The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1910-04-19
Houehton Department.
TELEPHONE SOUTH 10

quarters for the other officers After
showing his visitor the captains
home" the commander of the craft
led the way up a short iron stairway
TO the wheel-house. which was not
\ entered, and then up another similar
flight Of steps to the pilot house which
Is a veritable wonder of modern ma
rine engineering.
"The Brains OF the Boat"
This pilot house might be designat-
ed as the brains of the boat" Like
few others OF the most recently con-
structed lake boats. the pilot house of
the A. A. Augustus Is entirely enclos-
ed with glass on every side and the
caves OF the roof OF the house pro-
jecting out far enough to protect this
glass and also TO act as a sun shade
for the captain or the officer i'm charge
OF the boat. This enables the COM
mander OF the vessel TO direct every
movement and see just how every
thing is going without being exposed
TO the weather. All around the sides
OF this wonderful little pilot house are
arranged all sorts of instruments TO
aid the navigator of the big steamer.
Immediately in the center of this room
is the binicle, which i'm this case is
covered with brass and stands about
forty inches i'm height. on either side
of the instrument is a large ball of
soft iron, the purpose Of which is to
act as a corrective force TO neutralize
any detection Of the needle of the
compass because OF iron of which the
boat is constructed or ore bodies i'm
the earth or any other cause.
Just I'm front of this instrument and
Immediately above the wheelsmans
windlaSs is a steering wheel and the
a miniature electric bulb which lights
the Indicator, telling the officer in
command or the pilot just where the
crafts rudder stands. At the right
side of the house i'm easy sight of the
commander is a Chadburns telegraph
system instrument by which the man
in charge of the boat can instantly
transmit any order to the engineer.
on the other side of the house from
this is a similar instrument manufac-
tured by Cory Of New York and this
machine is used to send the command |
er's orders 10 the mate.
This pilot house also housed two
marine instruments which never have |
found their way into Portage Lake |
before. These are the McNab regis
ter and indicator and the Dobbin's
depth gauge. the former being an in
strument which tells the captain ex-
actly what the engines are doing, |
whether they are running the boat |
ahead" or "astern" and at how many |
revolutions per minute. The Dobbins
instrument which is about a foot in
length and about an inch in diameter,
Is placed i'm heavy Jacket or lead"
and cast over the edge of the boat and |
lowered to the bottom of the lake at
the end of a steel rope running
through a block ct the end of a boom
swung from thtSide of the boat. In
this manner tht sounding" or depth |
Of the water can be taken while the
craft is proceeding ut full speed The |
depth is registered on a scale by the !
pressure Of the water at the depth to
which II sinks. II being the first time
he had ever carried one Of these in
struments, Captain Detlefs stopped |
the boat at one point and took a
sounding nv the old method and found
that the little instrument had regis
tered the depth with absolute accura-
cy.