vages, and, in adclition , fl;D. extra remuneration for any mc~ease over a, no~ma~ ba IS ra te of production , i t was d e01ded, a~ter COl'lSidermg all the best-known systems of remun.eratwn, to ad opt the premium sy tem, for the follow1ng reasons :

1. The system was simple in its concep tion and easily un~erstood by the men , their extra remuneration being eas1ly cal~ulated by themselves ; the differential rate ?YStem bemg o~e!!- to objection on this point, and tend­mg to lead to f1'lctwn between the men and the adminis­trators of the system. . 2. The SY,Stem '"!as comparatively simple .in i ts applica­

tiOn, and ~id not 1p volve a very large ndditional staff. In the works m questwn about 500 men work under 1.:n·emium and the staff numbers five men and two boys m cludiug the superintendent. '

3. It .had. no~ t he defect. of piecework, that an error in ~·ate-fixt!lg 1s either ~xpensiVe or discouraging-. An error m premmm rat e-fixmg only affects the prermum, not the wages.

4. It offered a real inducemen t to the workman to sugge:st improvements in his machine or tools. U nder the p1ecewor~ syst em, so long: ~s the machine was kep t up to a cer tam standard condit lOn of fi tness the man said nothing, as a~y imp1:ovem~nt he was awm~e would ~ro­bably resul~ m cuttm g h1s rate. U nder the premlUm SJ;Stem an Improvement suggested by the man benefits lum. and the employer also, as withm reason no ra te­cuttmg is found necessary.

5 .. The sys~em in its applicat ion gives accurate data for t1me-keepmg and cost-keeping purposes. It nets as a double check on the time-kee_ping, and it asso·ciates on one form t~e article, the operatwn, and the time cost.

M an y differen t applications ar e in existence of this sys~em, m~st .of which are excellent; but in considering their apphcatwn, the character of work being done under the system largely influences the correct choice. In our works there is a large amount of repetition work and also a large amoun t of special work ; but in no cas~ are the opera~ions carried out under a premium contract of longer d uratwn than about fifty hours. W e therefore adopted t~e system of paying a premium of 50 per cent . on the time saved.

The following T able shows the result to the workman of the application of the system :

It will thus be seen tha t the workman has earned a premium of one-third of his wages on this contract.

The cards used for con tracts are shown in Figs. 1 ~nd 2, annexed; Fig. 1 being the con tract note, which 1s self-expl!l.natory, and ] 'iS"· 2 the time card. This latter card is used when no time allowance has been fi xed for the opera t ion in question, and the larger part oi the superintendent's dut ies are in watching the execut ion of work done under these cards, to enable a sui table rate to be fi~ed f~r use when the operation recurs. T he men obtam tbe1r cards from the premium office, situated in convenient parts of the works ; the time for commencinO' the operation being the t ime at which the card leaves th~ off?cet ~he finishing and com~enc~g time of the oards c~mmdmg ; thus the pre9 ara t10n t1me for a job is con ­sidered and allowed for m the time allowance. In the case of special machines requiring a considerable t ime to adj ust tools, &c., this a.Uowance bears a ratio to the number of pieces to be done. On the completion of a con ­tract the note is check -p unched by t he inspector, or the foreman of t he department, who thus certifies the job to be done correctly, and the f\111 operation to be denoted on the card ~o have been carried o.ut. T o P.revent any chance of scampmg or bud work, a stnct r ule 1s enforced that if an y par t of worh:, however small~ done under the contract is not righ t, the man loses his wnole premium under the contract. After consultation with the men , it has been agreed to pay the premium every four weeks, except be­fore the two main holidays in July and D ecember, when eigh t weeks are allowed to lapse before payment.

After more than three years' experience of the working of the system, we have found the followin&" t o be among the many advantages gained by its application:

1. It has resulted i n a largely increased output from our machines for the same labour cost.

2. A n increase in our workmen's average drawings of from 10 to 40 per cent .

3. In the practically compulsor y maintenance of our machines in the highest state of efficiency.

4. In a greatly increRsed in terest of the men in thei1· work, machines and equipmen t, and ~" fair amount of co­operat ion in all our schemes for improving our factory .

5. I t has given our foremen a field for the che1ice of men we never had p reviously, resul ting in the employmen t of only the best class of steady workmen.

6. I t has caused our foremen to be no longer merely taskmasters over the men, but to become mere providers of work for them and inspection of that work.

2. The F1·ictior1t Club.- In every est ablishment · shop problems of various kinds occur, t he settlement of which affects different departments. It is not always con­venient to get the different foremen together during the day's work to decide on these problems, and any discus­sions during working hours aro apt to he hurried and

[SEPT. I J, 190 1.

conclusions come to which maturer considerations may co~1demn. D a:ta has .frequen tly to bo collected, and the pomts affectmg chfferent depn-r tments in vestigatcd thoroughly, before a decision can be arrived n-t. There nre a,Js<? many suggestio? S of improvement mttde ca~ually whiCh may be recogmsed as good and wor thy of adoption, bu t even the best shop managet· is unable always to follow them up and see that they aro carried to a 'conclu ion. P'~rther, after a sugg.e tecl improv~ment is put into force 1t 1s fre.quently lost stght of, and Its results become un­ascer tamable.

T o. secure a proper discussion on shop problems and to provide. mnclu nery for. the systemati~ carrying' out of ~uggestwns and reportmg of results, 1t was decided to m n.ugura te a t our works a cl ub composed not only of foremen, bu~ of a ll t he ~dministrative heads of depart­men ts, drawmg-office, costmg departmen t, correspondence departmen t, &c.

FIG. 1. N o.

CONTRACT NOTE. --

Time Allowance, _ ____________ _

ComJnenced, ___ _ ________________ _ •

Finished, --------------------

Time T aken, _________________ _

Time Saved, ------------ --------

W ork n-nd Time Checked, ____________ _

R emarks :-

Job No. - ---------- Machine N o. __

N ames __________________ _ N o. _____ _

No. ------

No. of Piece.~ -----------------------

A rticle __________________ _

Operation _ ______________________ _

- -Commenced,----------------------'---­

Firushed, ------------------------------------

Time Taken,---~·------ ----------

W ork n.nd Time Ch3ckcd, - ----------~ --

R emar1<s :- --------- - --------_

----------------·------------------------

When the club was first proposed, its recep tion was not at all favourable ; it was con idered by the foremen tha.t the discus ions would breed dissension, tha t re­flections would be made by one foreman on the work of another, and that generally it would give rise to internal friction. It was accordingly named the " Friction Club," on t he principle that i ts mission was to be the elimination of friction. I ts business was to discuss shop p roblems and decide on solut ions, to institute improvements and provide the means of carrying them out to final'i ty ; to receive and adjudicate on complaints and suggestions. Its rules were made as elastic as possible. Its office­bearers con ist of an execu tive commi ttee of £ ve, three chairmen , who preside in succession , and two joint secre­taries. M eetings are held once a mon th, in the evening ; the proceedings are reported and copies are neostyled and given to each member, for in er tion in a spring binder wi th which he is p rovided. The business of each meeting is arranged by the executive, and deals with whatever shop questions are most pressing.

.A club letter -box is provided in the hop, into which members are requested to send notes on . uggestion$ or subjects for discussion. This box is opened by the execu­t ive comm]ttee prior to the issue of the notice for the following meeting, nnd if any mat ter t·equiring discus­sion is received in the box, it is incorporated in tho busi­ness for thLtt meeting.

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SEPT. 13, 190t.]

. The club .wa~ started at first with some misgivings, but 1t ha teadily Improved, and has taken its place as a most helpful factor in our estc'liblishment.

Among the matters deu.lt with by the club have been the following :

1. The establi hment .of a works library, containing book nnd current techrucal papers and magazines. The weekly technical papers are available for metnbers of the club one '·'reek after publietttion, the monthly magazines one fortru~l.1t. Book can be borrowed at certain hours from the llbrary, and the private technical libraries of mem.ber~ of the fi rm are made avnilahle to members on appli?atwn. (~) The workmen's suggestion scheme, ns de cnbed later m th~ pr~ent paper; (3) the admittance and course of apprentices m the works; (4) the li~hting of the shops ; (5) the an angement of the firm's exhibit at t~e Glasgow International Exhibition; (6) the di trihu­twn of shop labo~rers ; (7) hop .hi1~dra~1ces-a report by ~ach foreman on his department, md10atmg the hindrances mte~fering with the execution or output of the \vork. of his department ; (8) grind tones ·ue1·sus emery wheels ; (9) weanng- of overalls by the men, &c. ~he de01sion~ of the club ar~, wber~ nec~ssnry sub­

mitted to the directors, and recelVe then· sanction before being put in operation ; but a each of the t hree chair­men of the club is a director, this is usually a matter of form.

.3. The W<??·"-:nen's SU[Iuestion Scheme.- Closely allied With the Fnctwn Club IS another efficiency factor which hn recently been inaugurated in our work , namely the W orkmen's uggestion Scheme. Encouraged by ' the success of the first few meetings of the Friction Club it seemed a logical sequence that suggestions for impro;,e­ment and reforms should be asked from the workmen t~eJ?lselves. Knowing generally the lines on which a Similar scheme bad been worked by the National Cash R esister, of D ayton, Ohio, it was felt that with modifi­catiOns some means could be attained by which the intelligence and observation of t he workmen them­selves might be encouraged and directed. Accord­ingly a scheme was promoted and di cussed by the Fric­tion Club, i ts p urpose being to encourage the workmen to make suggestions for improvements in the shops, and on the work generally. The directors of the company agreed to allot a sum of 4l. per month for the best sugges­tion, or suggestions, made by workmen, by means of which an improvement could be effected on the machine tools, hand tools, jigs, fixtures, work methods, organisation, cleanliness, order, or other matters affecting the shops. .All uggestions are igned with the workman's name and shop number, al o a note stating whether the suggestion is original~ or taken from a technical journal, or other sow·ce. Tne written suggestions are placed by the author in a box provided in the gate-house. This is opened daily by the club secretary, n,nd the suggestions received are stamped with a date stamp when taken out, and are considered in order of priority. The judgment and dis­ou ion on the suggestwns is conducted by the Friction Club, and also the allocation of the awards, the amount being given according to their decision in one or more sum according to the merits of the suggestions.

In deciding upon the awards, those suggestions which are con idered of little merit are first eliminn.ted, until gradually the be t are left ; and if any difference of opinion exists as to the comparative merits, they are voted upon. The names of the suggesters are not given to the meeting, but are known only to the executive com­mittee. The successful suggestions each month are posted on a notice-board provided for the purpose, but the names of the suggesters are not published. If the merit of the suggestions is such that the awards

do not absorb the entire 4l. in any one month, the balance is carried forward and serves to augment the award for suggestions which may be considered of special merit.

During five months the total number of suggestions received amounts to 60: 3 the first month; 11, 8, 18, and 20 in the succeeding months ; and of this total the num­ber of suggestions adopted and carried out amounts to about 20 per cent. of those received, and are grouped under headings as follows : (1) Cleanliness and Order ; (2) Improvements in Machines or Methods ; (3) hop Fittings ; (4) Safety Devices ; (5) General.

The discussion on these suggestions has been most edu­cative, and has resulted in several most excellent shop

. devices. The scheme has also been well taken up by the apprentices, and has directed attention to t he men who can be drawn upon for promotion to responsible posts.

(4) The T echnical Cornmittee.- It will be noted that the W orkmen's Suggestion Scheme does not include in its scope suggestions for improvement on the designs of the firm's pr<?duct. It wa~ c~nsidered t~at t.his wo~ld be likely to mvolye complicatw~s and g1v~ n se. to di~cul­ties. Accordmgly, the functwn of dealing w1th des1gns, &c. lies with a committee comprising the managing dir~ctor, shoJ_:> manager, chief draughtsman, and draughts­men on special design. This body is called the Techirical Committee, ?-nd besides the above members it~? call. to i ts deliberat10ns any foreman or other admimstratlve head whose adv~ce is required. I t deals with the .re­visal of the designs of the firm's product, the carrymg out of experimental work, the tabulation of results, the systematic consideration of complaints and defects, and the cri ticism and development of new designs. Further, it considers the complaints which have been received by the correspondence department, and the reports of the firm's engineers who have been deputed to examine and rectify tliem. Each month the complaints and repor ts of defects received by the corres{>ondence department are collected and tabulated under distinctive heads, and these n-re consider~ in relatio~ to the design of th~ J?ro~uct.

The tecbn1cal comm1ttee suggests mod1ficat10ns or carries out experiments to obtain data, and reports upon the results. It deals wi th new designs from the point of

E N G I N E E R I N G.

efficiency, cost of production, and commercial advantage. In the authors' ex~erience the systematic· tabulation and analysis of complamts is a most valuable helf towards the elinunation of small defects. I n the rush o a busy day, a . ingle complaint may be received, aud the temptation is great simply to blame the :personal element for neglect or careles.c;ness, and to minimise its importance. But when complaints of a like nature are cla ed together u,nd tabulated over a period, they have the force, not of single spies, but of bat tn.lions.

(5) T he Intell!igence Depan·tmcnt.- In discussing businesa prmciples ir J. W olfe Barry ha mentioned as a most vital one " the necessity of keeping a;u. cow·cvrtt with what is being done or contemplated by others in similar lines of bu iness, and of being well in touch with all probable new developments, whether of applied science or of labour-saving expedients not merely in this country, but among our world-wide competitors." 1'he Intelli­gence Department deals 'vith the collection of informa­tion and data required by t he various departments and members of the firm; the indexing, cataloguing, and filing of. technical literature, catalogues, cuttings, &c. It secures a systematic perusal of contract advertisements in the technical papers, marks and records openi11gs for the firm's products, and keeps a card index of parties interested or likely to be interested in them. The principals or heads of departments furnish notes of special subjects on which t hey desire information, and articles in current magazines or papers are marked for their perusal. When ti1e subject is a general or volu­minous one, such as ' 'vater-tube boilers, Romeike and Curtis can be requisitioned. 'fhe technical index of the " Engineering Magazine" is also utilised, and special articles are obtained by coupon when required. These cuttings are filed under department or subject heads in card board cases for reference.

uppose the firm is considering any problem, say foundry equipment, the Intelligence Department is re­quested to collect the articles dealing- with this subject; the variou~ yearly indexes of teohmcal papers are gone over; and, if need be, a summary is prepared for the tech­nical committee, or the individual member to whom the question has been remitted. This method saves the t ime of the more expensive staff, and is a means of readily ob­taining concentrated information with a minimum expen­diture of high-paid labour.

The duties of this department are, of course, not con­tinuous but intermittent, and are combined with other clerical duties. In the estn.blishm..ent here dealt with they are undertaken by ladies whose natural genius for detail makes them spemally suited for this class of work

These brief notes on a few shop schemes are sub­mitted as showing developments in dealing with the minutire of an engineering establishment, which may be followed up with advantage and also with a view of eliciting the ~xperience of others on similar lines. Their value has been found to consist in providing a medium through which the intelligence and ability of the indivi­dual foremen and men are directly ascertainable, and in providing the machinery by which ideas and suggestions are methodically dealt with, followed up, and exhausted, before adoption or rejection.

They have also bad the effect of bringing the men and their employers into more direct personal relations, and of creating a cer tain esprit de CO?'}JS in the shop, the value of whicbt although not tangible, is nevertheless of a real and gratifying nat ure.

THE DORTMUND AND EMS CANAL.* By H ERR R EGlERUNGS AND BAURATH HERMANN.

(Continued from page 339.) The canal crosses the water parting between the Eruscher

and L ippa valleys in a cutting 10 metres (33 fb. ) deep to canal bottom. Acros3 the valley of the Lippe the canal is carried on embankment, with the towing path 13.5 metres (44! ft. ) above ground level. The River Lippe is crossed on a substantial aqueduct, with three openings of 21 metres (69 ft. ) span each. Crossing t he water part­ing between the Lippe and Stever valleys necessioated making a cutting 12 metres (39~ ft. ) deep. The embank­ment across the valley of t be Stever is of the same height. The River Stever is crossed by another sub­stantial aqueduct, having also three openingd. but only 12.5 metred ( 41 ft.) span each. The Ems is crossed at 7 kilometres (4~ miles) below the look at Munster, on a massive aqueduct of four openings of 12.60 metres (41! ft.) span each. The canal l:i as to overcome the graatest difference in levels wi thin the drainage area of the Ems, at a point near Riesenbeclr, where it is carried in a cutting 12.5 metres (4l ft.) deep, through the underlying lim(>s~on~ formation near the Teutoburg forest.

Be-yond thelock at Bergeshoevede the country descends pretty rRpidly towards the plain, so that the distance to the next look • a o aly 1.1 kilometres ( 0. 7 mile), where as it was possible to place the succeeding locks leading towards the Ems at intervals of 2.9, 5.4, 8.7, 7.8, and 3.5 kilo­metres ( l. 8, 3. 4, 5.4, 4. 8, and 2. 2 miles). Short raaohes between looks cannot be recommended. When there is a considerable amount of traffic t hrough the locks, the great quantity of water used for locking causes perceptible variations in the water level, which vatiations are further enhanced by the flowing and returning currents between locks, caused by the admission or drawing off of water. I ndeed, in the case of a reach 5.4 ki lometre3 (3.4 miles) long, the wave caused by looking produces a.~ times as great a difference as 10 centimetres ( 4 in.) in the water level. I t thence fellows that t he headway from t he water

* Paper read before the International Engineering Congress, Glasgow, 1901. Section II. : Waterways and Maritime Works.

' •

• 3i7 level b the soffi t of a brid~a cr.::ssing over the canal has to be made at least 10 centimetres (4 in.) more than t hat required by the load gauge of the barges. In th~ case of the Dortmund and Ems Canal this he~dway has be: n 6 xed at 4 metres ( l :ij- f t . ).

In t he Haneken Uanal there is a fall of 10.67 metre1 (35 ft. ), which is overcome by three looks. The water level above t he reguhting gates on t he Haneken Canal is kept down by a massive overfa11 w~ir with free flow. The rC'gulating gate is generally kept open, and is only intended to sbut out floods ia the Ems that are higher t han the watE-r levt-1 in tbe canal. The Ems, bet ween Mepp9n a ad H erbrum, is divided into five reaches. J n the upp?r four reiches tbe water is dammed up by needle weir3. At H erbrum, sluices Wt)re considered neces~ary, as, under certain condition?, the water below t he sluices c:1.n rise higher than above the sluices. The five locks overcome a total fall of 10.25 metr(>S (33i ft. ). In­cluding the canal lift and the two end looks of the Oldersum and Em den Canal, t here are altogether 20 loaks. Ao t he end of each reach only a single lock has been built, but the position of each lock of 67 metres (220 ft.) a vail­able length h~ been arranged in such a manner t hat a. second lock can be added hereafter in every c~e if re­quired.

D nrENSIO.Ns m ' CANAL.

The Dortmund a ad Ems Canal has a depth of 2. 5 met ras (8 ft. 2-! in.), and a. bottom width of 18 metre3 (59 ft.). 'fhese are the standard dimensions fixed for all Prussian canals to be built in the future. On curves, the bottom width is enlarged on the convex side. The amount of this widening of the bottom is regulated in every case by the radius of the curve, and the admissible maxi m urn length of the barges, in n.ccordance wi t.h the rules fixed at the In•~rnat10nal Congres3 for I nland Navigation hjld at Vit nna in 1886. In accordance with these ruleR, t he amount of the widening of the canal bottom is equal to twice the versed sine of the arc whose chord is equal t~ the lengt h of the longe3t barge, which ha.s been assumed ab 67 metres (220 t t.). The amounts by which the canal bottom is to be widened have been r.Junde:l off to the nearest half metre, and are arranged for certain group3 of radii of curvature. They ar.~ for a radius of :-

2000 metres (100 chains = 0 5 m. (_t ft 8 in ) 1000 , ( 5~ , = 1. 0 , ( 3 " 3~ , ) 500 , ( 2o , = 2 5 , (8 , 3 , ) 400 , ( 20 , = :>. 0 , (9 , 11 , )

The sharpest cu1 ves on the c:mal havd rad i of 400 n. etres (20 chains). On the E ms, the bottom width of whic:h is 30 metres (98i ft. ) throughout, curves of 250 metres (l7i chains) were admissible. The clear bottom width of 18 metres (59 ft ) has also been adopted for all structures with vertical walls along the canal, which entails a. con­traction of the wetted cross-section of the canal, and consequently interferes with the free flow of the water at every such structure. The area of the standard wetted cross-section is 59.2 square metres (637! square feet) ; and the area of the cross-section where in is contracted by sbruotures wit h vertical walls is 45 square metres (484g square feet). For the rest, in every case where standard slopes could not be arranged, as, for instance, at bridges crvssing over the canal, a standard width of 22 metres (72ft.) has been adopte~ for a height of one metre (3 ft . 3~ in. ) above canal bott~Jm.

