Martinsburg gazette and public advertiser. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1826-1833, 1833-02-14

anu Attf AtNGHAtbti1 WHICH rfttFC AttFttby hCTh
brought into use, to facilitate trade and com
merce and inter communication Hence, we
are always studious to collect aud arrange
facts having bearing upon these matters for
their use and information.
A few years only are passed since the
wonders performed on Rail Roads were re
garded as mere Travellers Tales Now, al
cur OVID doors nearly, we may sec them re
aiized 10 point Of velocity and bnrthen, the
Locomotives have proved capable of more
than was at first asserted. In our day, too,
we have the wonders Of Increased and ex
traordnary velocity on Canals, which would
not once have been believed, aud against the
trials on The Delaware and Chesapeake Ca
nal have been cited. On TINS subject, howe
yer, we have been favored with pamphlet,
published in England, which contains so
much that is really important, and TO u
deeply Interesting, that we will take the pre-
sent opportunity to copy some OF its pages,
regretting that our limits only allow us to
make extracts:-yHee Gas.
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway
Company in their competition with the water
carriage, have obtained but very triillng
proportion of traffic from he canals. 1he
profits (h any have actually been made by
the csriage Of goods CA the Liverpool and
Manchester Railway are extremely sm5ll,
yet the water distance between Manchester
and Liverpool, is nearly double the RAILWAY
distance, and instead Of possessing the re
guIarity of Cana! conveyance, is, for eigh
ieeti miles Of this additional length, subec
10 the winds and tides Of the Merscy. Ne
vsrtheless, of an amount of nearly fourteen
hundred thousaad tons annually, for the ear.
Tisge of which the Directors u the Liverpool
Railway we're DESTROYS To provide, before
their Railway was opened, litte more than
an e ghteenth part, ineieding the entire road
r+tilc, has been AS yet ohta ID FOR the Ha.l-
way; and tue expcnses Of carrying This ifhc
tan OF the trade, have bern so enormous, A.
90 make il doubtful whether the r. ,way
Company do not suffer aEegularioss on their
carrying trade, which is betrayed from their
profits as ceachmasterS - Note B. Appea
dix
However incredible it may appear. it is
certain that Canal passengers can he carried
at speed of ten miles ar hour, with a de.
gree OF ease, comfort, and safety, such as
no other conveyance can give, and al a charge
Gf required by c0mpetition,) not much mote
than the tenth of the cost OF Railway Ira
yelling.
These facts, so different from general be-
lief have been completely asceltained during
the course OF the last two years. They are
consequent on the detection, ty practice and
experience, of two ial'acies which had been
held ont to the pubic, and received as I'm
doubted truths
The first Of these falaccs was, that il
was impossible TO proPel boat, carrying a
ny considerable number Of passengers, along
a Canal at a high speed. without mourning
an enormous expenditure of money and pow
or, and without occasioning a wave o. surge
which would wash down the Canal banks
fNote G, Appendix)
The second ftllacy was promulgated by
certain engineers, connected with Railway
projects, and is as follows, viz: that in pro-
portion as the speed on Railway was IN
creased, the expense of conveyance was di
mjnlshed. as the engines by doubling their
speed could in the same time do double
work-(Note c, Appendix)
''Now the first tailacy, viz: the alleged i'm
possibility Of moving at great velocity
through Canals, and the certainty of the des-
truction of the Canal banks by the swift pas
sage Of the Canal vessels, have been proved
to exist in imagination only. speed of ten
miles an hour has for the last two years been
maintained, in the carriage Of passengers on
one Of the narrowest Canals in Britain, with
ont raising a ripple on the banks even where
the vessel carried upwards Of one hundrc d
passengers, or as manv as are carried ia a
tram of Goa, he's on the Liverpool and Maj
chester Railway.
"ihe expenses or cost of obtaining this
speed are so tr,fing, that the fares per mile
are in these quick boats iIst one third of the
fares in the Liverpool Railway coaches,
while at these low fares the profits are such
a. TO have induced the boat propgietors to
quadruple the number of boats on the Canal
Ga the other hand, and in respect of the
second laliacy, although it be true that the
extraordinary vOlocites obtained on the Liv-
erpool Railway have fully come mp to the
expectations of the projectors, yet the expen-
ses, instead OF being diminished, according
to the dictates promulgated ny engineers)
have been enormously increased; and have
goac 50 far beyond all previous calculation
a. To make II doubtful whether the Railway
Company viii not ultimately find, that, a
greeably TO an Irish phrase, they have gain
ed loss"
great velocity have heen tried and proved on
the nair0west, shallowest, and most curved
Canal ia Scotland, viz: Ardrossan or Palsy