The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1858-08-27
Steam Tugs on Canals.

Speaking to commence at o'clock, P VI.
SIeam Tugs on Canals.
The New York Herald says a revolution
in the business OF transportation, Of the
greatest Importance, is now taking place on
the Erie Canal. The experiment of using
steam on canals has been successfully tried,
and its success on the Erie canal is no longer
doubtful. Attempts were made many years
ago to propel canal boats by small steam en-
gines, but they proved abortive in the old
narrow and shallow canal. But since the
Erie canal has been enlarged and deepencd,
six feet of water has been found sufficient
for the action of the blades of propeller.
Whether the same power can be introduced
into smaller canals is yet doubtful; but if
all the advantages anticipated should be re-
allied, every canal passing through a fertile
region will be enlarged and fitted for the use
of steam; it viii be better to enlarged the
beds of the present canals, rather than
abandon them to ruin. By the use of
steam, canals will be able to compete sue
cessfully with railroads, and, perhaps, re-
gain their supremacy in the business of
transportation. The Wabash and Erie Ca
nal may be resusciatcd, and if rebuilt
and enlarged, may bid defiance to railroad
competition and becomc--as its first pro
jcctors prcdicted-one of the highways of
internal commerce, and create two large COM
mercial cities at its termini. If il be proven
that by charging the capacity and the use of
steam the old canals can be made profitable
the means and the enterprise TO accomplish
the work viii not be wanting. Let us not
despair that an old canal that has thus far
disappointed all the brilliant hopes that in
spired the efforts to build it, may yet yield
all the benefits of its early promise. The
experiments of canal navigation by steam is
therefore a subject of deep interest to our
the condition of the New York canals is ap-
plicable TO our own. 1t says:
1t was time that some new mode Of trans
portation should be adopted to keep our
canal policy alive. The active competition
of the railways has lesSened the amount of
freight in an alarming degree the passenger
boats, once so comfortable and such n vast
Improvement upon the old mail coach over
almost impracticable roads, have long since
rotted in the basins; their proprietors have
become expreSsmen or railroad managers
and what was once the glory and the pros
perity Of the Empire State, was becoming
mere ditchwater and n much squeezed
sponge. But we are changing all this
Steam has been successfully applied TO the
navigation of the canals. The tranSporta-
ton companies are already engaged in get
ting up new lines of steam freight boats, and
in the course of another year it is believed
the system of towing, as now practiced, will
be entirely discontinued. FreightS of two
hundred tons will he moved from Buffalo tC
Albany in one-half the time now taken fol
the voyage, and at nearly one-half the pres
ent expense. The experiments have not We
been made with sufficient scientific ACCURACY
to enable us TO decide positively rs to th,
precise quantity of fuel necessary ON th,
average of the trips, nor as to the best form
of engine, or the greatest economical EN-
plo; ment of speed but it is a fixed fact tha
steam is to drive the horses from the TOW
path, ,s'and. all the heavy freight of the North
west and the Western lakes, and the interio
of our own State, will hereafter be forward
ed to us by canal steamboats, of the new
construction We know the fact that an EN-
inent engineer in this city, whose skill an,
ingenuity are constantly tasked in our com
mercial and naval marine, has been at worl
for some months in getting up for heav.
capitalists models of boats and engines hes
adapted for canal service, and, of cOursC
, quite in advance of the recent demOnstra
tions at Rochester and Buffalo.
The result will he that i'm another year o
two steam tugs will take the place of III
ordinary canal boat, even of that class whic
Is now built at an expense OF twenty-iiy
/, hundred dollars each, with a capacity equa
: to first class Albany sloop. Whole train
+ of boats will be taken in tow at u time, an
! the expense of traction will be reduced to
: figure which will put at defiance all r;lilwa
competition in freighting heavy goods.
is also probable that a large number of the:
: boats VIII have independent power of the
own, so rs to navigate the small lakes
:, the interior on their own account. On Ca,
uGa Lake there are no less than three III
= steam tugs constantly and proftably en-
! ployed in towing canal boats between ltha'
?. and the lake ports to the foot of the lake.
One hundred and fifty thousand tons Of CO.
: are now annually brought down that lax
r and the charge for towing through it is abo
: thirty cents per ton. The Seneca, Chemul
: and Oneida lakes will all have their businc
changed in this particular. On the Huds
D. river we must expect to see the canal stear
ers generally working their way up al
y down ION their own hook The Savil
in expense will draw Oft from the Ccntr