3 <: i c: <: c: *r 4G CC CC 9*^ ^ ... , CC'- c < <}•• L< C <» CO C C< CC c (C « <. < = ^ c< -. <<£ CC_ etc CC" t* >^ ccr: re ^5 c<^ ccc cc €f c:< cc c cc ^ c^. cc c ; -cc «e: c: «^ c c ** ^ ^ 45c €GC «c • c . •< < c ■ < [< * cr c ^ - 5 c < < c < C CCC C «£ ^:^ r cc << ^ CCCt ^. rr* c."« *cc 'C c«c .Cc <*■< <- cor - -jtCC <§^.^,„.« „ ,: i«„~ j>. ~ a i n _ ldria, Egypt, in ten."— GIBBON. I have seen on the Danube, the remains of a highway, constructed by Trajan in tin seond century, forming a shelf for many miles, cut out of the face of the rock cliff jfore gunpowder was known. * The French engineers were three years transporting it from Thebes to Paris. 3 34 The " goodly stones " of the Temple, to which the Disciples called our Saviour's attention, according to Josephus, were of the " whitest marble, upward of sixty-seven feet long, seven feet high and nine feet broad," and therefore must have weighed three hundred and fifty tons. Eusebius, a profane writer, says that the Lieutenant of Titus tore up the foundations of this temple, so that Christ's remarka- ble prediction " That not one stone should be left upon another," was literally fulfilled w T ithin fifty years after it was delivered. Ancient Methods of Construction. I cannot better illustrate the comparison of modern with ancient engineering than by describing, from most trustworthy sources, the probable method of constructing the Pyramids, hav- ing particular reference to that at G-izeh, or, as it is often called, after its builder, " The Cheops." The engineers of that day had iron only in its malleable form, and did not possess the art of converting it into steel, and thus obtaining its high hardening power. They used other metals and alloys, chiefly bronze, or copper, hardened by tin or zinc. They doubtless split out their large columns from the solid ledges of rocks, like those of the Syene granite, with fire and water, as we often now see a farmer split up a hard and trouble- some bowlder. They worked these stones roughly into shape with their bronze tools, and subsequently by the tedious process of rubbing down the surfaces with stones of still firmer texture. The Pyramid was chiefly made from a soft limestone obtained from the opposite side of the Nile, but some of them came from quarries more than a hundred miles distant. The smaller stone were hauled on land by oxen, on sledges, and the remains of rude wooden tramways are still extant. The large stones were hauled by men, who could work in con- cert, to the sound of music, as shown in some of the Egyptian drawings. By calculation I find that to haul a stone of three hundred tons, on level ground, a thousand men would be required. Herodotus mentions one column at Sais, in Egypt, which, by calculation, weighed seven hundred and eighteen tons, which, he 35 says, required two thousand men for three years to haul it from the quarry, about one hundred miles distant. Our modern wooden scaffolding, and machinery for hoisting was unknown, and instead of them, an embankment was made around the structure, as wide as necessary to move k the stones, and this was reached by an inclined plane of earth upon which wooden slabs were laid, and the platform on which the stones were placed rested on wooden rollers. These earth embank- ments were raised up, as each successive course of stone was laid, and when the structure was completed the earth was removed. The strong mortars and cements of the Romans were unknown. They had to depend for the stability of their walls upon the massiveness of the stone, and the close fitting of the joints, and by dowels, one set of which were inserted vertically into the beds of the two stones, which were placed vertically of each other, and another set designed to tie the stones together horizontally. Both of these dowels were made either of bronze, or more generally of w r ood, and those arranged for the horizontal bond were shaped like an " hour glass," that is, dovetailed into each stone. The dowels of bronze have mostly been stolen, but those of wood are frequently found in complete preservation. This great Pyramid, with a base of seven hundred and forty- five feet square, and four hundred and fifty feet high, contains six and a half millions of tons of stones, and the embankments would have required more than fifty millions of tons of earth. You will be better able to realize these figures when I repeat that all of the masonry on the Erie Canal amounts to but two and a half millions of tons, or but one-third of that used in this great Pyramid, and that all of the earth which was moved to construct the three hundred and sixty miles of that canal, or for the five hundred miles of the Erie Railway, or even for the two thousand miles of the Pacific Railway. Each of them only equaled in quantity, that which was prob- ably used, in the place of scaffolding, to hoist and lay the stone of this Pyramid. Herodotus says that a hundred thousand men were engaged for ten years in building this earthern causeway, and that the same number of men were engaged for twenty years longer in laying up the masonry. 36 From the amount of earthwork which I have witnessed per- formed, by freshly imported Africans in Cuba, with baskets of earth carried on the head, as was probably the manner of work- ing at that time, I find that it would require about the number of men and years as stated to build such embankments. My own calculations show that these statements cannot be far wrong, and you will observe that they do not include the workmen who were employed in quarrying, cutting and trans- porting the stone, etc., which would have quadrupled the number. This great work required the labor of five hundred thousand men for thirty years, and at the present value of such labor in such countries, would have cost five thousand millions dollars. A modern engineer would construct such a work for one hun- dred millions of dollars, and with a tithe of the men. He would quarry the stone by steam-drills, load them with steam-cranes, transport them on the Nile with steam-vessels, and on land with locomotives. Instead of the fifty millions of tons