becoming less and less, and the sooner these ol vious facts are realised by those unfortunate enough to possess old steamers the sooner will they be able to make a fair start again without encumbrance, and with vessels which are capable of making a living wherever there is a living rate of freight to be found. I have recently been looking at some statistics of 20 years ago, and noticed that it was not till then that the owners of old paddlers realized the worthlessness of their possessions. At all events, it was at this time that a vast lot of antiquated craft were broken up, and the time is now ripe for another generation-the small compound screw cargo boat-to be swept completely away.

Lengthening a Record Breaker.

The results of the experiment which Messrs. Harland & Wolff ae carrying out with the Scot will be awaited with much interest. As readers probably know ere this, she has already been cut in two and drawn asunder almost amidships and an extra length of fifty feet is to be given her. This is a job surpassing anything hitherto attempted. The largest vessel on which such an experimeut has hitherto been tried was, as far as I know, the P. & O. liler Rome. This was a vessel tuilt in 1881, when she was the premier boat of her fleet. Her length was then 430 ft. and her gross tonnage 4,885. In 1891 she was improved by having her engines tripled, new boilers provided, and a new bow being built for her which increased her length 19 ft. She was now of a gross tonnage of 5,545. It was said at the time that the sister ship Carthage was to be similarly treated, but I am not aware that the intention was ever carried out, and this leads one to infer that the results of the experiment were not as satisfactory as were anticipated. But the experiment with the Scot is a much bolder one. Here is a vessel whose age is not yet half that which the Rome had attained at the time of her alterations. Her original gross tonnage was 6,844, which is just 2,000 tons greater than that of the Rome. Her length, however, is only 477 ft., with a beam of 54 ft., which seems somewhat short and beamy. The later ship Norman has a few inches less beam and 13 ft. greater length than the Scot's original design, so that the altered vessel will be some 37 ft. loner than she. But it is not only in regard to the dimensions of the subject that the experiment will be interesting. It will be an unprecedented thing to see a vessel of the Scot's speed and remaining pre-eminence, after such alterations, and it will be of the greatest interest to see how her speed is affected by the change. If it be not sensibly reduced the expense and trouble taken will be well rewarded, for all the addition will be practically an increase of earning power. Such an event would indeed justify Messrs. Harland & Wolff in their preference for long, narrow models, even beyond the comparison of the Teutonic and the City of New York, which was flattering enough to the Queen's Island draughtsmen.

Changes in the Fleets.

Fublications.

I have received a little pamphlet from Messrs. J. & H. Gwyne & Co., containing son e very interesting illustrations of their wellknown pumping machinery, and, of what will interest all readers of this column, the use to which their appliances are put for the salvage of steamships, stranded or sunk. A number of illustra

The other

tions are given of vessels in difficulties and of the method in which they were prepared by the salvors for the work of being pumped out by these powerful and rightly styled "Invincible" pumps. I will only cite two cases out of the many referred to. One, the celebrated Wick Bay case, where a vessel, which had long defied all attempt at moving her, was at last shifted though she had lost most of her external resemblance to a vessel. shall be the well-known case of the Anchor liner Utopia, sunk in Gibraltar Bay by collision with the bows of one of Her Majesty's battleships. Not only was the latter vessel sunk to a considerable depth and wounded very largely by the warship's ram but Yet the the operations were further impeded by currents. Utopia was not only successfully raised but was restored to her former employment.

"An International Ocean Race"

is the heading under which an amusing episode in the life of one of the Canadian Pacific Empresses is given. The account is extracted from a San Francisco paper whose bias would certainly not be in the favour of the British ship. On the 21st January the Empress of India was lying at Kobe, so was the United States' commerce destroyer Olympia. The latter was boasted to have done 22 knots in a heavy gale, when the seas smashed the glass in the wheel-house, and dia cther deck damage of a more or less serious kind. This naval flyer left Kobe for Nagusoki at 5 F.m. on the day in question. Five hours later for the same port left the British merchantman, whose guaranteed speed on the measured mile was a humble 17 knots, falling to 16 knots for a sea speed. Yet at 11 a.m. on the following day the Olympia was sighted by the Britisher. Five hours at 22 knots means 110 miles, and it should have meant more as the 22 knots was storm-speed, and the weather on the present occasion was all that could be desired. What the speed of the Empress must have been to have gained 110 miles or upwards on a 22-knot steamer in 11 hours I have not troubled to calculate, because I know that the Empress would rot pretend to anything she could not do, and therefore it follows that the Yankees had done the "blowing." The Empress eventually passed the boaster, and went away from her. This is unfortunate for the American people who pay so heavily for their little navy that they might expect to have it efficient, but it justifies our Admiralty in its reliar ce on the Subsidised Merchant Cruisers, of whom this Empress is cne, and it should surely suggest to our authorities that they might wisely add a few more such vessels to their list of armed n erchantmen. They will find no difficulty in discovering in the British Merchant Navy List plenty of steamers built to the requiren ents of the Acmiralty. That Department must, however, take to heart the lessons to be derived from its experience in the case of the City of Paris and the City of New York, and make it a condition of the contract that the vessels subsidised shall never be transferred to a foreign flag.

