Evening Star Newspaper, October 30, 1897, Page 20

OFF-SHORE DOCK HANDLING AN ARMORED CRUISER. k| Ni 1 ! iid oe ME ui LIFTING CRUISERS —_>—__—_ The Power and Capability of Float- ing Docks. —-+ USE OF THE PNEUMATIC PONTOON Inshore Repairs and Docking Ves- sels at Sea. VARIOUS DETAILS DESCRIBED Cops cht, 1897, by R. G. Skerrett.) OTHING CONCERN- ing the navy is cal- culated to absorb the attention of the next jon of Congress =more than the con- consideration of ade- quate means for docking our heavy ships both in times of peace and of war This is not a ques- tion merely of eco- nomical naval admin- PA INT istration, but one of | rational importance in all that the efficient meintenance of our ships means to our | safety m the hcur of peril. The matters of foul bottoms and the incident hampered speed and excessive coal consumptions have | been dwelt upon at length, but those are minor questions, comparatively, beside that all-important one of handling our ships in case of accident—let alone the injuries of action, - In thirteen years we have jumped from our old wooden ships to the mightiest of medern armor-clads; but in provisions for their successful docking we are years and years behind the times. It has been said “There is not a dry dock in the United States today, built or build- ing, able to take the heaviest of our ar- mored cruisers when drawing six feet of water more than her normai draft; and that simply because the vessel could not be got into the dock in that condition. The recent trouble with the Brooklyn, in the Delaware, has accentuated that remark, and presaged what might reasonably hap- in time of strife. The dry dock at Pert Royai, S. can take the Indiana and class when lightened and under favora- ble conditions of wind and tide; and the new timber aock at New York will be able opmmodate the largest of our buiid- tle ships only when not over-drafted y listed by damage. Such, too, may said ef that fine dock at Puget Sound, | Oregon. What should interest us most is the thought of those means that will give us a safe margin even under the stresses of war or accidental injury. That immunity can be found in the modern floating dock as perfected in England; and it is no small credit to our British brothers that they have taken a purely American idea and evoived from it the wonderfuliy serviceable structures of today. What ts Required. To begin, the ideal dock should be able to bring the ship close up to the repair shops and as nearly level with them as possible, and should hold the vessel on an even keel. The craft should be open to the light and @ free circulation of air, that artificial il- lumination should not be needful and that her bottom should dry quickly, paint set harder and comparative healthfulness be guaranteed to the workmen about her, while facilitating complete and easy super- only that part and a mild percentage of the rest of the dock need be exhausted. If a vessel be unable to reach a graving dock by her own power she can never be light- ered in, for the pontoons could not get her through the gate. And further, it may be said that the major part of the materials that constitute a graving dock go rather to hold the dock down and in place, when emptied, against hydrostatic pressure from without than to meet the simple require- ments of strength. In a floating dock the thing desired is that it shall rise by virtue of its own natural buoyancy; and, instead of sinking, the floating dock actually sup- ports the equivalent of the greater part of that weight which serves merely to hold a graving dock of like displacement in place. This means a helpful buoyancy of hundreds upon hundreds of tons instead of a useless dead weight of like magnitude. Various Types. These types of tie floating dock are, first, the off-shore dock, and, second, the self- docking, floating graving dock. The off- shore dock consists, principally, of three parts, viz: the dock proper, the shore work ard the booms or girders which connect the dock to the shore. The dock itself con- sists of a number of long sieel boxes or pontoons, having an endwise appearance, like the letter L, and it is, so to speak, in the laps of these L’s that the ship rests. The part of the L that lies upon the water is the lifting part proper, and is called the pontoon, while the chief function of the vertical part or wall, as it is called, is to give stability to the dock during the time it is being submerged. In the wall, and on it, too, are placed the controlling mechanisms for the pumps, the derricks, the shores that brace the inner side of the vessel, and the bilge blocks, which support the bottom of the ship. The interior of each pontoon is strongly built, and reinforced so as to bear safely the weight of a ship, and, to give more perfect control of the water within, is subdivided into a number of separate water-tight compartments, each under in- dependent control. In this way the rush of water from one end of the pontoon to the other