The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-12-13
Great Canals of the World
Artificial at Great
 Cost of Labor Money.

The renewed attention bsing given to the proposed Isthmian canal at this time lends especial interest to discussion of the great canals of the world. present. cd by the Department of Commerce ana Labor through it's Bureau of Statistics. The ship canals Of the world, it says, are nine In number. as follows:
 CD The Suez Canal. begun in 1889 and oompseted in 1S69
 CD The Cronstadt and St. Petersburg Canal. begun in lsT and completed in 0) The corinth Canal. begun in 1884 and completed in 1s9s.
 @ The Manchester Ship Canal, com pleted in 1894.
 C6) The Kaiser Wilhelm Canal, connect ing the Baltic and North Seas. completed (S The Eibe and Trave Canal con- meeting the North Sea and Baltic, opened in 1900. k -f
 CD The welIand Canal, conecting Lake Erie with Lake Ontario.
 6 and 9) The two canals. United States and Canadian. respectively. con- necttng Lake Superior with Lake Huron.
 The Suez Canal.
 The Suez Canal is usually considered the most important example of ship canals, though the number of vessels passing through 1t annually does not equal that passing through the canals correcting Lake Superior with the chain of Great Lakes at the south. In length. however, ]. it exceeds any of the other great ship canals. it's total length being ninety miles of which about two-thirds is through shallow lakes. The material excavated was usually sand. though in some cases strata of solid rock from 2 to feet in thickness were encountered. The total excavation was about so. 900 000 cubic yards under the original plan. which gave a depth of 25 feet. Tn 1895 the canal was so enlarged as to give deoth of s1 feet. a width at the bottom Of 108 feet and at the surface of 420 feet The original cost was s95.0D0000. and for the canal in it's present form slightly in excess of sfnO.- 0o00A0 The number of vessels passine through the canal in 1870 was 4s6. with gross tonage of 654S15 tons: in 1875. 1,4s4 vessels. gross tonnage. 2.940.708 tons: in 1880. 2.096 vessels gross tonnage, ARA 519 tons: in 1890. 3.as9 vessels. gross tonnage. 9,74s.129 tons: in 1893. BRA vessels. gross tonnage of Ii. .s3s. .637 tons; and in 19n0. 3.441 vessls with a gross tonnage of 13.699. .z37 tons. The revenue of the canal is ap- parentlv large in proportfon 10 its cost the Statesman's Yearbook for 1901 giving the net profits of 1899 at 64153.e6n francs and the total amount distributed among the shareholders 51 .52s.0gs francs. or about 10 par cent of the estimated cost of $10O.- 00Hn0a.
 The canal is without locks, being at the sea level the entire distance. The length of time occupied in~ passing through the canal averages about eighteen hours. Bv the use of electric lights throughout the entire length of the canal passages are made at night with nearly equal facility to that of the day. The tolls charged are francs per ton net register. Danube measurement" which amount to slightly more than g per ton United States net measurement. Steam vessels passing through the canal are propelled by their own power.
 The Cronstadt and St. Petersburg
 Canal.
 The canal connecting the Bay of Cron- stadt with St. Petersburg is described as a work of great strategic and commercial importance to Russia. The canal and sailing course fin the Bay of Cronstadt are about sixteen miles long. the canal p~oper being about six miles and the bay chan nel about ten miles. and they together extend from Cronstsdt. on the Gulf of Finland, to St. Petersburg. The canal was opened in 1890 with a navigable depth of 20 1-2 feet. the original depth having been!about 9 feet; tue width ranges from 220 to $50 feet. The total cost is esti mated at shout S10.00a 600.
 mhe Corinth Canal.
 The next of the great ship canals con- meeting bodies of salt water in the order of date of construction Is the Corinth Canal. which connects the Gulf of Corinth with the Gulf of Aegina. The canal re- duces the distance from Ad-iatic ports about 175 miles and from Mediterranean ports about 100 miles. It's length Is about four miles. a part of which was cut through granite soft rock and the re- mainder through soli There are no locks, as Is also the case in both the Suez and Cronstadf canals, already described. The width of the canal Is 72 feet at bottom and the depth 20 1-4 feet. The work was begun in 1884 and completed in 1893 at a cost of about $5 000,000 The average tolls s are IS cents per ton and 20 cents per pas senger.
 The Manchester Ship Canal.
 The Manchester Ship Canal. which con- meets Manchester. England with the Mer- Bey River. Liverpool, and the Atlantic Ocean, was opened for traffic January l, 1894. The length of the canal is 35 1-2 miles. the total rise from the water level to Manchester being 60 feet, which is divided between four sets of locks. giving an average to each of 15 feet The mini mum width is 120 feet at the bottom and averages 175 feet at the water level. though in places the width is extended to 23O feet. The minimum depth is 26 feet, and the time required for navigating the canal from five to eight hours. The total amount Of excavation In the canal and docks was about 45, 0O0 900 cubic yards of which about one-fourth was standstone rock. The rock gates are operated by hydraulic power: railways and bridges crossing the route of the canal have been raised to give a height of 75 feet to vessels traversing the canal. and an ordinary canal whose route it crosses is carried across by a springing aqueduct composed of an iron caisson resting upon a pivot pier. The total cost of the canal is given at $75, ,000,000 The revenue in 1901, accord ing to the Statesman's Yearbook. was 621 128 pounds, and the working expenses 4S3267 pounds. For the half year ending June 30, 1900. the canal yielded 16,4sS pounds toward paying the 11250O pounds of interest which the city of Manchester mas to pay on the capital invested in the enterprise. The freight-paying tolls on the canal amounted to 1,4S7.SA tons in the half year, an increase of F per cent over that of the corresponding period of the preceding year.
 The Kaiser Wilhelm Canal.
 Two canals connect the Baltic and North Seas through Germany. the first. known as the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal, hay ing been completed in 1895 and construct ed largely for military and naval pur- poses, but proving also of great value to general mercantile traffic. Work upon the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal was begun in 1887 and completed, as above indicated, in 1895. The length of the canal is 61 miles, the terminus in the Baltic Sea being at the habor of Kiel. The depth is % 1-2 feet, the width at the bottom 75 feet, and the