The Allan Line

is the one I had chosen for the subject of this month's note. It will be the first of which I have had to write without any assistance from the owners, for Messrs. Allan's are the first shipowners to whom I have applied for information and not bad even the courtesy of a reply. When cne begins to go into the history of the line one begins to understand that the agents and owners may well think that the less attention is called to them the better. The early history of the service between Liverpool and Canada in the fifties was simply a record of disaster, though it was disaster met with unlimited courage, and disaster caused by circumstances over which the shipowner had no control whatever. Take for example the loss of one of their mail bcats at Cape Race. The place was known to be dangerous, and to be in efficiently protected by warnings. The New York underwriters had gone so far as to offer to place a sound signal on the head. This offer had been refused by the British authorities. Then came the loss of a fine new mail boat through the went of the despised foghorn, and, no doubt, the responsible officials felt as little perturbed at the results of their stupidity, as officials do in like cases to-day. Gradually the firm built up a great business. Not only was there a weekly mail service from Liverpool, via Moville, to the S. Lawrence, in summer, and to Halifax in winter, but Glasgow and London were also made points of departure. Other trades were opened up, such as the service to the River Plate, the services to various United States and Canadian ports, and the line went in the forefront of improvement, for cne of the carliest big ocean steamers to be

built of steel was an Allan liner. Then all at once it seemed to crystallize.

known vessels built for other owners. When the Monarch Line came to an end, its fleet was taken over and divided between the All n's and the Wilson's, of Hull. So too at Glasgow the Allan's took over the pick of the State Line boats and absorbed them into itself.

But it is with regard to its mail service that we are chiefly concerned here, and the position cannot but be considered cisap pointing. The Allan Line is undoubtedly the premier line between Great Britain and her nearest colony, the large and important Dominion of Canada. Yet though there are two vessels of nearly 5,000 tons each, built within the last five years in the mail service, the crack boat of the line is the Parisian, built fifteen years ago, whilst the ld Polynesian, built nine years earlier, still figures in the mail sailing list, though her name is charged and her machinery has been renewed. The Parisian is a fine vessel of 5,365 tons gross, built by Messrs. Napier, a very comfortable ship for those who are not in a hurry. But she has no more right to her position as crack mail carrier between England and Canada than has the newer Kensington to carry the New York mails. The American Line calls the Kensington a cargo boat, but her speed is much on a par with that of the Parisian. The actual record in the St. Lawrence trade, such as it is, is held by the Dominion Line with their steamer Labrador. But it is a thousand pities that there are no such boats in the Canadian Atlantic service as are the three Empresses on the other side of the Continent. There was a time when the speed of the mail boats to the St. Lawrence was almost equal to that of the New York liners, and if these times could come again we might see a great passenger traffic on the St. Lawrence, and much of the money now spent cn Ame ican ships and American hotels diverted to the benefit of our fellow-subjects. Of course those who have large fleets capable of earning what their owners desire are not the people to launch out in a new direction. But we may be quite sure that in spite of the well-advertised" dangers of the St. Lawrence," the Dominion Government will eventually get their mails carried in modern ships, whoever may be the contractors, and there will then be a great alteration in the conditions of the trade and in the vessels engaged in it. The possession of speed cannot be a source of danger, as the Messrs. Allan argued. It will be conceded to them that the improper use of that speed may be dangerous, but so, too, can be the improper use of anything they may choose to name.

THE UNIVERSAL HIGH-SPEED STEAM

UN

ENGINE.

NDER the above title the Brush Electrical Engineering Co., Limited, are putting on the market a novel type of high-speed steam engine, which has been designed and patented by Mr. Raworth, their chief engineer and manager.

The objects in view during the designing of this engine were, we understand, the following, viz.:-That the working parts should be enclosed but readily accessible, that all wearing joints could be set up in a few minutes without filing or fitting, that the lubrication should be automatic, that the governing should be as perfect as possible, and that the construction should be such as to give great economy in steam and oil.

We illustrate this engine, and some of its details, in the adjoining diagrams, of which Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the engine coupled to a MordeyVictoria dynamo for generating alternating current; Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional elevation; Fig. 3 is a section on the line A B, Fig. 5; Fig. 4 is a section of the line C D Fig. 5; Fig. 5 is a longitudinal sectional elevation; Fig. 6 is a view of the connecting rod; and Fig. 7 is a set of indicator diagrams taken at full, half, and no load.

to requirements.

The cylinders are arranged in pairs one above the the other, and the valves are placed between the cylinders.

The valves are of the Corliss type, and the highpressure valve is distinct from the low-pressure.