in case of slight heeling of the dock is prevented, and the mass of water is handle without jar, and practically as so much dead weight. The wall of the dock is constructed on the same general prin- ciple, but is lighter, because it does not have to bear the same strains: From the valve house on the upper deck of the dock the-valve of every compartment is under the direct control of one man, who, by means of speaking tubes, can also direct the engineer in charge of the pumps, while a conspicuous scale of feet, close to each end of the wall, marks the slightest varia- tion or inequality of trim. The shore work consists of a series of upright columns, strongly braced so as to resist a consider- able effort to tip on the part of the dock, this helpful force being transmitted back to the dock through the parallel hinged booms or girders, which hold the dock un- der complete control, while permitting it to rise and fall through all its intended scope. The top booms are not fastened directly to the columns, but to large pear-shaped plates, pivoted there instead. To the pear- shaped plates are attached heavy weights, and as the tipping stress of the dock tends to push the booms against the top of the columns the weights act as efficient coun- terpoise. By watchirg the positions of the pear-shaped plates, the valve man can see just how to regulate the admission or the exhaust of water. Advantage in Streams. As a safeguard against breakdown and complete disablement, the injury of one pontoon effects the efficiency of the dock orly to the extent of its own withdrawal. The rest are firmly coupled together and work can go on to the full capacity of the remaining pontoons. Esch pontoon has an average length of about 150 feet, and when united form a thoroughly stable foundation for the heaviest craft. The off-shore dock recently built for Hamburg is capable of lifting a 17,000 ton ship; and it is safe to say the whole operation could be performed considerably within palf an hour. To do the same thing in a graving dock would in- volve quite two hours. Another advantage peculiar to the floating dock is that, while it may not be able to lift beyond its own capacity, it can accomplish much within that scope, and a 10,000 ton ship that may BRINGING A BATTLE SHIP INTO PORT. ndence of the work. The time and ex- pense of working the dock should be di- rectly proportionate to the task involve it should have great flexibility of applica- tion and should be able to handle reason- ably any craft from a battle ship down to the tiniest torpedo boat. The dock should be so constructed that it would produce a maximum of strength on a minimum cf materiai; and each and every part cf itself should be open to ready inspection and sus- ceptible of self-haridiing to facilitate re- pair. And further, when the ship can't reach the dock the dock should be able to go to it within reasonable limits. It is manifest that the ordinary graving dock—as the hole in the ground is called— does not answer to any of these require- ments. The ship, instead, is at the bottom of a damp pit, and handicapped by an ex- ceedingly limited circulation uf air and by taxing conditions of light except on the brightest of da: Materials must be passed up and down under wearying exactions and cost of time that can only hamper speedy performance; the smaller the vessel the greater the amount of water to be pumped out and the larger that expense; and if the Vessel exceed the dimensions of the dock by length or breadth or draft-of water over the sill, that dock is absolutely useless so hat craft be concerned. To repair part of the bottom of a graving dock, whole dock must be pumped out, while pfortepeit any portion of a floating need only her propeller shaft raised clear of the water may be successfully handied by a 5,000 ton dock to that extent. A 300- foot graving dock, however, would be of no earthly use to a 301-foot ship. In narrow chanrels~or in rivers with swift currents the off-shore dock is with- cut a peer. The ship has only to be run in with the current and without turning or swinging across the channel; and what this means in a crowded. busy waterway every one familiar with such places knows only too well. The pontoons are simply sub- merged and the vessel brought right the keel blocks and centered by the ated shores ‘| Eliot says: over water portions of the off-shore dock, all that is necessary is simply to unbolt and meet the growth of ships, and also permits the pontcons being used separately and economically in handling small craft. The Depositing Dock. ‘There is a valuable variation of thé off- shore dock called the depositing dock. In the case of the depositing dock the shore ‘work and booms are attached to a float- ing outrigger, and the whole dock can be towed from place to place. The pontoons are made in the shape of fingers, with water intervals between. A grid of heavy steel beams is fitted against the ‘shore, the fingers of the dock slipping in