Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1903-10-10
CANAL BOAT PROPULSION
Recent Progress in the Mechanical Haul
age of Heavy Barges in Artificial
Waterways.

n concise summary of the progress
which has been made in the application
of mechanical haulage and propulsion for
canal boats is contained in a paper re-
Gently read by Gerald Fitz Gibbon, NJ
Inst. {. T.. of The Aire and Calder Nav
igation, Leeds. England, before the en-
cheering conference of the Institution OF
Civil Engineers. From this paper we
take tile following items OF most general
interest:
Particular attention has recently been
directed to electrical haulage and propul-
sion, and several systems have been
tried with more or less success. In
France Mr. De Bovet carried out eN-
pcriments in 1894, on the St. Denis canal,
with an electric motor weighing about
212 tons. placed on a 3OO-ton barge. The
motor, which was supplied with current
at ITO volts from overhead wires on the
towing path, actuated a drum Which
picked up a chain laid on the bed of the
canal. The current passed through ca
bic connecting the motor with a small
two-wheel trolley running on the line
wires.
The Galliot system, used on the Bur
gundy canal in 1S94-1S91, consists of two
parts, the electric tricycle. on the towing
path. supplied with current from an
overhead wire, and the rudder motor
The tricycle. weighs 2 tons and is capable
of towing two barges loaded with 100
tons at speed of IA miles per hour.
The rudder-mOtor consists of rudder
forming a closed case containing an cleo
trio motor, which drives a screw pr0pel-
Ter. The system has also been tried on
the canal between Douai and Bethune,
where the tricycles towed barges carry
ing $50 tons TO 800 tons, at speeds of
H. to miles per hour. The current
was supplied at 500 volts. The cost Of
haulage is said to be O.03Sd per ton, or
about half the cost of horse-haulage.
In Belgium the Gerard system has been
in operation since 1900 on the Charleroi
canal, fifty miles in length, which con
meets the coal fields of Charleroi with
Brussels. The haulage used to be pOr-
formed by horses at a speed of one and
0ne-quarter miles per hour and at cost
of about IS per boat per mile, which
seems very high. BY electric haulage
the speed was doubled, the cost remain
ing about the same. The boats have p
capacity of seventy tons. The annual
traffic amounts to about 100000 tons.
The system consists CT q four-wheel cleo
trio carriage, weighing two tons, OF about
five horse power (nOminaD, the current
for the three-phase motor being taken
from overhead wires through three
separate trolleys. There are in all eight
wires, of which three are trolley wires,
supplying current at 600 volts, three are
feeder wires, carrying currents ut 5000
volts, and two are for telephone service.
The generating stations are twenty-nine
! miles apart and substatiOns three miles
apart contain. transformers for reducing
the current to 600 volts. Electrically
propelled tugs are also employed. TO
which the current is conveyed through an
insulated cable, supported by boom on
| the mast. The tugs tow two boats of
| seventy tons each at speed of two miles
an hour.
In Germany Messrs. Siemens & Halske
| have experimental with Il rack-rail loco,
motive. supplied with current at 500
| volts from single overhead wire. The
rackrail serves as n conductor for the
return current.
In England the Gerard system is be-
| ing tried on the River Lea navigation.
| The Thwaite-Cawley system consists
of an aerial railway about ten feet above
the towing path. There are two rails
one for each directiOn-Ou which run
| fourwheel electric motors, two wheels
running on the upper surface and two
on the lower The cost OK haulage is
given as 0.032d per ton-mile for speed
| of two and one-half miles per hour
In Holland barges propelled by petrol
engines have recently been tried with
very satisfactory results.-Engneern
| News.