The Sisseton weekly standard. (Sisseton, Roberts County, S.D.) 1892-1929, 1906-09-07

I KS
Steamships of the Future Will
81 Make Those Of To-day Look
# Like Tugs.
@N v /EIEN the rising generation is big
IA w enough to spend its honeymoon,
N or to incur the disagreeable
of escaping the attentions of
sRprocess servers, it will travel on steam
aships which will make those of to-day
n seem like tugs. To be more specific, not
q later than forty-two years hence the
4 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, o4o
breadth $50, draught 32.1, and gross
tonnage, 1851, it will be seen that the
steamships will have to do some tail
growing.
These confident predictions are made
by Elmer Lawrence Corthell, 3. A., M.
A., DR.. Sc, of New York and Chicago
As Mr.. Corthell is not professional
prophet, but an engineer who has done
notable part OF the worlds work in
the past, and is still engaged in some
great undertakings, his predictions re-
garding the future of the worlds COM
merce are Of the livelest 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 jetties, 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 a number of notable addresses de
livered in the principal cities of the
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
j feet to twenty-six feet and made that
II city the second port in Mexico. He re-
duced the nebulous idea of the Chicago
II Worlds Fair to tangible proposition
# by solving the engineering problems OF
I that great undertaking, and subsequently
carried out some important works that
were instrumental in making the Fair a
n success. He was also one of the leading
IS spirits in organizing the International
Engineering Congress, held during the
Il Fair. Ten years ago the works of varl-
1 Gus kinds constructed under Mr.. Cort
Il hell's supervision footed up an aggregate
n value of $1oo,ooo,ooo. In 1903 he repre-
~ sented the United States government at
the International Congress of Naviga-
4 ton at BRUSSELS. He was also at the
Paris Congress in 1900 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
provements in the harbor OF Rio Grande
Do Sui, Brazil, the difficulties of which
have baffled some of the worlds fore
most engineers. He is member OF
Something like score of scientific So
cieties in America and Europe.
In 1905, when Mr.. Corthell's first pre-
diction was made, the number of steam
ships in existence was 11,271, having g
total tonnage of 17,SSoooo. He predicted
n that in five years this number would
& increase to 1902, with an aggregate
tonnage of 2o9o1 ,2o5. The actual NUM-
Der in existence in 1908 was 1881, rep
resenting tonnage of 2o,15S,35S. The
- average tonnage of steamships in 1896
was 1857. Mr.. Corthell predicted thai
this average would increase to 1904 b,
1903 In reality the average at the enc
of, FIVE years proved to be 1855 tons
The average dimensions of the larges
twenty steamships in 1893 were Length
al feet; breadth, OF feet; draught, &c