the complete instrument, and Fig. 2 being a similar view of the piston, parallel motion, spring, and the supports for same detached from the main portion of the instrument.

The first novelty that will strike the eye is the substitution of a "Tongs "-shaped spring for the usual spiral spring. This spring is arranged outside and away from the steam cylinder, and thus its accuracy is maintained to a higher degree, as it is not subject to extremes of temperature or the corrosive action of saturated steam. We understand that the particular shape of the spring allows of it being made very accurately with great certainty, and it is obvious that by its arrangement on the instrument it can be more easily changed than the ordinary pattern.

The control spring for the paper drum is arranged so as to be very easily adjusted to varying tensions, and a detent gear is fitted to the paper drum, by which the drum can be thrown in and out of action for

convenience when putting on fresh paper and changing the indicator spring. It will be noticed that the moving parts are very light, and that a handle is provided by

which the indicator can be held while hot.

Another advantage is the facility by which the whole of the piston and parallel motion and pistonrod can be removed in a few seconds by simply undoing the milled nut at the top of the instrument, and drawing out the complete mechanical element as illustrated very clearly in Fig. 2. The indicators are made in two sizes, viz:- a large size giving diagrams 3 in. in height, for use at speeds up to 250 revolutions, and a small size giving diagrams 1 in. in height, for use at speeds from 250 to 500 revolutions per minute.

We think the novel feature of the spring, which we understand is more easily calibrated, and is more uniform in range of pressure than the ordinary vertical spring, should appeal to the common-sense of all engineers who have to place a great deal of confidence in indicator diagrams.

WE pistons have been working in cylinders up to

E understand that the "Lancaster "wave spring

We

112in. diameter, both oscillating and fixed, for upwards of four years, and have given great satisfaction. illustrate in the adjoining diagrams the springs and a piston fitted with the springs. The manufacturers start with the hypothesis that the old "coach" or C spring needs continuous setting up or adjusting, and owing to its want of elasticity it presses the rings too tightly against the cylinder when set up, and in a very short time will pass steam to a considerable extent, very often at a time when it is impossible to open the cylinders out, and their object in designing the wave spring was to overcome these disadvantages. As shown in Fig. 1, it will be seen that the wave spring is in outline similar to the "coach" spring, but instead of being merely a flat plate or plates of steel, is made of round wire bent into wave form. The springs are fitted between projections formed on the piston back as when coach springs are used, and Fig. 2 shows the spring in position between same without piston ring. The dotted lines show the form it assumes

FIG. 3.

These pistons, or the rings and springs for same, are manufactured by Messrs. Lancaster & Tonge, Limited, engineers, Pendleton, Manchester.

THE FLEETS OF THE MAIL LINES. (From our own Correspondent.)

