A cross-section of a vessel with the log installed in the pilot house, is shown in Fig. 2. The 3-inch pipe B is known as the speed pipe; A, as the load level pipe. It is necessary for the latter to extend only a short distance above the deepest load line, and the same amount below the lightest load line, the small one-inch pipe shown being a protection to the driving chain E, which is attached to the ascending or descending float. The speed pipe starts at the same level as the pipe A, and extends as much higher

FIG. 2. CROSS-SECTION OF VESSEL WITH LOG INSTALLED IN PILOT HOUSE.

above the deep load line as the maximum speed of the ship requires. To the floats shown in the speed pipes B and the level pipe A, are attached chains, which run over sprocket wheels C C in the pilot house. To the end of the chains are attached counterweights, encased in a 3/4-inch iron pipe.

When the ship is at rest, both floats will remain at the water line, keeping the registering apparatus at zero, regardless of any change in the load. As the ship moves forward, the water enters the intake tube at the bottom of the vessel, and flows into the speed pipe, raising the water column according to the rate of speed. When the vessel has reached normal speed, the float comes to rest and does not change unless the speed is increased or diminished. When the ship stops, the float will descend to the load

line. The log does not register when the vessel goes astern. Connecting the log with the sprocket wheels C C are the 14-inch brass shafts D D. In the entire construction of the log, there is no metal used that will interfere with the action of the compass.

In Fig. 3 is reproduced a record taken from a regular trip of the steamer City of Erie, of the Cleveland & Buffalo Transportation Company. It will be noticed that every variation of speed is shown, as well as the time of starting and stopping.

Simple Fire Escape ESCAPE from a burning building is apparently made a very simple proceeding through the invention of a new fire escape in Chicago, the city of the sky-scraper. On the alarm of fire, you simply slip the end of the rope over any solid projection; sit in the sling of the escape, and ride down, slow or fast as you desire, the speed, it is claimed, being always under perfect control. The operator simply handles the loose end of the rope which extends from the pulley. The rope cannot jam, it is alleged, and the apparatus cannot get out of order.

SIMPLE FIRE ESCAPE IN USE.

The device is known as the O. & L.

pecial care has been taken with the joint at the clamp and hinge, to insure a good magnetic path.

The current in the cable sets up a magnetic field, which induces a current in the secondary of the transformer proportional to the current in the cable. This can be read on the portable ammeter, which is calibrated to read in terms of the current in the cable.

The leads are sufficiently long to allow the placing of the ammeter in any convenient position. The winding of the transformer is of 5-ampere capacity, and is designed to withstand 2,300 volts' potential between it and the core. It is claimed that this transformer will maintain within commercial limits its ratio accuracy from -load to 25 per cent overload.

This testing set is valuable both in the laboratory and in commercial service, particularly in determining the load on feeders and distribution networks.

CABLE-TESTING APPARATUS.

this piece of apparatus is the measurement of an alternating current flowing in a cable, without the necessity of cutting and tapping into it to insert an ammeter. As shown in the accompanying illustration, the set consists of a special transformer having a hinged magnetic circuit and a standard inclined-coil portable ammeter. The clamp at the bottom of the transformer can be removed, and the transformer opened on the hinge at the top and then closed about the cable. Es

Camera Tricks

THE accompanying photographs show potatoes and corn of truly marvelous size; but it might be well to state that the effect is produced by manipulation of the camera rather than as the result of cultivation by the farmer. Each picture really represents two views taken at different distances, but so combined that in one case the potatoes seem to be as large as flour barrels, while in the other the ear of corn is of the dimensions of a tree trunk. The views were taken by a Texas photographer in order to advertise the agricultural advantages of his section.

Water Gauge

THE accompanying sketches show a new water gauge recently patented by Mr. W. R. Malcolm, Albany, N. Y. The invention consists primarily of a water glass and guard combined, the object being to produce a gauge which is not easily broken.

drawings show clearly how the nut F screws onto the head e, holding the glass firmly.

The inventor claims that steam is prevented from getting on the outside of the glass, and thus many breaks, which are due to the glass becoming thin by the action of steam, are prevented. A further advantage is that no strain is brought on the glass if the gauges in the boiler are not in line, since the joints in the valves are independent of the glass.

Carley Life-Float

So light that two men can toss it from the ship, and so buoyant that it will support half a hundred persons, a new life-saver that was recently tested off the Romer shoal north of Sandy Hook, proclaims itself one of the most efficient devices of the kind ever invented. It is the invention of Horace Carley, an oldtime sailor, and is called the "Carley life-float." The principal mechanism. consists of an elliptical, covered, copper tube with many air-tight compartments strengthened by flanges or fins. copper tube is covered with two inches of compressed cork nd is wound with canvas. The whole is made absolutely waterproof.

The

A rope netting three feet deep is at

I'

Treads like an old-fashioned fairy story-this plain and simple record. of a Jewish emigrant from Switzerland, who spent four months in coming across the ocean in a tramp sailing ship, who started life in this country by selling stove-polish, who became interested in various businesses, and who, with his sons, now controls one of the most important industries in the United States.

It is a fairy story. And the good fairy of the plot is the same never-satisfied desire for exact and thorough knowledge which has marked the character and the career of so many captains of industry. The reason why Meyer Guggenheim, in defiance of business rules and principles, made a success of so many different lines of business, is found in the fact that he always insisted on getting an accurate technical knowledge of each one of them as soon as he entered it.

Meyer Guggenheim was born in Lengnau, Switzerland, February 1, 1828. He lived there in the old home through his boyhood, and it was not until he was nineteen years of age that he finally started for the land where he was destined to make a great fortune. He was then, as he is now, a slight, short man, with a presence that carries no overwhelming sense of power. The casual observer would have said that he had nothing in his favor. But the casual observer could not have seen the qualities which drove him resistlessly ahead to a great success. The first of these qualities was industry. Immediately upon leaving the ship at the dock in Philadelphia after the tiresome voyage of four months, he started out to sell stove-polish through the country surrounding Philadelphia.

At Bethlehem, Pa., young Guggenheim made the acquaintance of a chemist. He

wanted to know what that stove-polish he was selling was made of; and he knew that the chemist could tell him. Meanwhile he was making a good profit on his sales. Presently his burning desire to get at the bottom of things was satisfied, so far as the polish was concerned. His friend, the chemist, analyzed it; and Guggenheim found that he could make the commodity himself for much less than he was obliged to pay for it at wholesale. So he began to manufacture stove-polish, and to sell his own product at a greatly increased rate of profit.

A little later he became interested in concentrated lye. He found that there was a good market for this product, and a good profit in its sale. But that did not satisfy him. He sat down and learned all there was to know about the lye business, from the buying of the raw material to the best formulas for its manufacture. In a comparatively short time he was making and selling as good a brand— and perhaps just a little better brand-of concentrated lye than anybody else had to offer.

Then came other ventures, and in each of them Guggenheim was more or less successful, simply because he never rested until he knew the new business from the ground up. Finally he worked into the importation and sale of embroideries. From his earliest boyhood he had been somewhat familiar with the manufacture of white goods and embroideries, which was one of the leading industries of his Swiss birthplace; and it was only natural that when he had accumulated considerable capital and more business experience, he should go into that line of work.

Once again he demonstrated his complete belief in the principle that thorough technical knowledge lies at the foundation of commercial success. But this time he