EARTHWORKS AND PROTROTING SLOPES.

The croEs-scction of the canal in cutting and em ba.nkmen t is shown in Fig. 3, page 378. The cross-section is somewhat altered whe1e the slopes a.ra protected by stone pitching or cement concrete slabs. The slopes of t he canal were protected everywhere by either of these means wherever the nature of the ground met with was such t hat it could not be left even tem_{;orarily without some prott ct ion. W1th regard to the extra. depth of one metre (3 ft. 3~ in.) provided in the canal on embankmen~, it should be men­ti<.1ned that the long slopes have shown signs of weakness and consequently it has been decided to strengt hen thei~ toes on t he cJ.nal side, by raising the canal b.:>ttom one metre, for a. width of a.t least 3 metre.s (10ft.).

Various meth~ds .adopted. ~or p~·otecting t he canal slopes are shown m F 1g. 4. Ongmally It was not c:msidered necessary to face the slopes tllroughout, but during con­a:truction it was gradually discovered that the material used for forming the e'lopes was almost everywhere of a s ~ndy nature, and not compn.ct enough to res st the wash produced by passing vessels. The shortest length d fac-:d slopes, me:1sured along the slop~, is at prc sent 2.90 metres (9~ ft.) long, and. requires about 1.16 cubic metres of stone p ;: r lineal met re (1.39 cubic yards per lin€al yard) of slop~. The deepEst p-.~int or toe of the fa~i.ng to t he slopes ii pl~c d O. tiO metre (2ft .) below the otd10ary ~vater-level, wh1ch depth wa3 fixed by experi­men t, as 1t was found that b:'low that dt-ptb t he action d the wa ves did no damag~ to the Flopes. In S:;Vdral plao~ s on l0ng stretches a nuvel met hod of prot cting the sl?pes has bee~ t ri.ed, ~vith exc~llent rt ~ults a~ compat ed w1th stc::epH' mcltnat10ns, whlCh conn s ted m covering direotly the 3 to 1 sodded slopes with a layer of lo~ se rubble. On future works t his method may probably be used still mora exteneively. In other pace . .,, on long strt;tches, the elopes of the canal are faced 'vith cement­concrete elab:a, 1.10 to 1.20 metres (3ft. 7 in. to 3ft. 11 io.) bng by 0.5 to 0.6 metre (20 in. to 24 in.) wide, the pro­p Jr tions b~ing one part of cement to two parts of ~and and from three to five parts of gcave!. The joints are simply plugged with mos~. Tile slabs are durable if they are cart fully made, and p rope· ly bedded on broken stone or coarse gra v€'1, whereby t he danger of their being undermined by t he w11sh is prevented. In sp ecial cases where t he clay puddle was placed immediately bdow th~ layer of soil, cement-concrete slabs were also la1d on a slope of 3 to 1. These flobs were made in siz:s of 1.8 by

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0. 6 metre (6 ft. by 2 ft . ), and 8 csntimetre3 (3f in.) thick, a nd were strengohened by five pieces of hoop-iron, 25 by 2 millimetres ( l in. by i ! i n.), embedded in them. T he pur­pJse of the hoop-iron was to render the slabs less liable to break, especially when they are being carried and handled, and ba.s ans wered fairly well. ~Iore recent ly, broken Rla.bs, 8 centimetres thick, as before, and measuring 1. 20 by 0.6 me~re (4ft. by 2ft. ) have been replaced by new ones only 5 centim~tras (barely 2 in.) thick, whioh bad r ound iron b u s emb~dded in them, which are nob more c Jsdy, and are less liable t:> break. An experiment has aho been tried of covering large surfaces with a thin layer of concre te, with embedded wire ne ttling, on t he Monier p rincipl9 ; provi9ions were also made to hold down the •:oncrete to the slope~, but the resulb was not satisfactory. IrrA~ular cracks made their appearance, the c:>ncrete was u odermined by t he water, and b roke in pieces.

Alterations in the original cross-section of the can~l were al~o reqoirad for the protection of i ts slope3, as pro· vision had to b3 made against leakage by t he use of pnddle io emb!l.nkment3. As it was of toe utmost i mport­anc:e that t he puddle should form an unbroken, continuous h .yer, which should nowhere bs broken through by the fa:~iog or n itching of ths canal slopes, all designs that did not strictly complv with t his requiremen b had neces3arily to be rejected. Paddle became neccs3ary every where in ambanKwents where t he soil used for forming the bank was not suitable for making a. water~ight embankment. It W\S Pqoally neceosary in cuttings wherever the materi11l cut thr 111~h was eit her porous or where its stratifica.tion was liable to allow water to leak out. In bobh these respe%~ the D or !imund an1 Ems Canal was under an-

6 0 '16 ~

favourable conditions. The long stretches of high embank­ments across the valleys of the Lip~e and the dtever had to bs formed of t he marly materJal derived from the cuttings. In the lower strata the marl was so hard that it had to be quanied, almost like stone ; but it soon crumbled to pieces on exposure to air and water. Only after lengthy C)nsideration and careful experimen1 s with the maberia.l on trial l engths was io fioa\ly de­cided to make us ~ of this ma d for forming embank­ments. E xperiments proved t be p :>ssibility of making use of i t for such a pur po3e, but only on condition that the marl heaps were effectually protected against the disintP.grating influence of air and water. It wa.s, how­ever, impossiole bo p revent t he subsequent settlement of t he banksJ formed of coarse, hard lump~, io spite of the care wi th which the l umps were broken up and all interstices fi lled. Considerable t rouble from this cause was experienced, especially where the high bank joine:l the approach w<LllR of the canal lift. The marl banks were at first wholly encased in a covering of clay, a.s shown in the cross-section of the embankment across the valleys of the Li.ppe and the S tever (Fig 5) ; but this caused further t rouble, as it was found that the soil covering t he outer sl '>pes would not adhere to the clay­puddle underneath, and slipped down in large patches. It was therefore decided l11.ber oo, during the p rogres3 of the works, to disp9nse with the clay covering on the out3ide s lopes, and t J spread the soil directly over the mar), which hM proved successful.

In the canal bed the clay puddle has been covered over with a layer of sand in order to protect it against injury from passing vessels. The ston9 pitching of the canal slopes

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was htid on this layer of sand. At some places, where the covering of sand had not properly set, it hapJ?ened that both the layer of sand and the stone pitching slipped down together on the slop~ of the cJay puddle. Fine sand was met with in many places, and alsl) required special care for forming it int o embank ments ; but it gave less t rouble than the marl. The material in this case was rammed and watered. A cross-section of a 11 em­bankment roade of sand acro.ss the valley of the Ems is shown in Fi~. 6.

Oo side-ly10g ground, where the c11nal is ps.rtly on bank and partly in cutting, the clay puddle was omitt'3d wherever it could be assumed tha t, if any leakage took place, the water would run off ondAr~round without touching the toe of the embankment. The average slope of the water running off from the topmost layers was in this case assumed at 1 in 8. Experience, however. proved that in ma 'ly instances this assumption was fallacious, and the adminidtrat>ive authorities of the canal ware con­sequsntly compelled subsequently to perform a. great deal of supplementary work, and to pay compensation, because not only h 1d the loss <..'f water by leakage in the canal to be made good by a.n increased s upply, but complaints were aho ra ised by adjoining ownera for swamping their lands. When making up his estimates, the engineer ought never to stint the sum to be set apart for making the bed and banks of his canal thoroughly impervious. The material used for making the canal watertight wa.s clay throughout, which wa.s well rammed; and in case of thick layera and high slopes i t wa.3 also well trodden down by horses. The s oecifisd thicknesses of the puddle along the canal were 70, 50, and 30 centimetres (27! in.,

2fJ£1Ifl,om..d,":!

19f in., and 12 in. ). The th ickness should be nowhere less than 30 centimetres (about l ft.). By way of expeii ­ment, a. thickness of 10 centimetres (4 in.) was tried, but did not p rove successful.

CANAL L IFT, L OCKS, BRIDGES, AND OTHER STRUCTURES.

It is not pr:>posed to give in this paper a. minute de­script•on of the various st ructures a \ong the D ort mund and Ems Catoal, which, moreover, without deta-iled drawings, could hardly 1.>9 in telligible. I t must there­fore sutfice to allude briefly t'l some structures of a novel and ~ecuJia.r character, for the construction of which the buildmg of the canal offe red an opportunity. Anyone who wishes for more detailed information on this subject is referred to a. s~ries of ~u·ticles which are now (1901) a ppearing in the Zeit:1chrijt fur Bau-wesen (published by Ernst and Korn, of Berlin).

Canal Lift.- '£he most important structure along the canal is unquestions.bly th9 caoallift near Henrichenburg, which Rerves to overcome an average fall of 14 metres ( 46 ft.) between the D ortmund reach and the main reach, and C'\n b~ used by 950-ton barges, 67 metres (220 ft. ) long, by 8. 2 met res (27 ft..) beam, and 2 met res (6 ft. 7 in.) draught. All canal lifts t hat h!l.vA hither to been con­structed are only ab lA to ace )mmodate vessels of much smaller dimensions. T he oldest structure of this kind is the A ndert :>n lift for raising barg~s up to 150 tons carry­ing capa~ity ; the next one WM L es F ontinettes lift for 300-t on vesseh , and thr ee more li fts are to operate on the Canal du Cent re, one of which, namely, that at La L ouvie re, WM completed several years ago for 360-ton vessels.

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In ord er t o accommodn.te tlv:) h,rg~st vcs3el trQ.diog on the <'!lnal) the t roughs of the HEnnchf-nburg lift had to be m ade of J\ l~ngth which only allowed of a. mt: t hod of co~struction in which Oicb tr.>ugh w~Js C!l.rried on a s ing]':) p otnt of suppot t, which de~ign in its tu tu would ha Ye nece~ ihted t~e adoption of hydraulic rams. Moreovdr, a a mat t~r of OO'll'3P, tw.> troughs would havd b9.d to be adopted, in <'rJer that the we-ight of thedt sceoding troug h wight bs utili9ed for C)un terb •ln,nc:iog that of the asJendi og trough. Each trough of the new litt was of necessity to ha.ve a clear l ength of 70 metres (230 ft. ). If only a single large ram bad been adopted, there might have been some difficulty in constructing such a. ram or a. trough (I){ sufficient strength. The adoption of several small rams, on the other band, might have proved a. source of oons tanb trouble owing to a. want of harmony in the working of the several rams. Another syotem of con­struction h ad therefore to be chosen , which may be described briefly a a. fioa.tin~ lifb with a single trough m oving in p .uallel g uides. 'I he sub3tructure consists of five contig uous wells, each 9.20 metres (30~ H.) in dia­meter , ana 30 metres ( !)8~ ftJ .) deep. There was n o diffi­culty in sinking these, because bard marl was found of great deptb at this P"~inb, and with very few fissure~. When sinking the cell,., the portion already excavated wa lined, working downwards, with oa,st-iron cylinders. Each ring was 1.50 metres (5 ft.) high, and was composed of sixteen segmen~. At the bottom of each well a ma~s of concrete was deposited in the shape of a hollow spherical cup. The wells are connected with each other by pipes, and are kept constantly full of water up to their brims. In each well t here is a. floating hollow cylinder or buoy, 8.3 metres (27! fb. ) in diameter, and 10 m~tres (323 ft.) high. These five hollow cylindera exert together an upward pressure of a.boub 3100 tons, which is equivalent to the weight of the trough whm full of wate r, plus the weight of the five vertical supports upon which ib res~. The trough i3 suspended by vertical b l.nds in a kind of cradle, which) in its turn, rests on the five lattice-work supports carried by the floating hollow cylinders. The whole construction, namely, hollow cylinders, vertical supports, and the tank fi lled with water, are in perfect equilibrium, so that if any extra. water is admitted, the trough begins to sink, or, if any water is abstracted, the trough begins to rise. In order t o control the movement both up and down, also t o start tho lift atl the proper moment, or to stop it ab any level, and to check the momentum a.b the end of the stroke, there are four massive vertical spindles, which are turned by shaft.ing, which acts on all four spindles simul­ta.neonsly, and mak~ them revolve ~t a. uniform speed. The spindles work m four nu~, whtoh are attached to the cradle carrying the trough. Both ends of the trough and a.Js) the two fixed shore-ends of the canal are fitted with watertig ht ga.tee. In front of each gate of the upper a.nd lower shore-end hangs a. frame-like wedge­place of the shape of the · cross-section of tb3 trough. The wedge-piece. i~ faced on bo~h sides wit~ india-ru.bber rolls, and its postt.ton can be adJusted to sutb the va.nable water level in the C!l.na.J. The ends of the trough are also rebated bo fi~ the wedge-piece. As .the trough ris~ or sinks into position ready for lookmg a. barge, 1t squeezes the wedgt\-pieoe aga.insb the corresponding shore-end of the can al, and makes the j oint Wd.ter -tighb.

The raising of a ~arge from t~e lower to the upper reach is pertorme:i m the following manner: AC3 soon as the bugd to be raised has been brou~ht into its proper position, the gates at the correspondmg shore-end ~nd a.t the end of the trough are c:mpled together and raHed by a capstan, worked by a rack a~d pinion, the ~eight of the gates lHing balanced by smtable oount13rwe1ght 3. The barge then enters the trough) and: the gates are lowered again, and uncoupled. If reqmred, t~e water in t1he trou_gh is lowered. to its proper level by lettu:~g off a. portion. The t rough rts~, and 18 stopped oppostte the gate of the upper reach; the gd.tes are then coupled together, and raised, and the barge ent~rs the .upper reach. The p)wer for all these move~ent3 1S supphed by two d ynamos driven by steam engmes, of 220 horEe­p ower each. One dyna mo is sufficient to do the work, the other b3ing kept in reserve. The press.ure a m<;mnts t o 220 volts, and a. cutrent of 800 a mperes 1s reqmred for starting. . .

The cost of the lifb and the who!e msta.lla.t10n was 2)600,000 mark~ ( L30,000l.). The cont ra~ tors for the work were Haniel a nd Lueg, of Dues3eldorf-Grafenberg, and the Bridge Construction Company, r~pr~sented ~y J. C. H a .. korb of Dui~burg. The electnc mst alla.t10n was carried ~ut by the D eutsche Electricitiits ~VHke Ga.~b,, Lahmeyer and Co., of Frankfort-on- th~-~Ja,m. The 1~ea. of a. floating lift guid 3d by scrow mot iOn waJ sugge~ .. ed by H err .J ebeJ?S! engineer, of Ratzl:)burg.. Th~ time occupied m r~usmg one .bugd aJ?d lowt:onng a nother averages 25 minutes. Tlus t1me 1s counted from the moment when thA firJb b!l.rge enters the trough to tbe time when t he lnugh, having d~livered the firat ba.rgd and finished the retura journey w1th a second one tra vel­ling in the opposite direction, this b~rge has p~ssed out, an1 the tr.:>ugb. i~ ready for b~e receptLOn of 11. thud bar~e. The actual rtll·lno- or lowermg of the tr.:>ug~ occuptes 2~ minnbes. The blift haJ hitherto worked Without ~ny hitch ; ib even behaved extrdmely well on C?ne occt\.3100 when, by accident, the tr.:>ugh ran dry durmg 11. d own­ward journey, and .the apparc1tu.s had to act under oond l-tions under w hich 1t was never I!ltended .to work. .

The objection tha~ can be ra1s~d aga1ost th~ adopbt?n of a. lift ii that it has t oo ma ny dtffer~nt workmg: par .. P, the fd.iluro of any one of which m.ay m terfere w1th the prop~r working of the wh 1le. A hft constructed on the fioa.ting-brough principle should only be adopted whud the conditions f )r i b are favourable, and. a. good founda­oa.n either b3 found, or can be prepared .wtth~utany ~re!Lt tr.:>uble and exp3nditure. In c1nclus10n, 1b should be

E N G I N E E R I N (~.

m entioned bhab when the further extetuion of the Dort­mund and Ems C!J.nal is taken in hand, it i3 contem­plated to cons~ruot a flight of locks by tne side of the oanallifb.

Aqueducts.-The great aqueducts upon whioh the canal is carried acroes the Lippe, Stever, and E ms, are con­s tructed en•irely of masonry, forming noble-looking struc­tures which are wel\ worthy of being studied by the engi ­neer in every detail. In fu t ure works of this kind i ~ will be highly ad"i3able to ntake the wing walls a,s long as p1ssible, in ordt-r to insure a. proper wa.tH-tight bond be­tween the esnhwork of the embankment and the mas :>nry of the abutments. Experience has also taught the le~ son tba.tl where the abutments ara backed with clay ­puddlP, the offsets or steps atl the ln.ok of the walls should nob b3 nude very wide, because when the clay­backing settlelJ, wide off-sets or steps prevent an even settlement of the whole mass of clay behind the wall. The por t ion of the clay resting on the off-set is held up, and t he puddle i3 apt to break up into horizontal layers which may cause leakage. The importance of making and maintaining a. water· t ight bJnd babween earth­work and masonry mg,y be gathered from the foregoing remarks. In all structures along the Dortmund and Ems Canal the masonry ahntments are lined behind wi t h a. layer of clay-puddle from 30 to 70 centimetres (12 in. to 27! in. ) thick, which joins the corresponding layer of puddle of t he emba.nkmenb. As for the res t, the struc­tures are made wa.ter-tighb with sheet lead, 3 millimetres (0.12 in.) thick) the firs t cost of which was con~iderable, but which gave excellent results and could be thoroughly depended upon. All horizontal . and vertical ~urfaces were coated with a layer of cement: mortar 2.5 oent1mebres ( l in.) thick. The horizontal faces were covered with a k ind of a-spha.lte bra.ttice cloth, and the upright faces were coated with wood cement. The lead is hung in sheets, measuring 5 by 2 metres (16~ ft. by 6~ ft ), against the vertical faces, and is protected on the side facing the water by a timber framework covered with boards. The horizontal sheets of lead were further covered with tarred brattice cloth, upon which ·sand was spread, and upon this the paving was laid. The sheets of lead over­lap ea.ob other by 20 millimetres ( i~ in.) and were soldered together by the oxy-hydrogen blasb. The contracting firm for this por tion of the work was J . C. Eckelb, of B erlin. The cost of the sheet lead covering 3 millimetres (0.12 in.) thick, was 19 marks per square metre (15s. 10~d. per square yard). The total oosb of the s~eeb lead cover­ing, includmg the pavement and proteobmg screen •. was 74,500 marks (3725l.) for the aqueduct aoro3~ the Ltppe, and 79,000 marks (3950l. ) for ~hat! across the Rt ver Ems.

Bridges. -There ar.e 185 bndgos a.orcs3 the canal ; . two of these are swing br1dges, and the othera ard fixed gtrdu bridges, giving a headway of 4 metres ( ~3! fr. ) above the highest navigable water level. The gndH-3 are all of mtld steel. 'l 'be square span of the bridges was fixed at 31 met res ( lOl! ft . ), in consequence of V!hich the cro:~­section of the ca nal is contracted at the brtdge.Q. In addt­tion to thi3, the deep slopes had to be protect(d wit h ~tone pitching for cJnsiderable length above and below br~dge, a nd for the whol e height, which entailed an expend1ture a mounting to as much as 8000 marks (400t.) for some of the bridgcls. In the long ruo) ib was found preferable to increase the ~pans of the bridges sufficiently EO as not to contract at all the cro~s-section of the canal. The tvro arrangements are sho;vn in Fig~. 7 and 8. The ord~nary bridges. crossing the canal .at r1ght an~les, were ~mlb to five different types of dra.\\Ings, accord1og t? the d1ffereD;t widths adopted for the roa.dwa.ys, and the d1fferent .ma.xt­mum loads they ha.d to carry. The widths fixed for bridges cl.rrying ordinary fiHld roads were 4. 5, 5.0, and 5.5 metres (14~ ft., 16ft. 5 in., and 18 ft ), a.nd ~or pu~lio road bridges 7 and 8 mebres (23 fb. and 26! ft. ), mcludmg footpaths. The former class of bridges were builb strong enough to carry a. rolling load of 10 tons, the latter .20 to os and a load uniformly distributed all over the bndge of 400 kilogrammes per squa~e metre (82lb. J?er sq.uare fo )t). The nnmber of bridges bmlt to type drclwmgs 1s 112. In sJ:ecial cases special ~rawings w~~e prepared for .the bridge to suit the pa.rt1cula.r condtt1ons of the loca.hty. The largest bridge, cl.rrying the Aschendorf-Rhede road across the Ems cutting, has a clear span of 66 metres (2t6~ fb.)

