The history of the experiments for means of propulsion on our canals shows
that no system has been developed by means of which the carrying power of
these great channels of communication can be made available by steam. If
this deplorable fact is to be overcome, it must be through the aid of the
inventor; we must have some instruments of propulsion not hitherto in use,
and some other means of application of the propelling power than those now
in practice, or steam can never be sufficiently utilized to supersede
horses on canals.
We see the New York and Albany tow-boats, with from twenty to forty loaded
canal boats, running at four miles per hour, and they have taken over sixty
boats in a single tow from New York to Albany. But an engine, with a
respectable part of their steam, can take but a _small fraction_ of their
boats, and at a largely reduced speed on the canal.
The doom of 1845, of 1858 to '62, and of 1871 to '72, hangs over steam like
a shroud; it is a mechanical doom. Steam should be mechanically elevated so
that it can utilize from a third to half of its power, and so that an
engine can develop an equivalent of thirty to fifty horses on the tow-path
to a train of boats, and so that it can take trains of ten to fifteen boats
on the two sixty-miles levels--where large hulls can be built and used
without necessity of passing locks--and somewhat smaller trains on the
other parts of the canal, averaging eight to ten boats per tug, or moving
from 70,000 to 80,000 bushels of corn, all as fast as they can be safely
handled, and then the day of horses is limited, and canals will need new
arrangements, new regulations and new customs.
Tugs on the canal have never exceeded a utility of eight to fifteen per
cent. of the inherent power of their steam. Hence, they have never had
towing power to develop the movement of trains of boats; but when they can
be made mechanically to utilize from thirty to fifty per cent., the train
movement becomes initiated with boats just as absolutely as with cars, and
the tow-boat system will be just as prominently and universally established
between Buffalo and Albany as it is between New York and Albany.
It is perfectly practical for steam, when it shall possess a respectable
mechanical adaptation to canal duty; that is, when it shall not be so
shamefully profligate in expenditures of power--_to double the average
speed of horses, or lessen the general average of ten days on the canal to
five days_, of which the down trips may overrun and the up trips fall
short, as with horse average.
When a single tug shall equal 30 to 50 horses on the tow-path, it equals 60
to 100 of supply, as all require the alternate team.
The automaton system of steam is a hinderance to horse-boat navigation,
besides increasing the risks and dangers, whilst the towing system, in
substitution for horses, greatly improves the navigation and lessens the
risks and dangers. Averaging the total mileage of a season with horse-boat
times of transit, and boats meet each other every twenty minutes, night and
day including Sundays, for seven months. To carry this tonnage, there must
be eleven meetings of steamers to nine by horses, which increases the risks
and dangers twenty-two per cent.; on the other hand, tows to the same
tonnage would only meet each other about every three hours, hence for long
distances they have an unobstructed water way.
MECHANICAL INVENTION, to adapt steam to the heavy resistances of canal
boats, is therefore the first and greatest necessity of canals.
A second necessity will be AUXILIARY AND CO-OPERATIVE POWER AT THE LOCKS
AND SHORT LEVELS.
These must be local, and may be by stationary steam-power, by water-power
from the upper levels, or by horses.
Thus, there would be only one detention of a tug through all the sixteen
locks from West Troy to Cohoes--only one wherever there are two or more
locks near each other, and at all locks there must be an independent local
power to handle all boats. In this way tugs will lose less time between
Buffalo and Albany than horse-boats do in changing teams from boat to
tow-path every six hours.
Following these necessities, new rules, regulations and customs will be
established, protecting the rights and equities of all.
* * * * *
A third necessity will be a CENTRALIZED MANAGEMENT, or control of all tugs,
train-movements, and local powers at short levels and locks.
This is essential to a harmony of movements, to a proper distribution of
motors, and to a proper adaptation to all the ebbs and flows of trade. This
is just as essential for the tugs of a canal as for the locomotives of a
railway. Provided the control of steam shall be held, _upon the merits of
some invention_, protected by Letters Patent from the General Government;
then the owners thereof might establish a centralized management to meet
the merits, demands and exigencies of the case. They could enforce a
harmony of interests between all trains and a harmony of police
regulations, and they could enforce a consolidation of effort and
co-operation to meet any exigency, just as a railway company can
consolidate and develop its efforts upon any necessitous occasion.
* * * * *
In the nature of the case, these three necessities, when accomplished, will
give to steam _the universal movement of boats_.
First.--Because it becomes a cheap motor in regard to which horses can hold
no competitive claim.
This is seen from the fact that when steam can only utilize from eight to
twelve per cent. of its power, as under the two eras of steam, the two best
steamers--the _S. B. Ruggles_ and _City of Buffalo_--lived five years in
competition with horses, nothing since has exceeded their economies or
capabilities; but give the steam they used a utility of thirty to fifty per
cent., or over three times its present capabilities, and no team can be
supported in competition.
* * * * *
Second.--Because it possesses the economies of concentrated power.
Horse-power must be diffused into small and limited qualities to be
economical. The cost of double, treble, or quadruple teams, to increase
speed or reduce time, swells the cost of transportation almost in like
ratio, and would eat largely into the value of cargoes.
With the _present enormous waste of steam-power, trains with over three
boats_ begin to increase the cost of freight per ton. The _Governor King_
was less economical with five boats than with three. On a part of the
Eastern Division, two powerful tugs, lashed side by side on the levels,
have taken a train of (17) seventeen boats successfully. Give to half their
combined steam fifty per cent. addition to their combined power, and train
movement receives an important inauguration. Economy, dispatch, regularity
and a universal harmony of interests prevail.