of earthen embankments, costing ten millions of dollars, he would apply a few hoisting machines, and with a score or two of men, would deliver the stone to the hands of the masons, as fast as they could lay them. Ancient and Modern Buildings. I will give you one more example and comparison with ancient engineering. The Amphitheater or Coliseum of Rome was finished in the golden period of the profession, in the year 19 A. D. It was an oval, and inclosed, and covered an area of six acres. The structure weighed half a million of tons, and could seat seventy thousand persons. The contrast with this building may be made by referring to the Exhibition buildings of London and Paris. The London building was eighteen hundred and forty-eight feet long, and four hundred and fifty feet wide, and sixty-one feet high to the Dome roof. The area of the ground floor was seven hundred and seventy-three thousand square feet, or eighteen acres, being three times that of the Coliseum. The area of the galleries two hundred and seventeen thousand square feet, and of the glass nine hundred thousand. o7 There were three thousand five hundred tons of wrought-iron, and four hundred tons of cast iron used in its construction. It was built in nine months with the labor of about two thou- sand men. The Paris building was an oval of two thousand, and fifteen hundred and fifty feet diameter, the outer court being one hundred and ten feet wide and eighty-two feet high, equiva- lent to a room four thousand and four hundred feet long, and one hundred and ten feet wide, or thirty-one acres area.* There are three Egyptian obelisks in Rome, brought there by Augustus, Caligula and Constantine. The largest one, now in front of St. Peter's, weighs two hun- dred and seventy five tons, and the vessel which brought it from Egypt was the largest which had, up to that time, " ever been seen upon the sea." It is said that when the engineer, Fontana, moved one of these columns to the Piazza del Popolo, in 1589, when it had been raised nearly to its poise, he found that the rope lashings had stretched so much that the main fall came "block to block," and it was impossible to fleet without lowering the column to the ground. While he and his associates were discussing how they could gain but one inch more, an old sailor came along, and as soon as he was told of the difficulty, sang out, " Why don't you wet the lashings, you lubbers?" The engineer took the hint, wet the ropes, which shrank enough to carry the column over the poise, which saved weeks of dangerous labor. Almost the same thing occurred in my practice. One of the long iron piles which I was driving into the bed of the Harlem had lurched a foot out of line. The most powerful purchases that I could rig would not move it. A sailor, in passing, said : " Make all fast, and wet your falls." This was done and accom- plished the desired object. Moving great Weights. While upon this subject of transporting great weights, I beg to call your attention to some of those moved in modern times. The largest stone in any erection in the world is the granite * The dimensions of the Vienna Exposition building, ami <>i* the proposed Centenary building- at Philadelphia, will be found in the Appendix. 38 base of the column of Peter the Great at St. Petersburg, which weighs three millions pounds, or one-fifth more than the largest stone at Baalbec. It was transported fifteen miles by land on a wooden tramway, with cannon balls for rollers. I have already mentioned the transport of the column of Luxor, and I might have added that it rests upon a single block of granite of one hundred and twenty tons, brought from Brittany sixty miles by land. There is a stone, the tazza, in the Treasury building at Wash- ington, which weighed, when quarried, three hundred tons, and, after being roughly worked down to one hundred tons was trans- ported by sea six hundred miles. And another, in the same build- ing, a buttress-cap, of the same quarry weight, was roughed off to eighty tons before shipment, and, as now finished, weighs sixty tons. The Great Eastern steamship was launched sideways, being forced a thousand feet by very powerful machinery. At this time the hull weighed upwards of eight thousand tons. The four tubes of the Britannia Bridge each weighed fifteen hundred tons and were launched, transported a mile through a strong tideway, and then elevated one hundred feet perpendicu- larly. But we have only to refer to the " house moving " of recent times, when a large brick building has been moved a consider- able distance ; or to greater ones, when whole blocks of large fine cut stone buildings in Chicago have been elevated ten or fifteen feet without disturbing the occupants in their regular avocations ; and at the present time, when all of the houses on one hundred and thirty acres of a compact part of Boston are being raised thirteen feet ; and also at Sacramento, where the whole city is being raised about fifteen feet. Ancient and Modern Ships. It may be interesting to compare the dimensions and tonnage of some of the largest vessels of former times with those of the present. The Ark was four hundred and fifty feet long, seventy-five feet wide, and forty-five feet high, and if its displacement corre- sponded with the modern form of large vessels, its tonnage was from twelve to fifteen thousand tons. 39 " Show " L ships were built by Hiero and the Ptolemies of from five hundred and sixty to five hundred and ninety feet long, from sixty to seventy-six feet wide, and eighty to one hundred feet high. These vessels never went to sea, and could only be maneuvred in calm water. They were manned by four thou- sand rowers, four hundred sailors, and twenty-eight hundred and fifty fighting men. Their tonnage was less than that of the Ark. The British ships in the time of Julius Caesar were built " with the keel and frame of light wood. A sufficient number of elastic twigs were interwoven between the ribs to give strength to the sides, which were afterwards covered with hides." " The first barks used on the Nile appear to have been formed of small planks of the