between. A ship is taken upon the dock, towed to the grid, the fingers are run in, the dock lowered and removed, and the vessel is left deposited on the grid and convenient for repair, while the dock is free to go off to handle other craft. In the self-docking, floating, graving dock we have a dock of exceptional scope of ap- plication. Like the off-shore dock, the Pontoons and-walis are of cellular con- struction, but the pontoons only are in Separate sections, and, unlike the pon- toons of the off-shore dock, the pontoons of the floating graving dock are not an integral part of the sides. They are inde- pendent structures, firmly connected to the side walls, but susceptible of separate handling to facilitate repair. When about to dock a craft, though, all of them are rigi bolted together, yielding a thor- oughly firm foundation for the support of the heaviest vessel. The same system of mechanical shores prevails. There are du- plicate pumping plants to guard against accident, and the dock is thoroughly in- dependent and self-sufficient, save for the means of propulsion; it must be towed. This dock ordinarily would have power enough to handle armored cruisers, but for the purpose of docking shorter but heavier bat- tle ships it has two movable caissons or gates, which are used to increase the lift- ing power of the dock. It is when using these gates to shut off the ends of the floating dock that the latter, in fact, be- comes a floating craving dock susceptible of navigation. By using the gates the lifting power of the dock is concentrated to meet the local concentration of burden, and the lifting power of the unbearing arts of the pontoons is brought into play without the stress of leverage to them. dock a vessel, the pontoons would be filled, and either the dock would be towed under the vessel or the vessel brought in and over the dock. Once in, the mechanical shores would forcibly center the craft, and the rising dock would catch her evenly on the keel blocks, while the bilge blocks would be promptly screwed up or placed under her to grip the ship firmly. A dock of this sort, bearing a 12,000-ton battle ship, could be towed out to the ship, and with its burden brought back within the shelter of only sixteen feet of water apd well away from the approach ‘of _an enemy. One naturally asks: “What is the com- parative cost of the floating dock?” In Eng- land. even under circumstances most ad- vantageous to the stone graving dock, the cost of the floating dock of like capacity has been somewhat less, while normally the floating dock can be built for half the price of a graving dock and in half the time at the outside. —___ LESSONS OF THE FEVER EPIDEMIC, The Disease Can Be Exterminated From This Hemisphere. Dr. Walter Wyman, in the Forum, Americans do not sufficiently realize what @ humiliating reflection upon the enlight- enment of the western hemisphere, from @ sanitary point of view, a yellow fever epidemic constitutes. In Europe the dis- ease is now practically unknown; the last serious epidemic having been that of Lis- bon in 1857. Yellow fever now belongs to the western hemisphere, from which also it should be extirpated, as can be done, if the proper kind of international public opinion be brought to bear upon the subject. While the disease is not indigenous to the United States, being always an importation, its visits are, neverthless, so regular that since the begirning of the century there have been only nine years in which it has not appeared here. [ts natural breeding ground is furnished by the heat, moisture ard filth of tropical seaports. These con- ditions are fourd in certain cities of the Spanish main, which, lacking proper sani- tary regulatiors, have become perpetual foci of infection; and Havana is the worst of them. There the disease prevails dur- ing the entire year, a steady supply of fuel for its virulent flames, as it were, being furnished by the newcomers. The jatives generally are immune to it, having usually had the malady, in a mild form, in chi} hood. For us the position is a simple one. Since we have such neighbors we must either bring about a reform in their sanitary con- ditions and practices or continue to run the risk of an annual invasion of this ter- rible disease. Thirty-five of the visits of yellow fever to this country since 1800 are krown definitely to have been from Cuba; and of these twenty-three have been clear- ly traced to the port of Havan: Europe’s protection against Cuba, in this particular, les in her remoteness. A disease which lurks in a vessel starting across the ocean has time to develop and manifest itself so clearly that the quarantine officials on the otker side can discover it on the vessel's arrival. But with Cuba hardly six hours from Key West, there will always be a percentage of danger, however stringent the quarantine regulations may be, if the ecnditions remain as they are, unless, in- deed, we assume a policy of absolute non- intercourse with the