REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 5 
OFFICE OF MECHANICAL ENGINEER. 
The following is the report of Passed Assistant Engineer I. 8. K. 
Reeves, U.S. N., detailed by the Secretary of the Navy as the mechan- 
ical engineer of the Commission: 
The steam, water, circulating, heating, electric, and gas plants, together with their 
attachments, pipe connections, etc., which are located at the different stations, have 
been, as opportunity offered, examined, overhauled, and repaired. 
In the machine shop at Central Station a galvanized iron pipe coil refrigerator was 
built and introduced for the aquaria at Central Station for regulating the tempera- 
ture of the salt-water supply. A water motor of the Tuerk patent was purchased, a 
hard-rubber pump fitted to the same, and introduced at Central Station, not only to 
save the expense of $25 per month for gas, but also to allow the necessary repairs 
to be made to the Rider hot-air pumping engine, which had been in use continually, 
night and day, for the past three years and needed extensive repairs. After the erec- 
tion of the above-mentioned motor the pumping engine was put in thorough repair. 
A Bishop & Babcock air pump was purchased and connected to the different aquaria 
at Central Station in order to aérate the water. There was also purchased hard- 
rubber piping for new supply pipe for salt-water circulation for the aquaria. 
Twenty-five defective tubes in the boiler for the pulsometers at the fish ponds 
were cut out and new ones put in. 
The steam, water, and air circulating plants, transporting tanks, and their attach- 
ments on cars Nos. 2 and 3 were thoroughly overhauled and new piping substituted 
where required. A duplex pump of the New York Air Brake Company was placed 
in car No. 3, in order to supply air circulation to transporting tanks. The iron pipe 
coil-refrigerator in car No. 3 was removed, the system remodeled, and a new galvan- 
ized-iron coil putin. In the spring a baggage car was purchased and equipped with 
boiler, circulating pump, feed pump, air pump, tanks, and necessary attachments for 
circulating water and air during the transportation of fish to the World’s Columbian 
Exposition. All boilers, pumps, steam-heating apparatus, etc., on the cars of the 
Commission were thoroughly overhauled and tested. 
The engines, pumps, boilers, etc., of steamers Plover, Canvasback, Blue Wing, Cur- 
lew, Cygnet, Shearwater, and Petrel were overhauled, repaired, and tested; and small 
repairs were also made to the hulls of these steamers where required. The steamer 
Petrel was hauled out on the railway and hull coppered below waterline. The ~ 
steamer Blue Wing was also hauled out on the railway and a new sternpost put in. 
The lead sleeve in the deadwood was found so much worn that a new brass sleeve 
was putin. A new smokestack was also fitted to the boiler, and new holding- 
down bolts for engines were introduced. A new awning frame of galvanized-iron 
pipe was made for the steamer Curlew, and a new awning fitted. The steamer 
Shearwater was docked in Cleveland, Ohio, and hull and decks calked and painted; 
the jet condenser was removed, and a copper keel condenser connected. ‘There were 
also a number of minor repairs made to the hull and machinery of this steamer. A 
pump in stock was transferred to this steamer, to circulate the water for transporting 
cans. 
The gravity water supply at the Duluth Station having failed on several occasions 
from drought and freezing up, it could not be depended upon, and it became necessary 
to increase the pumping plant at that station; this was done by the transfer of a 
pump in stock at Battery Station. This was connected to the wells on the lake 
shore, which increased the water supply at the Duluth Station about 150 gallons per 
minute, giving a total supply from the two pumps of 400 gallons per minute. 
The mechanical and machine work incident to the above-mentioned repairs, 
alterations, etc., was almost entirely performed by the machinists and firemen of 
the Commission, the machine work having been done in the different shops of the 
Commission, which are located at the different stations. 
