The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1907-07-08
uncle SANS AGENTS
IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES
Alert to Encourage the Sale
of American Pro-
ducts.
NEED GOOD JUDGMENT.
Former New Haven Editor
Tells of the Commerce
of Hong Kong.

JepdI lileIl OIL OOllluSIC6 anu ldDOlB
Bureau of Manufactures, cover a large
area of investment Consul General
Amos P. Wilder, formerly lively fig
ure in New Haven Journalism reviews
the traffic and commercial operations
for the past year at Hongkong, the
British free port in South China, as
follows.
"Hongkong is distinctive in being
transit port, with but little qualifca-
ton, ana as such its growing import
ance can scarcely be exaggerated. The
share of American ships in the i'm
mense traffic of this port is humiliat-
ing to those who know the proud
place they held in the early days of
this colony and earlier in the Canton
trade. The present day liners from
San Francisco and Seattle are the
largest ships that come to Hongkong
In these leviathan every American
pride, and for passenger travel they
are in high favor; but while in tom
mage capacity tibet rank of the Unit
ed States is not small, the huge ships
of the Great Northern, Pacific Mail
and. other lines bringing up the total
the fact remains that G. great body of
the imports and exports of our Paci-
fc and Atlantic ports are carried in
ships flying a foreign flag. The total
number of ocean ships arriving and
clearing at Hongkong in 1906 was l.
9S4 of which 1887 were British; and of
the 4,2S7 foreign (non-British) the
Germans listed 1852, the Japanese 594,
the Norwegians $50, the French 435,
the Chinese 4O5, the Portuguese 14S,
and the Dutch 1876, while there were 119
arrivals and departures credited to the
United States. While the immense
individual tonnage Of the few Ameri-
can ships that come to this port made
a total of 61S,115, yet the German
ships aggregated over four times as
much, the Japanese over twice as
much, and the French somewhat more
| than the American.
THE enjoyment of American foreign
| trade by non American ships may be
| illustrated thus. The 119 ships of the
United States arriving in 1906 brought
| to Hongkong total of 41,43O tons
from the United States, yet the flour
receipts alone for the year, nearly all
| from America, were 1885 tons, and of
| kerosene oil, mainly an American pro-
duct, total Of 1860 tons, to make no
| mention of cotton piece goods and
general merchandise So of exports,
American ships took from Hongkong
but 56,149 tons, not all of which went
to the United States. All the rest of
the huge exports went in foreign ships.
OF the 3,744,2S7 tons of imports into
Hongkong for 1906 American ships
brought Al, 43O TONS of the 1,94O274 tons
of exports, only 56,149 tons went in
American bottoms. Of the 2,S7S,S6O
tons lin transit" only 25,S29 tons are
credited to American ships
Electrical Fire Apparatus.
Consul S. P. Warner reports that the
Leipzig fire department has purchas-
ed and put into use at the principal
| fire-engine station four electrical ma
chimes, /, e., engine ladder truck, and
two tenders, of which he gives the fol-
lowing particulars
zone of the tenders Is used exclu-
sively for trials and for training the
members of the fire company in the
use of the machines The principal
advantage claimed for the new ma
Lob ig al a.,
to start for a fire the instant an alarm
| is sounded. They also do away with
the necessity of keeping a number of
horses, and thus materially reduce the
contingent expenses of the fire de-
partment
1.-THE electrical power for running
the machines is stored in accumula-
tors, Owing to the quantity of lead
employed in the construction Of these
laccumulators, the machines are all
very heavy, their weights varying
from five to six tons, All of the ma
chimes are driven from the front
axles, SO that it is possible to turn
them even in the narrowest streets.
Each machine is equipped with two
IIlDIOIS, NIliGll Edll hCNtlDp lIulll SGNGIl
to fourteen horsepower. They have five
forward and two backward speeds and
one electrical and one hand brake. The
machines are guaranteed to run a dis
lance of 1875 miles on one charge at
rate of speed of 1876 miles per hour,
even upon poorly paved streets or
upon four per cent, declines. As there
7 ii,
streets are all in good condition, the
machines can cover distance of
about twenty-four miles on one
charge.
THE. crews for the various machines
are as follows: Engine, two machin-
lists, two drivers, and one fireman;
tender, one director, two drivers, and
five flremen. The length of the extern
sion ladder, which can be raised eth
er by a carbonic-acid motor or by
hand power, is eighty-siX feet About
twenty-five seconds are required to
raise the ladder by motor and about
one minute and a half by hand pow
er. The engine, which is built upon
the three-cylinder system, has a pump
ing capacity Of 800 gallons Of water per
minute. 1t carries tank containing
eighty gallons Of water, which, by
means of a compressed-gas apparatus,
can be thrown upon a fire Immediately
upon the arrival Of the engine, 1t re-
quires about nine minutes for the en-
CINE to generate five atmospheres of
steam.
Leipzig is said to be the only city
in Germany which has a fire company
completely equipped with electrical