island during the summer months. —+e-—____ Newspaper Training. From Harper's Weekly. The opinion entertained by a great many more or less prejudiced persons that a good newspaper office is the best school going seems to gain some justification from cer- tain passages in the newly issued volume of essays and discourses by President Eliot. Discussing wherein modern education has failed to do all that was expected of it, Dr. These, then, are the four things in which the individual youth should be thoroughly trained, if his judgment and reasoning pow- er are to be systematically developed: ob- serving accurately; recording correctly; comparing, grouping and inferring justly, and expressing cogently the results of these mental operations. To observe accurately and record correct- ly are the particular things in which every reporter for a good newspaper is drilled every day, and he does not get far in his business * without getting practice, al- most as regular, in comparison, infer- ence and cogent expression. If prac- tice in these things is the best thing for the judgment and reasoning pow- er, we ought to be thankful that "so much of it goes to equip the newspaper man for his momentous ,ob of superintend- ing all creation. There is no class of men in the country whose state of mind is of more importance to us than the newspaper men. It is a comfort to be able to infer from the statements of authority that there is no class that is in a petter way to have its mind developed. Of course all pupils are not scholars, and the fact that news- Papers constantly print inaccurate reports and draw unwarranted inferences. only means that the task is quite difficult, and that the learners do imperfect work. ———-e2-_____ . Enough Trou! From Harper's Basar, “Well, prisoner,” said the judge, “if you have anything to say, the court will hear you. T’d rather be excused, your honor, plied the priscner. “If I said what I’a like to say, I'd be committed for contempt of court, and I've got trouble enough with- out that. ——_—_—_+o+___ At the Foot Ball Game, From Leslie's Weekly. REDUCING IRON ORE Edison’s Latest Invention Seems to Be Very Successful. USING POWERFUL ELECTRO MAGNEES After Mountains of Rock Have Been _ Thoroughly Pulverized. INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS a (Copyright, 1807, by 8. S. McClure Oe) Written for The Evening Star. HOMAS A. EDISON has just completed what may prove to be the greatest fachievement of his life. After eight years of incessant work, night and day, in the face of discour- agements which seemed almost insur- mountable, in spite gs of obstacles which Z Z only a genius could z <-> overcome, he has given to the worldian industrial invention which in the*serfousness of its intention may come to rivat the kinetoscope, the phonograph, or even the electric light. Nothing he bas done heretofore. has re- quired so much of ‘his individuai attention, taxed his inventive ingenuity so fully, or in the aggregate consumed his vital powers more than this ‘latest accomplishment. Thousands of-poor workmen will bless the steadfastness of’ purpose which made him carry his ideds to’ a''successful issue. He has, in short, at last pointed out a commer- cial way of utilizing the immense deposits of iron ore which lie under the New Jersey hills, A Remarkable Conditipn. Billions of tons of iron ore He scattered through the rocks of the eastern spurs of the Alleghany mountains. Edison himself made this remarkable discovery years ago, and geologists ever since have amused themselves with proving how perfectly in- exhaustible is the supply. But the ore is scattered about in such fine particles that it could not be mined with the ordinary methods, and hence has been looked upon as one of the few great wastes of nature. This state of affairs was very aggravating, in view of the peculiar conditions which prevailed in the iron trade of the extreme east. For some years past the bulk of the Bessemer steel trade has been drifting wesiward, by reason of the discovery and opening up of immense deposits of high- grade ore in the upper peninsula of Michi- gan, sultable for making Bessemer steel, cheaply produced, and carried at small cost by water transportation to furnaces contiguous to the lake ports. The furnaces east of the Alleghanies were compelled to depend on a few srrall, isolated deposils of Bessemer ore in the east and ores imported from foreign countries. A Bed of Iron Ore, Ediscn’s interest in the matter dated from a romantic episode which occurred sixteen years ago. He was walking along the seashore on Long Island one day when he noticed a strange pile of black sand piled up high on the beach. He had never seen such remarkable sand. He examined it, sifted tt and even tasted it, but he could find no reason for its inky hue. With the zeal of the scientific investigator, he carried some of it home to his laboratory for the purpose of testing !t. He was on the point of putting it aside when suddenly he