FOOTNOTES:

[1] The accomplished authoress of "Rural Hours."—Ed. International.

THE LONDON TIMES ON AMERICAN INTERCOMMUNICATION.

We are by no means confident that the Mexican War, with all its victories, was more serviceable to our reputation in Europe, than the single victory of Mr. Stevens, in his yacht America, off the Isle of Wight. This triumph has been celebrated in a dinner at the Astor House, but the city might have well afforded to welcome the returning owner of the America with an illumination, or the fathers, in council assembled, might have voted him a statue. Mr. Collins and Mr. Stevens have together managed to deprive England of the "trident of the seas," and as soon as it was transferred there began a shower of honors, which continues still, from the Times down to the very meanest of its imitators. From that time the Americans have had all the "solid triumphs" in the Great Exhibition. We have been regarded as a wonderful people, and our institutions as the most interesting study that is offered for contemporary statesmen and philosophers. We copy below a specimen of the leaders with which the Times has honored us, and commend it to our readers, not more for its tone than for the valuable information contained in it:—

LOCOMOTION BY RIVER AND RAILWAY IN THE UNITED STATES.

England has been so dazzled by the splendor of her own achievements in the creation of a new art of transport by land and water within the last thirty years, as to become in a measure insensible to all that has been accomplished in the same interval and in the same department of the arts elsewhere, improvements less brilliant, indeed, intrinsically, than the stupendous system of inland transport, which we lately noticed in these columns, and having a lustre mitigated to our view by distance, yet presenting in many respects circumstances and conditions which may well excite profound and general interest, and even challenge a respectful comparison with the greatest of those advances in the art of locomotion of which we are most justly proud.

It will not, therefore, be without utility and interest, after the detailed notice which we have lately given of our own advances in the adaptation of steam to locomotion, to direct attention to the progress in the same department which has been simultaneously made in other and distant countries, and first, and above all, by our friends and countrymen in the other hemisphere.

The inland transport of the United States is distributed mainly between the rivers, the canals, and the railways, a comparatively small fraction of it being executed on common roads. Provided with a system of natural water communication on a scale of magnitude without any parallel in the world, it might have been expected that the "sparse" population of this recently settled country might have continued for a long period of time satisfied with such an apparatus of transport. It is, however, the character of man, but above all of the Anglo-Saxon man, never to rest satisfied with the gifts of nature, however munificent they be, until he has rendered them ten times more fruitful by the application of his skill and industry, and we find accordingly that the population of America has not only made the prodigious natural streams which intersect its vast territory over so many thousands of miles, literally swarm with steamboats, but they have, besides, constructed a system of canal navigation, which may boldly challenge comparison with any thing of the same kind existing in the oldest, wealthiest, and most civilized States of Europe.

It appears from the official statistics that, on the 1st of January, 1843, the extent of canals in actual operation amounted to 4,333 miles and that there were then in progress 2,359 miles, a considerable portion of which has since been completed, so that it is probable that the actual extent of artificial water communication now in use in the United States considerably exceeds 5,000 miles. The average cost of executing this prodigious system of artificial water communication was at the rate of 6,432l. per mile, so that 5,000 miles would have absorbed a capital of above 32,000,000l.

This extent of canal transport, compared with the population, exhibits in a striking point of view the activity and enterprise which characterize the American people. In the United States there is a mile of canal navigation for every 5,000 inhabitants, while in England the proportion is 1 to every 9,000 inhabitants, and France 1 to every 13,000. The ratio, therefore, of this instrument of intercommunication in the United States is greater than in the United Kingdom, in proportion to the population, as 9 to 5, and greater than in France in the ratio of 13 to 5.

The extent to which the American people have fertilized, so to speak, the natural powers of those vast collections of water which surround and intersect their territory, is not less remarkable than their enterprise in constructing artificial lines of water communication. Besides the internal communication supplied by the rivers, properly so called, a vast apparatus of liquid transport is derived from the geographical character of their extensive coast, stretching over a space of more than 4,000 miles, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the delta of the Mississippi, indented and serrated with natural harbors and sheltered bays, fringed with islands forming sounds, throwing out capes and promontories which inclose arms of the sea in which the waters are free from the roll of the ocean, and which, for all the purposes of navigation, have the character of rivers and lakes. The lines of communication formed by the vast and numerous rivers are, moreover, completed in the interior by chains of lakes presenting the most extensive bodies of fresh water in the known world.