The Spanish Transatlantic Company Was not satisfied even with the large batch of additions mentioned in my last instalment of these Notes. They have acquiredwhether by purchase or merely on charter, I am not yet surethe once famous Alaska, for the purpose of carrying further troops to Cuba. Whether she be saying farewell to the British flag altogether or not, we may pretty certainly presume that the Liverpool and New York mail trade will see her no more. It is necessary therefore to regard her history in the trade which for some years she dominated. As most readers are probably aware, she was built in the Fairfield yard, and was the second of the record breakers built there, though she was the first to acquire the Sobriquet of the Atlantic Greyhound-a name which has since been generally used to describe the whole class of fast mail boats. She was built at the time when most of the New York lines felt it to their interest to build something finer, larger and faster than anything they had yet attempted. Thus Cunards topped the Gallia with the Servia, building her of steel, whilst Inman's built that unfortunate craft the City of Rome, which was quickly transferred to another line; the North-German Lloyd had the Eibe, first of their fleet of modern express steamers, and Guion's had the Alaska. These vessels were all iron. The Guion Line had two years previously brought out the Arizona, and found that speed brought passengers, and they determined that the record they had attained with her should not be lowered, save by a vessel bearing their own flag. In this desire they were not frustrated, for the City of Rome never had speed, certainly not at the beginning of her career, and the Servia was not equal to the Alaska. This vessel was just EO ft. longer and 5 ft. broader than her prdecessor, and was the first of the Fairfield fliers to attain the length of 500 ft, a length which has been given to at least four subsequent greyhounds and one which Fairfield only discarded when at a single bound they sprang to 600 ft., adding another 20 ft. per cent. to the keels of the Campania and Lucania. The Alaska had no proper trial, and was thus unique, as far as I am aware, amongst the Fairfield sisterhood. It is said that when she got round to Liverpool the work on her boilers was not yet complete. This was at the end of October, 1881, and she left Liverpool on her maiden trip on the last day of that month. Before the end of the year she had made two round trips, but had not yet evinced any very remarkable speed. On her maiden trip she had certainly done over 400 nautical miles in a day's steaming. But this was not better than her White Star predecessors had done and she had fully twice their power. But on the completion of her second voyage she took a winter's rest, and certain improvements were effected which at once began to show their effect on her pace. She took the homeward record from the Arizona that very trip. The outward followed on the next. Then she went on improving her own time till she brought the time of crossing for the first time in history, to under seven days, in 1883. By the end of that season she had got the outward time to under 6 days, 22 hours. This performance she never bettered, and soon afterwards her younger sister, the Oregon, superseded her in the premier place, which of course she continued to hold after her transfer to Cunard's finally deprived the Guion Line of the blue riband of the Atlantic. The Alaska, of courte, has compound engines of the three-crank type, and her best speed for a whole voyage was about 18 knots. Of late years this speed has not been maintained, and her average time of crossing very much increased. In 1885 befell what was the most serious accident she sustained. On a westward voyage she encountered very heavy weather and lost her rudder. As, of course, she is only a single-screw ship, she was totally disabled by this accident. Fortunately a Beaver liner came along and was big enough to render her adequate assistance. The Alaska, whose engines were fortunately all right, took her salvor in tow and with this assistance steamed into New York, having been altogether just over a fortnight out from Queenstown.

At the end of 1893 she spent a winter at New York owing to a defect which was found in her crank shaft. The following year she only made one round trip, and since then has had a two years' holiday till she was taken to the Fairfield yard at the beginning of October to be fitted out for her new service. As vessels go she is young in the Atlantic trade, and the number of voyages she has made is comparatively small. She has not

completed her first century of round voyages, whilst the Servia, of her own age, now gone into reserve, has crossed about 70 times oftener. Even the comparatively modern New York has done as much service as has the Alaska.

A Breakdown.

Speaking of the New York and the great amount of work she has crammed into her comparatively brief existence, reminds me of her sister the Paris and her troubles. She has of late been an unlucky ship. There were several minor defects which from time to time have taken her to Cramp's yard and to Newport News. Now bound east she has had an accident which forcibly reminds one of the disaster which befell her in early days, and which very nearly sent her to the bottom of the Atlantic. In that case it will be remembered she broke her shaft, and the consequent racing of the ergines wrecked her engine-room, disabled both sets of engines, and holed her hull. Fortunately in the present case, thanks to improved governors, there was no injury to the engines, and she was able to proceed with her voyage, and make port without taking assistance. It is a creditable thing for all concerned that she did proceed with a single screw, and practically did the whole crossing in her partially disabled condition. I am a little surprised, however, that her speed was only an average of about 12 knots. One would have imagined that the deprivation of half her power would certainly not have cut her down below 15 knots. The fracture in the shafting was again in the external part, and we are once more reminded of the wisdom of the plan adopted in the British liners of the White Star and Cunard lines, whereby there is no external shafting. To my mind it is a serious reflection that when the Mercantile Marine is finding out the inadvisability of carrying shafts on external brackets, and even the later American liners have discarded the plan, our Navy cleaves to the old system. They would be certain to find out the danger of the system by repeated breakdowns if they ever had occasion to maintain a high speed for any length of time. That is, if our warships were worked under war conditions. The only satisfaction I have on this point is the reflection that if our Navy is wrong in this regard it errs in company with those of all foreign Powers. The injuries to the Paris seem to be more serious than was at first believed. The Berlin was, of course, brought into harness again to take her sailing westwards, as the New York was being overhauled on the other side. But the Paris was at first advertised to sail again from Southampton on the 31st October. Another vessel is, however, substituted for her, the New York comes back to the mill, and the Paris is not put forward at all for the next few weeks.