Egyptian thorn, about three feet square, lapt over each other like tiles and fastened by treenails," * * * The joints and seams were caulked with the papyrus. " Hiero built a merchant ship of four thousand tons burthen, and the Egyptians, at a still earlier period, built the " Iris," one hundred and eighty feet long, forty-five feet broad, and forty- three feet from the keel to the upper deck." * * * " The burthen was about one thousand nine hundred tons." One author, inclined to exaggeration, says of this ship : " She was capable of carrying as much corn (wheat) as to have supplied all Greece for twelve months." In the time of Caius Csesar " a ship was built to convey the celebrated obelisk to Rome, and carried one hundred and twenty thousand bushels of corn merely for ballast." The galley built by Philopater " had oars fifty-seven feet long loaded with lead in the handles to balance them." * * * "The speed was from forty to sixty leagues in twenty-four hours." " The Sovereign of the Seas, built in 1637, the largest ship of her day, was two hundred and thirty-two feet long over all, had a keel of one hundred and twenty-eight feet, main width forty-eight, and depth of seventy-six feet from the keel to the top of the stern lantern." The Great Eastern is six hundred and ninety-five feet long, eighty-two feet beam, hold fifty-six feet deep, and draft when loaded ready for sea, thirty feet, and a tonnage of twenty-two thousand five hundred. Her hull, engines, etc., weigh twelve 40 thousand tons, and she has a carrying capacity of eight thousand tons of freight, and four thousand passengers, or she could trans- port ten thousand troops with all their munitions. There are some modern men-of-war of nearly nine thousand tons displacement. The Cunard and American sea steamers, those on the Sound and Hudson River, and even on the Mississippi, range from three thousand to five thousand tons.* Steam Engines and Pumps. The largest steam engines in the world were those used for draining Harlem Mere, in Holland. The steam cylinders were twelve feet diameter and fifteen feet stroke, and each one of the three engines drove eight water pumps of sixty-three and seventy-three inches diameter, and ten feet stroke. They were employed for seven years in pumping the water out of the lake to the depth of sixteen feet below the level of the sea, from an area of fifty-six thousand acres, or twice that of Manhattan Island, which involved the removal of eight hundred million tons of water. Each of these engines were capable of delivering two hundred millions of gallons of water per day, and w 7 hen the three engines worked together would discharge a volume six times as great as that which the Croton Aqueduct is capable of delivering. The next largest pumps in the world are those at the United States Dry Dock, at Brooklyn (which are sixty- three inches diameter, and ten feet stroke), and capable of delivering thirty millions of gallons of water per day, from a depth nearly three times as great as that of the Harlem Mere. The steam engines next in size to those at Harlem are those of the Bristol and Providence steamers, with cylinders of nine feet two inches diameter, and twelve feet stroke. A new pumping engine in London and one in Cincinnati have also cylinders of this size. * As late as the fourth century the Romans employed sea merchant vessels m;ide of wooden frames covered with 'lades instead of plank. Those of seventy tuns were called " very large vessels." 41 Bessamer Steel. One of the greatest of modern discoveries is the process of converting great masses of pig or cast-iron into steel, in twenty minutes, without the aid of fuel or furnace, at a cost of half a cent a pound, and developing a heat heretofore unknown or unused in the arts, and a light equal to the combined effect of all the gas-burners in the city of New York. When it is remembered, that by the ordinary process, it requires several hours to decarbonize cast-iron and render it malleable, and then a fortnight to recharge it with the small quantity of carbon to convert it into steel, and another smelting, to produce cast-steel, thereby increasing the cost of the product four-fold, you will see the extent of the changes which this discovery is destined to introduce in engineering structures. Steel of more than twice the strength of wrought-iron will soon be furnished at almost the same price. Already we have witnessed the commencement of this revo- lution in the substitution of steel for iron rails upon all our lead- ing railways. Apprehensions have been expressed that steel, which is usually considered so brittle, will not withstand the heavy shocks of the locomotives in our severely cold climate. But I can say, from my own experiments and examinations here and abroad, that steel rails, properly made, are really very much tougher and much less liable to break in extreme cold weather than those made of the best of wrought-iron. In fact, by this new process the rails are necessarily made of the exact degree of hardness and toughness that is demanded, and the English engineer now prescribes the extent of the carbonization of the iron, with a limit of variation of only one- tenth of one per cent. The tires of locomotives, the axles of cars, the large rods of steam-engines, large and small shafting, and many other of the most important parts of machinery are now made of this metal, and we shall soon find it in common use, wherever strength or security is demanded. 42 The Seven Wonders of the World. The Seven Wonders of the ancient world were : 1. The Egyptian Pyramids. 2. The Mausoleum of Artimesa. 3. The Temple of Diana at Ephesus. 4. The walls and hanging- gardens at Babylon. 5. The Colossus of Rhodes. 6. The Statue of Jupiter Olympus ; and, 1. The Pharos of Alexandria. If seven were popularly selected from the works executed in our day, they would be : 1. The Thames Tunnel. 2. The Great Eastern Steamship. 3. The Atlantic Cable. 4. The Britannia and Niagara Bridges. 5. The Erie Canal. 