be- came possessed of an idea. He procured an electro magtiet and held it near the mass. Immediately little dark grains sep- arated themselves from the heap and scurried across like so many black ants to the spot over which the magnet was held. The little ants were really grains of fron ore and, strange as it may seem, Edison had discovered a bed of finely divided fron ore cast up by the sea. This sand covered the shore in spots for fifteen miles along the coast. It was due to the erosion of Connecticut rocks by water—for mag- netite is one of the constituents of the primal rocks found in Connecticut. Edison calculated that the deposits must contain millions of tohs of’iron, which, if it could be smelted, would become a valuable pro- duct. On the»basisi cf his find, he evolved his famous miagnetic ore separating ma- chine, which he-exhibited at the last Paris expesition. Then he let out the privilege of using it to a contractor who set up a plant on the beach and proceeded to separ- ate the iron ore from the sand with every prospect of developing an extensive indus- try. But the sea proved to be less generous than ft had at firsb!promised to be, for one -dark night theretcame a storm such as had not visited the place for many years ‘and when thd contractor came to visit his plant the neat morning, not a vestige of the black sand remained. It had all been the three thousand acres immediately sur- rounding the village of Edison, there are over two hundred million tons of iow- grade ore. In the entire district there are sixteen thousand acres in which the de- pesit is proportionately as large. The world’s arnual output of irom ore does not, at the present time, reach sixty mil- lion tens; so that in the paltry two miles surrounding the village of Edison there is enough iron ore in the rocks to keep the whole world supplied for one year or the United States for three years, even with the natural increase in demand. Sixteen thousand acres or twenty-five square miles of land contain enough iron ore to keep the whole world suplied for seventeea years, allowing, of course, for all natural increase of demand, due to the needs of a stowing population. These acres would more than supply the United States with fron, including necessary exports, for the next eeventy years; and they contain more than has been mined heretofore in this country since its discovery. This was a remarkable condition—smelt- ing v orks shutting down for want of iron ore at low prices, when billions of tons of it lay idle in a strip of land which in most cases was within seventy-five miles of the great iron mills of the Atlantic coast. Here was an opportunity of which the inventor immeciately took advantage. to work to plan out a great indns- try. It Ms taken him eight years to do it, but the result has justified all the trouble and money which he has expended upon it. How He Levels Mountains. Yet, after all, he has accomplished .a very simple thing. He is crushing rocks and dropping the resulting powder past powerful electro-magnets. The sand is not attracted by the magnetism and passes straight on, the iron ore is attracted to one side and falls in a heap of its own. This is the whole principle; yet in the actual working out, it becomes one of the most tremendous processes in the world. It is, after all, no small matter to crush the very vitals out of a mountain and then extract all of the ore from the mil- ons of tons of sand. Perhaps the best way to thoroughly realize the enormity of the plant is to visit it. The village of Edison stands on the sum- mit of Mourt Musconetcong, in northern New Jersey. Some of the buildings are as tall and nar Tow as city “sky scrapers;” others are flat and squatty, covering considerable areas. Big wheels revolve in the engine house and big dynamos transmit heavy currents through overhcad wires to the various points of the plant. Little narrow-gauge locomotives move about to the various parts of the works. A line of freight cars Tuns slowly through the place, and on a near-by hill a troop of noisy children come romping down from Summerville, a ham- let_ where the miners live. Over to the right of the village lumbermen are cutting down trees and making the land ready for the steam shovel, which is tearing away at the rocks half a mile distant. Further over, on a half-cleared section of land, a great stream of water rushes through a hose with mighty force from a hydraulic pump and washes the debris free from the rocks. Steam drills rattle, and the boom of dynamite resounds when the rock is riven into boulders and laid on_five-ton skips or trays, to be transmitted to the crushing plant. The steam shovel does the work of loading, and as it has a ca- pacity for lifting ten tons of free rock a minute the local activity is tremendous. Flat cars carrying two skips each move along at lively speed. A long line of them 1s constantly leading up to the crushing plant. where big electric cranes rid them of their load and a