The Castle Line

is said to have ordered another mail steamer since we last referred to the fleet. She will be a vessel of the length of the Alaska, and, of course, something very much greater than even the Dunvegan Castle, as yet the biggest of the Donald Currie boats. The North-German Lloyd Company

is evidently about to make things hum in the Australian trade. I have received an account of the first of the new fleet they are turning out for that branch of their services. These ships are of a tonnage far greater than anything yet seen in Australian waters. Even the Shaw-Savill and Albion Company's twinscrew steamer Gothic is dwarfed by the 10,500 tons of the newcomers. They are, of course, also twin-screw boats. Equally, of course, they are made in Germany, for it seems certain that the Emperor has forbidden his subsidised lines to go to British yards in future. There are four vessels in course of construction for this Australian service-two of them at the Vulcan yard, cne at Herr Schichau's, and one at the yard of Herren, Blohm & Voss. The Vulcan Company has already put one of its boats into the water. This vessel bears the name of the Freidrich der Grosse. She is remarkable in another way than for her mere size. She is the first vessel, so far as I am aware, to have a third deck above her spar-deck. Thirty years ago even the spar-deck was regarded as somewhat of an innovation. Such an old-fashioned vessel as the Sarmatian, of the Allan line, for example, has a few deck-houses on her spar-deck; but that is-cr was when I crossed in the staunch old craft-the only deck on which any passengers of any class could promenade. Then came the Oceanic and her type, which put on a second tier of deck-houses and made a promenade deck above the spar-deck, leaving the sides of the spar-deck still free for

movement.

This style is still to be seen in the Umbria and Etruria, and innumerable other first-class vessels. The idea was developed differently, however, in some lines, who took the promenade deck idea, but built deck-houses outside the spar-deck, as in the North-German Lloyd express boats. Then came the idea, worked out first in the Teutonic, of putting a permanent awning deck above the promenade, so as to free the latter from rain and sun, and boats and navigation. This idea has not hitherto been improved on; but the new North-German boats have above the spar-deck their own arrangement of external deck-houses, with above that the White Star promenade deck with open sides, and above that the permanent awning deck. What a lot of fresh air this arrangement implies for the passenger in the tropics. Nearly everyone will be berthed on an upper deck, whilst the saloons will all be upstairs. The vessels will have some 12 bulkheads and 20 boats. Their engines are of the quadruple type, and the sea speed is to be something like 14 knots. It is needless to say that the ornamentation of the public rooms will be elaborate and well considered, nor that the sleeping accommodation will have great attention. These matters are attended to in all vessels of this line. Many of the first-class state-rooms will be for single passengers. If these ships really go to Australia, and be not diverted into the North Atlantic trade, there will certainly be warm times in the trade.

A Rescue.

There has been another instance of the gallantry of British merchant seamen in effecting rescues at sea. This time the injured ship was an American sailer, and the rescuer was the British steamer Fifeshire. The work was effected by boat service in a very heavy sea, and though the gallant object of the rescuers was effected, and that without loss of life, the sea was so heavy that the lifeboat in which the work was done had to be abandoned as the sea would not allow her to be hoisted on board again.

Deaths.

The month which has just passed has seen the death of two men who were largely connected with the development of steam navigation. They both passed away after careers extending beyond the usual span of human life. The first was Sir Edward Bates, for many years member of Parliament for Plymouth, where comparatively recently in his business career he had established a sugar refinery. Though he was not himself an owner of mail steamers, many very famous mail steamers passed through his hands as sailing ships in his early days, when they had run their course as fast Atlantic liners. He was the subject of a very unwarrantable personal attack many years ago by Mr. Plimsoll in the House of Commons.

