The late experiments in canal steamboats bid fair to be a complete
success. The Baxter steamers were not sufficiently remunerative
to continue the building of that kind of boat. They do not carry a
sufficient load, owing to their build, and that is made necessary by
the form and arrangement of the machinery and propelling power, the
propeller being that form used by the tug in Buffalo. The new style,
which bids to pay handsomely, is as full a bow and stern as the
ordinary first-class canal boat. The propelling power is radically
different from the tug propeller. The wheel is eight feet in diameter
and placed close to the stern; the boiler is upright, with a single
engine, very compact machinery, taking up no more room than the stable
in many boats, and enabling the boat to carry 7,500 bushels of corn
and coal for the trip. With this cargo they run from Buffalo to New
York in seven days on five and a half gross tons of coal, saving river
and harbor towing. One returned from New York to Buffalo in one hour
less than seven days, bringing one hundred and thirty tons of freight.
The outlook now promises to supersede mule and horse towing. The
Belgian system of cable towing will take that large number of boats
now relying on the mule, and deliver them promptly as consigned and in
much less time and cost than can be done by the mule. Both systems are
necessary for rapid movement on the canal, and to cheapen the transfer
from the West to the seaboard. Steam is sure to supersede animal power
on the canal, as everywhere else. The canal steamboats are at last so
far perfected as to insure a handsome profit in running them, and
a large number will soon be at work on the canal. Two are to be
constructed in Lockport as speedily as possible by one of our most
enterprising boat builders, and the machinery is contracted for,
thus opening up a new industry for our numerous and worthy
mechanics.--_Lockport_ (_N. Y._) _Journal_.
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