The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1885-10-29

Capt Eads' ship railway company have
aaked Mexico to guarantee Eve per cent.
interest on sa5, ooo, oeo btnds for fifteen
years. and win applyto Congress for the
same guaranty on $5o, ooo.o 600 Of bonds.
It is to be hoped that Congress viii give
the appropriation favorable consideration
especially as there is no probability that
the guaranty will ever have to be made
good, for It is apparent to those who
have understandiagly investigated the en-
terprise that it will be rs profitable as it
is feasible. The railway being in opera
ton our Gulf sea will be the most fire.
quented channel of commerce in the
world, and the Gulf cities being the near
est to the transit will become important
ports of shipment.
The following is from the New York
correspondence of the Detroit Free Press !:
LARensr LOCOMOTIVE IN THE WORLD.
have this week met Mr.. e. G. Corthell, Chief
Engineer of the Tehuantepec Ship Railroad,
which Capt Eads has projected to open the
isthm Is below Mexico 90 as to take ships from
one ocean and drop them quietly into the other,
9 ID asked him What's newl"
WELL" he said, we have found out this
week exactly how we can draw our ships. Capt.
FADE has always been asked How can you
drag the great ships over Il you get them on the
replied with engines feeling certain that en-
gines for the special work would have to be
built. But we have Just received letter from
the Chief Engineer of the Mexican Central
Railroad, which will not only antonish you
newspaper men and non-experts generally, but
will surprise even railroad men. 1t shows that
they are manufacturing in Mexican shops the
largest locomotivS34n the world"
He handed the letter to me, and from it
quote a. follows:
II send you herewith blue prints Of some OF
| the engines We have just made for the Pacific
and Gulf branches of this road, which will have
| three and a half per cent grades QS5 feet to the
mile) and twenty degiee curves. The drivers
| are flexible, moving independently of each other
| and of the cylinders and boiler. Figure
seven represents the engine under consideration:
| This engine can carry a weight of 10000
miles an hour on Q straight and level track
| 1890 tons 70 a one-half per cent. grade, and
| 400 tons up nC-per cent. grade.
But would call your attention to the con-
solidated type of engine represented by figures
8 and O. This engine has sixteen drivers, will
l
| groes with ease, can carry weight of 10000
pounds and its drivers can haul 5000 tons al ten
miles an hour on q straight and level track
| 5000 tons up one-half per cent. grade and
| l,6OO tons up one per cent. grade"
These are tremendous motors" said Mr.
Corthell, as civil engineers and railroad men
will fully understand Three of these last en-.
gines will draw the largest ship that sails the
| sea up the heaviest grades on our line One o.
them will draw it sixty per cent OF the dis
| lance; and one of them will draw at least three
fourths of the vessels all the way from ocean to
ocean"
passed through into Captain Eads's Office and
asked him what news from Mexico. He said:
Everything looks well. We have asked
Mexico 10 guarantee five per cent on $25, 0O0, 00C
| of our bonds for fifteen years, and the United
States to guarantee the same interest on $50 O00
| 600 for the san length of time. President Diaz
| and the government have stlo ogly recommended
the CONCESSION to the Mexican Congress, and il
| is now being considered, with every p-O'pect O
success. This guaranty is not to lake effect un-
| til the road is finished and in sue ,ssful opera
| ton, under the superintendent OF commission
| ers appointed by the two governments If the
road is self-sustaining from the first, as we an.
tcipate, tn re will be no call on either govern
| ment. Besides this, we propose to carry all the
twenty-five per cent. less than that OF a4y other
nation-and this in itself will be subsidy TO our
| merchant marine"
asked Capt. Eads how much he proposed to
charge as toll.
about $3.50 or $500 a ton. We hope to
carry 100000 tons If we carry only 5000 0Ot
tons the first yer 1t will not cost US more than
thirty to fifty cents ton. The cost of freight
across the continent by rail is $25 to $50 pei
ton. The cost of freight by the Panama railroad
is so ton The average cost OF taking freight
around Cape Horn is $40 ton. We will save
over the Cape Horn route at least $6 ton. The
cost of lifting vessel out of the sea and setting
it on our tracks is insignifcant-not more
probably, than two anil half cents a ton"
| The dividend which the SueZ Canal declared
to stockholders in 1888 was seventeen per cent,
| and the expected dividend of 1890 is thirty pei
cent. On this application the fun will soon be-
| gin in Congress.