6. The Modern Ordnance ; and, 1. The Pacific Railway. If the engineer was called upon to name works in which the highest degree of professional skill has been exhibited, he would probably make some changes in this list. The Studies of a Modern Engineer. Probably few of the audience are aware of the hours of thought and study which are required of the engineer in the calculations and preparation of the plans for an important public work. For an illustration of this I will refer to the Britannia Bridge, built by the celebrated Engineer Robert Stephenson. Mr. Stephenson began his investigations as follows : There are but three kinds of bridges : 1. The arch, depending wholly upon the strength of the metal in compression ; 2. The suspension, dependent wholly upon the tensile strength of its cables ; and 3. The girder, in which some of its members are subjected to strains of compression, and some of them to tension. Bridges are often built combining two of these principles, but the difficulty of producing unity of action between them has led engineers to generally confine themselves to but one of them. Mr. Stephenson's first design was a bridge with arches of cast- 43 iron, of one* hundred and fifty feet span and fifty feet rise, with the center placed at an elevation of one hundred feet above the level of the sea channel, which they spanned. But the Admiralty, w T hich had the legal control over such struc- tures, declared that " no bridge should be erected which did not leave a clear headway of one hundred feet for the -whole width of the channel." The design of this bridge has been greatly admired, and many regrets have been expressed that the structure was not allowed to be built upon that plan. Mr. Stephenson's next design was a suspension bridge with a stiffened platform, but the difficulty of combining two such oppo- site principles in the same structure led him to dismiss the system of supension as a permanent support, and his next design was a girder, merely using suspension chains instead of scaffolding. Our own engineer, Roebling, the Pontifix Maximus of the day, has practically demonstrated that these two principles may be usefully, safely and economically combined, and has applied them to spans of more than twice those of the Britannia bridge, and is also prepared to undertake those of four times that span. Unprofessional persons will better understand the difficulty of constructing bridges of long span when it is stated that the strains increase with the length of the spans. That is, that a bridge of two hundred feet must be twice as strong as one of one hundred feet ; that the Niagara bridge is subjected to strains twice as great as those of the Britannia, and that the proposed bridge from New York to Brooklyn must be twice as strong as that at Niagara. Having determined upon the girder, Mr. Stephenson next pro- ceeded to consider its proportions. A green willow wand, if laid upon two supports, not too far apart, will show the bark with a smooth surface on all sides. Now, if a weight be suspended from the middle, the wand will be bent downward ; it will be noticed that the bark upon the upper side is wrinkled up, and on the lower side that it is stretched out. The first is the result of the compression of the fibres of the bark, and the second that of their tension. That is, al] of the fibres of the bark on the upper side are forced together, and those on the lower side are drawn out. 44 It will also be observed that about midway in the depth the bark remains smooth, not having been affected by either com- pression or tension. This is called the neutral axis, and this part of the stick is not subjected to any strain, except to hold the upper and lower parts together. If a hole is bored out of the middle of the stick, it will be found that so far from weakening, it has given it the power to sustain as much more weight as that removed. Reasoning in this manner, the engineer determined to make experiments to ascertain how much of the interior could be removed with advantage. His first trial was with a cylindrical hollow beam of wrought iron, heavily plated on the top and bottom, and as it yielded either at the top or bottom, he kept on strengthening that part. Meanwhile he had gradually changed the form of his tube from circular to elliptic, and finally to a rectangular shape, which his final experiments determined as the best form. He spent a year or more in these experiments, aided by Fair- bairn, one of the best mechanicians of the day, and Hodgkinson, a distinguished mathematician and scientist, by means of which, the best form and proportions of the different parts of the girder were determined from a model of forty feet length. Other experiments were made, to determine the strength of the riveting, of the lateral strength of the beam against gales of wind, of the strength of the stone and brick upon which the girders, etc., weighing eight thousand tons, were to rest, all of which experi- ments cost upward of fifty thousand dollars ; but they enabled the engineer to lay down his plans with great certainty, saving on the one hand any unnecessary weight of metal in any part of the tube, and on the other from the weakness of some part, which would have lessened the strength and value of the whole structure. Before a blow had been struck upon this work, the engineer had completed his plans so perfectly that he had even marked out the position and size of every rivet in the tubes. Many volumes have been written descriptive of this work, and they have been translated into the language of every civilized nation. It is true that the engineer would not now duplicate such a gilder, but a quarter of a century ago it was the boldest engineer- ing work of its kind. 45 A few years ago Prof. Airey, the astronomer royal, a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers of Great Britain, received the highest award of merit from that Society (the Telford gold medal) for an essay on a particular method of computing the strains upon the different members of a truss, but particularly of a most curious and interesting application of the changes in the musical tones which steel rods give forth, as they are more and more strained by the addition of