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constant and regular. Scrambled hen's eggs, liver, and beef are used for food in a finely cut form to allow the gentle current of water to carry it within easy reach of the larvae, and the feeding is attended to every two hours throughout the full twenty-four of each day and night. To rear a lobster to the fourth stage for planting at the Wickford Wickford hatchery requires from ten to twenty-one days, depending mostly on the temperature of the water, and the young "lobsterlings" are planted after reaching this stage of maturity known as the first "ground" stage because of the fact that during the fourth stage the lobster takes up its abode among the rocks and grass at the bottom for the first time. As fast as the lobsters reach this latter stage of development they are dipped out, a few at a time, and counted. They are then put in a planting can and are due to be "planted" in the briny deep. To allow the fourth stage fry to take full advantage of their hiding instinct for protection after planting, they are poured out at the water's edge where an abundance of eel grass and rocks tend to make a natural harboring place for the young lobsters till they attain their full growth.

With this method developed to the fine point it has been at the Wickford Station, it has been accurately calculated, not "estimated," that from forty per cent. to seventy per cent. of the eggs yielded by the egg lobster reach the fourth stage of development. As their most precarious period of existence is during the first three stages, the fourth stage lobsters have an infinitely greater chance to survive against the natural enemies around them than would be possible under any circumstances with the first stage larvae as still liberated by the other state and government establishments.

After hatching is over the female lobsters are again consigned to the waters from which they came and are put back in pre-determined localities with copper tags fastened to them giving a recorded number. The fishermen are requested to return the tag to the station with information as to the locality of the trap it was caught in. By this method the egg bearing lobsters have furnished valuable data regarding their movements, after their period of usefulness at the station has expired.

The unique plant which this new process of culture has successfully dem

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An engine of this type consumed 4.25 tons of coal per hour in a test run with seven coaches,
making sixty-five miles per hour.

MACHINES TO FIRE LOCOMOTIVES

By

CHARLES FREDERICK CARTER

F official prophecies are entitled to credence the next great evolution in railroad operation will be the general introduction of automatic stokers to relieve locomotive firemen of a task that has grown beyond the powers of human muscles. For three consecutive years the standing committee on stokers of the American Railway Master Mechanics Association has predicted the early advent of the automatic, or mechanical, stoker; and according to popular belief, "three times is the charm."

In 1908 the committee said in its report to the annual convention, "Mechanical stokers used on locomotives in this country up to the present time have at least demonstrated the fact that freight and passenger engines in road service can be successfully fired by mechanical means. Mechanical stoking, however, has not made much progress abroad.",

In its 1909 report the committee grew more bold, saying, "Results hold out great hopes for the future, particularly as the question has been taken up seriously by a number of railroads. . .

"It is reasonable to assume that the average tractive power of locomotives will increase. It is within the possibilities, therefore, that the increased fuel con

sumed per mile will render it advisable to provide mechanical means for firing locomotives in order that they may develop high sustained tractive effort and render the service attractive to men who possess the qualifications to become successful locomotive engineers. A successful automatic stoker should render locomotive firing more attractive, raise the standard of the service, permit close attention to the economic handling of fuel and the reduction of black smoke, enable firemen to become better acquainted with. the general duties of a locomotive engineer and reduce tube and firebox troubles."

By the time the 1910 convention had assembled the stoker committee had become fully converted, as may be gathered from its report which contained this declaration : "The committee is convinced that the mechanical stoker is destined to be a very important factor in the operation of heavy locomotives in the not very distant future."

Railroad men have no occasion to read the unemotional reports of the committee to be convinced of the urgent need of a satisfactory automatic stoker; but since it is not the privilege of everybody to be railroad men it may be well to give some

idea of what firing a locomotive means before discussing the subject of stokers. To the country boy who sees the fireman lolling on his cushioned seat box while his train stands on the siding waiting for the limited, it means a life of indolent ease at good pay with abundant opportunities for long range flirtations with the girls along a stretch of a hundred and fifty miles of steel highway. Consequently he loses no time in applying at the nearest division headquarters for a job. He is received with dissembled, but none the less sincere, joy; for the demand for firemen is great, and the best ones are farm bred.

But the "cornfield sailor" who has the strength of mind, character and muscle to struggle through all the preliminaries required to reach the left side of the cab immediately discovers that in addition to anticipating the coming of the pay car and throwing kisses to the prettiest girls along the road he is also expected to shovel from fourteen to twenty tons, or even more, of coal a day; and that this coal shoveling occupies his attention so fully that by the time he gets to the end of his run he doesn't care a hang if he never sees a paymaster or a rural coquette for the rest of his natural life.

To a husky young man, shoveling twenty tons of coal a day may not sound like a terrific undertaking; but that is because he fails to appreciate the difference between shoveling that quantity in the course of a ten hour day, standing

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SIDE AND END VIEW OF THE STROUSE STOKER.

THE TRANSFER OF COAL FROM TENDER TO FIRE DOOR
IS ACCOMPLISHED BY THE USE OF A
SCREW CONVEYOR,

on a steady footing and pausing for a moment whenever he feels like it to gaze at the scenery or light a cigarette, and trying to keep his balance on a jolting, jerking, plunging steel deck which tries ceaselessly to pitch him head first into the side of the cab, while with legs spread wide apart he humps over a scoop shovel, working with frantic energy to get coal into the firebox fast enough to keep steam up. While the engine is running the fireman must be straddled out on the deck working continually to the limit of his strength, for ordinarily he will

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