Across the down canal heads of the looks at Meppen and B ollingerf:ibr, there are two lifb bridges. These are intended to carry light country-road traffic only. In order to b e able to give the necessary standard he~d way of 4 metres (t3a fb.) under them when the water m the lower reach is abnormally high) the superstructure of these two bridges can be ra.~sed off the abutments by steel ropes and capstans. TbB a.rungement has answered

well. · h ' h The canal is cr.:>3sed in several places by rd.tl way e) w to are in a.ll case s carried over the canal.

(To be continued. )

THE MANUFACTURE OF MARINE ENGINES.

379 J nto the subject of commercial orgttnisn.tion of engi ne works, or the strictly on-cost factors, it is not intended to enter, but instead to touch upon cer tain factors which directly ttffect t ho workshop it elf, and have a distinct in­fluen ce upon its productive capacity. The interest which is spreading in regard to workshop economies is ono of the most hopeful signs that a n awakening to the now order of things is taking place. ~ianufacturers are becoming alive to t he fact that it i n ocessM'Y nowada.ys for a closer and more personal intero t to be taken in the minute t and, a,pparently, mo t trivial details of workshop practice ; and are forced to con ider certain influences, some of which hn..ve been looked upon as out ide the range of p ractical workshop economics, or n.t most ha \' O

received '"qualified or indifferent approval. 'l' here is t\. wide and interesting field in every work­

shop for he who makes the -e his special study) Lut it requires continuous and concentrated attention to obtain the best re ults . 'l'ho points particularly referred to are :-

1. A premium systmu of labour remunera.tion. 2. Good, accurate, and powerful tool~. 3. Arrangement of tools and roomy shops. 4. Clean and tidy shop . 5. \Yell -lighted and well-warmed ~hops. 6. 'tandardisation.

The P1'c1JI,iU?n 'ystcu~.-The first and gren.test of all these influences i the introduction of t he Premium

ystem, whi ch effects nothing hort of a complete revo­lution in a shop; and its con equences arc very wide and far-reaching indeed, and in directions which at first sight migh t seem to li<we no connection with the source.

One of the primary results of the Premium •. ystom is the establishmen t of accurate dn.ta., upon which com­parison can be based and deductions made. It is hardly po ible to over-estima,tc t he benefits of having accurate a nd reliable detailed data in the works as a means of com­parison ; yet this is often overlooked or ignored, a nd t he comparatively small sum per annum which the establish­ment of an efficient time or records office in the works would cost is grudged, because the profitable return which such a,n investment would give, if properly worked and managed, i not realised.

The reveh\.tion which would be made by the introduc­tion of uch nn office in any place previou ly without ono would he sufficiently convincing to mo t engine builders ; yet lethargy or indifference keeps many from ~wailing themselves of a mean of speedily infu ing n ew vitality into their place) <tnd stttrting afresh with renewed youth and vigour. '!'here is no doubt that it requires an amount of faith and the whole- ouled energetic personal attention of a principal or highly-placed ofticin.l to intro­duce such a y tem. The necessa.ry work takes a large amount of time for a considerable period) but the results are worth it a.U, and onco tho system is started and in fair worki11g order) there will be no looking back. The accom­panying Table I. (page 380), columns 1 and 2, gives a few examples of what the Premium ystem has done in the way of economising time.

Apart) however) from t he question of economis ing time, the system provides an admirable and efficient check upon an y exce sive rise in wages cost, as each contributory cause becomes apparen t, and ~'lin be investigated the moment it arises, and suitable mean · taken to prevent a recurrence in future. The knowledge that uch varia­t ions above the normal in the time taken are investigated in detail and checked acts in a mo t wholesome manner upon the men and foremen) keepi11g them alert, and t ending to produce an even and gmd ually increasing u.verage of performance.

A ccu1·atc and Powc1jul Tools.- Anothor mo t impor­tant factor in the economical production of work is good, pow·erful) and, very especially, accurate machine tools. 'l'his is axiomt\.tic. E very one acknowled ges thi , but how many builders even yet realise exactly what this mean,) or can state in reliable figures the actual difference between one tool and another in output, which, after nll, is thA real bas is of comparison. Had they been able to do so, the wave of revival and reorganisation now setting in would have commenced far earlier than it has done; and a vague and hesitating belief in the need for new and up­to-date tools gradually taking the place of a. hitherto blind confidence in old and cheri hed machinery, would have speedily grown into strong con viction, when backed by the hard facts of accurate and relj~tble chtta of corn-

• panson.

The experience of t he author's firm in this direction has been of considerable oxten t. Old tools which were formerly thought to be doing fairly good or average work on the whole were found to be hopelessly wanting in speed, ha,ndincss, nnd principally accuracy and power ; a nd within the last few yem'l:! nearly the whole of these machine tool h~we been sold or othcrwi e dispo ed of, and new and more powerful machinery ubstituted.

The Premium y tom had not been very long started before i t began to show up some very great discrepancie.':l in the performance of sunilar tools when on the same work. 'l 'his led to a n investigation of the causal, and generally it wns found that the result was due to tl.e weakness or want of power of the less efficient tool. In-

Some FuctO?'S A ff'ecting the Economical J.lfwwfactun of deed so frequently wa this }?articular fa ult of wealm& s · M ct1·inc Engines.* or w~ut of power found to eXlSt that the limit of outpLt

B y ~(R. "\Vl LJ--IJH I 'l'HOMSON, of Glasgow. was very soon reached; and in order to overcome this, nll 'fuE most desultory reader of our technica~ jourt~als the work had to be moved up a stage or two, and a

cannot fail to be struck with the great a:ucl m 9reasmg h eavier cla of tool used, in order to get m ore p ower for interest which hns of htte years been taken m the m.ternul the heavy cutting ~vhi~h. the Premium ystem ~evelopccl. economy of our engineorm g workshop ·. 'l'he obJect of 'l'his led to congestion m the work for the heaVlest to Is, the following remar~cs is . to dr~\W pecia~ attentiOn :o so newer and more powerful ones all along t he line were certain factors a ffectmg this, w luch h<we lu therto not 1e- substitutedh~s soobn ~s ~o ible . . A f~w Texb·im

1plesb of the

· d the consideration which their importan ce warra nts. res~lts oft 1s su . t1tu.t10n are gt.ven m a e ., y corn-calVe _ parmg columns 2 and .3, page 4.. . - * P a -er read before t he lnten mtionnl Eng!neering 'l'he l~igh cutting speeds which hav~ _lately been m~ro-Oongrep~, Gla~gow) 1901. Section Ill. : l\lecbnm cal. 1 duced ~mce th~ B ethlehem Company 1a1sed the question,

T ABLE I.

Same :Machines Throughou t .

DeEca iption of ( l) I (2) (3) (4) Work. T ime Time T aken Time TakeL

Taken J D Introduc- in Better R ecord Under Old t ion of Location Time for

Time I Premium with Greater t he Sam e System. System. Fa oil i t ies. J ob.

1. Turning COO· h ours I h oura hours h ours necting ·rod. 1 off . • • • 43} 36 35 29!

2. Slotting COD· necting . r od. 3 off . • • 31 24! 22! 20

3 Oran k web (fi n i s h i o J! holes. 1 off) 7~ 6! 4l 3!

Ntw and more Old Machines u nder Powerful Machines on

Premium System .

Old Time P remium Fjrst Time Record on New System. System. Time. Machine. --

hours hours h ours h ours 4. T urning t unn£>1

s hafting. 1 off. 42 29~ 93! 21 5. Turning e:::c.

rode. 1 oti .. 2~ 11! 9 8! 6. T urning t hru11•

&haft. 1 off 120 97! 75 65 7. Fioish turnin~·

e r a n k s h a f t. 42 34 15 9} 1 off . . •

8. Tur ning quad hlo ' ks. 13oft 195 140 91! -

0. Slotting sole· }Jlates. 1 off 70 59! 41k 35!

10. Slntt.ing COD· denser. 1 off 6 l 56 H 34

11. Sl..>tting high· pressure cy-tinder. 1 off. 45l 33~ 21 21

12. Rippin~ out h oles m crank webs (1 web). 2 boles • • 29 17 9 7

14. H ole • boring m ain bearing covers for bolts. 12 holeF 45 37 2i t 20

15. Planing six steel slabs for 12 c rank web: 142! 102 66!

ba,~e very much increased the stress on lathes and boring machines, and have rendered powerful and substantial machines a greater necessity than ever. Generally speak· ing, in machines of this class cutting power is not in proportion to capacity, and want of belt power is a fault more often met with than not in machines of all classes. A certain tool made by a first-class firm was purchased hy t he author's firm three years ago, and after repeated trials it was concluded that it liad not adequate belt power; so when a second machine was ordered, an in· crea e in the ratio of gearing of about 28 to 30 per cent. wa in isted upon, much against the will of the tool­makers, who con..,idered that the first machine was amply p owerful. The result is t hat the newer machine turns out the same work as the old in 26.5 p er cent . less time.

A rranucment of Tools and Roomy Shops. - The ques­tions of arrangement of tools and roomy shops are closely connected and interdep endent, and where t hese have to b e applied to existing bui ldings they become very difficult ones to ettle, and in most cases t he r esult cannot be any· thing more th an a compromise, because, for a given sequence of op erations to be carried on within a given crane area, certain tools are required, and roominess around each tool cannot be given without affecting the arrangement of the tool , probably to the extent of ex­cludiug some of them altogether from the building, and thus breaking the sequence of operations by extra handling . When, however, new shops or extensive altera­tions are about to be entered upon, t he q uestion deserves the most serious consideration. The comfort and con­venience of having roomy machine shops is another con­di t ion very difficult to p ut a money value upon ; but those who have had to deal with overcrowded machine shops, where a large proportion of floor space is taken up by tools or by the work for them, realise t he great inconvenience nnd discomfort caused by this, and must see that money is heing lost under such an arrangement. Plenty of room sh ould be allowed round each tool : and this app1ies to a greater degree to heavy machine tools than to light, be­cau8e these have to c1eal with much heavier and more bulky pieces which cannot be easily handled or trlms­portcd from spot to sp ot, and are gen erally stacked around or near the machines which operate on them.

The question of handling of materia~, which .is the direct result of the arrangement of tools, IS one win ch has not received the atten tion it deserves, simply on account of t he difficult y of getting a t the direct Ios.~ caused by a p oor arrangemen t, eve~ if it is reali:;ed t hat a los~ is taking place, and expenments are ted1ous and expensiv.e. There is no doubt, however, that m uch can be done m this direction in the marine-engine shop if these ques­tion be properly investigated.

As an example of '~hat .can. be done by. the con­sideration of these quest10~s, 1t m1ght .be men t1<?ned that after the a uthor's firm laid down their new boiler-shop, the work turned out by the light and h eavy plating

E N G I N E E R I N G. squad~ was done in 19.6 p er cont. less time in the n ew shops than 1t had averaged in the old, while the machines t urned Ol;l~ thei~ work in 10 p er cent. less time than before ; the cond.1t10ns m both cases as regards tools and appli­ances bemg exactly the same, except that more room was allowed.

Anothe! example ~u,ken from the machine shop illus­trat~ this same p om t very well. A group of three machmes was located in the old machine shop in ome­what cramped and inconvenient p ositions, but a fterwards these machines were ~hifted to a new machine shop and given amplo room. 'fhe results of this new arrange~ent are given bolow in the ann exed T able I I.

TABLE I I.

Saving. Ou~pu~

l r oreased by

Maohlne.

DJuhle·h eaded horizontal borer H . and V. planer . . • . . . Connecting-rod la the . • . .

T ime.

per cen t. 3.9

22.6 12.8

Money. ---- ----per cent.

2.5 14.0 8.3

per cent 4

29 14.7

I n this comparison the conditions were as nearly as po ible the same in both ea es ; the machines doing the same lcind of work, the same men were at the machine and were working under the premium system in the new ~hop as in the old . The result was that the men made on an average-which is t aken over a long p eriod in both cases - 9.3 p er cen t. more wages, the work was 8. 3 p er cent. cheaper to the firm, and 15.9 p er cen t . more work wns got out of the same machines, due entirely to a better arrangemen t and more roomy location of these machines. T his example is only one of many which could be given but ser ves to bring out the p oints which have bee~ mentioned .

Clean ancl T icly Shops.- With regard to clean and tidy shops, it is the belief of the author's firm-and they are encouraged in this by exp erience and ex­ample of the most progressive shops-that these do pay ; yet are not dirty, dark, untidy, cold, and badly arranged shops met with in this and other countries, turning out good work, which must cost , and is cost­ing, more than it might, simply on account of these drawbacks. T hat such conditions are allowed to continue is due either to indifference or ignorance of better on the part of the responsible management; or if they realise t he benefits of having better conditions, they lack the neces­sary courage or p erseverance to put an end to the old bad ones. The value of having clean, tidy, well-lighted, and warmed workshops is one which is impossible to deter­mine in£ s. d., but that i t does have an actual and very real and substan tial value is t!h e belief and experience of all those who have embodied these conditions in their workshop practice, and there are now many examples of this belief.

One cannot have a clean shop which is not a tidy shop, and neither will be found in a badly-lighted shop. The author's firm set out to improve on these lines by fi rst getting rid of t he old earthen floor which is so common, and by laying the whole of the ground floor "Tith grano­lithic and concrete pavement. 'fhe improvement is most marked ; formerly with t he old earthen and iron-chip floor it was impossible to keep any thing clean. Dirt and dust were the order of the day if the floor had to be swept, so it was generally left alone as Ion~ as it could be tolerated. Now there is no trouble; but m stead a fine, smooth, clean, bright surface to move about on. The floor is from 9 in. to 12 in. thick in most place~:, and below machines somewhat thicker, and consists of about 2 in. of rough bottoming of broken stone, then 6 in. of concrete of 5 to 1, and a top finish 2 in. thick of facing made of granite chips and cement in the proportion of 1~ to 1. A s it sets it is levelled and smoothed off with a trowel, and in three days is ready for use, becoming quite hard in about a week, and when thoroug-hly set the floor assumes a beautiful white surface, which has the effect of reflecting the light and percep tibly aiding the general lighting of the shop . Although somewhat dearer than other styles of flooring, there is none other which po esses so many advantages. It has a fine, bright, smooth surfttce, and is therefore ea ily swopt and kept clean; is easily repaired, and does not wear into hollows like wood p aving ; and there has been no complaint from the workmen about it being sore to th e feet .

Well-L ightecl cuncl WeU- Wcwmecl Shops.- The benefits of having a well-lighted engine and bmler hop are pret ty generally recognised, but not to the extent they might be. There are s till fn.r too many places-some of them of front rank-without adequa te means of lighting, strug­gling along with lucigen lamp or g-as in an almost Stygian darkness, which can only be d1 pelled by electric light aud plen ty of it. This is more generally the ea e in boiler shops than in mnchine shops ; and, if there is a place where there ought to be good light it is in a boiler shop. The amount of time lost by men cautiously feeling then· way about in semi-darlme...~, coupled with t he time lo t by skulkers , and loafers dawdling away their time in da rk corners, is very con iderable ; besides which, m en very naturally dislike having to work in a dark shop, and theu unwillingness affect their attendance and they lo e time.

Owing to certain circumstances, the new boiler shop electric light installation was not in working order until the winter season was half tlu·ough, yet from the day the cun·ent was switched on the boilermakers' attendance improved; and while the avora~e time lost before the introduction of electric lighting- was 14.72 per cent. , a fter the light was introduced tho t tme lost averaged 13.2 per cent.; a dis tinct saving of over 1.5 per cen t ., or three­quarters of an hour per week p er man. This is attributed

[SEPT. I 3, 190r.

S<?lely. to th.e lighting of the shop. The difference in other drrect10ns 1s mo t marked . The men can move about '~ith freedom and decision, there are no dark corners, the t1m~-w:orkers have not the same temptation to wa te th~u· trme, and managers and foremen can see wha t is g~m~g on from end to end of. t~1e sho{> with the utmo t distmctness. T a ble Ill. (sub)om ed) gtves a comparative stat e.ment of the various shop lighti.ng: vVI~h regard to the warmmg, th1s IS a problem which

ha gJven the firf!l much.t~ought for some time back, but as yet no defimte deciSIOn has been come to in the !Datt~r. The rang~ of temperature is not 1iearly so great m thiS country as m .the S~a.t~ and Germany, and the wn;nt of pr<?per heatmg facilities does not become one of dail{ exp en ence; hence probably t he renson why so little has oeen done in t his direction. Never theless, there can­no.t be any doubt that as a rule engineering- workshop in t~ country fall very short in this direction. The idea whiCh used to be very prevalent, especially in boiler­making lines, that a cold snap made men work all the harder in order to kee~ themselves warm, is happily ex­pl<?de~, and a more rational view is now heinB' taken of this hitherto much-neglected subject. H ow IS it to be expected that work, and esp ecially good work, is to be got from men who e hands are chilled to the bone and while the main energies are na turally taken up 'with means of keeping up their circulation.

T .mLE I II.

Shop. Area.

- -FQ yards

Boiler shop . . 3700 { • • •• • •

Heavy machine shop 0 . I. Bay .. 880 Ligh t machine shop 0. L Bay .. ~3.5 Erecting shop .. • • •• 1040 Heavy machine shop M. I. Bay 1430 Heavy machine shop M. I. Ba}

gallery (screwing gallery) .'. 479 Finishing shop • • • • •• 674

Smit hy • • • • •• . . 511

Lights.

amperes • per pa1r

22 at 10 4 , 15

12 " 10 11 , 10 11,.10 12 " 10

4 , 10 12 ., 10

(inverted) 4 a t 10

(i nverted)

Amount of F loor

Space per Ampere.

sq. yards

} 13.2 7.3 7.6 9.4

11.9

11.9 4.8

12.7

----------------------~------ -- ---- ------Voltage 110. Br okie-Pell lamp~.

Stanclcvrclisation.- Tbe premium sy tem, with 1ts atten­dant records, very soon showed up the benefi ts of having duplicate work, as the saving of time was quite con ider­able where a run of duplicate or nearly similar pieces was given to a machimst . This was so marked that the question of standardising-, not only the details, but the whole enpne, was gone m to in order to get the full benefit of th1s ; and as patterns began to require ren ewal the engine was re-designed with this end m view. In carrying out this idea in a new design it was found neces­sary, not only to consider the engine and its details in relation to them elves alone, but also with special re~ard to their p osition in t he range of sizes which it was decided to make with a view of k eeping down the number of different sizes of details. The question instantly became one not only affecting the whole range of engines made by the firm, but also th eir practice in connection there­'vith. This practically meant re-designing simul taneou ly all the sizes of engines made ; but a careful analysi and consideration of the requiremen ts to be met enabled t he whole range to be suitably broken up into well-defined gt·oups, each group representing a cer tain size of main centres, and p ermitting certain variations of cylinder diameter and stroke witllln well-defined limits, and suitable for the usual steam pressure . The details­which in each group are never altered, although the ~ylinders may vary within the group limits- aro m very many cases common to several groups, and a large number common to the whole range. This object is always kept in view, in · order to provide a much duplic.:'tte work as po ible. E pecially i this so in the case of the very mall and numerous detail because in these the governing factor in the co t is the wages, not the material; a sligh t and unimportant variation in size causing a relatively large variation in wages co t; while in the larger details the conditions are reversed, and the material becomes the important co t factor, a relati vely smaU variation in wages covering a very large variation in size. The location of the dividing line between these two confiictin~ sets of condition thus becomes a matter of con­siderable Importance, but the accurate data from the time office enables its position to be fixed with great exactness, so as to allow of as much duplication of parts as will pay.