weights suspended from them. A model truss was exhibited, all of its parts having been made from steel of a perfectly homogeneous character. Every piece or member of the model truss was made in dupli- cate, and the two were tested as to the correspondence of their intonation, when unloaded and when strained with different sus- pended weights. The model truss was then put together, and loaded with its anticipated weight. The duplicate piece of steel representing any particular mem- ber, w T as then suspended and gradually loaded until its resonance became the same as its corresponding member in the loaded truss. This added weight then accurately represented, first, the effect of the weight of the model itself upon that member, and next of the added load. Each member of the truss was in like manner tested by load- ing its duplicate. These musical experiments confirmed Prof. Airey's method of calculating the strains on the different parts of the model of the bridge truss which he exhibited during his address. Great Engineering Projects. I will close this address with a reference to some of the great engineering works which have been projected in our day. In a recent paper, emanating from a board of distinguished engineers, they say : " There is danger that, under the incentives of these wonderful achievements, the engineer may be led either to attempt impossibilities, or, what is more likely, to venture too far into an untried field of labor ; " and they add, " He (the engineer) would fail in his duty, and in a proper comprehension of his mission, if he allowed himself to project plans merely for his own personal eclat or aggrandizement, or if he did not confine 46 himself to the most safe, practicable and reasonable methods of accomplishing the results which are demanded of him." These conservative opinions, intended for the cautious capitalist, were doubtless those of a large portion of the members of that convention, but, among the engineers then present, were some who had themselves left the routine rules of the profession and demonstrated the possibility of plans which had previously been questioned. When we use the word " impossible," it as often indicates that our knowledge or reasoning faculties are insufficient to grasp the subject presented, as that the subject itself is in conflict with the laws of nature. Not very long ago it would have been hazardous to have advo- cated steam navigation, railway locomotion or electric telegraphy. When Dr. Lardner was lecturing against the possibility of a vessel being able to cross the Atlantic by steam, the Sirius and Great Western steamers were on their first voyage from England to America. While the most eminent engineers were building railways to be operated by horses and stationary engines, Stephenson pro- duced the Rocket locomotive, and while the w T orld was ridiculing Morse, the leaders of the Presidential Convention at Baltimore were conversing with the candidates in Washington through the telegraphic wires. Among the great projects of the age are those for building canals, railways, bridges, tunnels and steamers. It would be both presumptuous and hazardous to designate w T hich of these projects are practical and which are chimerical, but those of each class which are most feasible I will name in order. In canal work, we have a project for one around the falls of Niagara ; again, an enlarged canal between the interior lakes and the Hudson, suitable for vessels of a thousand tons ; the Suez canal (a rebuild of the one made by Necho, 610 B. C.) ; a canal across the Alleghanies, between the navigable waters of the Ohio and James rivers ; a canal through the Nicaragua lakes, or across the Isthmus of Darien, and one from Lake Huron to Ontario. In railways, we have the Pacific, on the eve of completion, the Mount Cenis in rapid progress, the one across the South American continent, from Rio Janeiro, begun, and others of magnitude and numbers too numerous to mention which have been commenced. 47 Of bridges, we have those in progress across our great western rivers; one proposed over the East river at New York, of one thousand six hundred feet clear span ; two over the Hudson, above and below West Point, each of twelve hundred feet span ; another across the Straits of Messina, covering the Scilla and Charybdis, with clear spans of a thousand meters, or nearly two-thirds of a mile each, and with piers of seven hundred feet high, half below and half above water ; and finally, the modern " Pons Assinorum," a bridge project across the Straits of Dover, sixteen miles long, in clear spans of two miles, with piers of a thousand feet or more in depth. In tunnels, we have that of Mount Cenis, nine miles, and the Hoosac, of five miles in length, both in rapid progress ; one of wrought-iron tubes (a sub-aquean bridge) under the Thames, and another under the Chicago river, almost completed ; tunnels also proposed under the East and Hudson rivers at New York, under the G-anges at Calcutta, and under the Straits of Dover. Conclusion. After the annual dinner of the Smeatonian Society in London, two years ago, this subject (the tunnel under the Straits of Dover) was discussed, and the chairman called for my opinion, remarking that my countrymen were noted for projecting (and accomplishing, he added) some of the boldest engineering schemes. He said : " Do you regard the tunneling of the Channel a feasible project ?" It being a post-prandial discussion, I felt at liberty to reply as follows : " Our late President of the United States (Mr. Lincoln), as you know, had a happy faculty of expressing his opinion by an illus- trative story, and with such high national authority, I will adopt the same method of answering your question." During the Peninsular war, an officer of Wellington's army, on his march to attack a strong fortress in Spain, was met by a brother officer, who naturally inquired the object of the movement. ' What,' said he, 'to capture (so and so) ? Why, man, it is impossible.' ' Impossible ? ' repeated his friend, ' not at all, for I have the Duke's order in my pocket.' " And so with the modern