Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1906-08-30
Steamships of the Future Will
Make Those Of To-day Look
Lie Tugs.

\VIHEN the rising generation is big
w enough to spend its honeymoon,
or to incur the disagreeable
necessity of escaping the attentions of
process servers, it will travel on 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, $40,
breadth $50, draught 32.I, and gross
tonnage, I7,I5I, it will be seen that the
steamships will have to do some tab
growing.
These confident predictions are made
by Elmer Lawrence Corthell, B. A, M.
A., DR.. Sc, of New York and Chicago
As Mr.. Corthell is not a 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 liveliest 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 humber of notable addresses de-
Iivered in 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-
duced the nebulous 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
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 varl-
Gus kinds constructed under Mr.. Cort-
hell's supervision footed up an aggregate
value of $1ooooo,ooo. In 1893 he repre-
sented the United States government at
the International Congress of Navlga-
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
provemefHts in the harbor of Rio GranCe
Do Sui, Brazil, the difficulties OF which
have, baffled some of the worlds fore
most engineers. He is member OF
something like a score of scientific So
cieties in America and Europe.
In 1893, when Mr.. Corthel's first pre-
diction was made, the number of steam
ships in existence was 11,27I, having
total tonnage of 17,SSo,oo6. He predicted
that in five years this number would
increase to 12,oo2, with an aggregate
tonnage of 2o,SoI, POS. The actual num-
Der in existence in 1908 was 1881, rep
resenting a tonnage of 26T5S,35S. The
average tonnage of steamships in 1893
was 1857. Mr. Corthell predicted that
this average would increase to 1904 by
i 1908. In reality the average at the end
of FIVE years proved to be 1855 tons
The average dimensions of the largest
twenty steamships in 1893 were: Length,
541 feet; breadth, 81 feet; draught, 20