When, however, duplic.:'ttion of pieces c.:<tn no longer be carried out on account of the cost of mater ial prohibiting i t, much can be done in the way of duplicatmg similar machined, faced, &c., parts in d1fferent group . This en­a bles and encoumges the use of j igs, which, under other conditions, would not have been warranted by the saving in wages. Whon oven this cannot be done, standardisa­tion by a graded series of similar pieces does much to make the progress of the work through the drawing office and the 1hops ea y and free from the friction and delay inciden tal to sudden and abrupt changes in desirn. In the drawing office it has the effect of crystallising tnat vague thing- known as "our pract ice," nnd compel i t to carry out 1ts work on well-defined l ines, thus avoiding expensive and irritating changes and mistakes or over­sight. It has also the effect of economising- draught men's time, as a standard series of drttwings once properly arranged do not require to be re-drawn for every n ew job.

In the shops, standardi~<ttion by itR consistency in . dc~ign familiarise· t he staff and mon with the practice

SEPT. I 3, 1901.]

and onu..hle.."' thorn to go about each now job with con­fidence and expedition: knowing thnt each job ns it como..q forwn.rd, if not t~ duplicate, will at len 't be similar; nil of which go ftw to SI;)Ced up the progress of work through tho shop nnd thus mcrenso the output. And, ltbovo all, by t he vory fnct t lmt the moan to effect this cnlls for tho hest f~tcilit'ics nnd most oxnct workmanship, tho result i~ that the chnmctcr of the workman hip is raised hc."lidcs being chett-pened, with satisfactory results to both con­sumer nnd manufacturer.

THE IMPROVEMENr OF TriE LOWER MISSISSIPPI RIVER.*

By Mn. J. A. OOKERSON, St. Loo~, Mo. , U.S.A., Member of the Missi:sippi River Commi~ion, Member of tbo American Socioty of Civil Engineer~, Member of t he Engineerd' Club of St. Louis.

A STREAM carrying the drainage of an area of 1,256,000 square miles, having 15,000 miles of na.viga.blo tributaries, and 'vhioh is itself 2500 miles in length , justifies the appellation o( "Fa ther of Wa.tere." The Miesissippi River, rit:ing in nortltern Minnesota, where its waters are ice bound for nearly half the year, flowd southward, gathering strength and volume on its way to the sea, until it finally enters the Gulf of Mexico, where it washes the shores of semi-tropical L ouisiana..

The reguhltion and control of a river of such magni tude involves probl~ms which gren.tly tax the ingenutty and skill of ntC\.n to solve. Jn its lower ha lf, the river oscil­la tes in volume from a minimum flow of 65,000 cubic feet per second to a maximum o f 2,000,000 cub=c feet P "r second, and the oEcillation" in stage between extreme htgh a nd low water amount! to 53 fb. About 1250 miles above i ts mouth the Missouri River enters, with its sediment· laden waters that are prolific in hindrances to navigation. This sediment, and tbab derived from the ero~ion of the alluvhtl banks, form the sand-bars which develop during the falling stages of the river, and become, ab low stagE*~, formidable obstructions to navigation. It will thus be seen that there are two distinct problems, one involving the improvement of low-water navigat ion, and the other the prevention and control of destructive floods. Inci­dentally, the works executed for the ~a.tter b~ve a. ? ireob influence on the former, by prevenhn~ a. dtsperaton of the water~, tlnd thus inducing a scourmg effect in the bed, wbioh enlarges i ts ca.pacity. The lower half of the str~am flows in an a lluv ial bed of its own formation, the banks of which ttra very fMily eroded. The (;ro~ion takfs pla'le, for the mo~t pa.rt, on the ft~.lling stage~. The ?anks being composed of alternate layers of sand ~nd stlfl, or ola.y ttre disintegrated by the layers of eand bemg wMbed out ~hen the water in the saturated banks recedes toward the river as ib falh. This leaves the clay unsupported, and causes the bank to collapse in large masses, which elide into the river, a.nd then diEintegrate from the force of the currf:nb. In the 885 miles of the river lying below the mouth of the Ohio River, this e rosion or oa.ving amounts to an average of 9! acres in a rea. for each mi!e of river i n a. year, or a volume of about 1,003,579 oubto yards for ench mile of river per year. The total am;mal amoun t of erosion for this reach equnh 10 square mileP, 86 h. in depth.

In its natura l condition the river below the mouth. of the Ohio overflowed its banks at floods stages, wh~c:h generally occur in the spring mon_ths . . T he de~truc~Ive tloods invariably come from the Ohio Rtver and 1ts tnbu· taries chief among which a re t~e T~nnes~~e and Cu~tber­land Rivera which drain a reg10n m which the ramfall is exceptio~ally heavy. The alluvittl basin su~ject to overflow covers an area. of about 30,000 square m1lc3. It has a soil o f remarkable fertility, which yields enormous crvps of cotton and sugar cane. ~t is thus cap~ble of sustaining a. large population, addmg very mt~tenally to the wealth of the coun try. This brief description of the phy~ical conditions of the stream is essential to an under­standing of tbe problems re la ing to its improvement and the metbodg employed therein. .

From S t. L ouis to Cairo, a dist'lnce of 180 m.tlcs, the work projected at present contemplate3 a channel 8 ft . deep a t low water, and havin~ a width o f 2000 fb. 'The overflo w &tnges ate not of such frequent occurrence as to justify expensive embankmeots or Levees to control the floods. '£he high stages occur in the months of ¥ ay a_nd June ; wh•le the lo w-water ~eas~>n generall_y begms with September, and often extend3 mto the wn~ter mon ths. The system of in;tpr ovement adopted for t_h1s r_each con­sistR m contru..ctmg the channel, and closmg stde chutes ~r ch•mnela by means of permcab'e dykes ttn~ b_urcllcs. '£his requires thab the banks must ba held, ~htch 1s do~e by means of revctmcnt. W ork is a lso do11e w1tb bydrJ.uhc dredgers and tempomry portab'e _dyke3, which are uEed to open channels tbr.)Ugh obsbructlng bars. On the ~on~­pletion of the contraction works now in .progr ess, 1t H expected that a navign.b1~ ch~nnel of 8f t. m depth a t low water wi ll be rettd tly mttmtame~ . . . .

The Miesis~ippi Ri ver Comm1~Sl.Olll~ ~harged w1th _tbo survey and ttudy of the phy sical c~nd1t1~s. of ~be rtvH from ittJ source to the Gulf of MeXlCO. l~m; survey c~m­siats of a obain of high-grade tria.t?gulat10n tt.nd o. J_me of precise levels, which form the ba~ts f?r a. top~grapb1~al survey covering tt width of about a. mtl~ on etther. s~de of the river and also for a. hydrogra.ph10 survey gt vmg deptbo, slope3, volume of discharge, &o.. Permanent marks or monuments are lefb at frequent m~rvals, and theRe serve as the initial points from. ~b1cb subse­quent surveys ara made for ascHtamm~ cha~ges occurring in the bed or banks of the nver. The general survey, made in great detail, has been nearly

*Paper read before the International Engineering Co~­gress, Glaqgow, 1901. Secbion I I.: Waterways and Ma.n­tim, wl r~8.

E N G 1 N E E R I N G. completed ; and about 2000 mile3 of the river have been mapped, and the maps have Leen pub!ished on a soale of 1 : 20,000.

The chief construction work of the Commi~sion hM be<'n confined to tha t portion of tho Mississippi Ri Vt r lying betwe('n the mouth of the Ohio and N e w Orlt~an~. The work hM consiste:l of contracting the channel iu wide pltlC9S, rovebment, and dredging. A Bill pending before the htst Congress requirad that a. thorough study shall be made. with a viow of a1certttin 'ng the feasibility a~d practicttl>ility of securing an Mnplo waterway 14 ft . m dep th, the ultimate objeob bri ng t > saoure a 14-fb. cb1tnn~l from L ake J\ilichigan to the Gnlf of Mexico, via the Ill i­nois t\nd Miesis~i.ppi l~iVHJ, The prcso11t lttw contem· plates a cbanuol not Jes~ than 0 fb. in depth ab the lowes b &tlt-geR of the ri vor. Under. natural condi~~ons this dop~h prevn.ils for an average pen od of about eight months m tbo yettr. The Jo w-wa.ter period genera.ll,Y ranges from the middle of August to D ocember. Tbn is, however, the perio:i when the grain crop~ are movin~, ~tnd good nl\vigation is most urgently needed. As the imprJve­menb of a stream of such great length will necessa.rily require along perio :l of time, temporary exJ?edients for the relief of na viga tion must be used, for whteh purpose hydraulic dredgera of large cttpacity have been con­structed. An experimenta l dredger was firab constructed, and ~orked for a. p er:od of over two years, for the pur­pos~ of ascertaining whether dredgin~ in a stream wh£ ra such enormous quantities of matena.l ara continually moved along the bed by the current could give any beneficial results, and also to learn by experience bow to manreuvre and operate a dredger and di~charge the material in strong currents, 'l,hese expenmf!nts and work done since then have fully established the fa.c~ that a. powerful hydraulic dredger can open an ample nav1gable channel through an obstructing Sttnd-bttr, and maintain it at a cost fully j ustifying the expense. F or the next! lo w-water season there will be in the service of the com­mission a working fleet of nine dredgers, with a com­bined working oa.paoity of over 10,000 cubic yards p e- r hour.

A descript ion of one of the later type of dredgers, now under construction, will g ive a good general ideo. of ~hat is considered essential to a good dredger, for work m a stream where the material to be moved is river eand. This type of dr~dger is pro~,ided wi_th propelling power operating t wo stde wheels. Ih~ hull u of stet-1_. and a~ple cabin accommodation for maohmery and crew lS prov1ded. The genera l dimensions are as followo : L ength moulded, 192 fo. : wid th moulded, 44 fb.; depth .moulded, 7 ft.; maximum width over wheels, 70 fb ; suot1on well at bow, 25 ft. by 33 fb. ; working draught, 4 ft ; o_abin, 4~ ft. by 130 ft.· diameter of centrifugal pump, 75 1n.; auct10n and disch~~ge pipes, 32 in. in diameter; leng th of dis.oha.rge pipe, 500 ft. ; main engine (tan?em CO';Jlpound), 1q 10. and 26 in. by 20 in. ; and seven botlera, w1bh four 1~-1n. flues 44 in. in diameter and 30 ft . long. 'rhe capa.01ty ? f t he dredger is 1000 cubic yards of sand per hour, deh vered through 1000 fb. of discharge pipe, at a. pump speed of 160 revolutions per minute.

The sand pump h~ a suction on ea~h side. of the p ump casing; and the d1schar~e lea,·es . the c.:asmg from the lower side and follows along a. ptpe ln.td on the lower beams of the hull tJ the stern~ whe.re it is co~nec.:bed w~tb a floating p ipe line. Th=s floatmg diScharge ptpe l !:i carr~ed on P.Onboons, in lengths of 100 ffl. , _coupled toge_ther wtth flonble joint~ of rubber, to as to dtecharge outitdo of the cha.nnel. The d ischarge pipe lioe ca.n be deflected by mu~ns of shifting the p -:>ntoone, and ttlso by the use of a blt ffle-p late n,t the end of the lin~. 'rh~ pum p runner, 75 in. in dia meter, has five blades,_ and to . keyed upon a steel shafb. The blades are provtded w1th remo~a.ble wearing plates 1f in. thick. ~rhe Clt~ing is of cas~ uon. The intake of the s uction is in two parts, each 11~ fb. long by 8~ in. deep. These suction he1ds are broughb down to a. seo~ion 22 in. equa.re, and enter the hull by means of radial joints, which admib of raising n.nd low~r­ing the sucbions at will. This motion is effected by_ wue rope-s pas~i~g over, sheaves,_ and opera ted. by_ suttab~e windiog engmes. 'I be mater1nl at the .sucbton m take IS loosened by water jets from twelve 2-tn. nozzles, v.:ork­ing under a pre~sure of 60 lb. to 120 lb. per square 1nch by means of a horizontal dup!ex compound plunger pump. The main engines a re horizontal c~ndon~mg t"ngioes of the tamden compound type,_ o~ th_e d~mons10ns given above. The boilers are t he Mtsslsstppt Rtve~ type, bituminous coal being ~sed as fuel. ~fhe d_redgor 1S p · o­vided with an electric-hght plant, refnger n:tm~ plant, _anri Rteam steering gear. AJ?pl~ s:,tccommodatton 1s provtdc:d for quarters, and for mamtat_owg t~ q~u'!Jle crew. Pf. well­equipped machine shop provtdes faC1lit1es for mn.ktng all

• • ordma.ry repatrs. 'Vhen in operation, the dredger is manipulated by two

wire cables 1 in. in diameter. and 1200 ft. long, onf' end being attached to hauling drums, 48 in. in diat?eter, and t he other to hollow iron piling S"Cur~ly placed m the be~ of the river. W ith the ca.blos all ptttd out, the dredger ~s at the lower side of the sand bar to bo out t brough; and 1b is pulled up-stream at a. spo:d varying with the depth of thg out and chamoter of material. F or depths of 5 fb. the r ttto of movement ranges from ab'lub 90ft. to 153ft. per hour 01· somelimes evoo as high as 200 h. of cub per hour. After one cut is finished, the hauling cables are shifted. the dredger is again dropped bnck to the lmyer edge of the bar, and another cut IS made alo?g the ~1dc o f the fir st cut . This process is repeated unttl suffietent width bns been obta.i ne d. After th g 6t:3t out. hf:lS been opened, the current is an acti.\•o agent m asststmg t?e development of a channel, proVldt d the cut ha~ bee~ pro­perly located with reference to the natura l dn·aotton of tiow. Otherwise, the ar~ifioial cut _ma¥ b~ 6lled as fast as it is oponed, by the material wh10h ts moved along by the current.

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Where the drcdg<;>d cuts arc properly located, a sa.tisfa'J­tory cha.nnel can be readily opened ; and. expet:ienc_e s~ows that when once openod, the channel. wtl~ mamtam 1tsclf un til there is a. considerable fluctuat10n 10 stage, soob &1 to change the diraotil)n of fl >w of the tlrea.d of the C!>rrenb. Such a dredger i \ opertl.ted a~ a total cost of ahou ~ 100 dols (20l. 17s.) per day of 2! hout'3.

REVRTMENT AND Co~Tna.orro~ WoRKS.

J n a sl rea.m flowiog thNugb a ~ed of its own formation, the banks are na.turn.lly very eastly erode~ ; and. a Ja,tor~l movement in one direction or tho other 1s contmu_ally. m progre38. Any permanent improvement of na.v1gat10n require3 the banks to bo made stable, to prevent. the _flank­ing of the channel works, and to stop the contrtl?utiOn of erod ed material which builds Ul) tbl1 obstructms- bars. Active bank erosion is con fined to the concave stdes of the bends in the river, where the thalweg lies close to the bank. Tbe:e blnks are sometimes 50 ft . in height above low water and extend down below for an equal depth. Tbi3 give~ a steep b:J.nk about 100ft. ~igh, w~10h must ~e protected in snch a. w~y as to prevent It~ eros10n and d •S· 1ntegra.tion: a very dttficulb and expensiVe work.. There is no r vCk near n.l) hand for uee as ballas t Or pa.vmg, ~nd it has to b~ broughb frvm quarries several hundred m1les away. The willows used for coveriog the bank below th~ low. water line grow in profusion along the battures ; but even the supply of willows would be severely taxed to meet the demands of a genera.l syst~m of bank revetm~nt. 'fhe method now in vogue for holdmg the ban~ consists of a. covering of fascine-willow mats, ba.llnsbed w1tb stone and usually 300ft. in width, extending from the lo~­water line out iot::> the stroam. 'fhese mats a re builb and sunk in lengths of about 1000 ft. The only limi.t to the length is that fix_ed by th_e streng th o_f tbe hoa.d-h.ne~ which hold the tioatmg mat m place durmg ~onstruct1~n. With a strong current, and larga aocumula.btons of drif t, it is often difficult to hold a. very long mat.

In the conetruotion of a mat, the firs tJ step is to secure the mooring barges end-to-end at righb angles to the shore and located at the up-stream end of the work. They are fi~mly fastened together, and cable~ reac~g secure fastenin~s on shore bold them firmly m posttion. The beading for bbe mM is ~he~ ma?e of a bundl~ of strong hard­wood poles, 5 in. to 8 m. m dtame.ter, a.nd 1s secur~d a.l~n.g the downstream side of the moormg barges to wbtch It ts suspended. It. is fu_r ther secured _by 6 or 8-wire cables,_ an icch or more ID dta.meter, pa~smg uoder the moormg barges and leading to strong fasoening~ on. shore. ~o obtain addibional &trength, a. second headmg u placed m the mat about 10 ft. below the first one, and securely fastened to it. Two mat barges, end to end, are dropped in below, a.nd parallel to, the mo:>ring barges, to wbiC'h they are a ttached by three cables, so arranged that the mat barges can be readily dropP,ed d~wn _stre.am ns the ma.t is builb. These barge3 are bu1lb wtth Ino~med ~ays on which the mat is constructed, and are provided w1th reels for holding the sewing cable~ and wire strands, all spa.c~1 at t?~ propAr inte rvals. ~ll'.ow pole3 arl1 next placed m pos1t10n at the top of the mol me, and normal to the shore ; and a fascine 12 in. thick and 300 fll. long, or the full width of th~ mat, is constructed. The willows used range from 1 in. to 4 in. in diamete r at the butts ; and the entire leng~b, incl~ding the bus~y t~ps, i~ made use of. Galvanised wue cables l, m. m dta.meter, spaced about 8 ft . apart, are attached to the bes_d­ing, a.nd run the '~bole length of the mat along 1ts underside. The fascmes are d mwn close up_ to the h~ad­ing, and are fastened to6other by a ! ·ID. g~lvam:ed wire strand, which p!lS$e3 ro~nd e~oh fascm~, and als'> the longitudinn.l oa.bles, whwh are the mamstays of the mat. The weaving strand and bottom clbl~ are clamped together a t frequent interv1~ls by staples drtven in to the la rge willows. As the matwaya become filled and t he mab de vel?ps, the m ab bu.~ges ar~ dropped away; and thi3 procfS3 u repeated unt tl sufficient length bas b£en made. Rows of large willow pole · a re p laced on top and lengthwite of the mttt at inte rvals of about 16ft., and are eecurely fastened in place These pole3 perform the doub!e function of strengthening the ma.t, and pro­venting the loose rock ballast from rolling off. 'fbe channel edge_ of the mat ~s fur ther stre~gthened wit~ a ~-in. ~alvamsed steel w1re ca.blP, bavmg a. brcakmg strpngth of 9 tons . This i~ clamped to the weaving cable on top of the mat at u~tervnJs of 10 ft., the uppe-r end being eecured to the headmg. Where gn~at strength is required ~imihtr top cablo3 are placed at mtervals of 8 H. to 16 f't , according to t~e necessities of the case. A ma.t of the character descrtbed Clm be made a t a rate of aboub 10 ft. per hour. When completed, the mat float3 on the surface with onf' side rest.ing against tho river bank, the whole being held in place by the mooring lines. F'

The nexb step is to s ink the m~t to the bottom. u-sb a uniform distribution of s'one 1s made all over the mat, nnd of sufficient quantity to barely allow the mat to float . Barges loaded wuh ballast stone are then brought to the head of the ma~ tl.nd s ufficioot s bone is placed thereon to sink it when th~ lines to the mooring barges are slackened off The cables to the shore still hold it from moving do~n-strea.m. The be1d of the mat being on the bottom, and the balance stilln.flol\t, the stone barges are dropped in below the mo :>ring barge!!, and pnra.llel to them, and EO connected thnt they can bo floated down as the mat ~inks. A large force of men then thro'v off the stone on to the mab, and a1 it sink~, the ba~·ges float ~own 0 ,·er ifl, delivering the atone balln.st umformly unttl the whole rests securely on the bottom. The head cables, which a.re provided with special toggles for th~ purpose, are then removed, and t he subaqueous port10n ?f phe bank is secured by the ba.lla<Jted mat. The final smkmg of a mat 100ft;. long is accomplished in about a.n hour.

The form of mat describod i'l found t0 sorve the purpose •

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V( l'f We~l, the weake,t point be ing the Wi re fa.steniogP, whic~, m the course of t ime, corrode and break. \Vhe n once In place, the ballaste:l ma t filled with sediment will !emain, unde: ordinary conditions, even without fasten-1Dg3. To obv1a te the defects incident to corrosion, exp ?ri­ments are being made with s ilicon bronze a.nd other WH&, and different wire coating~.