engineer. With the Banker's order in his pocket, he considers almost nothing as impossible. APPENDIX A. (Referred to on page 16.) The Length of the Railways of the World. Country. Year. Miles. North America. United States 1873 60,178 Canada 1873 2,928 Mexico 1870 300 Honduras 1873 144 63,550 South America. Chili 1873 452 Argentine Republic 1873 875 Uragua 1873 57 Peru 1873 375 Paraguay 1873 44 Brazil 1873 410 Columbia 1873 65 2,278 Europe. Great Britain 1873 15,814 Germany 1873 13,066 France 1871 10,333 Austria (etc.) 1873 7,529 Russia 1873 7,297 Italy 1871 3,895 Spain 1870 3,801 Sweden and Norway 1873 1,049 Belgium 1873 1,892 Netherlands 1873 1,045 Switzerland 1871 820 Denmark 1873 530 Turkey 1873 488 4 50 Country: Year. Miles. Eueope. Roumania , 1871 507 Portugal 1869 453 I 68,519 India (Brit.) 1870 4,182 Egypt 1870 737 Cape of Good Hope 1873 134 Australia 1870 1,058 6,111 Railways total miles 149,458 APPENDIX B. (Referred to on page 19.) Dimensions of various Canals. NAMES. 05 s to s f to 55 t? © o 5«* e Si Locks. I to to •** ■to to to if •ft* ft? 1 Canadian. Eachine 8* HI 11* 3 4 4 n 120 120 150 90 90 90 80 80 100 50 50 50 1848 1845 1843 1S47 5 9 7 1 2 3 200 200 200 200 200 200 45 45 55 45 45 45 16& 9. 9 9 9 9 9 45 82 48 4 12 16 •• Beauharnois 2 3 Welland 27| 133 12 30 70 80 60 150 200 40 70 4-4 75 66 125 70 40 60 40 60 36 100 150 28 52 26 54 42 100 52 28 42 1846 1832 1843 began 1873 i825 1862 27 27 59 9 25 2 338 72 107 18 4 2 150 134 118 270 350 90 110 100 220 220 220 ioo 26*. 33 23 45 70 15 18 15 24 24 40 15 10, 1 5 7 12 12 4 7 6 7 8 7 6 4 6 207 330 356 330 19 2 6 9 1 6 1 177 316 55 50 16 916 20 Ridean Route Welland Enlarged United States. Sault St. Marie New York Canals 513 352 108 43 14 14 191 147 102 Erie Enlarged Delaware and Chesapeake. . . . Albemarle and Chesapeake. . . Chesapeake and Ohio Kanawha Illinois and Michigan The Suez Canal was completed Nov. 15, 1869. It is 120 miles long, 330 feet wide at the water line, and has 26| feet depth of water. There is a tide lock at each end, 330 feet long and 70 feet wide. 51 The Imperial Canal of China, built in the seventh century, is 720 miles long 1 , with five or six feet depth of water, except in the dry season, when it is only three feet deep. The Ganges Canal was commenced in 1848 and completed in 1854, at a cost of seven millions of dollars. It is 170 feet wide at the surface, with ten feet depth of water. The main line, including the river improvements, is 525 miles long, and including its branches, 900 miles long, and irrigates a million and a half of acres. The Amsterdam Canal, 51 miles long, with 135 feet width of surface and 21 feet depth of water, cost four and a quarter millions of dollars. The whole Length of all the Canals in the World, is as follows : In the United States and Canada 5,410 miles. In Europe , 12,552 miles. In Asia and Egypt 6,420 miles. 24,382 miles. The above statement was copied from Col. Conkling's report. APPENDIX C. (Referred to on page 20.) Dimensions of some large Bridges. Britannia Bridge, Menai, Great Britain, iron tubular, spans 460 feet. Victoria Bridge, Montreal, iron tubular, spans 330 feet. Severn Bridge, Great Britain, cast iron arch, spans 200 feet, rise 20 feet. Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, cast iron arch, span 185 feet, rise 20 feet. Susquehanna Bridge, Maryland, wood and iron truss, span 300 feet, 30 feet wide. Missouri Bridge, St. Charles, truss, span 325 feet. Steubenville Bridge, Ohio, truss, span 320 feet. Fryburg Bridge, Switzerland, suspension, span 889 feet. Niagara Bridge, New York and Canada, suspension, span 821 feet. Wheeling Bridge, Virginia, suspension, span 1010 feet. Niagara Falls Bridge, New York and Canada, suspension, span 1256 feet. Brooklyn and New York Bridge,* suspension, span 1600 feet. APPENDIX D. (Referred to on pages 19 and 28.) Extracts from Wm. J. McAlpine's Report to the Legislature of New York, for 1852, ON TRANSPORTATION. "An investigation of the comparative advantages of the several channels of communication between the sea-board and the interior requires an exanii- * In process of construction. 52 nation into the cost and charges of transport by the various modes of land and water conveyance." " The charges cannot be relied upon in this investigation because they fluctuate on the various routes, and on the different articles conveyed ; com- petition reducing them to a minimum and monopoly raising- them to a maxi- mum." " The cost, however, furnishes a more reliable basis for comparison, as the elements upon which it depends are usually affected alike on the different routes." "These elements consist of loading, conveying, discharging, warehousing, insurance, and in artificial channels, the necessary expenses of maintenance and cost of construction." * * * " The cost of movement on a canal depends upon the relative sectional areas of the boat and of the canal, upon the actual size of the two, and upon the elevation (or depression) to be overcome. The cost of movement upon a railroad depends upon' the elevation to be overcome, the rate of its gradient, the curvature, and the limited capacity in comparison with the cost." * # # " j n arriving at the general results (the actual cost of transport by each mode of conveyance, applied to the several lengths of each on the channels of trade between the interior and the sea-coast), it will not be necessary to regard fluctuations of trade and commerce tending to increase or diminish the cost of transport which are of only a temporary character." "The following table shows the distances by sailing vessels, and the ordi- nary charges from American ports to England, etc. * * * The cost may be assumed at two-thirds of these charges." . Table of Charges. 