Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-11-21
MODERN SHIP CANALS.
Colonel 7. P. Roberts Discusses the
Advantages of Waterways.
AMERICAISAWAY BEHINDEUR0PE
He Strongly Indorses the Ohio River and
Lake Erie Project.
ASSURED SUFFIC ENT WATER SUPPLY

modern ship canal was delivered to the stu
dents and few invited guests of the West
ern University Yesterday afternoon by
Colonel I. P. Roberts, one of Allegheny
eminent civil engineers. The lecture was
embellished by an elaborate series of maps
and drawings, principally relating to the
much talked of ship canal from Pittsburg to
Lake Erie, in the accomplishment of which
Colonel Roberts is greatly interested.
AS preface to his remarks Colonel
Roberts devoted some time to review OF
canals of the past, stating his belief that
they had been Abandoned too soon and that
their possibilities had never been fully de-
veloped. The history of canals dated back
to the Roman Empire, and China claimed to
have had them 5000 years ago, though moth
ing Is known of their size or Importance.
Little is to be said of the early European
and Asiatic canals, he continued, for their
importance was so trifing that the Edgar
Thomson Steel Works. of this city, gives
rise to more freight traffic than was enjoyed
by all the countries of Europe combined at
the time of the first voyage of Christopher
Columbus. 1t was not until Bindley and
Telford, about the middle Of the last GEN.
tury, created a revolution in the English
speaking world by making Manchester,
Birmingham and even Glasgow accessible
as trade centers through means of the canal
locks.
Cause of New York's Supremacy.
Before the days of locks it was impossible
to cross divide for the connection of water
courses, and ascents and descents were i'm
practicable by the methods in vogue. Soon
after Telford's time lock canals were intro
duced into this country. New York began
+, Sr, lN,,E - Hr,a ,<Nf
completed until 1926, which year marked the
relative decline of Philadelphia as COM
mercial emporium: and it is that same canal
which enables New York yet to hold her
supremacy without dispute, because great
canal by reasonably direct route from the
lakes or the Ohio river to Philadelphia is a
physical impossibility. Pennsylvania begaL
her canal works in 1920, the chief lines being
opened in 1S45, which year marked the de-
cline Of the canals Importance by reason OF
the introduction of the steam railroad.
1t was not exactly the rivalry between the
boat and the car in which the boat disap-
peared as competitor, for while such was
the effect, the cause is to be attributed to
the difference in the mode Of propulsion. In
other words, it was rivalry between horse
power and steam engines, and think this
distinction well warranted and worth re-
membering. The proportion Of passenger
and fast freight tonnage on which time was
an element Of importance was relatively far
greater on the old canals than it is on the
railroad to-day, so that if sizeable canals
were in existence now they would afford to
the railroads a relief in kind which the roads
first gave them.
Wherever steam power has been intro
duced as substitute for manual labor or
animal power, it has proved its superiority,
with the canals as with everything else.
The old canals run too small and too shallow
to allow use of propelling machinery. Many
the width and depth of the canals was the
one. The nearest approach to a
modern canal in this country is the Erie
Canal, of New York, which has already been
time. 1t is seven feet deep, with locks ll0x
l8 feet, passing boats of 250 tons, yet of the
more than 900 boats navigating it, not more
than 80 are steamers This canal is pushed
to Its utmost from April to November 10
each year, and while animal power is almost
exclusively used upon it, the finest, low
grade, four-track railroad In the United
States, has with its latest improved cars and
engines only reached the point of competing
with it upon equal terms.
The Necessity of Large Canals.
The French Government owns and con-
trolls nearly all of 5000 miles of canals in
France, and has adopted for its standard Of
inland barge canals, size capable Of passing
3Oo-ton boats. Experiments on the largest
scale recently made in this country and Eu-
rope have shown that 300-ton boat canals Is
equal if not better, than the present rail
road in the transportation service, and it is
that any will ever be attempted in
this country of less than this size. Above
this size would be too much for animal
power, in my opinion, and any built above
it should be made available for the use Of
steam power. Thus we would come to dis
tin9uish the point at which large canals may
be said to cease and ship canals to begin.
OF canals upon which steam power can be
applied to moving vessels of 800 tons and
upward, no fears need be entertained that
land carriage will supersede them as car
o l.-I1 -
though the time will come, and we can see
it now in the so-called connecting rail
roads," that will be separately built for
freight, and further reductions in railway
freight charges may be expected, still the
ship canal is of such large possibilities that
we cannot at this day prescribe any limit to
its capacity.
There is a loss in effectiveness Of steam
engines working wheels or screws in water,
due to decreese of gravity in the churned
and araeted water, but to whatever this is
attributed, it is known that less power is re-
quired to move boat by motive power
travelling along a canal band, or by cables
operated by stationary engines, than would
be developed in doing equal work with her
own screws. This is q question merely in
volving economy in fuel, but it has been
seized upon by ship railway advocates as an
argument in favor of their economy as COM
pared with ship canals. l am in favor Of
never assent to this argument until I hear
of decline in the commerce of our great
lakes by reason Of the competition Of the
Gland ship" Even the saving of half the
with ship railway, is unlikely to produce
such q startling result. Nor will even
the saving Of two-thirds of the river dis
tance between Pittsburg and New Orleans
of any kind of railroad a competition in the
coal trade with the river barge system.
Ship Canals Versus Ship Railways.
Large ship railways, requiring three
trucks or SIX tracks, cannot turn curves of
less than several miles radius. Great float
ing turntables must be provided for more
abrupt changes of direction than this. About
Pittsburg, for instance, the topography is
such that scarcely mile can be found which
changes in direction for a ship railway. On
the Tehuantepec route, l34 miles, only five
decided changes in direction were found
necessary. While no water supply for ship
for a ship railway, and there are other ar
guments as to the superiority of this route
it is apparent that only peculiar
and political considerations
can bring ship railways into rivalry with
ship canals.
1t is unlikely that existing conditions in
the transportation world will be disturbed
study of large canals have been discussed
and understood. After canals are built, as in |
Europe and Canada, with locks of durable
and slopes protected against the |
action Of waves, they stay built France in |
1889 had 2935 miles of canals, with 2, ,792 locks
and many aqueducts, ETC., to care for, and |
the annual cost of maintenance, exclusive !!
Of salaries, was only $3.50 per mile. OF the "a /
canalized rivers, aggregating 2.049 miles,
with 6H locks and numerous dams, the |
annual cost was $3.50 per mile. Canals
cost much less to maintain than railroads, |
md there are situations in this country |
where with equal volume Of business at the |
,ame rates the canal would pay for itself |
much sooner than the railroad. A careful |