The following materiali ara used per 100 square feeb of mat : Willow bru3h, 1.639 cords ; poles, 0.053 cord ; E~t~el wire, 4.861lb. ; silicon bronze, &c., wiro, 0 546 lb.; wuo stra.nd, 10.965 lb.; clamps o r sbaples. 1.500 lb.; a nd ~tone, 0. 6~5 ton. A nobherform of mat, called a crib ma t, JS used w1th good r esult s when the plant is limited and ib also h as the advantage of eliminatinO' the use of ' wire and wire strand. The~e mats are cons tructed on tem­porary ways built on the b~nk near w here the willows are cub. The dimen<lions are usually 100 fb. by 150 ft ., and abou b 1 fb. thick ; bub the mab may be of any suitable s i?.e or thickness. A bottom frame of S9.wn lumber is fi rst laid on the wayfl, consis ting of 2.in . by 4-in. ):>'e~es laid in pairs a.t inte rvals of 10 f b. Upright p osts or bmd~rs a re placed betwe2n the pairs of scantling ttt intervals of 5 fb., and a:re sqc':lred to t~em by wooden pins. T he firs t layer of willows IS next latd on, and fastened with spikes across the fra.mes, or at right angles to the river ; a second layer is laid a.b right angles to the fir3b, and a third layer parallel to the bottom layer. The wbo'e is then firmly compressed by a special dwice, a nd a, top f ra me s imilar to the lower one i3 p ub in phtc9 and securely pinned to the uprights. On top, and ac ross these top f rames, p)le3 are fa'ltened to stiffen th~ mat while being handled, and to h old the ballas b in sinking. E ach m11t a~ comp1e~ed is la unched in to the river; and when a suffi­c :ent number have been eonstrucbed, they are bound to~ethor ~tnd t owed by a t ug or to w-boat t o tbe point re­q uired. They can be bound toget her to form a long ma t, or th ey can be sunk s~puately. T he ma~ costs 3 ceots (l~d. ) p3r square foot a flott, a nd 6 cen ts (3d.) in J?lace, a nd requires 12lb. of stone p er square foot to s ink 1t.

After the subaqueous portion of the bank has been securely protected, t he upper pat t of the bank is g rade i t:> a slope of 3 to 1 by an hydra ulic grader, and the g raded sur face is paved with stone to a thickne~s of about 10 in This paving is carried up to within 10ft. of the top of t he bank, and sometimes is carried r ight up . Where the ballast s tone is very far from the wo!'lr, arti6c'al stone of cement ttnd rive r gravel, Vr hich is u3ually near at baud in abund~tncP, is made use of. German P ortland ceme nt is us 3d in the propor tion of 1 cement to 13 of sand a"ld g ravel. The;) mixer and its ma')hinery is carrie d on a tramway laid on tbe gravel bar whera the materittl is abundant, and a series of moulds are p!aced on t he ground along the tram. Tbe blocks ara made 7 in. thick, 12 in. deep, and 6 fb. long, and, a ft er hardening, ar.:~ b rokEn into s izes to su·t. This artificial s tone weigh s about 140 lb. per cubic foob. A smaU p!ant will l1Ja.ke aboub 1GO tons per day, at a coEt of aboub 1.40 dol. (5s. 10d. ) per cubic yard. as against 2 dols. (Ss. 4d ) or more for t h ~ stone in some localibies.

E x periment3 are being made with upper bank paving of concrete 4 in. thick, laid in situ. Brick is also being t ried for ballast and paving.

The average cost of a complete bank revetmenb, wi lh a sub-aqueous mat300 fb. wide and upper bank graded and I aved, is 27 dole. {5l. 12s. 6d. ) pH running foob of bank.

In some cases spur dykes or buttresses, spaced 450 ft.. &p!!.rb, have been used to bold high banks a.nd check the erosion, constructed of willows and s tone built up in layers on a broad foundation mat. In some places these have failed by scour taking place behind them, as bhe above water bank is left. unprotected. Such spu ·s properly sp1.ced would doubtless be successful, and p ar· baps more economical than bhe standard continuous re­vebmenb. The closure of chutes or side channels is effecned by means of brush and stone dams and pile dyke~, built t o a height somewhB~t above low water.

L EVEEEI. The alluvial basios below the mouth of the Ohio,

which are subject to overflow, cover an area of abou b 30 000 square miles, or aboub equal t o the area of Scot· J a~d. At high stages, these lands, under natural condi­tions, a re flooded to depths varying from a few inches to 15 ft. or even more. Originally they were densely wooded ; bub the extraordinary fer tility of the soil at­tracted t he agricul buris t, who settled there, and cleared up the lands ab the risk of being overwhelmed by the floods. U nder such conditions, only the very highes t of the lands, which always lie near the river b~n~, co~ld be utilised; and most of the land was leftl m 1ts wild state, unt il the inhabitants undertook to build barriers to keep out the annual floods. In this way the levee svstem began;, and so lon~ as i t w!'-5 confined to .isoJu~t<?d d istriotta, Jeavmg the ma)or pot t10n of the lnsms Eo t ill o~en to t he floods, the levees requirc::l were of small d1mensions.

W hen the improrement of th e river l:egan, i t soon became apparent that i t was impot tant to confioe the wttter~ as fa r as p racticable, to the Pa.m e general channel lines at both low and hig h s tages. Thie mean t that the floods muet be confin ed throughout the whole length of the alluvial valley. To restrain all t he enormous volume of water necesearily required much hi~her and Etronger levee3 t han bad been found sufficient t'J proteob isola ted patches of l and. As was expected, t he river in flood, confined between levees a mile or two apart, reached a plane considerably higher than ~vhm it was a.l lowe~ to spre 1.d unimJ=crle:l over the w1de ex}Janec of bastnP. While the cam e eeemed qui te apparent, ma ny p£ople a ttributed t he rise in t he flood plane betwee~ t he Je ,' ees t o a fill ing up of the l e i of t he ~trea.m. Thts J~d to an extended in ves t1gation by the author, e~tendm.~ over e.everal hundred m iles of river, the conclusiOn arrived a t

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E N G I N E E RI N G. [SEPT. I 3, 1901.

being tha t tbe·e had been no ve ry dc:lide :l changa in the with but few dangers. The G .1.ntock, ly ing off Danoon, bed; bub, on the whole, the evidence pointed to a lower- is guarded by a gas·lighted beacon; then another obstroc­ing of t he bed. This view wa.s fUT tbcr substan tiated by tion, called bhe \Varden Bank, is met with, which till t he fact t hat the low-watsr plane was very materi~lly rccantly was nob shown on the Admiralty char lis, and lower than i t was prior t.> t he completion of bhe levt e was nob generally known bo ex is b. I o forms an extension system, al t hough the depth and volume wa.s equal t'J of Lunderston Ba.nk, and has 34 fb. of water over it at those of form er year~. dead low water, Ro thab ib does nob form a danger to

Prior t) 1882, t he construction of levee ' wa3 confi ne d b ordinary traffic of the present draught. Within a few tlH' several St \te l and to p rivate landownerS~. In tbu~t yards of this rooky ledge there is a depth of no lesg year there occurred one of the g (cate t floods known, and than 300 f b., so that the west s ide of bbe Warden Bank It bec~me apparent that the aid of the general Govern- is a submarine precipice. Skelmorlie Pd.tch is the next me nb was essential t o adequabe protecbion. Appropria.- shoal, the boulders coming to within a. fe w feet of bbe t ions of funds wna made; and s ince thab time the Go- surface. Ib forms a d anger ab preEenb guarded by a gas­vernmen t has spent aboutl 16 million dollars (3,300,000l.) l ighted buoy and bell. The esnuary south of this to the in levee construction, while the several States have spen t L1ttle Cumbrae is from 30 to 60 fathoms in depth, through a.boub double that sum. The total length of levee lines which the navigation is unimpeded by dangerous shoals. below tlbe mouth of the Ohio is aboub 1450 miles ; bub The Clyde, ib will be seen, d iffers from mosb of the they sti ll lack much to br ing them up to the dimen- navigable rivers of this C)untry in that ib does nob Bow s ions and height deemed necessary for safety. direct into the sea. with the natnral accompaniment of a.

The ord inary standard levee is builb wi bh a crown of bar, bub entera into a deep and sheltered estuary. T he 8 fb., and side slopes of 3 to 1. T he crown and s ides are estuary itself is encumbered with sandbanks, bub owing sodded with a very tenacious g rass, known as Bermuda to their sheltered s ituation bhey are not stirred up to any g rass. Where t he levee exceeds a height of 11 fO., it is great extent by heavy waves, and the sand is not carried reinforced on the land side with a banquette of earth, in to choke up the channel way. There is no " fretting " of which raaches a height of 8 H. below the top of the levee. the b~nks, as in the Mersey, for example. The Clyde The crown of the banquette is 20 fb. in width, and has Lighthouses Trust, which succeeded the Cumbra.e Trust slope, for drainage purposell, of 10 to 1, bhe s ide slope in 1871, immediately took steps to carry out the powers being 4 to 1. These dimensions d both levee ani ban- which Parliament had delega ted to them, and appoin ted quebte are i ncrea<3ed if the foundation is bad, or the Messrs. Stevenson, of Edinburgh, their engineers. T he maberial is nob good . In some places the only material improvement of the estuary between Port Glasgow and a vailable is a very sandy soil, and in such cases a. very large the bail of the bank involved, ab the same time as the section is required. The use of levees as roa.dways is improvement of bhe estuary bo G lasgow, the conservation strictly prohibited. of bhe en brances t o the harbours of Por t G lasgow and

On approaching tlhe lowe:r end of the le vee syatem, G reenock. These harbours required to have the benefits the floods sometimes continue bo s tand far up on t he le vees of a na vigable fairway in close proximity, and yeb the for several mon t hs, which tries them vuy severely, as channel way for the ordinary river traffic to be sufficiently they become mturated, and easily abraded by wave- removed from the shore that ships passing to other ports wash from wind or passing steamere. To prevent the mighb be comparatively free from Interruption from the wave· wash, a plank revetment is fixed a short d istance local traffic to Porb G lasgow and Greenock. The incon­f rom the l evee>. A fter a levee become3 thoroughly satu- venienb curves round Garvel Point, and the bight ab ra.te:i with water , a co1laps9, wi th its de3tructive effects, Ccl.rtsdyke, also required to be dealt with ancl made easier may occur. Such break3 in the leveeR are called ere· for the p assage of ld.rge ships. A channel way, or rather va.eses. When once formed, they contioue to increase what is really a ship·canal, has now heen formed from in wid th, and bhe rushing flood plays havoc with evary- Newark Castle (Por b Glasgow) to P rince's Pier, G reenock, thi ng i n i ts wake. H ouses, fences, and 6von the soil having nowhere a less depth than 23 fb. ab low water of itself a.re torn up, and great damage is done. When a spring tides, with a mimmum width at the bottom of break occura, but litt l"J can b e done beyond holding t he 300 ft., and s lopes of 100 ft . on either side, having depths broken ende, so as bo save as much of t he levee a1 possible. varying from 20 f t. to 23 fb. Before this canal was begun So far , effor t 3 at closing a bre1k have not been very suc. the ruling depth at that p arb of the estuary was 12 ft. ce3Sful, and are always attended wi t h enormous expensP. The cur ves at Garvel and C.1.rtsdyke have been eased by Bank erosion ia one of ~be mo~t active and for~udable j fully one half. These improvements, great bhough.the.y agents in the destrucbLon of levees. A considerable are, cannot be taken as final, as the draught of ships JS

length of completed line often caves in to the river, still on the increase, and, perhaps, a b no very distant date neco3si tatin~ t he construction of a new l ine farther back, fur ther deepening and widening of this channel way may and connectmg w:th the stable ends of the old line. be called for by the shipping intere!)t. 'fhis deep-water

'fbe above brief general desoription of t he chief works channel has been marked on it3 nor thern side by buoys carried on for t he improvement of the Mississippi River and a lightship lighte-d by gas, while the sout hern side will give 8: fair idea of what is being done. Any~hing hag also been s imilarly ~arked by buoys, and gas-lighted like a deta.1led accounb of work~ of such great magmtude beacons and buoys. Pilots can therefore take vessels would require volumes ; and t hey have only been touched through the estuary ab night almost as well as by day; upon here and there in th is paper. I t is hoped, however, and when fo~ obscures the lights, t he fog signals ab that it is not whol1y wi t hou t intcre3t. While t his g reab Kempock Pomll, F orb ~Iatilcb, Cloch, Toward, and river has few, if any, patallels, the p roblems are mo3t Cumbrae, give their warning notes to the eailor bhab he is intricate and intere3ting ; and their ~olu tion will doub~less near them. . . keep the engineer busy for generattons to come. L tttle The remova~ of wrecks becomes sometimes a aenous by li ttle>, step by ~top, the skill of t he eng ineer will fiad matter in such navigatione. In the case of the "Auch­means of overcoming the difficul ties, un til finally t he mountain," lying as ib d id in good anchorage g round, the g reat forces of na t ure-, pent up in t he g iant Et ream, will wreck bad to be repeatedly tackled with explosives, and, yield to his bidding, and become subservient to the finally, on the suggestion of our firm, was covered up by requirements of man. Then will it indeed, " flow dredgings, which has mad'3 the anchorage a p erfectly uuvexed to the sea ," bearing in safEty the commerce of safe one. the Mississippi Valley from the g reab lakes to the G ulf The tidal flow has been greatly facilitated by the dredg­of Mexico, from whence i t will b o distributed to the ing works, having oaused the tidal flow ab P or b Glasgow uttermcst parts of the ear bh. (where the Clyde Lighthou3es Trustees' works described

were executed } down to G reenock, to be more distinctly that of bhe sea proper than whab ib was ; and especially is this an improvemen t from a sanitary poinb of view, as it

IMPROVEME NT WORKS ON THE CLYDE renders the admission of fresh water more rapid, although ESTUARY.* the actual gain is nob so much as might be wished owing to

D d C S B S F R E bhe counter effects of the greater amoun t of sewage to be By Messra. . an . TEVENSON, • c., 1 • • ., • h h · f d M ll.,r I b c J:~ deal t WIIi b an m or mer ays . .LY~, OS , , iJ,

T HE lower estuary of the Clyde, which may be called the key to the U pper Navi~ation, and with which this paper deals is under ' the j unsdiction of the Clyde Light­houses Tru~tees, the j urisdiction of bbe Clyde Navigation Trusb ending above Porb Gla~gow. The estuary extends from Porb G lasgow wesbwards, the channelway passing through sandbanks until the" tail of the bank '' is reached, below which the estuary is more of bhe nature of a firth or fiord the depth of water varying from 180 fb. ab Cloch to 370 f

1

b. ab the Cumbrae, althou~h ib is deeper ab some placefl such as opposite the Cloch, than ab places more seawa~d, such as S kelmorlie .. lb is encumbered by seve~al ''patches," the highes t. np bemg that of ~oseneath! w1th a depth of 7ft.- over Ib ab low water, si tuated m1dway between Forb Matilda. and the Roseneath shore. The depth of bhe estuary here varies from 60 ft. to 220 ft. ; and the slope of the bottom from the tail of the bank is no less than 190 ft. in one mile. The Gareloch, one of the numerous a rms of the Clyde estuary, branches off here ; and a little lower down, where the estuary takes a r ight­angled bend to bhe sou~h, L oo? L ong come~ in, which is n avigable for large ship~ to Its head, wh.tch forms the starting poinb of the proJected g reat Scotbtsh Canal c~n­oecting the Clyde and t he Forth by L och L omond, which being only 10 f b. above high water necessitates little lr ckage and has an almost inexhaus tible supply of water. F rom L och Long, the Clyde estuary is practically the sea,

.,. Paper read before the International Engineering Congress, Glaf:~ow, 1901. Section 1!. : Waterways and Maritime ' VorktJ.

T HE R AILWAY CLun.- On Tuesday, the 3rd inst , bhe open ing meeting of the Hl01·2 session of this club was held at the Memorial llall, lt arringdon·st reet, E. C., the chair being taken at 7.30 p. m. by Mr. Robert Bruce, M.In3 Mech. E .. M. I. M.~. P reliminary business being dis­posed of, Mr. C. Rons-Marten d(>livered a long bub ex­tremely interet:ting address on " Railway Observ!'-tions: Their Subjects, Objects, and Methods," a sub)ecb on which probably no one is better fitted to speak. The nexb meeting will be held on ' Vednesday, Ootobe~ 2, ab. the Memorial Ha1l, at 7.30 p. m., when a lecture will be gtven by the Hon . S ecretary, Mr. Gaims, on "Locomotive F reaks."

Tmll ELRCTRIO Lro BT A1.' S uNOEHLAND. -Ab the lasb meeting of the electr.ic lighting. committee of the Sun.der­land Town Council, 1b was de01ded to ask the counc1l t o ins truct the finance commit tee to apply to the L ocal Government B oard for leave to borrow 30,000l. , partly for a new station in Hylton-rcttd, and partly for the existin~ ~hbion in Dunning·streeb. T he scheme incl ndes 7673l. for tha extension of mainP, and 12,000l. for future exten­sions. T he question of a reserve fund was considered, and ill wa.s found tha.~ there ought bo be a. reser ve of 50001. , while the committee had only set aside 1257l.; which. wi th an estimated credib balance of 1034l., made a total of 2291l. In face of these facts, bhe committee resolved bhab ib was undesirable to ~pply a.ny of the profib towards the raduction of the eneuing rate.

•

SEPT. I 3' 190!.]

A Pl~EMIUM SYSTEM OF REMUNEltATING LABOUR.*

•

By Mr. JAMES RowAN, Member, of Glasgow. MR. FRED. W. TAYr.on's paper on the" Premium Sys­

tem," published in Gassier's Magazitn.e of October, 1897, was probably the best of the many articles that had B.{>peared on this su bjecb, bu b the system described by btm was nob suitable for the purposes of marine engine manufacture. To the ordinary piecework system there were the objections which were so well expressed by Mr. Slater Lewis in the Engineer ing M agazine, t namely :

"lb cannot be pretended, however, that the piecework t:~ystem, as usually employed, commands itself as a satis­factory, still less as a final, solution of the problem. We obtain, it is true, an immediate definition and limitation of cost, coupled with a strong and direct inducement for the employe to exert his best andeavours to increaee and intensify production. At leaab this is the theory; but in practice it is a true statement of the result only within very narrow limits. The defect of the method is, that when once the workman has begun to derive a vrofib from t~e transacbion, the employer has no direct m terest in h1s fur ther exertions, but only the indirect advantage of a stationary labour-cost coupled with a greater intensi ty of output The general result of this id, of course, well kn_o wn and understood. There inevitably comes a time -1f the workman continues to improve in ski11, or to give evidence of a continuous and successful application of in­telligence to his work-when the gains of the workmen appear excessive compared with his former earnings as a mere supplier of labour by the hour. The employer would be more than human who did nob, ab this stage, ask himself the quesbion, 'Have I not mf\de a mistake in fixing prices ? '

"When this question is answered affirmatively, a re­duction of rates inevitably follows . The suzerain power insists on remodelling the convention, and the result is frequen tly not peace, but soreness. Of course, where much piecework is in vogue the t rouble does not neces­sarily arise with as much frequency as mighb be expected, for a very good reason. As soon as the workman finds himself appro-aching the point at which his extra earnings tend to rise beyond the limit ab which the traditions of the shop teach him the reduction may be expected, his efforts slacken. He makee no endeavour either to im­prove in skill, or to trouble himself about little tricks for the better management and handling of his job. His interest for the future is barred, and the net result amounts to this-that he has adopted a some what greater intensity of production, and receives a somewhat greater constant remuneration than when be was on hourly wages.

"That there is a gain, both to man and employer, is obvious ; but that it is a slighb and limited gain is also obvious. Absbraotly considered, the method is remark­able no less for what it wastes than for what it effects.

"From an examination of its defects we are enabled to formuiate the conditions which must be fulfilled by a more sat1sfactory method. We require : (1) a. minimum standard of remuneration based on the average attain­ments of hourly labour; (2) free and full incentive to the workm~n to i!Dprove upon tbi~ average, not merely up to a cer tam arbtbra.ry stage of Improvement, but without limit; (3) participation of interests between employer and workman in this improvement, nob merely in its early stages, but t o the ultimate extent to which the intensification of output and consequen t reduction of costs per ~iece can be carried, either by constannly augmenting mampulative skill, or by a series of small improvements ir;t method. A ~beoretically perfect system of remunera­tion should nob rnvolve the constant comparison between tb~ piecework earnings of the exceptionally clever or skilful workman and his former earningE~, when neither exceptional skill nor cleverness were asked for, nor sought to be rewarded.