Whatever question may be raised on the conflicting claims for the invention of steam navigation, it is an incontestable fact that the first steamboat practically applied for any useful purpose was placed on the Hudson, to ply between New-York and Albany, in 1808; and, from that time to the present that river has been the theatre of the most remarkable series of experiments of locomotion on water ever recorded in the history of man. The Hudson is navigable by steamers of the largest class as high as Albany, a distance of nearly 150 miles from New-York. The steam navigation upon this river is entitled to attention, not only because of the immense traffic of which it is the vehicle, but because it forms a sort of model for all the rivers of the Atlantic States. Two classes of steamers work upon it—one appropriated to the swift transport of passengers, and the other to the towing of the vast traffic which is maintained between the city of New-York and the interior of the State of that name, into the heart of which the Hudson penetrates.

The passenger steamers present a curious contrast to the sea-going steamers with which we are familiar. Not having to encounter the agitated surface of the ocean, they are supplied with neither rigging nor sails, are built exclusively with a view to speed, are slender and weak in their structure, with great length in proportion to their beam, and have but small draught of water. The position and form of the machinery are peculiar. The engines are placed on deck in a comparatively elevated situation. It is but rarely that two engines are used. A single engine placed in the centre of the deck drives a crank constructed on the axle of the enormous paddle-wheels, the magnitude of which, and the velocity imparted to them, enable them to perform the office of fly-wheels. These vessels, which are of great magnitude, are splendidly fitted up for the accommodation of passengers, and have been within the last ten or twelve years undergoing a gradual augmentation of magnitude, to which it would seem to be difficult to set a limit.

In the following table, which we borrow from the work on Railway Economy, from which we have already derived so large a portion of our information, are given the dimensions and the details of fourteen of the principal steamers plying on the Hudson in the year 1838:—

Names.Length of deck.Breadth of beam.Draught.Diameter of wheels.Length of paddles.Depth of paddles.Number of engines.Diameter of cylinder.Length of stroke.Number of revolutions.Part of stroke at which steam is cut off.
ft. ft. ft. ft. ft.ft. in. ft.
Dewit Clinton 230285·52113·736165 1029·75
Champlain 180275·5221534244 1027·5·50
Erie 180275·5221534244 1027·5·50
North America 200305211330244·5 824·50
Independence 14826 — — ——144 10 — —
Albany 21226 —24·51430165 —19 —
Swallow 23322·53·75241130146 —27 —
Rochester 200253·7523·51024143 1028 —
Utica 200213·522 9·524139 10 — —
Providence 180279 — ——165 10 — —
Lexington 20721 —23 930148 1124 —
Narraganset 210265251130160 1220·50
Massachusetts 20029·58·5221028244 826 —
Rhode Island 210266·5241130160 1121 —
Averages 200265·624·81130—50·8 1024·8 —

The changes more recently made all have a tendency to increase the magnitude and power of those vessels—to diminish their draught of water—and to increase the play of the expansive principle. Vessels of the largest class now draw only as much water as the smallest drew a few years ago, four feet five inches being regarded as the maximum.

It appears from the following table that the average length of these prodigious floating hotels is above 300 feet; some of them approaching 400. In the passenger accommodation afforded by them no water communication in any country can compete. Nothing can exceed the splendor and luxury with which they are fitted up, furnished, and decorated. Silk, velvet, the most costly carpetings and upholstery, vast mirrors, gilding, and carving, are profusely displayed in their decoration. Even the engine-room in some of them is lined with mirrors. In the Alida, for example, the end of the engine-room is one vast mirror, in which the movements of the brilliant and highly-finished machinery are reflected. All the largest class are capable of running from twenty to twenty-two miles an hour, and average nearly twenty miles without difficulty.