The other was Sir James Ramsden, the maker of Barrow. He began life as a railway man. But as time went on he was concerned with many other industries, including ironworks, shipbuilding, and dock construction. He found Barrow an insignificant hamlet. He left it a prosperous city with manufactures, arsenals, and docks of a class to be found only in the great seaports of the world, and that only of recent years. His memory will be kept green by the statue which those he benefited erected to him in the town of Barrow, and also by the fact that one of the great docks of that port bears his

A Social Gathering

of a new kind was inaugurated, on the 22nd of October, by Mr. T. H. Ismay, the founder of the White Star Line. There are from time to time conferences of those who are engaged in Transatlantic passenger trade. These, however, have been of the most commercial kind, and those who have been present have been very careful to keep the rest of the company well at arm's length. Mr. Ismay has induced his competitors to meet him at dinner, and on the date I mention he entertained them at the Reform Club in London. Of course, the initiative step could only have been taken by a leader of men, but now that the ice has been broken and these keen rivals have met at the social board, we may hope that good results to themselves and the public will follow, and that these meetings under noncommercial conditions will become a regular institution.

The Union Line

nas lost a devoted servant in Captain Jones, of the s.s. Norman. He was obliged to remain on shore the last time his ship sailed to the southward, as he was suffering from a serious complaint. But it was hoped that his retirement was but for a single voyage. This hope was unfortunately doomed to disappointment. He was scarcely fifty years of age, and had commanded many well known vessels in their day. He is succeeded in his command by Captain Maloney, who was last in one of the "G's."

The new Union Mail boat which is to excel both the Norman and the Scot, is causing some little anxiety amongst the knowing ones as to the name she is to bear. A certain very young and somewhat self-assertive shipping paper declares that she is to be called the Saxon. A good old Union name it is. But there is more probability that she will be named Briton, as some other papers suggest. They, however, are not quite accurate, for they write it Breton. Surely there can be no intention to call the new ship by a name which the company has never used when their most historical title, borne by two of their most famous ships of former days, is at liberty.

The Pacific Mail Lines

are about to be reinforced by another fine vessel. Messrs. Huddart's find that the Miowera and Warrimoo have built up such a reputation for their Canadian-Australian Line that ancther vessel is called for. They have accordingly secured one of the earlier of the New Zealand Shipping Company's vessels, the Aorangi, once, I think, the holder of the New Zealand record. They have sent her to the East Coast, where she is having new boilers, new engines and new accommodation, both for passengers and cargo-especially for cold cargo-and will in fact come on to her station as a practically new ship. Her advent will enable the line to call at a New Zealand port and so to carry the New Zealand as well as the Australian mails. All this tends to show how warm is the feeling of the colonists towards the Empire and towards one another and is a thing upon which we cannot congratulate ourselves too warmly.

A New Departure.

There is to be immediately commenced a new hotel at Capetown, a thing which is very much needed at that flourishing port. It is to be built and managed under the auspices of the indomitable Sir Donald Currie, though as a quite separate undertaking from his Castle Line of mail packets. That it will be a benefit both to travellers and to the line with which the name of Currie is peculiarly identified, we cannot doubt. I do not think that any steamship company has hitherto interested itself in the hotel business. Its work at sea in modern days has been so identical with hotel keeping that they have probably thought it not worth while to meddle with stationary inns. But experience has showed how greatly to the benefit of railway companies it is to have control of the hotels at their termini and channel quays, and no doubt the same experience will attend Sir Donald's latest venture.

An Amusing Account

of the adventures of those on board the Paris on her recent overtime trip is just to hand. I mention it separately for I had already dealt with the matter, and said what I had to say about the accident. But the Southampton press deserves a wider publicity than their own columns give them for their remarks on the matter. They of course interviewed passengers. The ladies and gentlemen who volunteered for this ordeal seem to have been thoroughly American and very anxious to tell the reporter of their own eminence in their peculiar walks of life before saying anything about the trip. Truth to say that from the passengers' point of view, there was little to be said. But Captain Watkins was enabled to show how large a quantity of food is carried by an Atlantic Liner, and so to prove that, as regards supplies at least, there was no danger in going ahead. He was fortunate in having on board the managing director of the firm which owns the ship, and also the vessel's designer. So that if ever a captain was able to divest himself of the responsibility of pressing ahead instead of putting back he was in a position to do so. Still it was a very plucky thing to do and he deserves all credit for it. He is credited with the use of the word "larboard" in the report of his interview. But he is not a nautical Rip Van Winkle, who has been asleep all the years that sailors have called the left hand "port." The context

shows that "larboard" was the reporter's reading of "star'board."