The high-pressure steam presses on the under surface of the small upper piston, and the expanded or receiver steam presses on the upper surface of the lowpressure piston.

During the down stroke, to the point of cut-off, the receiver and the high-pressure cylinder are in communication with the low-pressure cylinder.

The high-pressure piston at the top of its stroke passes ports in the cylinder, whereby the pressures in the cylinder and in the receiver are equalised; but the capacity of the receiver is so arranged that the difference in pressure between the high-pressure cylinder and the receiver shall be small.

The high-pressure cylinder steam on the downward stroke of the piston expands into the low-pressure cylinder until the cut-off valve closes, when the remainder is passed into the receiver, excepting a small residue retained for compression.

Any water taken into the high-pressure cylinder is discharged into the low-pressure, and when the lowpressure piston arrives at the bottom of its stroke, the water is discharged through holes in the cylinder into the lower exhaust chamber. The exhaust valve is connected with the lower exhaust chamber by an external pipe. The main exhaust pir carried away at the lower level, and, when worl gnon-condensing involving an upward turn of the pipe, a large drain pipe is taken downwards before the exhaust pipe arrives at the first upward bend. Triple-expansion engines are arranged with two pairs of cylinders and two cranks. The high-pressure and intermediate cylinders are placed in tandem over one crank, and two lowpressure cylinders are placed over the other crank.

right angles to the axis of the crank shaft (Fig. 2), shows only the port in the low-pressure valve between the high-pressure and the low-pressure cylinders. The port which communicates between the upper side of the low-pressure piston and the receiver is behind the parts shown in section. It is shown separately in Figs. 3 and 4.

The valves are worked by two eccentric rods acting on levers attached to the valve spindles. The highpressure eccentric is driven by a centrifugal shaft governor, which controls the cut off from 0 to stroke the low-pressure eccentric is fixed on the shaft and is set to cut off at about stroke.

engine is such that its truth-i.e. the perfect alignment of the cylinders, crosshead, guide, and crankpin is ensured by machine work, and is in no way dependent on manual skill. The crank shaft is of Siemens-Martin steel annealed after rough tooling, and balanced as far as practicable opposite the crank. The main bearings are fixed in solid seats in the baseplate casting, bored by a special machine which ensures absolute squareness with the centre line of the cylinders. The bearings are held down by wedge pieces drawn up by external screws. There is also an adjustment to take up end wear, should any occur.

We now come to an interesting portion of the

The bolts also are made more accessible by being brought nearer to the outside of the engine. The high-pressure valve is of the ordinary Corliss type.

The low-pressure valve is similar, but more nearly resembles a Wheelock valve.

Both patterns have been proved, by many years' experience in hundreds of engines, to work well with very little wear.

Trip gear is not used on account of the high speed, but the shaft governor cut-off gives, we understand, even better results, as it throttles the steam at very light loads, giving thereby, according to Willans' law, the conditions of maximum efficiency.

The high-pressure valve admits live steam to the high-pressure cylinder and cuts off under the action of the automatic shaft governor.

It also admits steam directly to the receiver for warming up when the engine is standing or running at slow speed.

The receiver port is very small and narrow and is only open in the extreme position of the valve. At full speed the governor reduces the travel of the valve, thereby shutting off the supply to the receiver. The eccentric-rod joint is, we think, one of the best

FIG. 6.

features in this engine, as it is not only simple and effective but very easy to set up.

The pin is spherical and the end of the rod is fitted with two cylindrical white metal pads with hollow spherical faces, which grasp the pin and are set up by a large screw cap.

Any excess of oil passes down the eccentric rods

FIG. 7.

ATU.

the banjo, two weighted arms, and two springs. The springs are fitted with an adjustment which enables the user to alter the range of total variation in speed from one-half per cent. to about five per cent.

The manufacturers claim that its action is theoretically perfect, as at light loads it combines the effect of throttling with that of expansion; and in this respect is superior to the ordinary Corliss trip gear, and in all other respects is quite equal thereto.

We think that it will be generally admitted that considerable success has attended the efforts of the designer of this engine to overcome many of the disadvantages that obtained in the engines that bave been available up to the present time, especially for use in cases where high speed, steady running, and great durability are required with high economy.

LA

NAVAL MATTERS-PAST AND PROSPECTIVE.

(From our own Correspondent.)

The New Naval Programme.

ARGE as the estimates for naval purposes unquestionably are, and showing as they do a considerable increase over those of last year, the only kind of criticism heard about them, outside the Peace Society, is-are they sufficient? No better proof of the frame of mind in which the public regard the subject could be wanted. The days of panic-at least for a time-are passed, and all the country wishes for is that the naval requirements of the Empire in every department should be satisfactorily met, independent of the cost. Indirectly this is also evidence that the people believe that in spending money on the Fleet they are getting twenty shillings worth for a pound, and that although mistakes have been made and organisation is