little switching engine pushes them around a loop and allows them to run, down an incline into the cut again. z Making a Yosemite. Edison is found watching the steam shovel. “We are making a Yosemite of our own here. We will soon have one of the biggest artificial canons in the world.” This remark is occasioned by the fact that the steam shovel is working three-quar- ters of a mile from the works proper. It is somewhat down the hillside, but it is st its way on a Jevel straight into the “It will take us a year to reach the mills, but when wedo get that far in we will have a trench with walls one hundred feet deep. I suppose we will take out over 600,- 000 tons of rock before we get there. Then when tke trench is completed we can blast off the walls with dynamite, taking off 32,000 tons at a time.” As intimated above, the ore-bearing rock is blasted into boulders and then laid on flat cars with a steam shovel. It is then conve;ed to‘the crushing plant. The cars are run in under each end of the crushing mill. The trays containing the rock are lifted by the cranes to the second story of the mill, where the rock is dumped into a large square pit. Ten feet below the edge of the pit revolve immense iron rollers weighing 100 tons. The surface of these rolls is studded with teeth, and the space between them ‘is less than a foot wide. Nevertheless, a six-tcn rock dropped into the pit passes between the rolls in less than three seconds. Far down beneath these rolis is another set of smaller size, but nearer together, From the heavy rolls above the rock falls into this lower set and is crushed still smaller. It has now been reduced to pieces the size of a man’s fist, and from the lower set of rolls drops into an elevator or endleas conveyor, which carries the pieces up to the top of another part of the building and dumps them into a shaft leading down to three more sets of rolls set directly beneath one another. As the rock passes through these rolls the lat- ter are found to be placed nearer and near- er together, until with the last or third set the two rolls composing it are set tightly against each other, so that when the rock el one another. As the ore passes through each building, it is carried on to the next automatically in these endless elevators. After it leaves the crushing plant, it is Gumped into apace, to find its way tirosee many sieves of varying meshes and i Hae : & iy eal fet i $ Hi haz, in the course of centuries, lost its edges, because the particles have constantly rubbed against one another. Broken rock sand, however, is very sharp, and for cement and lime- lesirable. work is very- di Sixty-Six Hundrea Experiments. The pure ore is now allowed to .drop ore is fed into the cylinder from the top and the adhesive material (the nature of which ts a secret with Mr. Edison) drops also from above, and the whole mass is churned together until every Particle of the ore has come in contact -with a due proportion of the adhesive sub- stance. It becomes, in fact, a sticky mas which is pushed out of one end of the cy linder and conveyed away to the bricking house to be made into little briquettes. It may be said in » inasmuch as it throws a side-light on the character of the great inventor, that Mr. Edison per- formed over sixty-six hundred experiments before he struck upon the right adhesive material for use in binding the ore to- gether. Look Simple. The bricking machines are simple looking affairs, and for the purposes of comparison may be said to be just as simple in their appearance as is the incandescent lamp. Like the latter, however, they passed through a multitude of changes before their final form was agreed upon. As is usually the case with inventions of the kind, this final form is probably the simplest that could be devised, and in view of the cum- brous machines which were constructed and discarded in the course of the evalu- tion, one wonders that this form was not thought of at once. The ore drops into a small orifice in the cylinder. The cylinder then turns so that the hole comes forward and exerts thovs- ands of pounds pressure on the ore, the cylinder then turns downward and the newly made briquette drops out from the hole and falls into another endless conveyor and is carried forward into a large cven, to be baked. There are thirty bricking ma- chines and fifteen ovens in the plant, and a continual stream of briquettes are circu- lated through the hot-air chambers of these ovens. The conveyors travel five es around the interior of the oven before the briquettes reappear. When they come cut they have undergone a change which makes them a commercial product. For instance, they will now absorb gases in the furnace which they are required to do; but they will not absorb water. This condition is necessary so that they may be shipped to the furnaces in open cars. If a stream of water were allowed to flow on a brick the water would simply run off; on the other hand, if alcohol were dropped on it