Morgan County republican. (Versailles, Mo.) 1906-1914, 1906-09-06
Steamships Of the Future Will
Make Those Of To-day Look
Like Tugs.

w enough to spend its honeymoon,
or to incur the disagreeable
necessity of escaping the attentions Of
process servers, it will travel or steam
ships which will make those of to-day
seem like tugs. To be more specific. not
later than forty-two years hence the
largest twenty steamships in existence
will have these average dimensions /:
Length, 1000 feet; breadth, 100 feet;
draught, 80 feet; gross tonnage, 10000.
As the average dimensions of the pres
ent largest twenty are, length, Gao,
breadth $50, draught 32.I, and gross
tonnage, 1871. it will be seen that the
steamships will have to do some taxi
growing.
These confident predictions are made
by Elmer Lawrence Corthell, B. A., M.
A., DR.. Sc, of New York and Chicago.
As MI. Corthcll is not a professional
prophet, but an engineer who has done
q notable part Of the worlds work in
the past. and still engaged in some
great nndertal1tss his predictions r.
garding the ftIIre of the worlds s'''''
merce are of the l~iveliest interest
E. L. Corthell played an important
part in convincing Congress in 1874 of
the wisdom Of authorizing the construc-
ton OF the famous Eads %jetties at the
mouth OF the Mississippi, and was engi-
neer in charge of the construction Of
the %jettics, which increased the depth
Of water in the South Pass from nine
feet to more than thirty feet. He made
surveys for the Tehuantepec Ship Rail
way in 1880, and subsequently, by means
of q number of notable addresses de
livered II the principal cities of the
United States, attracted the worlds at
tention to the project. He built bridges
over the Mississippi river at Hannibal,
La, and St. Louis, Mo-, and at New
Orleans. He planned and executed the
harbor improvements at Tampico. which
increased the depth Of water from eight
feet to twenty-six feet and made that
city the second port in Mexico. He re-
duccd the ncbulous idea of the Chicago
Worlds Fair to a tangible proposition
by solving the engineering problems OF
that great undertaking, and subsequently
carried out some important works that
were instrumental in making the Fair a
success. He was also one OF the leading
spirits in organizing the international
Engineering Congress. held during the
Fair. Ten years ago the works OF vari-
Gus kinds constructed under Mr.. Cort-
helfs supervision footed mp an aggregate
value Of $IoO,ooo,oOo. In 1893 he repre-
scented the United States government at
the International Congress OF Naviga-
ton at Brussels. He was also at the
Paris Congress in 1000 and at the Milan
Congress in 1905. At present he is
president and chief engineer Of the COM
pany which is making important i'm
proycsnents If the harbor of Rio Grandc
Do Sui, Brazil. the difficulties OF which
have bafAed some Of the worlds fore
most engineers. He is a member OF
something like a score of scientific so
cieties in America and Europe.
In 1893, when Mr.. Corthelrs first pre-
diction was made. the number OF steam
ships in existence was 1871. having a
total tonnage of I7,ss9oo6. He predicted
that in five years this number would
increase to I2,oo2, with an aggregate
tonnage of 2o,aoI ,aos. The actual num-
Der In existence in 1908 was 1881, rep
resenting q tonnage Of 2~6.I58,35S. The
average tonnage Of steamships in IS9s
was 1857. Mr.. Corthell predicted that
this average would increase to 1904 by
1904. In reality the average at the end
OF five years proved to be 1855 tons
The average dimensions of the larges,
twenty steamships in 1893 we're Length,
sal feet; breadth, 6I feet; draught. 2S