Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-04-09
UApr. EADs's sUmsME.



yesterday afternoon, and learned that
he Is thoroughly in earnest in referenee
10 his ship-railway project, and Is con-
ident of getting it In course of con-
struction In few months after Congress
shall have passed the bill introduced
into the House by Mr.. Wells, of Missou-
ri, and in the Senate by Senator Vest.
Captain Eads expressed the opinion that
the De Lesseps canal project was now
dead. He continued with ref
erence to the bill advocating his plans
as follows
"It authorizes corporation to build
the necessary works across the Iethmus
anywhere between North and South
America, after securing from the Gem
trail American States the necessary con-
cessions. 1t guarantees the protection
of the United States to the franchises
he may secure and to the works he may
construct, and provides for the detail OF
two ships of war, officers and men, to
aid in the necessary surveys for the
works. After the works are completed,
and a loaded ship Of specified tonnage
shall have been safely and satisfactorily
transferred from ocean TO ocean, the
guarantee of the United States Govern
ment of six per cent. dividends on $780,
O0O, 900 of stock shall take effect for
thirty years; and in consideration of this
guarantee the United States shall have
the right to fix and alter the rate of tolls
at its pleasure. am confident of sue
cess, and think it the sheerest waste of
time on the part of Congress or the pub
lie 10 be discussing a canal when bet
ter method, which can be put in opera
ton in one-quarter of the time and for
one-uuarter of the money, has the high
est and most emphatic approval of the
ablest engineers and shipbuilders in
America and Europe. If M. de Lesseps
were an engineer he would not spend
his time on scheme so hopeless as a
canal. 1t is hopeless, because capital is
timid and conservative, and it is not GO
ing to be put into canal when better
and much cheaper method is urged and
has the approval of experts of the very
highest standing. Men will not put
money into the canal, at any rate, until
the cheaper method is shown to be Wis
ionary, and this is simply impossible to
be shown, because the more the ship
railway is discussed and examined the
more simple and practical will it ap-
pear. The discussion that has now
opened reminds one of the discussion
which preceded my proposition in 1873,
to deepen the mouth Of the Mis-
sissippi by jetties. Almost every
one thought the Fort st. Philip
canal was the only way the river could
be opened. l said other rivers had been
successfully treated by the jetty system.
yes, oh yes, but they were all small
rivers, was the reply. To-day urge
that vessels are transported by rail and
have been for forty years, and the
answer is the same, Yes, yes, but they
are small ones-canal-boats, schooners,
and the like. In the jetty controversy
the Opposers said the quantity of sand
and mud that was carried in the Missis-
sippi River was so great that it could
not be controlled; and to-day they cry
out the cargo is so great in a big ship
that she can not be carried without
straining the ship. The most eminent
shipbuilders in the world say this is all
n mistake. They tell us that one of the
imperatives rules of their art requires
that a ship shall be built of such
strength that if she be lifted up by a
force at each end, and without support
in the middle, she shall remain unin-
| iured; am, in like manner, if she be
supported only at the middle, her hull
shall be so stiff that it will not be in.
jured thereby. l am not without
practical knowledge myself on this point
/ have built fourteen iron-clad yes
sells for the United States. The
first eight she ever owned
! l,;It onJ 7 lynOu, tbat tba strano,tl
of ships hull, to stand the storm
Of the ocean, must be calculated just {
we calculate the strength Of bridgI
grder. Naval architects in calculating
the requisite thickness of iron for ship
treat the proposed vessel as though i
were bridge girder. When the Bo
russia foundered, last fall, have n,
doubt that the iron of her bottom wa
of a poorer quality than her architec
was promised, or that it had become s,
injured by rust that it could not stan,
the tension put upon the bottom plate
when her bow and stern were lifted a
the same moment by two different waves
When the ship is upborne at the middl
by single wave, and the bow AM
stern are without support, the dec
plates are strained in tension, while tn
bottom plates have their strains reverse
to compressive ones. Iron, like ever
thing else used in constructing vessel
and bridges, is elastic. A strong iro
girder four hundred feet long, if heavil
loaded, will defect six inches with pei
feet safety under the load, and ship
four hundred fifty feet in length, i
heavy seas, no doubt bend as much a
that. 1t is simply impossible to keep ther
from bending under such strains; bu
, as the elastic limit of the iron is not e1
ceeded it does them no harm whatever
! The main arch of the St. Louis bridge
: five hundred and twenty feet in length
detected under the test load of eighty
| four locomotive engines and their ter
} ders about three inches. The arch is {
J steel and its form resists bending muc
} better than that of a girder. A girdC
! of the same strength and depth woul
I have detected twelve inches. Ships o
: a railway could not be subjected to an
: such strains as these, as the road-be
: can not bend, and as she would be SUI
4 ported throughout her entire length i
{ the road. The illustration in he'edit,
: rial article of the Tribune yesterda
morning, about hauling a dry-dock on
railway in safety with a ship on it, is
o good one; but it is not proposed by n
: TO haul so much non-paying freigh
$ The ship will be carried on cradle {
r wheels and springs, but much light
}, than any dock"
r
Q SEVEN women and one man, cons
Q tuting the pioneer band of I" The Salv
9 ton Army" dressed in a uniform
y DARK blue with yellow binding, al
: broad scarlet ribbons around their hat
!, arrived in New York the other da