it would instantly be absorbed by the brick. This was the point for which Mr. Edison was striving when he made his sixty-six hundred experiments, Wonderful Automatic Action. From the oven the bricks are conveyed to the railroad, where long trains of freight cars await them. The conveyor at this point extends out over the track, and the engineer of a train has simply to back Lis cars underneath the mouth of the con- veyor. The bricks drop out and the cars load themselves. In fact, this automatic action is the great feature of the plant. From the time the ore is blasted with its native rock out of the mountain side until it is loaded in the form of commercially pure iron briquettes on the cars it is not touched by human hands. The never-end- ing and never-resting stream of material constantly circulates through the various buildings, crushed by the stored momeatum of gigantic rolls; hoisted skyward by steam; pulled earthward by gravity; deflected by magnetism; dried, sifted, weighed, gauged, conveyed; changed from rock into dust, and from dust into comprehensive lumps, mixed with a due proportion of adhesive material; churned, baked, counted, and sent flying to the furnaces by fest freight; and not once in its course is it arrested or jogged onward by human agency, ——___ ART AND ARTISTS. Preparations are being pushed rapidly for the loan exhfbition which is to mark the opening of the new gallery of the Society of Washington Artists. On the evening of November 20, the date set for the opening of the exhibit, there will be a dress recep- tion, and the artists hope to make it a notable event in the social calendar. The collection will not be on view later than November 80, as the Water Color Club exhibit follows very close after, with only a brief time for hanging. The outlook for the loan collection is very promising, as tmost of those who own fine pictures have shown a willingness to allow the use of their treasures. Among those who have alremfy consented to lend paintings for the exhibit are Mrs. A. C. Barney, Mrs. James Lowndes, Mrs. Andrews, Senhor Salvador de Mendonca, Mr. Stilson Hutch- ins, Dr. Ralph Jenkins, Mr. V. G. Fischer and Mr. A. C. Clark. This is but a partial list of those in this city who will con- tribute pictures, and many works of art are expected from New York also, Prof. Andrews having recently visited the me- tropolis in quest of pictures. = * ** Edwin Lord Weeks, the well-known American painter of oriental subjects, was im the city for a couple of days during the early part of the week, and commented favorably Gn the forward strides art is making in-the national capital. Mr. Weeks in public and Peraie galleties here. x * The government has been very fortunate he Ni tional’ Museum as curator of the depart- ment of anthropology. The many admirers of his clever water colors hope that his i Rs Hin its attractive features as a color study. * ** From the same motive Spencer Nichols has adapted a clever little study in grays, @ misty subject, in which delicate purples and pale greens are the most vivid colors. Another water color p&inted in the same cool tones is a decorative figure subject showing a girl clad in white standing in an open field. Around her spring the tall stems of certain white flowers, of which decorative canvases are the exclusive habi- tat. They add, however, a good deal to the ini effect of color and line in this study. * ~_* Since his return from abroad Mr. Kecl- ing has given some attention to fitting up his cozy studio at 934 F street in a still more artistic manner, and has settled down to work in earnest. His recently, completed likeness of Mrs. Van Leer Kirk- man, who is so well known through her Prominence at the Nashville exposition, is @ striking miniature with a great deal of style. The work on this portrait is fine and close scrutiny only reveals an added delicacy of finish. Among his new minia- tures is one of Mrs. Algernon C. Chalmers of Alexandria, the daughter of Gen. Mey- ers of this city. He is now at work upon @ likeness of the Countess of Essex, and is soon to commence a new portrait of Mrs, Gebhart, and aiso one of Mrs. Curzon, bern Leiter. x ** The District Commissioners have ape, pointed Prof. James H. Gore of Columbian University; Mr. William B. Powell, supere intendent of public schools, and Mr. V. G Fischer as special commissioners for the District to the Trans-Mississippi and Inter- national Exposition, to be held in Omaha, Neb., from June 1 to November 1, 1808. Of course a special feature will be made of art in Washington, and in addition to the exhibition of pictures the facilities for art study will be shown. In due time pice tures will be solicited from the local arte ists. ——-—__ Either is Effectual. From Life, Cumso: A western physician says he can give directions for living one hundred years. Cawker: Which does he recommend, @ peasion or a civil service office? ——_-_+e The Kettledrum as a Table. From Fliegende Blatter. fig ay Why ( 4, soy