Star.
London, England, 1831-05-31 00:00:00

RAILROADS VERSUS CANALS.

Mr. Wood's Treatise on Railways, entitled, Comparative Per.
formanees of Motive Power on Canals and Railtuads." hat' called forth
a spirited reply by Thomas Grahame, R.I. in the form of a forty-page
pamphlet. Mr. Wood says in his book—•• We hii;e, by the applica-
tion of mechanical power to rail roads, the advantage of a less invest-
ment of capital (for the motive power), and also a saving by the motive
power, which, combined with the talent of dispatch, must prove of in.
finite importance to commerce." Mr. Grahame utterly denies the first
position—that relating to capital--and enters into a groat variety of cal.
culations and dedectiona to bear out his denial. " A less investment
of capital," he exclaims, " why, air, if Messrs. Walker and Rastrick
are any thing near the truth in their report given to the Directors of the
Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the capital required to be invested
for motive power alone, on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, not
Including the tunnel machinery. viz. 90,9081. 14s. 3d. sterling. wou'd,
I firmly believe, purchase all the motive power presently employed on
all the canals in Britain. I am, however, perfectly confident, when 1
assert that it would purchase with ease all the motive power presently
employed on all the canals in Scotland, Lancashire, Staffordshire,
Cheshire, and the western counties of England, and with this fact in
your knowledge, and printed and stated in your volume now before me,
you concha* that volume with the assertion I have just quoted. I
will ally add on this subject, that as, according to your talk, one loco-
motive engine is equal to thirty horses working on a twital at the rate of
four miles an hour, and to 175 horses working at the rate of eight
miles an hour, then laying aside Messrs. Walker and Rastrick's calcu-
lations as erroneous, and taking for granted the calculation of Messrs.
Stephenson and Locke, the engineers on the Manchester and Liverpool
Railway, who contend that 93 locomotive engines, constantly working,
will do the same work u Messrs. Walker and Resnick assign to 123
engines, with the aid of fixed engines at the incline; I say, taking it
for granted that Messrs. Stephenson and Locke are correct, then it would
require thirty times 93 horses, or 2790 horses to do the work of these
engines. at the rate of four miles per hour, or 275 times 93 horses, that
is, 16.275 horses to do this work at the rate of eight miles an hour. on a
canal of equal length with the Liverpool Railway. Now, what is
the work to be done, why to convey 4000 tons of goods a distance of
30 miles each day. And to do this work at the rate of four miles per
hour, you say will require the work of 2790 hones. Now, how stands
the fact ? Why, I have already proved, by actual and regular perform.
ance, that eleven hones contey 80 tons of goods tpil miles in a day, at
the rate of four miles an hour above mentioned, so that, instead of being
able to convey only 4000 tons of goods 30 miles, the 2790 horses above
mentioned would convey upwards of 20,000 tons of goods per day ; or,
in short, do nearly ten times the work on a canal, of which you say
they are capable, and this at an expense one half less than the price of
the coke consumed in the 93 locomotive engines above mentioned. And
be it observed, that this calculation, as to the power of railway per-
formance, is contradicted by the engineers employed by the railway con-
tractors to report on this subject, as being much under that really re-
quired." In a subsequent part of his pamphlet, Mr. Grahame adverts
to the recent introduction of steam boats upon canals, combined with
the use of perfectly safe engines on the locomotive principle, which will,
he says, " if properly followed out, do more for the inland trade of this
country than any improvement made within the last 20 years."