1851. FROM. To Liverpool. To Havana. To Rio Janeiro. CO s Per Ton. so 1 Per Ton. OB 1 Per Ton. Voyage. Pr Mile. Voyage. Pr Mile. Voyage. PrMile. Dolls. Mills. Dolls. Mills. Dolls. Mills. New York. . . Philadelphia, Baltimore — Richmond . . New Orleans, 2910 3020 3150 3295 3530 3395 4755 $11 00 5 25 5 00 5 50 5 75 6 00 7 50 3.75 1.74 1.60 1.70 1.60 1.70 1.60 1960 1480 1250 1220 1215 1170 595 $4 00 3 00 4 00 5 00 5 50 4 00 2.70 2.40 3.27 4.11 4.70 6.72 6010 5310 5240 5000 5000 5000 6555 $4 00 4 00 5 00 6 00 6 00 7 00 0.75 0.76 1.00 1.20 1.20 1.06 1 Table of the cost of Transport per ton per mile from Win. J. Mc Alpine's report for 1852. Ocean, long voyayes (3,000 miles and more) 1 mill. " short voyage (2 mills for 1,000 to 1,500 miles) from 2 to 4 " 53 Interior Lakes, long: voyage, 1,000 miles and more. . 2 mill. " short voyage, 500 miles and less.... 3 to 4 " Rivers, similar to the Hudson 2\ " " similar to the St. Lawrence and Mississippi. 3 " " tributaries 5 to 10 " Canals, Erie enlarged 4 " " other large canals, but shorter 5 to 6 " " of the ordinary size 5 " " " " with great lockage 6 to 8 " Railroads, transporting coal (and other fixed busi- " ness) 6 to 10 " " for the usual traffic with favorable grades, 12| " " with steep grades, irregular traffic, etc. . . 15 to 25| " "These rates, when applied to the several routes and conveyances, must be increased to pay for maintenance and interest. On the Erie canal this was assumed at one dollar a ton." The increase in the 'value of labor and materials required in transporta- tion and in the value of money, between 1852 and 1873, has been from one- fourth to one-third, but is in exactly the same ratio as given by the above table. A statement given to me in May, 1873, by one of the largest shipping houses in New York, for the average fair charges by sail from New York to Liverpool, was $6.25 per ton for grain, beef, pork, etc., and returning §3.75 per ton, chiefly iron. The charge by steam is one-third greater. The distance is 3,442 statute miles, making the present average charge nearly 1 1 mills per ton per mile by sail, and 2 mills by steam. The charges by sail to Valparaiso (12,000 statute miles) is §11 out and §20 returning, equal to lg mills per ton per mile. The charges by sail to San Francisco, around Cape Horn (16,000 statute miles), is on coal §10 per ton of 2,240 pounds, and general freight §12, equal to | of a mill per ton per mile on coal, and | on other freight. The charge by steam from New York, via Panama to San Francisco (6,100 statute miles), is about the same as by sail around Cape Horn, equal to 3 of a mill per ton per mile on goods, freight delivered in 30 days. The time by Cape Horn is from 100 to 120 days. The charge by railway from New York to San Francisco, 3,400 miles, on general freight, is from §60 to §150 per ton, equal to from 18 to 45 mills per ton per mile. The charge from Montreal to Liverpool averaged §6 per ten by sail, and §8 by steam, equal to 1^ and 2^ mills per ton per mile. The charges for grain, etc., by sail on the Lakes in 1873, were 5 mills per ton per mile, and by steam 6 mills; and by Erie Canal 6 mills. At the same time the charges by railway from Chicago to New York were 10 mills in the summer and 14 in the winter. 54 The average charges by railway from Chicago to Buffalo for the whole season, and for all classes of freight, were 2.43 cents per ton per mile in 1868, 2.34 cents in 1869, 1.5 cents in 1870, 1.39 cents in 1871, and 13.7 mills per ton per mile in 1872. APPENDIX E. (Referred to on page 28.) Hon. Samuel B. Ruggles in 1869 prepared with great care a table of the cereals annually produced by each country of Europe and by the United States. The following is an abstract : COUNTRY. Russia Germany France Austria and Hungary Great Britain Sweden, Norway, Low Countries Italy, Spanish Peninsula Danubian Provinces and Turkey Total of Europe United States in 1868 Population 63,883,867 38,768,291 38,954,782 35,444,876 30,380,787 18,813,625 63,877,665 296,123,293 39,000,000 Total pro- duct, Imp. Bushels. 1,484,437,500 664,411,100 717,215,996 571,254,765 380,887,930 244,517,511 691,791,799 4,754,516,604 1,405,449,653 Ratio of business to population. 21.2 17.1 18.3 16.1 12.5 13. 10.9 16. 36, The cereal crop of the whole of the United States in 1871 was fifteen hun- dred millions of bushels, or nearly forty millions of tons. The ten western and northwestern States produced in that year more than a thousand millions of bushels, or twenty -five millions of tons, valued at home at five hundred millions of dollars. The tables from which this estimate is derived, show that the value of the grain lessens rapidly as the farms are more remote from the navigable waters. Corn is valued at 25 to 29 cents in Iowa and Nebraska, and 59 cents per bushel in Michigan, and wheat is valued at 90 cents in the former and 132 cents in the latter. While the whole producing West is deeply interested in cheapening the cost of transportation between the main water lines and the " cereal frontier ; ' sections, where the demands of new emigrants and railway constructors have ceased, it has become a question of commercial life or death to secure nol 55 only cheap transport to the great water lines, bat also the cheapest through lines. 1 .' The neat cattle, for slaughter, within these ten States, amount to five mil- lions annually, and the swine and sheep to thrice that number, aggregating three and a half millions of tons, more than one-fourth of which reach the Atlantic markets, chiefly that of New York. In 1872 there were nearly five million hogs slaughtered and packed for export from the "West, amounting to five hundred and fifty thousand tons. The cereals shipped from the "Western Lake ports amounts to one hundred and fifty millions of bushels, and by railway, probably, fifty millions more. The cereals received at the lower end of Lake Erie by lake is, probably, eighty-five millions bushels, and by railways forty-five millions. The ship- ments by the Erie Canal are fifty millions bushels, and probably half that quantity by the Central and Erie Railways. The amount of cereals received at the Atlantic cities is one hundred and sixty millions of bushels, and that exported to foreign countries, chiefly from New York to Great Britain, is one hundred millions of bushels. Receipts and Shipments by Water and Railway, showing the proportion of each at various places. Phi add $ ^ a ^ ai> ticles by the four railways. . ° ( " " lake* Tons Receipts. Tons Shipments. 