In the annexed table are exhibited the details of ten of the most recently constructed passenger vessels:—

Names. DIMENSIONS OF VESSEL. ENGINE. PADDLE-WHEEL.
Length.Breadth. Depth of Hold.Tonnage. Diameter of cylinder.Length of stroke.Number of strokes. Diameter.Length of bucket.Depth of bucket.
ft. ft. ft.in.ft. ft.ft. in.
Isaac Newton33340·410·08112 18-1/239·012·4 32
Bay State30039·013·27612 21-1/238·010·3 32
Empire State30439·013·67612 21-1/238·010·3 32
Oregon30835·0 —7211 1834·011·0 28
Hendrick Hudson32035·0 9·6 1,0507211 2233·011·0 33
C. Vanderbilt30035·011·0 1,0757212 2135·0 9·0 33
Connecticut30037·011·07213 2135·011·6 36
Commodore28033·010·66511 2231·6 9·0 33
New-York27635·010·67615 1844·612·0 36
Alida28628·0 9·65612 24-1/232·010·0 32
Averages31035·811·071·812·120·835·010·8 37

It may be observed, in relation to the navigation of those eastern rivers (for we do not here speak of the Mississippi and its tributaries), that the occurrence of explosions is almost unheard of. During the last ten years not a single catastrophe of this kind has been recorded, although cylindrical boilers ten feet in diameter, composed of plating 5-16ths of an inch thick, are commonly used with steam of 50lb. pressure.

Previously to 1844 the lowest fare from New-York to Albany, a distance of 145 miles, was 4s. 4d.; at present the fare is 2s. 2d.—and for an additional sum of the same amount the passenger can command the luxury of a separate cabin. When the splendor and magnitude of the accommodation is considered, the magnificence of the furniture and accessories, and the luxuriousness of the table, it will be admitted that no similar example of cheap locomotion can be found in any part of the globe. Passengers may there be transported in a floating palace, surrounded with all the conveniences and luxuries of the most splendid hotel, at the average rate of twenty miles an hour, for less than one-sixth of a penny per mile! It is not an uncommon occurrence during the warm season to meet persons on board these boats who have lodged themselves there permanently, in preference to hotels on the banks of the river. Their daily expenses in the boat are as follows:

Fare2s. 2d.
Separate bedroom22
Breakfast, dinner, and supper66
——————
Total daily expense for board, lodging, attendance, and travelling 150 miles, at 20 miles an hour1010

Such accommodation is, on the whole, more economical than a hotel. The bedroom is as luxuriously furnished as the handsomest chamber in an hotel or private house, and is much more spacious than the room similarly designated in the largest packet ships.

The other class of steamers, used for towing the commerce of the river, corresponds to the goods trains on railways. No spectacle can be more remarkable than this class of locomotive machines, dragging their enormous load up the Hudson. They may be seen in the midst of this vast stream, surrounded by a cluster of twenty or thirty loaded craft of various magnitudes. Three or four tiers are lashed to them at each side, and as many more at their bow and at their stern. The steamer is almost lost to the eye in the midst of this crowd of vessels which cling around it, and the moving mass is seen to proceed up the river, no apparent agent of propulsion being visible, for the steamer and its propellers are literally buried in the midst of the cluster which clings to it and floats round and near it.

As this water-goods train, for so it may be called, ascends the river, it drops off its load, vessel by vessel, at the towns which it passes. One or two are left at Newburgh, another at Poughkeepsie, two or three more at Hudson, one or two at Fishkill, and, finally, the tug arrives with a residuum of some half-dozen vessels at Albany.

The steam navigation of the Mississippi and the other western rivers is conducted in a manner entirely different from that of the Hudson. Every one must be familiar with the lamentable accidents which happen from time to time, and the loss of life from explosion which continually takes place on those rivers. Such catastrophes, instead of diminishing with the improvement of art, seem rather to have increased. Engineers have done literally nothing to check the evil.

In a Mississippi steamboat the cabins and saloons are erected on a flooring six or eight feet above the deck, upon which and under them the engines are placed, which are of the coarsest and most inartificial structure. They are invariably worked with high-pressure steam, and in order to obtain that effect which in the Hudson steamers is due to a vacuum, the steam is worked at an extraordinary pressure. We have ourselves actually witnessed boilers of this kind, on the western rivers, working under a full pressure of 120lb. per square inch above the atmosphere, and we have been assured that this pressure has been recently considerably increased, so that it is not unfrequent now to find them working with a bursting pressure of 200lb. per square inch!