"It may be objected that this theoretical perfection is actually realised to the full by the piecework system, if only we assume that rates shall never be cut. This is, of course, true; bub it is nob the whole truth. The element of participation by the employer in the direct reduction of l~bo~r cost i~ en tirel.y wanting, and that such partici­pation IS essen tial and JUSb can be seen readily enough. If it be t rue that the actual reduction is wholly d ue to the ~ff!>rts of skill or of intelligence ex~rted by the workman, 1t lS ~qually true that the opportumty for such exertion is proVIded by the enterprise and perfection of technical and business organisation of bhe firm."

Wi tb a view to the adoption of a reliable and satisfac­tory method of piecework, a premium system was decided upon, of which the following is a description :

W or~, as. recorded on a Job Ticket, Appendix I., an­!lexed, lS given ~o ~ workman on a time allowance, and If be red~ces this time allowance, his rate of wages per hour, while be is working ab the job, is increased by the same percenba.ge aa that by which the time a llowance has been reduced. It is, of course, apparent that data must be collected for the purpose of arriving at the time to be allowed to do work. For this purpose a special de­par~ment (Rate-Fixing Department) is required, and when mst1t~ted,. dat~ accumulate very quickly. The period occu~1~d m domg work under the usual time payment cond1t10ns may be accepted as the time allowance of the Premium System.

When a. job is given to a. workman, a J ob Ticket is issued to him with a description of the wmk to be done and the time all~wed .to .d~ _it. On completion of the work the Job T10keb IS mttlalled, and the time of day

*Paper read before the International Engineeting Congre~s, q-~~sgow, 1901.-Section III. : lUechanicaJ.

·t Vol. xvm, 1899-1!>00, page 203.

E N G I N E E R I N G. recorded on ib by the forema,n. and this is the time of The Job Data Book, Appendix IV., is a record* o~ the commencing the next job. vVhen the work has been work done on each article, ~nd this book .now con tam s. a examined and pa~sed by the wo~ks inspector, the ~ob most complete and miscellaneous coll~cbton .of data m Ticket is banded to the Hate-fixmg Departmen~~ wh1ch connection with the manufacture of marme engmes. and of passes the same f~r payment. In the ?ase of a. joo being other work. A ll whitewashing and pait;Iti_ng, shifting .of rejected by the mspector, any prem1um wbtcb would machines laying down concrete floors, sbtftmg of materia l otherwise have been earned by the workman, by reason from plade to place, and many other OP.eratio~s for which, of his having reduced the time allowance, is forfeited. No not so long ago, it would have bet>n tmposstble to fix a clerical labour devolves upon the workmen, and very little time, are now recorded in the Job D~ta B_ook. . upon the foremen. The system is by n o means a fina l solu t10n of the pt~ce-

The t ime allowance for a job given to a workman rated work problem, but it is submitted that this system lS a ab, say, 8d. per hour is 100 hours, and the acbual time step towards a. solution. The value of good and powerfo occupied on the job amounts to 75 hours. We have tools is forcibly brought forward, the use of jigs, gauges, then 100 hours ab 8d. = 800 pence against 75 hours at &c., is found to be necessary, and old machines are placed 8d. + 25 per cent. (2d.) = 750 pence, giving the workman ab their true value. Meetings with managers and fore­a premium = 150 pence or 2d. per hour and the employer men for the discussion of questions arising in the a reduced cost = 50 pence. P rovided the time allowances course of manufacture a re found to bs necessary, and of are equitable to employer and employed, and baaed on the g reat value. Bebter wages are earned by workmen, and average attainmen ts of hourly labour, it will be evident more work a nd better work is gob out of the machines. from the foregoing that the higher the premium earned We do nob hesitate to say that the introduction of a by the workman the greater will be t he saving in cost. Premium System such as described would have an elevat­T he output of the machines is also increa.sed, but it is a ing influence upon any workshop where the hourly rate of bard matter to put a value to this. pay or the ordmary piecework is in use.

Occasionally a piece of work is begun on one machine Referring to the quotation from Mr. S later Lewis's and finished on another. The Job Ticket in a case of this paper (page 3), the following statements are answered : kind is passed by the first to the second operator , and so 1. " A minimum standard of remuneration, based on on unt il the work is completed, each work man en~aged the average attainments of hourly labour." upon it receiving any premium earned, in propor tion to This statement is answered by the fact t hat no ma tter the total reduction of ttme made in completing the whole bow long a man takes to do the work, whether from job. Any number of men may be employed on the same novelty, misfortune, misadventure, hanging over his piece of work, and it is not necessary that they should all work or carelessne&a, be receives h is hourly rate of wa~&~. remain ab the work for t he same period, because a lump 2. "Free and full incentive to the workman to Im­time allowance is made to cover the t ime of all the men prove upon this average, not me rely up to a certain on a job, and the total time spen t upon the job fixes the arbitrary stage of improvement, but without limit." premium percentage, which is used in fixing the premiums This statement is answered very fully. If a man is of the differen t men only to the extent of the time each repeating the same job on the same machine and con­ha.s been employed upon the work; that is, a job for tinually reducing the time of p roduction, by all means which the time allowance is 1000 hours may be performed encourage t his man to continue doing so. in 800 hours: one man might work 100, one 300, and one 3. "Participation of interest between employer and 400 hours. Each of these men would have his hourly employe in this improvement, nob merely in its early rate increased to the extenb of 20 per cent. for the time stage, but to the ultimate extent to which the intensifica.­be bad been employed upon the job. The reduction or tion of output and consequent reduction of costs per increase of a workman'd hourly rate is not affected, as piece can be carried , either by constantly augmenting any change in either of these d irections made during the manipulative skill or by a. series of small improvements." time he is engaged upon a job is calculated at a percent- Statement No. 3 is almost a repetition of sta.temenb age on his hourly rate or rates. Neither is any d ifficulty No. 2, and it may be added to the reply to No. 2 that if introduced in respect to overtime allowances, as the the time allowance has been fairly fixed ab the beginning, actual time worked upon a job determines the time upon the more a man earns the cheaper is the work; in other which a premium ia paid. The overtime allowance, which words, the element of participation is introduced. in the Glasgow district is paid ab the rate of 50 per cent. on the over time worked, does not appear in the Job Ticket as time, being ortly shown as such in the W ark­men's Time and Wages Book, as a unit to fix the value of the over time allowanceEt. In the Job Ticket this allow ance appears ab its value in money. Nor is there any difficulty presented when working a night shift, as each of the two men at a machine receives a share of premium earned in proportion to the number of hours work ed on the job . It is advisable, where ab all possible, that every man

should work on his own account; hub in ca-ses such aa before mentioned, which refer particularly to the E recting Department, the inclusion of several men on one Job Ticket cannot very easily be avoided. lb may be men­tioned that in t he E recting De12_artment the apprentices in their fi rst year are nob given a Job '£icke~. In their second and third years they are junior apprentices, and half the

APPENDI X I. MACITINE DEPARTMENT.

Jou TICKET. CoNTRAC'l' No. 334.

No. Name. Time U.ate.

I d. 81 J. Gillan J. * 8

MAomn No. 193.

Hours. Premium

\V or ked I ~re· R9ote. Premium.

I mtum. -

1 I o I

21 21 4

·-- ---.- ---- - ----,- - 7- 0 ---

time that they work is counted; in the fourth and fi fth years they are senior appren bices, and three-quarters of the time they work is counted. They are allowed the same time as a journeyman. In the Machine Department, apprentices in the four t h and fi fth year do the same kind -of work that is a lso done by journeymen, and they are Time Slved, 21 hours = 50 per cent. No. off 1.

allowed 25 per cent. more than journeymen. j}[ain Engines: (889) The payment of premiums does not take effect until

5 per cent~. premium has been earned, and thereafter only in multiples of 5 per cen t. T he original time fixed upon as a time allowance has never been reduced, unless there

L'lw-presaure crankshaft. Turning couplings and crank. Complete.

journals of

has been a radical change in the method of doing a piece Foreman: WM. WILSON.

of work. As a rule, the ~remiums earned by the men have ~ncreased since the Introduction of this system, sometimes due to the industry, skill, or intelligence exer ted by the workman, but oftener due to those exer­cising a controlling p ower. The value of this premium systeiD; is nob limi.ted to a saving in cost of labour by the reductiOn of the t1me taken to do work. N umerous in­stances might be cited where the system has been the means of bringing to notice, through , concentration of attention on its development, improved methods of manu­

Inspector : J AS. A DAMS.

facture.

Time allowed Job started, August 2:!, 1900, 8 45 a. m. Job finished, Auguit 2j, 1900, 8.0 a. m. Lost time Hours 0\·ertime Allowances, 4a. 2d.

* Journeyman.

F ITTING DEPARTMENT.

Jon T IOI\ET.

42 hours.

12~ hou :-s.

. A nother feature to which special abtention is directed IS the us~ of ~he Job. Progres3 Card, Appendix I I. (page ~4~. This card 18 prepare~ every morning by the CoNTRACT No. 33 l. MACIIINE No. Ra~e-Ftxtng Departmen t, and mdicates the progress -.-------~--~------;-----:---­wbtcb has been made ab the various machines ; and it may be made of great value to employers and managerf!. The first column gives the maebine numbers, the second column the hours allowed for the jobs in hand the third column bhe number of pieces included in ea~b job, the fourth column t he hours spent upon the job in band till 10.30 a. m. on th~ date the card is prepared, and the fifth column the p~ev10us records for similar jobf!. The card is tbere~ore ~n mdex _of the progress of work in each and all macbmes 1n operatiOn.

No.

392 613

Name.

James Simpson. J. i J. Brown. J.A ~

Time Rate.

-d. 8 2

Hours. Prem. Premium Rate.

Worked Prem.

11 11 2.8 2 7 11! 6A .7 8 -

----1---- --·----1-16~

There is a Job Register Book, Appendix I I I. (page 384), for bhe Machine, B rass-finishing. Tinsmiths' and Smiths' Deparments, Erecting in the Works and Fitt i ng on board. the m acbinery in the Yard and ~b the Quay. T;;-::im::e~s=a.-=v~ed:-,-:1:-0~;-:1:-l o_u_r_s _ _!,_--:8-::-5 ..!...p-er- c-en_t..:._. __ _J __ ..!.__!_~-As n~w J_obs oocur they are duly regisbered. Every sepa- No. off 1. r~te JOb m tb.e manufactu~e of a mari.ne engine, from the t ime t~e castings and forgmgs come mto the works until the ship I en ves after her trial trip, is registered in this book.

* Appendix I V . is a facaimile reproduction of pages of t~e poo~, but the demands on our space p revent! us pub­lubmg 1b.

t Journeyman. :t: J nni0r apprentice .

•

•

'

Main .Engines: (46) Or~~ksh.aft : Shrink .webs on to pins and coupling ends. Dnvmg m and firessmg shaft, locking keys. -------·-----------------

•

Foreman : J. SMITU. lnspeotor : JAS. A DA~IS.

Time allowed Job started, August 2, 1900, 6 a. m. Job finished, Au~uat 3, 1990, 7.30 a. m.

27 hours.

Lost time, J. S., ! Hours. Overtime Allowances •

Hours.

APPENDIX II. Job Pcogress Card.*

9/5/01. No. 805. 10.30 10 30 10 30 • •

3 21 120 6145 90 163 22 9119}1 X 5 10 8 7! 22 54 6 47 55! X 180 83 47 3:f X 6 26 66! 15 47! 29 209 20 2 12! 15 8 6 4 H X 27 36 7 34 26 209 M 12 2~ 39

19 - 70 25 11 7! X --20 L64 431. 3 a:• 2~ 101 7 1 3i X 23 - •I

169 26 2 7 1 ' 160 12 2 3~ 6! 2 l 14 1 6~ X 193 20 1 4t n t 171 9 10 7! X 28 48 4 4! 23! 204 180 60 37 178 191 50 1 24 39~ 30 7 1 5} X 222 8 3 4t - - -- X 31 10 6 Sy X 63 19 7 9! X 224 82 16H 60! 36 96 18 39} 62 82 26 1 7~ -X - - ~ 37 27 12 15! 131. 142 5 13 1l X 10 21 3 3! 13! 39 - 153 33 1 6} 66 48 8 24 30! X 44 165-6 144 4 19 86! 214 30~ 3 28i 17 46 32 306 20} 183 61 71 75 67 1

1 1 1 2

68 70 92 10

X -- - - 215 45 12 19~ 36 1 10! 34! 184 12 5 7! X - -- -12 26 St X 206 134 24 4 6.t -- --156 16 74! X 206 16 1 13t 14 161 120 -12 79 67! 15 28t 39 - 182 -- - - -39 23 14~ X 9 20:\ 26 15! 15 194 120 12 69!

102 3 46! 59~ 13 16 8 7i 9 - -- -30 1 sa 16~ 32 65 2 33 46 61 25 295 8! .r 464- 3 10 27! 33 - - - 69 8 30 5 -

I 62 9 6 41} X 201 20 58 10! 65 18 15 n t X

I

APPENDIX III. J OB R EGISTER-(MAOHINE DEPARTMENT).

:lv!AIN ENGINES : PISTON AND 00NNEOTING·RODS. Connecting-Rods.

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31! --

X 60 --

X -

X X X

316. First operabion.-Turning complete. 317. Second operation, Type "A."-Slobbing outside

fia.ts of forks a.nd sides of bottom butts. 318. Second operation, Type "B."-Slotting sides of

bottom butts. Type "A."-Slotting round 319. Third operation,

gudgeon. 320. Third operation, Type " B /'-Slobting fia.ts of

forked end. 321. Sawing-out ja.w. 322. Finishing ja.w afber sawin~. 323. Boring out jaw a.nd finishing. 324. Fifbh operabion, Type " A."-Slobbing insid9 of

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• JaW.

325. Fifth operation, Type "B."-Slotting inside of jaw and sides of top bubts.

326. Boring oub and finishing for gudgeon. 327. Boring onb crosshead a.nd crankpin bolt holes. 328. Boring oil holes in each connectmg-rod.

Main Engines-Or01nkshajt. 389. Cra.nksba.fb. T urning cou~lings and journals of

crank com~lebe. 390. Bonng and rough-widening holes in bwo couplings

a.nd facing boles in one. Boring two stea.dy pinholes. 391. Boring holes for eccentric pulley keysea.ts. 392. Crank ends. Boring holes through centre. 393. Round key for crankshaft. 'furning to fib a.nd

tapering point. 394. B oring holes for round keys a.nd boring off centre. 395. Cutting into two pieces. 396. Boring two couplings ; widening and facing one. 397. Boring bwo steady pinholes. 398. Boring bwo couplings and facing two. 399. Boring a.nd facing one coupling.

F ITl'ING DEPARTMENT. Main Engines-Propeller Shaft.

9. Shrinking liners on propeller shafb. 10. Cubbing k eyway in propeller sha.fb and fibbing key. 11. Tapping boles and pmning liners on propeller

sha.fb. Fitting nub and stoppers to propeller sha.fb. 12. Bolting t ogether steel couplings with bla.ck bolts. 13. Cubting sheet-iron liner3 for muff couplings. 14. Wrapping propeller sha.fb between liners with

canvas a.nd ma.rline. 15. Ta.pping bole in liner and fitting cock. Pumping

in boiled oil a.nd plugging up holes aga.in. 16. Cutting clearance for slotting oub propeller sha.fo

keyway. Main Engines -Crankshaft.

46. Shrinking webs on to pin and coupling ends. Driving in and dressing shaft looking keys.

47. Boring holes for crankpin locking keys. 48. Driving in and dressing crankpin keys. 49. Dressing corners of webs. 50. P olishing webs. . 51. Setting up cranks, and ma.rkmg off holes in

couplings. . . . 52. Setting up oran~, and w1demng holes m coup-

linge.

* ln the actual paper this ca.rd is given in fac-sjmile.

E N G I N E E R I N G.

53. Chipping off centros of coupling bolt~. 51. Laboure rs widening holes in coupling of crank­

shaft. . 55 .. Beddi?g dummy shafb to place; chipping gutters m m a.m bearmg bushes.

56. Bedding cra.nkshatb to pla.ce complete, and fastening a.ll main bea.ring bop nubs a.nd pin, and taking leads.

57. ~faking and fitting Board of Trade gauge to crankshaft.

ELECTRICAL POvVER SUPPLY. N otes for Discussion on Electrical Powe1· Supply in Ship.

bti!ildilng Ya·tds and Marine F/ll{/ine Wo1·ks. * By Mr. RoBERT ROBERTSON, B.Sc.

THE subjeob of this discussion is one which a.b the pre­senb da.y no shipbuilder nor constructor of marine engines c~n afford bo ignore, as the application of this power for many purposes in connection with these industries is rapidly increasing year by year.

Upon a.n occasion like the presenb, it is only p ossible to look a.t the subject broadly, and to discuss the general principles involved, as the nirne is boo shorb to dea.l with ib in such detail as would be required if the application to all the differenb cases met with in practice were to be gone into.

Works of bhis kind, like a.ll othe~, differ in size, in arrangement, and in ma.ny other respects, so much that each ca.se must be taken up a.nd considered in debail by itself, before a.ny reliable conclusion can be arrived a.t as to the ad vanta.ges in thab particular insbance.

The conditions ruling in a. shipyard are so different from those in a.n engine works, thab ib will be convenient to consider the two separately, and also to take the latter parb £rat.

Engine l JTorks.-The advantages claimed for electrical driving in marine engine works ma.y be convenient ly classified under three heads, viz. : I. Saving in cost of power. II. Flexibility of the sysbem. III. Increased oubpub.

I. In considering this subject the saving in cost of power is too often looked upon as bhe only advantage to be gained, a.nd the advantage treated lightly, because the whole cosb of power in a. work of this class only bears a. very small proportion to the other costs of production. It musb, however, be evident that if the advantages gained under the other heads are such a.s to result in substantial increase of outpub and diminished cost of pro. dnction, bhey a.re of much greater importance than the savin~ in cost of power.

Owmg to the great diversiby of the arrangement in different shops, it is impossible to la.y down a.ny fixed proportion of saving which can be effected generally under this head.

For example: in bhe case of a la.rge, well-arranged engine shOJ> wibh a single driving engine of economical design, SUlta.bly placed for driving several main lines of shafting, the aotua.l sa.ving in cost will nob be so grea.b as in another case where the shops have been extended from time bo time, a.nd consist: of separate buildings, each having one or more small, and more or less 11neconomioal, engines, and supplied with stea.m either by long lines of piping from a central boiler plant, Ol' from separate boiler plants.

The saving to be effec ted in bhe cost of power may be considered under two heads : (1) the saving in power pro­duction, and (2) the saving in dis tribution.

By the adoption of a. central power planb, with boilers and engines grouped together upon a suitable site, it is p ossible to use with advanbage a.ll appliances for gettin~ chea.p power, and thereby effect considerable reduct10n in the a.mounb of steam used per horae-p ower generated.

This saving is placed by severa.l authorities who have investigated the subject a.b from 30 to 50 per ~en b.

In order to appreciate the saving under the head of dis­tribution, ib is necessary to consider the circumstances in each ca.se. Under the older system of driving, this loss consists of evaporation from steam pipes, losses in main shafts, belting, bevel gea.ring, &c.; a.nd ib is evident that these losses a.re prac!Jically constant at a.llloa.ds, a.nd bea.r a. very much higher proportion to the total power when only partial load is on the pla.nb.

In the case of the electrical system, the distribution by means of wires or cables bakes the pla.ce of the steam pif)es, main shafts, main belts, and bevel gearing, leaving in most cases only short lengths of straight shafts. The losses in the wires are such tha.t they ma.y fa.ll off in greaser proportion than bhe load fa.lls ~ff, and therefore bea.r a more or less constanb proport10n to the power being used.

The saving to be effected by this means ab full load will probably nob exceed 5 or 10 per cent.; but ab all other times when bhe loa.d is other than the maximum bhe saving will be much greater.

Ta.ken together, the saving which can be effected in the generation and distribution of p ower is con8iderable; and while ib is impossible to put a.n exact £gure upon ib, the saving in coal consumption effected in some works which have adopted the system is very substantial.

I I. Under the second head of the advantages of this system of power-i.e., fl exibility - litble need be said further than indicating the po!!sibilities.