1,430,726 2,965,402 2,077,055 1,847,240 Totals 4,396.128 800,000 almost none 90,000 356,000 3,924,295 almost none 800,000 23,000 368,000 Milwaukee \ 0f & T and *™ ^ ™£™ J - ' Montreal j 0f fl ™ r and ^ ain h ? r ^W v . . . 1 " " canal and river, Totals 446,000 391,000 i *This lake tonnage (4,812,642 tons), would require twenty -five thousand cars and six hundred locomotives to haul it from Chicago to Buffalo, based upon the actual work done by the cars and engines in 1872, provided it could be hauled regularly throughout the year; this would be impracticable, and therefore it would require three times as many locomotives and five times as many cars as the Lake Shore Railway now uses to perform the lake business between Chicago and Buffalo, and these numbers must again be increased one-half to provide for the business from the other lake ports. 56 Analysis of the Business of the Trunk Railivays for 1872. New York Central. Erie. Pennsyl- vania. Baltimore and Ohio. Lake Shore. Length of trunk line, 442 63 447 230* 10,983 7,911,257 1,020,908,885 4,293,965 459 109 488 250* 10,638 3,004,051 950,708,902 5,564,274 893,685 369,196 1,262,881 220 105 1 170t 358 42 379 39 383 311 8,251$ 7,121,795$ 910,855,695 4,000,000* 750,000* 300,000 1,050,000 540 84 418 250* 8,637 600,000,000* 4,382,243 Cost in millions of dol- Number of locomotives " applied to freight " of freight cars. . Mileage of the freight trains 10,000* Mileage of the freight, Tons of freight carried, Through freight East, 1,187,107,000 7,844,778* 879,461 412,385 1,291,846 Through freight West, Through freight in both directions, tons, Average load per train Average load per train calculated, tons. . .. Av'ge distance freight was moved, miles. . . Average distance of way freight, miles. . . Average rate charged per ton per mile, cts. Mileage of engines per 2,250,133 250 127t 230t 130* 208 152t 1501 1.67 34,000 1.52 36,000 1.42 1.37 33,000 17,000 30,000 Mileage of cars per * Estimated, t Calculated. X Including 3,669,071 tons of coal, and excluding 614,757 tons of fuel for Company's use. § Includes mileage of 72 passenger engines. APPENDIX F. (Referred to on page 28.) Abstract of Replies. To questions of the Canal Commissioners of Canada, by Boards of Trade and Forwarders in 1871, giving- the results of the best opinions thereon : 1. To provide for the most suitable navigation through the lakes to tide water, the locks of the Welland Canal should be enlarged to a length of two hundred and fifty to three hundred feet, a width of thirty-five to forty feet, and a depth of water of fourteen feet. 2. The Boards of Trade of the Upper Lakes recommends vessels of one thousand to one thousand five hundred tons as the best adapted to cany produce from Chicago, etc., to ports on Lake Ontario with the greatest economy. Several persons recommend vessels of not exceeding eight hun- dred tons. Steam propellers are found almost as economical as sail vassels, regard being had to the greater number of trips which they can make. 57 12. Taking- into the account time, insurance and interest as elements of cost, steam vessels (propellers) cannot carry freight on this route as cheaply as sail vessels. Yet both are necessary to meet the strong- competition of the short line railways. F. G. Holcomb, of Toronto, states that the theory of practical men is, "that a vessel, to be profitable, should have at least one ton of cargo capacity for each mile of the route it is designed for." The larger the vessels within the above limit the less will be the propor- tionate cost. " For instance, the only difference in a vessel of ten thousand or twenty thousand bushels will be one or two additional men." Transport by steam costs less, if there is quick dispatcli ; (that is, in load- ing, unloading, lockage, etc.) 13. What is the cost and daily working expenses of sailing and steam vessels of five hundred and one thousand tons capacity ? In Dollars. AUTHORITY. Cost of sailing Vessels. Cost of Steam Vessels. 500 Tons. 1000 Tons. 500 Tons. 1000 Tons. Vessels. Daily Expense. Vessels. Daily Expense. Vessels. Daily Expense. Vessels. Daily Expense. Board of Trade. Chicago Detroit 30,000 25,000 25,000 25,000 40 50 25 60 40,000 40,000 45,000 48 70 35 50,000 130 50,000 100 45,000 100 45,000 120 80,000 80,000 75,000 190 125 120 60,000 100 75,000 160 17. The general opinion of the Montreal merchants and forwarders is that the produce from the Western States can be transported the cheapest in large vessels to the east end of Lake Ontario, and thence to Montreal by transfer (of grain) into barges. Mr. Stuart, of Detroit, says: " There is no kind of transportation that can compare with that by barges." The gentlemen of Chicago and other places West, and some of those of Oswego, agree in the above opinions. Others assert that when the Welland Canal is enlarged to convey vessels of one thousand to one thousand five hundred tons, it will be much cheaper to convey the cargo directly to the side of the sea-going vessel. 19. " Vessels adapted for the ocean are too heavy, too costly, and in many other respects wholly unfit for economically navigating the Interior Lakes." "They are too heavy in frame, masts and rigging, and too difficult to 58 move and control in the rapids, and in entering- and passing through the canals." All of the correspondents agree that it would be inadvisable to have the same craft navigate the lakes and the ocean. The Board of Trade of Toronto says: "Iron is now received from the ocean ships in Quebec, and laid down in Chicago for three dollars and fifty cents per gross ton by water even with our present imperfect facilities," (less than two and one-half mills per ton per mile). " It is well understood that the cost of haulage on a railway for the same distance is at least ten dollars per ton, and therefore it is impossible for the rail to compete success- fully with water." 30. Interrogatory : "It takes from twenty to thirty minutes to pass the locks of the Welland Canal, and twenty hours for steam and thirty hours for sail vessels to go throug'h the whole canal." Jzt ^ • { <. 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