The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-09-28
S,725, 600, 600, 900 - net lbs in berg.
ST,25O, 100000 cwt-
1877 soc. 900 "a SO.Ol Der eWt.

81 $50 coo, 900 cwt-
1872 100000 a $0.Ul per cwt.
The reporter looked his question as the
Senator folded the paper carefully and put
it in his packet.
Pretty big figgerS, amt they?" he said,
''but Jay'll understand 'em. He's quick at
tigsers, SO just condensed the multiplication
to save his time, butt spoiled the backs Of
lots OF envelopes at home clpherlpg 1t all
out. Now FL tell you what il means and
how | come To think of ii. You'll see that
its Just one OF those great ideas, so simple
that everybody misses ii until the right
mani may say genius, sir-cemes along
and picks it up. How many thousands Of
ueope, do you suppose, have read items like
these during the past Summer?" and Senator
Sawtelle drew from his pocket handful of
clippings from the Sun, OF which the fol-
lowing is a sample:
The steamship Darial in ballast from North
Shields has broken the record Iceberg
sighGer. Between latitude AGO 39 and latitude
42o As she passed 140, varying In height from
10 to 500 L ell.
That paragraph was published in the Sun
of Aprii 18th last, and with it were all man
| ner of accounts of vessels meeting and some
times coiliding with icebergs during the spring
and summer. The speaker continued:
Il first got my mind started ON this thing
in the winter, when the ice crop promised
! 10 be scarce and the prices to consumers
were going kitlng. Then the reports came
| in how steamer after steamer was passing
icebsrgs in the North Atlantic, and |
| thought what Sam Hill lot of ice. fit for
| use, was melting away in the gull stream
| every week. l put my wits TO Work TO DIS
| cover some way to make that vast quantity
| OF ice floating at random, sir. at random over
| the deep, and a-gettlng III the way OF yes
| sells laden With human freight and other
1 merchandise, TO make 1t useful, sir The
| first thing did was to read up on icebergs,
! and | found that many of them were frozen
| sea water, unfit for putting in your goblet at
! meals, sir because OF It's saline flavor. IL
would do perfectly well for cooling purposes,
provided 1t was not brought In contact with
| the water drunk or food eaten. 1t would
| serve for three-quartero OF the uses TO which
| ice is put, but men like to have Ice III their
| refrigerators which they can use indiscrim-
| inately. Think OF the nuisance OF going
| to your ice-box for chunk to put
in your lemonade and having to
| hunt the whole lot over for piece
| without the saline flavor. 80 saw that my
first idea, that OF capturing an iceberg on the
sea and towing it 10 land, wouldn't Work,
| aud / began over again Next L thought OF
fitting out big steamer to go to Greenland
and load up with the fresh water inland ice,
| but some considerable ciphering convinced
me that the expense OF the expedition
wouldn't be met by the returns, even al 81
| hundred-weight. But / had got the light
idea, sir. and here it is; Make an iceberg.
/ You do not follow me. | presumed not,
| and perhaps Mr.. Gould wont 10 any better.
| Artificial ice? Thunderation, no! Make an
| iceberg out of the best fresh-water natural
ice that grows in the fords of Greenland.
Fiord is dictionary word, sir, and know
| what / am talking about. This Is the ldee.
| Tine ice grows OF the mountains OF Green
land and gradually works It's way to the sea
| in the form OF glaciers. There it breaks oil
| and floats away In bergS often miles long.
They come down slow TO the Gull stream
| with the salt ice aud melt away.
| Z" Now, il one of those ieebergS OF fresh
ice were pushed down faster, the great bulk
| of it would be saved b. the time 1t reached
| Halifax. What is the matter, then'-aEd
| the Senator lowered his voice and bent his
! head in his eagerness-"what is the matter
with the fitting out Of steamer to go and
| take berg in tow?"
The Senator drew back and looked the re-
porter in the eye steadily for full half min
ute. Then he continued:
| . But / wouldn't wait for nature, sir. I'd
have the steamer go up and find a glacier
and blow it off into the sea with dynamite.
That would give tremendous iceberg ready
for use, perhaps several OF them, and the
steamer conld take its pick. Ii towing
wouldn't work the steamer might get behind
| and push, or tackle alongside as | saw a tug
with a lot of frelght-cars in the East River
this morning. Perhaps it might take two
| steamers, but the extra expense wouldn't
! amount TO anything wien y0u see the mean
ing OF the fggers. The berg would be
towed down to Halifax, where, meantime,
the biggest kind of ice-houses would
have been built. There the berg would be
chopped up and stored and sent to any part
OF the country by rail or water. The build
ing and equipplng and manning of the
steamers, and the erection of the ice-houses,
| with cost of land for them, would be the
items Of expense besides clerk hire, manage
ment, etc. It's my opinion that the best kind
OF steamers could be built and all tue other
expenses met by S5,000,000, but let's be con-
sentative, and reckon the outlay at $40, 1000,
600. That will be perfectly safe. Now see
| what the returns would be"
Senator Sawtelle drew his paper Of
lingering" from his pocket again and
scanned it.
I've read often enough" he said, of
icebergs miles in dimensions. These were
met away down in the region of the steamer
routes. They had wasted by melting heap
by that time. So, to be safe, let us say that
we start from Greenland with a berg one
mile square and 100 feet out of the water.
That's small enough, certainly, when
| you've considered the bergs ten times as
large that you read about. Now, Mr..
Gould's steamer tackles it and hurries it
There are $3.50 feet in mile, and squared
that becomes 27,S7S, 400 square feet. Accord
ing to the books a berg with 100 feet out of
water has 700 feet underneath, making 800
in all Multiply by 800 and you get 30, 1902, :
10000 cubic feet of ice in your fresh-water
ing, liberal enough it seems to me, and you
have, when you get to Halifax, $1,000, 100000
cubic feet in round numbers, as a
net capacity Of the iceberg. Now,
then, the books say that cubic
foot of fresh-water ice weighs 57.5 pounds.
Multiply and you get the weight OF your
iceberg, or in other words, your stock in
trade, S,725, 900, 100000 pounds. Ice is sold
by the hundred-weight and this makes ST.
25o,0O0,000 hundred weight. The papers
say that you New Workers have been pay
ing dollar hundred for your ice, Ell?
Golrifus! suppose you sold that berg at one
cent hundred pounds; hgger for yourself
and see If it don't make $S72, 800, 000l Enough
to set man wild, amt it? And all one sea-
sons work, too. Cost of freight from Hall
faxp Oh, yes. Eve thought of that. II the
ice is sold at a cent a hundred there, don't
you suppose it could be retaled in New
York or New Orleans at two cents with a
whooping profit? AT that Mr.. Gould would
get rich at one cent hundred. the retailers
would get rich at two cents, and the con-
sumer would get rich at saving 90 cents for
every hundred weight of ice they bought.
| or course Mr.. Gould, controlling the mar