Steamship Amalgamation

appears to be the order of the day. That of Wilson's, Furness & Leyland has already been referred to, and the new combination has already got a new ship, and had her put into the water, by Messrs. Wm. Gray & Co., being the largest vessel yet built at the Hartlepools. Their union has been followed by a great coal trade combination. This has a capital of two millions sterling, and swallows up the English business of eight firms of very well. known repute. The new company, under the name of William Cory & Co., Limited, becomes possessor of many things, and amongst others of the very large number of barges, steam tugs, and large sea-going colliers.

The late Sir Edward Harland.

The will of the famous shipbuilder, Sir Edward Harland, Bart., M.P., for Belfast, has just been made public. He leaves a sum of £227,000 in personalty.

Russian Volunteer Fleet. And so Japan has joined the rapidly increasing ranks of countries who believe in the auxiliary cruiser and are acting upon their belief, whilst we who originated the idea, and first showed its value by sending an auxiliary cruiser to our manoeuvres, have failed to develop it, and are doing all we can to discourage the addition of suitable vessels to our Mercantile Marine. A Remarkable Experience

has fallen to the lot of the captain and crew of the Glasgow steamer Linlithgow. She was a vessel of some 3,300 tons gross. She was only two years old and left San Francisco for the United Kingdom on the last day of July. When about ten days out she broke her shaft and lost her propeller. A boat was sent away for assistance and duly reached the coast. On the 15th October, the remainder of those on board reached Guatemala in the other ship's boats, the vessel having been abandoned in a sinking state three days previously. Thus this steamer with a valuable cargo of grain-grain is valuable just at the moment-and a number of important lives on board was allowed to go drifting across the

LEE & MORGAN'S BULWARK PORT. An American Purchase

Mention was made at the time of her coming out of the magnificent steam yacht Giralda, built by the Fairfield Shipbuilding Company in 1894 for Mr. H. McCalmont. She was large enough for an ocean mail boat; she had twin screws, and a speed of 20 knots, and was fitted in a way that made her a very use. ful auxiliary to our Navy in time of national crisis. Like too many of the other fast vessels of our Mercantile Marine, she has gone under a flag where her value as a possible commerce destroyer will be appreciated. She has been bought by an American millionaire, and has gone out through the Suez Canal to the Pacific Coast of America. It is, however, reported that her late owner is about to replace her.

The Japanese Mercantile Marine

has, during the month of October, been reinforced by a vessel which is worthy of more than passing consideration. This is the Kasawagamaru, launched by Messis. D. & W. Henderson at Partick on the 22nd. She is a fast mail and passenger boat, and is the first of the great Japanese shipping company's vessels built for their trade to Europe. This would in itself make her a notable craft. But she is something more. She is a vessel suitable for the purpose for which the Giralda was a moment ago said to be fitted. She is adapted for military service in time of war. She is, in fact, very much on the lines of the vessels of the

Pacifc for two months without any attempt, so far as one can hear, being made to bring her into port. No doubt it was imagined that she could keep the sea for an indefinite period, as the underwriters only quoted her, at the time the news of her loss was received, at 30 guineas premium for re-insurances. But apparently her hull must have been damaged at the time she met with the accident to her machinery. This is certainly a case which needs explanation, and I very much hope that unless some very good explanation be afforded, the Board of Trade will make a searching inquiry into the circumstances and find out why these seamen and engineers were abandoned to their fate for all these long weeks when there are, or ought to be, British men-of-war on the Pacific station.