The use of separate motors for large tools or for small groups of tools, enables these to be placed in the mosb suitable positions for convenient handling of the mate­rials, irrespective of bhe position or direction of line shafts, &c. The advantages to be gob by the extended use of

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* Paper rea.d before bhe International Engineering Congress, Glasgow, 1901. Section IV. : Naval Architec­ture and Marine E ngineering.

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[SEPT. 13, 1901.

portable too_ls, more especially in. ~eavy work, is very grea.b ; the ttme and labour of shtfting and setting the tools in many instances being very much less than if the heavy c~sb~n~~ have themselves bo be shifted frequently . . The fl eXlb~tby of bhe system is also of greab advantage m the extenston of works.

The advantages. of flexibility are grea.tly enhanced if the powe~ be obbamed from a.~ independent supply com­pany, as m bhab evenb .no constderabton need be given to bhe mcrea.s~ of generatmg pla.nt, either for a permanenb or temporary morease of demand.

~II. It is more difficult! to appreciate the advantage of mcr~sed output, and ibis by no means ea.sy to demon­strate 1t; bub there has been on various ocoa.sions when the subjecb ha.s been discussed, considerable testimony by bhose who hM•e adopted the system, tha.b not only a. very substantia.! inorea.se of oubpub is obtained, but a.lso ab a very considerable reduction of cosb for labour .

Among obher causes for bhis improvement we have already seen bhe ad vanba.ge of being able to eiace tools in the most convenien t situations, and bhe p osstble large use of p ortable and semi-portable tools, several of which may be a.t work on the same piece of machinery simultaneously. The absence of a. considerable amount of belting and sha.fbing also admits of more extended a.nd free use of overhead cranes, and such cranes a.re more speedily operated themselves by electric power. A further advan~ tage is obtained from the fact that individual machines ca.n more easily be driven at their most economical speed by electric driving.

Shipyarcls.-lt is evident that a.ll the a.d va.nbages claimed in the case of engine works a.re greatly enhanced when the working of shipyards is considered. The sa.me principles may be applied a.s in the other case, and ib is unnecessary to consi.der bhem more i.n . ~etail; but the advantages to be obtamed by the flex1bthty of the system reach their maximum in a shipyard as compared with a.ny other industry. The tools themselves are, as a. rule, of a heavy cl~ss, whi~h can most conveniently a.nd economically be dnven by mdependentl motora, and ma.y thus be disposed in such p ositions as to reduce to a minimum the handling of the ra.w material. Wibh the increasing Rize of ships a.nd corresponding increase of weights of the component parbs, this is of the grea.tesb importance.

Furbher advantages may be obtained in a. shipyard by the facility wibh which electricity may be applied to all forms of gantries, cranes, or other lifbing appliances used in the erection of ships. Portab~e tools m~y be applied on board .the ships during

construct10n, a.nd temporary workshops w1th semi-portable tools fitted up on board.

Equipm.ent.-Here also i t is only p ossib!e to deal with general principles. Broadly speaking, there are bwo systems which may be adopted, viz., the continuous­current system a.nd the mulbipbase a lternating-ourrenb system. As regards the a.cbual driving, either system is suitable for bhe shipbuilding industry, and each system ha.s advantages peculiarly ibs own; the outstanding advan­tage in favour of the continuous current is the fact that mot~r3 of this class can more easily be adapted ~o run ab va.rymg speeds.

On. the other hand, bhere a.re seve:al a.d va.ntages wibh mult1phase current for work of thts class. The start­ing arrangements are very simple, especially with sma.ll motors; the moving parts are of strong mechanical construction, a.nd leRs liable to damage by over-loading, and t?ere are no brushes and oommubators requiring a.ttent10n.

There is very little b etween bhe systems as regards oosb a.nd efficiency.

The q uestion as to whether single motors on each machine tool, or group driving by means of short shafts, should be a.dopbed is of the greatest importance as regards economy in working. In the clas9 of works under con­sideration bhere is, a.s a rule, nob much difficulty in a.rri ving ab a decision. U nless in. the case of special portable tools, ib is not econ omical to employ motors of less than five horse-power. Below this size the cost of motors per horse-power increase3 very rap idly, a.nd their efficiency decreases very rapidly ; a.nd, in addition, where machine~ .are WC?rked int~rmittently .and ab varying powers, 1b I S posstble by smbable groupmg to arrange a motor of, say, 10 or 20 horae-power upon a shaft to drive machines which, if supplied by separate motors, would re­quire a.n aggregate of more than double bhat power. Single motors may be employed in the shipyard to grea.ter ad­va.nbage, bub bhe bools in this oa.se a.re of such a class tha.t in very few ca.ses will smaller mobors bhan 5 horse-power be required.

It is impossible bo consider the question of cost of in­stallation in a general way, as ib will vary in every cage according to circumstances.

In conclusion, it ma.y be confidently asserted that in the ca.se of starting new eosine shops and shipyards, it is un­doubtedly the best poh cr. to adopb electrical power, and bhat in most oases it will pay to make the change in existing works.

A.MERIOaN L OCOMOTIVES IN FRANOE.-The Paris, L yons, a.nd Mediterranean Railwa.y Company has purchased ten American locomotives. The engines have been put together a.b A rles. The purchase is, to some extent, an experimental one.

SwEDISII IRON ORE. -The exports of iron ore from Sweden reached 1,619,910 tons in 1900, as compared with 1,688,000 tons in 1899, 1,439.860 tons in 1898, a.nd 1,400,801 tons in 1897. The porb of Lulea shipped 1,054,675 tons, a.ud Nikoping 531,908 tons last year. The destination is shown by bhe following figures :-Finland, 18.731 tons ; Germany, 422,625 tons ; H olland (also for Germany), 967,249 tons; England, 102,771 tons; BeJgium, 99,12ij tons ; a.nd France, 9400 tons.

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S EPT. I 3, I 90 I. J SUDAN GOVERNMENT MILITARY

RAILWAYS.* By MA.JOU c. B. MACAUT.EY, R.R.

IN oon~ideri.ng nhis paper the following p oints should b s borne m mmd :~

(1) Th~ line was laid primarily. to su pply an. army in the field , the route, method of laymg and matertal being all chosen with this object in view. ,

(2). Pa.!tly .aCJ .a consequence of (1), nearly 50 per cen t. of the lme 1s la.1d m desero.

(3) Every train le&ving one terminus for the other has t o take !>500 gallons of water wi th it to enable it to cross the ~aterless deserb sections. T his water is c.1.rried in spe01al tank bru?ks, ,five of whi~b are required, in addition to the .te~d.er ; 1b wtll be rea.dlly seen that this consider­ablf d1m1n1shes t~e useful carrying power of the line.

'I he Su ':lan Ra1l ways consist of two branches · bobh sbart from Wadi H alf!l. '

0 ae go ss to Khar tou 'D, a d ista.nca of 576 miles by ra.i l, an~ the other to .J<~rma ( tn the D mgola Provinc~), a dtsta~oe of 203 mtles by ra1l (see sketch ma.p).

It will be most o:>nvenienb to consider each branch separately, as they r uu throu5h different kinds of country.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION ot'' TnE KHARTOUM L nm.

The Khartou~ li~e lea vas Wadi Hal fa. and goes in &. south-easterly dtrectLOn through the N ubi an Desert to Abu Hamed, which is 230 miles from W adi Halft\. T he whole of t his p &rb of the country is a flt~.t sandy desert · occasionally a few hills are seen, but they seldom exceed 300 ft. in height, and most of them are only from 80 fb. to 100 fb. above the surrounding count ry. S ome idea. of the extraordinary fit\tne~e of the country may be gathered from. the fa.cb that 1t was po~sible to lay a. piece of line 45 ~tles long witbou b a single curve in ib, and w iohou b any oubtmgs or emba.nkm9nts worthy of the name.

lb ve_ry rarely rai ns. ab all in this pa.r t of the desert, and when tb does, very h btle seems to fall at a. time. There a.re no streams or surface wa.ber of any sort. W ater waCJ found in two places between Wadi H alfa. and Abu Hamed by sinking wells ; one plaoe was 77 miles from Wadi H alf a. and the other was 126 miles from Halfa. W a.ber was found at the former place a.b a depth of 72 ft , and ab the latter plaoe a.b a. depbh of 96 fb. Several other places have been tried, but so far no water has been found.

The only vegetation in this p a.r b of the country consists of a few Sunt trees, a kind of acacia.; there are extremely few of them. Their presence does not seem to indicate the presence of water ab any reasonable depth, a~, al though they exist at both the places where water was found, they a.lso exist at places where Wd.ter could nob be found at a. depth of 200 ft. Occasionally, j ugt after rain, a coarse grass spring3 up, bub ib soon dries up again and d i:~. appears. There are nine stations, for crossing brains, in this section of ohe line. At No. 6 station (126 miles from Halfa) there are small shops and an engine pit . At Abu Hamed (230 miles from Halfa), where the line come3 down to the river ag11.in, there is a small running·shed for eight engines, with a. small workshop, cont&ini og a few lathes and drilling machines, etc. From Abu H amed to Shereikh (292 miles from Halfa.) the line runs close bo the river; the country here consists of small sandy hills wi th rock cropping up occa.CJionally; limestone and mica are found here, but the la.bber is in boo small pieces to ba of m uch use. Date palms and d6m palms are plentiful, and there is a cerba.in amount of cultivation, which is increas­ing as the people come back to their vi llages, from which they bad been driven by the Dervishes. Ab Shereikh the line leaves the river again and makes a detour into the desert in order to avoid a very rough rooky bib of country ; in this pa.rb, as in most pa.rbs of this country, ib appears to be a. maxim that flat ground can always be found by going far enough from the river. The line comes down to the river again at Abadia (340 miles from Ha.lfa.).

At Abadia there are small workshops and a. couple of engine-pits. From Aba.dia the line runs along near the river over a flab plain covered with scrub, the soil being something like cotton soil. There are old native salt workings h ere. The next place of any imporba.noe is Barber (362 miles from Ha.lfa). This ig by far the largesb place on the railway between Ha.lfa. and Khar toum. From Barber the line rnns over the same orb of plain to the A bbara River (385 miles from Ha.lfa). The line crosses the Abbara. ab a point a.boub half a mile from its mouth. The bridge is 1050 ft. long, consisting of seven spa.ns of 150 ft. each. The girders are supporbed on paira of cylin­ders sunk into the bed of the river and resting on rook. During the construction of the line, before the permanenb bridge was oGmpleted, a. wooden pile bridge was uged. F rom the Atbara. the line runs more or le~s parallel with the River Nile, and a.b a. dishanoe varying from a. few yards to four miles from ib, through a. country which con­sists chiefly of a. fla t plain covered with scrub and small trees. '!'he scrub is very thick, in som9 places too thick for a man to force his way tbrougb, but this is only in some of the watercourses. The plain extends, a.s a. rule, for a. distance of two to three miles from the river; after that, rocky hills beg in. In some places the hills come down almost to the river, whilsb in others the plain stretches as far back as can be seen, rising gently as it gets fur ther from the river. The plain is intersected by wateroours~, dry for the greater pa.rb of the year, but which are liable to be flooded in the rainy season. South of the Atbara. River rain falls every year. The line has very few bridges or culver ts at present, and, as a conse­quence, is often washed away in place~.

Ab the speed at which the J~ne was laid-about 2.000 to 2800 yards a day, with a maxtmum of 5100 yards m one

* Paper read before the International E ngineering QonY,res~, Glasgow, 1901. Section I . : Rail ways.

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E N G I N E E R I N G.

da.y-ib. was impo~ible to b~ild bridges or culverts ; this defe.ob IB now bemg remedted as quickly as possible. Wh1be ants are present in considerable numbera on this parb of the line, and steel eleepers are necessary. The whole country from the Atba.1•a. to W ad Ben Naga. ( 496 f!lil~s from Halfa.) practically answers to the above desonpb1on. There are many villages along bhe river ~s.nkt~, and a. considerable arnounb of oulbi vabion. The tnhabtta.nts own large numbers of oa.bblP, sheep, and goa.t3. ~he usual date palms n,nd d6cn p~1.lms are found on the rt ver banks. ~he stations .are :-E1 Damer (392 miles from Halfa),

Z<3tda.b (399 mtles from H alfa.), Mukhmir (430 miles from . H alfn.), . Kobashieh (451 miles from Halfa), Shendt (471 m1les from H alfa). At Shendi are work­shops, engine-pit, reserves of coal, and stores gene­~ally. lb ig, from the rn:ilway p oin t of view, the most tmportanb plaoe on the hne nexb to Wadi H a.lfn.. lb is situated almo,b in the centre of the AtbarJ.-K hartoum section, and, being liable to be out off from Halfa. for periods of. evera.l days during the rainy season, has to be self-oontamed. At Wad Ben Na.ga (496 miles from H alf a) the line leaves the river ag.J.in and goes through the deserb to Wad Ramleh station, near the large village of Gehli, Zobeir Pasha's village (545 miles from Halfa). Hy taking this route the line cuts off a corner, and avoids

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H UQOR 180 J.

I -~

1 KERMA 2C'J

OONCOLil

S KETCH MAP O F THE SUDAN COVERNMEHT RAILWAYS .

N•7.140

_........... AtJU HAMEO .Z3Q

0EifH£JSH. 24'1,

A8UDIS,!lG3

88$ ATDARA

MI<Tl:I\IMlH/

ABADIA 8110

BERBER.362 ... •• EDOA ~891. UID~O 8fl9

MUKH/1!111.430.

..Nou-. Tlu,~ ~«-che- ru.un.eB or Sto.b.oru; w.cu..ca,(.e/ ~d.ust.IUI..e&, tro ~IA.slv ~.rrorrvWo..ci.JjiJAlJiv. nwcv· ·$~ al..uto.g ilre-~lwcw.

WAO B~ HA~ ~86

OMDURMAN

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the rooky bit- of country which exis bs on each side of the Shahluka cataract. F rom Wad .Ramleh station the line r uns pa.rnllel to the Nile, and about two miles from it, to Halfayt\ station, the berminu~, a p:>int on the Blue Nile about a. mile from its mouth, and exaobly opposite Khs.r­toum. The oounbry between Wad Rll.mleb and Khartoum is a fl at plain, with soil like cotton soil, on which the natives grow large quanti ties of dhurra. after the rains. There is a cerba.in amount of scrub near the river, and there are several large villages on the ri ver banks.

GENERAL D ESCRIPTION OF THE KERMA L INE.

The line to Karma. runs south from H alfa, following the course of the river as far as Sarras (33 miles from Halfa). The country for t he firat fi ve miles is a flat sandy plain, but after that, where the second cataract begins, th9 count ry changes to low rocky hills with very little soil of any sort. The cutbings and embankments in t his sec­t ion are the largesb on t he line, some of the cuttiog3 being 40 fb. deep through rook. This part of t he railway was made yeara ago, and t he work on it generally is ftu hea vier than on a ny other part of the line. It could not ha ve been done during the hurry of an expedition. The g radients are frequent, and tl.3 steep M 1 in 60. The curves also are numerous and sharp, 500 ft. radius being the sharpest. There are 24 bridges on this section, moRt of them being iron-plate girdera with stone abutment3 ; the largest is 100 ft . long, in three spans.

At Sa.rra.CJ the line leaves the river and winds in and out among rooky h ills, chiefly following dry wa.teroouraes, to Akasheh (86 miles from H alfa). '£here are two stations for cro3sing t rains bebween Sarras and A kasheh, one ab ~Ioghrab (47 miles from H alfa), ttnd ono a.t A mbigole Wells (64 miles from Httlfa.). tJ this h1.tter pht'le t here is a good and constant supply of water from three wells, 25 ft. deep. A t Alntsheh tbe line comes down to the river, hub leaves it a~ain at once and goes through rocky <;ountry to F erkeb (90 mil~s from H~tlftt), where it again comes down to the river. The whole of the country from Sarras to Ferket is one mass of blu.ok rock; the rail way winds t hrough it in a n extraordinary wn.y to avoid oubtings and embankments as far as possible ; t he result is that there is hardly a st raight or level bit of line in this section, which is more an example of what can be done by a good surver than of what a rttilway ought to 'De.

Owmg to most of this part of t he line being laid in watercourses, it is lit"ble t o be w~shed a way for consider-

\

able distances at times; 14 miles were wMhed away during the 1896 Expedition, and smaller lportions have occasionally been damaged since. The cost of laying a safer line would, however, be so groat that it has been considered better to ta.ko the risk at present than to attempt it, e~peoially as it rains very rarely in this part of the country. Some more bridges and culverts are, bow­ever, to bo buil t.

F ro cn F erket the line runs along the river b!l.nk to Kosheb (105 miles from Halfa.). The nature of the country changes again here, and it is once more a. wide sandy plain, wi th a considerable amount of oulbivation and date palms along the river bank~. At K osheh there is a small running shed and workshop. There is a con­siderable trade in dates from here during the sel.son.

From Kosheh the river makes a large hand, and tlhe railway leaves it and goes a.cro~s tlhe deser t to Dulgo ( l74 mile3 from Ha.lfa.). There is a station for crossing orains half-way between Ko3heh and Dulgo. This uit of deserb is fairly fla.b. There is one bridge in this section, about eight miles from Dulgo. I b 1s built over a water­oourae named Abu Sunb, down which a considerable quantity of water comes ab times. T he bridge is 200 fb. long-seven spans-brick arches. At Dulgo t be line comes down to the river again. There is a good t rade in d~te3 from D ulgo. Both t he Kosheh and Dalgo dates are oo~sidorod t.> be the be3t in the Sudan1 and fetch good pr1ces.

F rom Dulgo the line goes a.lontr the river bank for about 10 miles. A t this point t he r1 vcr makes a. considerable bend and the rail way leaves ib, and, cutting off a corner, runi across the desero to K arma (203 miles from Halfa). Kerma is eituabed in the middle of a h.rge flat plain, wi th dark soil, something like cotton soil. Ib is very ferbile, and is culbivated in places ab a. oonsidora.blo distance from the river. K erma itself is a. large village, a. little south of the railwtty terminus. At the terminus there is a. sm&ll r unnning-shed and workshop. Kerm'l. i~ the sta.rt.ing place of the steamer a for Dongoht. Oonsiderablo quant ities of dates and grain come down by rail from Kerma., also a. small quantity of ostrich feathers.

D ETAILS 011' TilE KHARTOU~[ AND KERAfA LINES.

Permatnent Way ( Khartoum Line). - Single line : gauge, 3 ft. 6 in. Rails: Vignoles section, 50 lb. per yard. Sleepers of three kinds: creosoted wood, uncreosoted wood, and steel, 81 lb. The rails are fastened to woo:len sleepers by spilces (no bearing plates), and to steel by keys. Joints : one flat and one angle fish-plate. The lino is unba.llasted except in a. few places; arrangement are being made for ba.llasting,

Permanent Way ( Kerma LineJ.-Siogle line : gaug~, 3 fb. 6 in. Sleepers : pine. R n.ils vary; some 41! lb., some 36 lb., some 50 lb. : the older sections have the lighter rails; all aro Vignoles eoction, and are fastened to sleepers by spikes without bearing plates. J oints : two flat fishpla~es on older sections j one Hat and one angle on newer seot1ons.

Bridges.-Very few in existence. All exoepb the Abbara Bridge are steel-plate girders ; 50 fb. and 30 ft. lengths are used, one or more spans being employed as may be necessary. More bridges are now being built. Rails are laid on tops of girders.

Culve1·ts.-Owing to the lowness of the embankment in most places these are all small, bhA most convenient type being cast-iron pipes 2 fb. in diameter, several pipes being used if necessary. They are set in masonry, with an apron on the down-stream side of the embankment to prevent scouring away the foob of the banlr.

Gradients.-The steepest gradient on the Kharboum line is 1 in 120. From W a.di Half a to No. 5 station is the heaviest pull on t he line ; it is uphill practically the whole way. Wadi Ha.lfa is 446ft. , and No. 5 is 2010 fb. above M.S.L. The line f~lls again from No. 5 to Abu Hamed (1200 fb. abovo M.S.L.); after this there are no very long gradients. The line between Abadia and Shendi is prac· tioally level. Oun~ves.-Tbe sharpest curve on the K hartoum line is

955 fb. radius ; there are very few as sharp as this, the usual being 2865 fb. radius.

