FIREPROOF PASSENGER STEAMER. 197 



boats is that at the present time the excursion business is confined to a very limited 

 class of people who are willing to use these boats. There is a vast population in 

 this neighborhood that I believe would take advantage of the summer excursion 

 pleasure trips if the same attractive features which they find in other places were 

 shown them. That is a matter, however, entirely within the judgment of business 

 men, and unless the judgment of business men agrees to that proposition, we will 

 not have the fireproof excursion steamers. If they do, we will have the steamers, 

 and then we can thresh out the results of the operation of them. 



Mr. WilUam H. Fletcher claims we made an unfair comparison with the Grand 

 Republic on account of the conditions of this old steamboat. We think it is the 

 best that could be made. It stands at the head of the summer excursion fleet in 

 this vicinity. We did not make the comparison with a New York and Albany 

 boat or with a boat of the Fall River Line, because we are not discussing that class, 

 and we are not attacking any class of boats. I can see, though, as these gentlemen 

 say, that there will be a reflection on that class of steamers if a strictly fireproof 

 steamer is built. That they must stand. I do not see any reason for stopping 

 the progress of the art of shipbuilding where it is because the reflection will not 

 be entirely satisfactory on the vessels now built. 



The danger is said to be very small. That is brought out repeatedly. It is 

 not a question of the danger, or how small it is, but it is a question — Can we make 

 it smaller? We have made progress in every other line and it seems that we should, 

 as engineers, do all we can to make progress in this line. 



Relative to the remarks of Mr. Dickie, who spoke of the surface condenser, 

 if there is a mistake in the paper as to when the surface condenser was invented, 

 that will be corrected. 



As to the economy of the oscillating engine, certainly with the feathering 

 paddle and the oscillating engine, as developed in the practice of Scotland, very 

 much higher economies are obtained, but I am making a comparison with the 

 single-cyUnder engine, making from sixteen to seventeen turns a minute. I will 

 refer this matter to Mr. Orrok for a more complete reply. 



I was pleased to have Mr. Englis speak as he did of the construction of these 

 boats and their cost. I think that a cost of $100,000 thirty-four years ago for a 

 wooden boat would probably compare with a cost of $250,000 or more to-day, 

 as to the relative investment which would be required in these boats. The amount 

 that should be expended is entirely a matter of judgment. 



In the matter of entertaining people, my experience is that we must furnish 

 the best that can be had, and then something better. There has been built hotel 

 after hotel in New York City, and the designers of these hotels have searched 

 Europe for extravagant adornments for dining rooms, drawing rooms and other 

 rooms in the hotel, and it is not found that we have reached the limit as to cost yet. 

 It seems to me if you are going to entertain people on the water in a steamer, that 

 some similar way of looking at the problem might have some commercial value, 

 but that is a matter for commercial people to settle and not for the engineer, but 