As might naturally be expected, the chief theatre of railway enterprise in America is the Atlantic States. The Mississippi and its tributaries have served the purposes of commerce and intercommunication to the comparatively thinly scattered population of the Western States so efficiently that many years will probably elapse, notwithstanding the extraordinary enterprise of the people, before any considerable extent of railway communication will be established in this part of the States. Nevertheless, the traveller in these distant regions encounters occasionally detached examples of railways even in the valley of the Mississippi. In the State of Mississippi there are five short lines, ten or twelve in Louisiana, and a limited number scattered over Florida, Alabama, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. These, however, are generally detached and single lines, unconnected with the vast network which we shall presently notice. To the traveller in these wild regions the aspect of such artificial agents of transport in the midst of a country, a great portion of which is still in the state of native forest, is most remarkable, and strongly characteristic of the irrepressible spirit of enterprise of its people. Travelling in the back woods of Mississippi, through native forests, where till within a few years human foot never trod, through solitudes, the silence of which was never broken, even by the red man, we have been sometimes filled with wonder to find ourselves transported by an engine constructed at Newcastle-on-Tyne, and driven by an artisan from Liverpool, at the rate of twenty miles an hour. It is not easy to describe the impression produced by the juxtaposition of these refinements of art and science with the wildness of the country, where one sees the frightened deer start from its lair at the snorting of the ponderous machine and the appearance of the snakelike train which follows it.

The first American railway was opened for passengers on the last day of 1829. According to the reports collected and given in detail in the work already quoted, it appears that in 1849, after an interval of just twenty years, there were in actual operation 6,565 miles of railway in the States. The cost of construction and plant of this system of railways appears by the same authority to have been 53,386,885l., being at the average rate of 8,129l. per mile.

The reports collected in Dr. Lardner's work come up to the middle of 1849. We have, however, before us documents which supply data to a more recent period, and have computed from them the following table, exhibiting the number of miles of railway in actual operation in the United States, the capital expended in their construction and plant, and the length of the lines which are in process of construction, but not yet completed:—

Railways in operation. Cost of Building and Plant. Projected and in progress. Cost per Mile.
Miles. £ Miles. £
Eastern States, including Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut 2,845 23,100,987 567 8,123
Atlantic States, including New-York, the Jerseys, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland 3,503 27,952,500 2,020 7,979
Southern States, including Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, and Alabama 2,103 8,253,130 1,283 3,919
Western States, including Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, and Wisconsin 1,835 7,338,290 5,762 3,999
Totals and averages 10,289 66,653,907 9,632 6,478

It must be admitted that the results here exhibited present a somewhat astonishing spectacle. It appears from this statement that there are in actual operation in the United States 10,289 miles of railway, and that there are 9,632 projected and in process of execution. So that when a few years more shall have rolled away, this extraordinary people will actually have 20,000 miles of iron road in operation.

It appears from the above report, compared with the previous report quoted from Dr. Lardner, that the average cost of construction has been diminished as the operations progressed. According to Dr. Lardner, the average cost of construction of the 6,500 miles of railway in operation in 1849 was 8,129l. per mile whereas, it appears from the preceding table that the actual cost of 10,289 miles now in operation has been at the average rate of 6,478l. per mile. On examining the analysis of the distribution of these railways among the States, it appears that this discordance of the two statements is apparent rather than real, and proceeds from the fact that the railways opened since Dr. Lardner's report, being chiefly in the southern and western States, are cheaply constructed lines, in which the landed proprietors have given to a great extent their gratuitous co-operation, and in which the plant and working stock is of very small amount, so that their average cost per mile is a little under 4,000l.—the average cost per mile in the eastern and northern States corresponding almost to a fraction with Dr. Lardner's estimate. It is also worthy of observation that the distribution of this network of railways is extremely unequal, not only in quantity, but in its capability, as indicated by its expense of construction. Thus, in the populous and wealthy States of Massachusetts, New-Jersey, and New-York, the proportion of railways to surface is considerable, while in the southern and western States it is trifling. In the following table is given the number of miles of surface for each mile of railway in some of the principal States:—