Stations.- Mosb of these are ab present rather primitive, bub they serve their purpose. At H alfaiya, Shendi, and Ha.lfa. tbere are proper stores and buildings of burnt brick; at all other places buildings are of sun-dried brick. The following stations are t he only places where there are loops for crossing brains : Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, Dekheish, Abu Dis, Abu Sillem, Barber (South), E d Damer, Zeida.b, Koba.shieh, Wad Ben N a.ga., Gebel Gerri, \V a.d Ra.mleh. Engines oa.n water at Halfa., No. 4, No. 6, Abu Hamed, Sbereikh, Abadia, Atba.ra, Mukhmir, Shendi, Wad Ben Naga., Halfa.iya.; engines can coal a.t H a.lfn, No. 2, No. 4, No. 6, No. 9, Abu Ha.med, Abu D is, Shereikh, Abadia, At bar a., Mukhmir, S hendi, Wad Ben N aga, Wad Ramleh, and H alfaiya. ~rhere are no turntables on the line, triangles being used; these exist ab H&lfo, No. 6, Abu Hamed, Aba.dia, Shendi, Halfa.iya.

Oa tho lCorma.lino, the stations are of simple construc­tion, with loops and sidings according to their traffic requirements. Engines can water a.b Sands, Ambigole, Akesheh, Kosheb, Dulgo, and Kerma. There is a re3erve of coal ab every station. There a.ro t riangles ab Akcsheb, K osheh, and Korma.

Workshops.-Tha main workshops are a~ Wadi H alfa; these consist of-

1. Running shed, holding twelve engine~. 2. Erect ing shop for heavy repaird, holding nine

• ongmes. 3. Smibhs' shop, conhining twelve smiths' hearths,

oopper3mitbs' hearths, steam hammer, punching and she!l.ring machine, pla.te-bonding~machine, and radial d1·ill­iog machine.

4. Ma.ohine shop, containing wheel labhe...~, screw-cutting h"the~, slobting machine~, shapin~ machines, pla!ling

•

maob~nes, lot-d1 illi~g ~achine. ~ tilling mi\Cb i oe~, milli ng m~obme, emery pol1shmg macbme ; a•l t he above being dr1ven by a horizon tal compound eno-ine, 45 i nd ica·.od ho~·~c-power,, the ~team being provided b y two L 'lnoa.shire hOller~, one 10 use a t a time.

6. F ound ry for brass and iron castings up to ! ton. 6. Ya~d where boiler work i3 done (shop to be built

h ere), w1th overben.d cra.ne en gant ry, 15 tons lift· and ty re fu.rnace for shrink ing on tyre 3, al$0 us:d f<. r'ca~o­bardr:nmg.

7. Carp~nterb' shops, containing two oiroular eawa, ona gcn e!al jomu, two wood·drilling machine~, one wood­turn~ng la t?e {pa ttern-makers); all driven by a loco­mobtle engme. ~Iuoh of the wood-turning is dono by looa.l ~en, who use an arrangement of their own The work lS held between two mandrel~, the chisel between the man'~ toe~, and .the wo.rk is turned by a.n object like ~ b ow, w1th the ~trmg tw1s ted round the piece of wood m hand. There 18 one large shop for oarpenterP besides the ruachine shop, and a.lso a. small shop for 'pa.ttera­m akers' work.

8. Cd.rriage:repairing shop~, consisting of two shops, lOO ya.rdslong, w1th two lines running down eaoh, fitlt( d with bench es, &c., for fitters at the sides ; two overhead ga.ntrieg, with differential pulleys, for lifting trucks rapidly. All repairs to rolling s took are done here. . The~e are also s~eds for heavy smiths' work in connec­

tiOn wtth such thmgs as truck frame~, &c. There is a sruallshed for smiths and fitters at No. 6 station.

. A bu H amed has a. running shed capable of holding e1ght eng ines ; also some lathes and drilling machines, en gine ptts, stores, &o. A badia has a. fitters' shop and smiths' shop, also two Engine pits and a ~mall store. Sbeodi has shops which are next to H alfa in size; also a running shed capable of holding six engines, fi t t£-r3' shop, wheel ani screw-cutting lathe~, drilling machines, elottin~ and shapi~~ machines, smiths' shop, reserve stores of coal, &t'. .1:111.lfaiya has no shops of any importa.ncP, but only a. few fittu~, carriage examiners, &c. On the Karma line thE r~ are small workshops at K oshehand K erma.

L or<nnot il'cs.-Owing to the light rails and bridges on the older sections of the K arma line, and also to the sharp curveP, one class of engine only is used-a four-wheel cou{>led side - tank engine, with leading four- wheel b og te. Driving wheele, 3 ft. 9 in. in diameter; ou t~ide cylinders, 14 in. by 20 in.; weight in working order, 30 t ms. There are six of theseengin~, which were mad e by the Hunslet Engine Company, Leeds.

T he engines on the Khar toum line are h eavier. There are seven ola.sses. The number of cla.ss:s is due to the rapidity with which the line was la id ; engines bad t o be obtained someh ow a t once, and we some times bad to take whatever we could ge t the soonest.

There are eight N eilson's engine~, same J?at tern as supplied to the Bechuanaland R ailways; eight-wheel coupled, leading four-wheel bogie; oylindHs, outside, 17 in. by 23 in. ; driving wheels, 3 ft . 6 in. in diameter ; weig ht on d riving axles, 9.2 tons each.

Tbere are five Huneleb Company's (:ngines: six-wheel coup led ; loading and t railing p ony t ruck; driving wheeJs, 3 ft. 6 in . in diameter ; weig ht in working orde r, 37 tons ; out~ide cylindor.:a, 14 in. by 20 in.; W alsohaer t/s valve gen . These en~inos take the Fame trai n over the fla t eection , from Ahadia to S bendi, a~ the Neilson 's take over t he more hilly section, between Halfa and Abadia..

There a re two Dubs' engines, same as supplied to N atal R ailways : eight-wheel coupled ; driving wheels, 3 ft . 3 in. in diameter ; leading four -wheel bogie and trailing pony t ruck; ~ide tanks ; out~ide cylinders, 17 in. by 21 in.; wei~ht in working order, 50 tons.

T hree Hum.let's similar to five mentioned above, but with eccentric instead of ' V alsohaerb valve gear.

Six eng ines hy :Messrs. J\ria.nning, W ardle, and Co. ; s ix­wh eel coupled, leading and trailing p ony trucks; ant­side cylinders, 14 in. by 18 in.; W alscbaer t valve gf'ar; weight in working order, 31~ tons.

E leven engines of the "Mogul " class by the Bald win Locomot ive Company: S~x-whe~l coupled d~ivi!lg whe~l~, 4 f t. in diameter ; outs1de cyhnders, 17 10. by 24 10. s troke ; leading pony truck; bar frames ; weight in work­ing order, 38 tons.

F our engines by the Bald win L ocomotive Company : F our - wheel coupled ; . le~ding four - ~heel _bogie ; d riving wheels, 5 f t. m d1ameter ; outside cylinders, 15 in. by 24 in. ; weight, 31 tons. T hese are used for t he faster light t rains.

T wo Beyer Peaco~k'~ e~gines : Six-~heel coup led dr iving wheels, 3ft. 6 m . tn diameter ; leading ponv truck; saddle t ank; outside cylinders, 14; in. by 22 in . . In addi­tion to the above there are two shuntmg engm es1 both four-wheel coupled.

P a.'lsengC?· S tock. -Tbis has hither to . consi. ted of ~ix saloons of th e Indian type. T wo t1·a,zns de luxe with sleeping and d ining-oar.s are now being bough t, and some sp are cars as welJ. T here are fourteen Eo-call .;)~ p~ssengcr carriages now, but t~ley are of a rough clescr1p~10n, and will bo done away w1th when the new stock arnves.

Goods S tock.- D onble bogie t ruoke, 32 f t. over all, by M essrs. Brown, M arsball, and Co. : F ifty-seven 10 ton trucks - some of t hese have been fi tted as cattle t rucks ­sid es 3 ft G in. high; one hundred and twen ty-three ditto sid es 1 ft . 6 in. high; ten 14-ton covered tr ucks ; t hir ty-six 12. ton covered t r ucks ; six brake vans

F our-wheel trucks by Me~sr~. B rown, _]Yiar hall and Co.: One hundred and tlu·ce 5 ton t rucks ; e1ght cattle t rucks ; eio-ht high-sid ed t rucks, ~ix teen brake vans. T wen ty -two 4-~vheel store trucks by Coch rane and Oo.

1 11,.~tcrr" of W 01·king.-T he line is worked on the absolute b lock system-no p~oper block instruments h ave yet been provided. 'Telephones ~re us~d. There are . no ~fety appliances, such as facm g p om t bolts. or pomts m~or­locked wi th signa ls and one anothe1:, &c .. The quest on of p roviding these is n ow under cons1derat10n .

E N G I N E E R I N G.

S c:r uire of T rains.-The ordina ry ser vice of trains to Khartoum con ists of two fast trains weekly each way (connecting with the two principal mai ls from n or th and to n orth) and on e slow t ram each way daily. T ho latter, although i t carr:es passen~ers, is really a goods· train, and carries to south all Government supplies, stores, buildin~ materials, &c., bring ing back cln efly gum, aLa a certam amount of i vory, sonna, ostrich feathers, and -grain. The ser vice to K erma consists of two mttll t rains each way weekly, connecting as above with t he Europ mm mails, and other t rains as ma.y be required, usually t hree or four a week each way, making a total of fi ve or s ix trains each way weekly. A good deal of grain for the army at K hartoum is brough t f rom K erma, and in t he dato season a certain n umber of speoin.l trains arc run to accommodate t he date merchan ts. ln addition to t he abO\~e th.ore are a considerable number of t rains at work on the iruprovemen t of the lines generally.

to?'Cs.- The bulk of t he store3 for t he line aro kept a t H alfa . Coal is s tacked in t he open .

T he stores are divided into t hreo clivi ions : 1. E x­pendable stores, such as coal, oil, waste, and ma terials for use in shop &'enerally. 2. Tools. 3. pare par t of emrine3 and maclunes.

'l'here are small expense stores at No. G s tat ion, Abu H amed, Abadia , hendi, and H alfaiya. Owing to the co t of t ransp or t, all s tores are very dear a t H a lfa, coal eo ting on the average 3l. p er ton, and occa ionally more.

One of t he greatest difficulties which has to be con­tended against is t he great wear and t&w caused by sand. Engin e tyres wear with extraordinary rapidity, and all engine motion also suffer. considerably. Ballas t will, no doubt, reduce this considerably by preventing the sand flying- as it does a t present ; but t here will always bo a cer tam amount of sand on windy days. Putting petroleum on the line, which has, I believe, been tried with success in Ameri0!1-

1 would be of no use here, as after

th e fi rs t Stt.ndstorm the line would be as bad as ever, apar t from the considerat ion of the cost of bringing the petro­leum to the udan.

U nskilled labour can be obtained fairly easily, but is not very good. killed labour is at p resen t all imported, and is consequently dear . The nati ves are, however, coming forward fairly well and show a wish to learn trades ; there are about fi fty apprentices in t he H alfa workshops learning various trade at the pr{'sent momen t .

To sum up generally, i t must be said tha t much re ­mains to be done to the l ine before it ca.n be considered as 'finished. 'l'he work, however, is now being taken in hand, and in the course of a year or so should be com­pleted.

AUSTRALIAN RAILWAYS.* B y Profe...~or W. C. KJ~RNO'r, M .A., ~I.C. E.,

M . Inst. C. E . Aus·rnAT~l A is about 2500 miles long hy 2000 miles broad.

Its climate is temperate in t he south and tropical in t he north. It produces wool, whC'n,t, horses, cattle', sheep, dairy produce, sugar, coal, gold, and other metals. P opultttion, :3,800,000 a t presen t, and s teadily increasing. D ivided in to fi ve s tates, which, with the adjoining ishtnd of T as­mania, are uni ted to form the Commonwealth of Australia.

A const m nge runs round most of its perimeter. Out!!ido this is a comparatively narrow strip of usually fer t ile count ry, with good rainfall and shor t swift rivers, navig­able only near t heir mouths. I nside is a · vast shallow bnsin, with small rainfn.ll, often a rid surface, and long tortuous rivers, precariously navigable, which in some cas{'S ultimately reach the sea., b ut in many others lose thenaselvt'S in swarups The inland basin is useful for pn toral purp oses in th e eastern portions, but in the western is a nearly valueless desert, which, however, has imp or tant towns in it at p laces where gold abounds.

R ailway making corumenoed at ydney and lV[elbourne, the two largest cities (npw p ossessing 500,000 inhabitants each), soon after 1850. ~Iel~ourne, together with . some ot~er parts, acting under ad vice, ~cl opted th e G ft. 3 1.n., or I n sh, gauge. ydney, after bavmg agt·eed to G ft . . 3 m., went back to 4 ft . H~ m . ~ueensland, soruewhat la ter, adopted 3 ft. 6 in. ; so d1d T asmania, and W ester n Australia . T hus a most un fortunate confusion of gauges has come into exis tence.

T here are now 12,554 miles of tate railways in A us­tralia, of which 3725 are 5 ft . 3 in. ; 2811, 4 ft. 8~ in. ; 5970, 3 ft . 6 in. ; and 48 miles, 2ft. Gin.; as well as about 1000 miles of private line, mostly 3 ft . 6 in.

G-radcs.- In crossing the coast range and its spurs, severe grades and high summ~t levels occur: .The '~C'stcrn line of New ou th \ V ales n scs 3:300 f t. m 30 miles, re­quiring long continuou.s grad~ of 1 in 33, and.in one CR;Se nearly two miles of 1 m 30. r he nor thern bne of VIc­toria rises 1880 ft . in 42 miles, havin~ long grades of 1 in 50. The line from Adelaide to Brisbane, 1Jid M elbourne and ydney, crosses t he coast r!l'rage six times, and roa?hes a sumn1it level of 4473 ft . Of 1ts tott11l let1gth, 1783 miles, 134 are above 3000 ft ., 409 above 2000 ft ., tm d nen,rly 800 above 1000 ft.-grades asc_endi~1g ~nd _descendi1~g 1000 f_t. in 10 to 12 miles, and havmg m chnatwns of l m 50, 1 m 40 and even in on e instance 1 in 30 occur .

Grades h ave in some cases b een recen tly improved, but t his cannot be done where they are con tm uous for many m iles, as is t he case at some of the most d ifficult p arts

C'n1·vcs.- In Victoria forty chain curves aro usual on main lines but in New outh ' Vales tmd Rout h A us­t ralia om·v~s as sharp as 12, and eve1~ 10, chain~~ occur ~t mountainous parts. On the 3 ft . 6 m. gauge five cham curves are usual.

Permanent Way.- The double-headC'd rail origina lly used has for many years been given up, and a steelra1l

* Abstract of paper read before tho I1_1ternation~l Engi­neering Congress, G lnsgow l HOl. Sect10n I . : Hailwttys.

[SEPT. I 3, I 901.

of Vignoles pa ttern substit uted; 100 lb. per yard is ~:~ tan­dard for busy subur ban linos ; 80 l b. for main lines ; and GO lb. for branch lines is common on the wider gauge .

The line a rf' w ·ll made, with good stono balla t and heavy eucalyptus sleepers. Acr idcnts from derailment are rare.

rt1·uctu?·cs.- Tn t he eastC'rn colonies large use is made of the local t imber for bridgf's, culverts, and 'iriaducts, but t~ere are man.Y fin t' iron and s~eel ~ridges oYer the larger l'lvers. T he H awkesbury Bndge m New .... outh Wales, the Albert B ridge in Queensland, and th<> Mmvltbool and lVIelton Viaducts and Echuca B ridge in V ictoria, a re note worthy.

Tunnels are not numerous. N ew South \Vales pos-sesses the greatest number and length T unnels are l\lways substan tially lined, and give but li ttle trouble.

.... tations usually of English type. P errunnent stations arc not yet built in :Melbourne or ydney, hut are about to be C011Struoted. igml-ll ing appliances of English t ype. I nterlocking points and sigmt ls usual at important sta tions ttnd junctions. Locomotiuc.~.-Owing to scvt'ri ty of grades and character

of t raffic, p ower is requi red ra ther t han speed ; hence small wheels _and coupling nr<: ~eneral. 'l'h~ Yi~to_ri<t. standard engm es arc four or s1x-coupled, w1th m 1de cylinders. Those of N ew "'outh \ Vtdes, four, six, or eight coupled with outside cylinders and leading bogie. ix­coupled engines of 56 tons, not including the tender, and inchcating over 1000 horse-power, arc used for express trains on the heavy grades. On the ::l ft . 6 in. lines out­Eide cylinder engines, with ~mall wheels, from six to eight­coupled, a re general. American engines are used to some extent, especially on sharp curves ; but E nglish, or locally-mttde engines of English t ype. are usunJly pre­fen ·ed as beinS' more economical in point of fuel consump­tion and repa1rs. The W cstinghouse brake is general. One private line in T nsmanil\ ust's the Abt rack on a 1 in 16 gm de. t he gtt.uge being :3 ft. 6 in.

Passenge'r Can-,·iagcs.- U sually of European type, with steel underframes and four or six-wheeled bo!ries. The later ones on the broador gauges hn,vo a corridor a t one side, lavatories and sanitary con veniences, and are lit with Pintsch gns. leeping cars of t he Pullman type are used in N ew outh \Vales, and of the 1\![ann type between :iYlelbourno ~l-nd Adelaide.

Goods Stock. - Usually of English type on four wheels, but occaRionally double-bogie vehicles are een. pecial wagons for carrying sheep, cattle, frozen meat, and dairy produce are used. T he \Vestinghou~ e brake is usually fitted.

Su.bwrban·Rail'Ways.- The hu·gest suburban system is at 1\1elbourne. T he principal sta tion has 500 trains in and the same number out each day. '.fhe accommodation is good, and the fares very low : 4~d. nrst-clas.') return to a poin t 3 miles from town, and 1s. nrst-class return to one 9 miles out being rel?resenta tive fares. In one Rp ecial case the charges for 9 mtles are only 4~d. fi rst return n.nd 3d. second.

A d?ninist1·ation.- Australian railways are usually made and worked by the ttttc. 'l'he system is g('nern.lly ap­proved, in spite of certa in clangers and mistakes in the past. E ach ;:;ystem has a Commissioner at its h ead, who is a permn.nent officinl of very high Stltnding .

The average cost per mile of A ustralittn railways up to datP, and perct:'n tage of net revenue to capital, is as follows :

Co!it per 1\[ ile. Percentag~ I et R even ue.

£ Victoria • • • •• • 12,:300 3.07 N ew South w~l('S • • • 1:3,700 3.G:3

outh Anstralilt ... 7,500 3.90 Queensland .. . ... 6,900 2.G7 W est A ustralia ... 5,000 5.81 T asmania ... ... 8,200 1.11

I u con olu ion, Australian railways , despite minor defects, are substan tial, safe, and cfficif'n t, and of immense value to the communities they serve.

GoLD IN lVlANTSOHURTA.- Tbere appears to be every prospect of the R ussian Government securing compara­tively free hands as far as exploiti ng 1\'[an t ohm-inn gold ­nelds is concern ed. Unless, indeed, t he Chine..,e au tho­rities should make unexpected difficulties., Ru ia will, in the course of a year or two, be p osses eel of very exten­sive and, i t is thought, very rich goldfields, which can be approached from '.f ungaroi, V ladi vostock, and from the Chinese E ast Railway. P eoplo are very sanguine about the yield of gold in that locali ty.

T HE UnAr~ I RON I Nnu TRY. - During the fi rst half of t he presen t year there app~trs to be no r eduction in the production of pig iron in the U rnl, in spite of the unsatis­factor y sta te of this branch of the iron industry ; in fact, some iron works have evon in creased their ou tput. A ra tional development of t he Uml iron ind ust ry is m uch hampered by the erra tic mode in which many :iron ­masters conduct t heir works ; t hoy do not , for in tance ptty sufficim1 t a t ten tion to spccin.Ii t ics, but all seem to cater for a t ransitory d emt\nd. If an increa eel demnnd for rails springs up, they all go in for roll ing mills for rails, &c. The works which n.ro experiencing the greatest clifficulties a t presen t are tho e who simply manufacture pig iron, partly because they do not specialise enough and pnrtly because they do not . ufficiontly know the market . \Vork thn.t , fur t her, handle their pig iron are more favourably po. itionecl, inasmuch t ha.t manufactured iron and teel, on the whole, rneets wi th tt bot ter demand than pig iron. A better organisation of the whole U rnl iron ind ustry is much needed, and would undoubtedly have the hest rcsul ts.

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