Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1833-02-07
RAIL ROADS AND CANALS.


to use, to facilitate trade and commerce and in
Recommendation. Hence, we are always STU
dous to collect and arrange facts having bear
inr upon these matters for their use and infor.
nation.
a few years only are passed since the wonders
performed on Rail Roads were regarded as mere
Travellers Tales. Now, at our own doors near
Iy, we may see them realized. In point OF We
iocity and bur,hen, the Locomotives have proved
capable Of more than was at first asserted. 10
our day, too, We have the wonders OF increased
and extraordinary velocity On Canals, which
would not once have been believed. and against
which the trials on the Delaware and Chesapeake
Canal have been cited. On this subject, howe
yer. We have been favored with pamphlet, pub
lished in England, which contains so much that
is really important, and to us deeply interesting,
that we will take the present opportunity to CO,
py some Of its pages, resretting that our limits
only allow US to make extracts:
.sThe Liverpool and Manchester Railway
Company in their competition with the water
carriage. have obtained but very trIfing propor-
anv have actually been made by the carriage Of
goods on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway,
are extremely small; yet the water distance be-
tween Manchester aud Liverpool, is nearly dou-
bic the Railway distance; and instead Of posses
sing the regularity OF Canal conveyance, is, for
eighteen miles of ibis additional length, subject
10 the winds and tides Of the Metsey. Neverthe.
less, Of an amount Of nearly fourteen hundred
thousand tons annually, for the carriage of
which the Directors OF the Liverpool Railway
were desirous to provide, before their Railway
was opened, little more than an eighteenth part,
Including the entire road traffic, has been as vet
obtained for the Railway; and the expenses Of
carrying this fraction of the trade, have been so
enormous, as 10 make it doubtful whether the
Railway Company DO not suffer a REGULAR loss
IN their carrying trade, which Is defrdyed from
their profits as coachmasters. "-(NOte b, Ap.
pendix)
However incredible it may appear, it is Ger.
tain that Canal passengers can be carried at
speed of ten miles an hour. with degree Of
ease, comfort, and safety, such as no other con.
veyance can give, and at charge ut required
by cOmpettion,) not much more than tenth Of
the cost O! Railway travelling.
These facts, different from general be-
lief, have been completely ascer,alned during
the course OF the last two years. They are con.
sequenl on the detection, by practice aud expe.
rience,of two kllacies whichbad been held out to
the public. and received "a uudoub,rd truths.
'The first of these failacies was. that il was
impossible to propel boat. carrying any cons-
dcrsbla number a. passengers. along Canal at
high speed, without mourning an enormous -x.
pendture U! money and power, and without &C.
uasioning a wave or surge which would wash
down the Canal banks.-( Note Z, Appendix,
" The second fallacv was promui gated by Ger.
tain engineers, connected with Railway projects,
and i, as follows. viz: that in proportion as the
speed on Railway was increased. the expense
Ut conveyance was diminished, as the er9iues by
doubling their speed could in the same time do
double work.-(N Note e. Appendlx.)
-. Now the first faliacy. viz. the alleged i'm.
possibility OF moving at great velocity through
Cauals, aud the certainty If the destruction of
the Canal banks by the swift passage Of Canal
vessels, have been proved to exist 10 inaslnatin
only. A speed of ten miles an hour has too the
last two years been maintained, in the carriage
of passengers on one OF the narrowest Canals in
Britain, without raising ripple on the banks,
even where the vessel carried upwards o. ore
hundred passengers, or as many as are carried
ia train OF coaches on the Liverpool and Man.
chester Railway.
"The expenses or cost of obtaining this spec
are so trfing. that the fares per mile are in these
quick boats just one half and one third of the
fares IN the Liverpool Railway coaches, while at
these low fares the profits such rs have ir-
duced the bnat proprietors to quadrupe the num-
Der 0f boats on the Canal.
"On the other hand, and in respect of the Sc
cond fallacy, although 1t be true that the extra
ordinary velocities obtained on the Liverpool
Railway have fully come up to the expectations
OF the projectors, yet the expenses, instead of
being diminished, according to the dicta pro-
mulgated BY ensineers) have been enormousl, in
creased. and have gone so far beyond all previ-
Gus calculation, as to make it doubtful whether
the Railway Company will not ultimately find,
that, ,asreeab.y to an Irish phrase, they have
gained a loss. 81
"As respects canals, the experiments of great
velocity have been tried and proved on the mar
rowest, shallowest, and most curved Canal in
Scotland, viz: the Ardrossan or Paisley canal.
connecting the city Of Glasgow with the town of
Paisley and village Of tombstone, a distance Of
twelve miles. The result has disproved every