A history of commerce

by Clive Day

351. Importance of steel in railroad construction.—To many readers practical devices like the air-brake, further reducing the cost and increasing the efficiency of operation, will be familiar. One factor in improvement, however, is not so apparent, and deserves special attention by reason of its commanding importance. The railroad in its modern form would be impossible if Bessemer and others had not taught the world to make steel cheaply. Iron rails, even under comparatively light loads, wore out and had to be replaced constantly. Steel rails, introduced gradually after 1860, could bear double the load on each wheel, and still outlive many iron rails. The modern rail, simple as it appears, is both in material and in proportions a great feat of engineering, “a beam whose every dimension and curve and angle are exactly suited to the tremendous work it has to do.” Steel rails and steel bridges have made possible the economy of the colossal locomotives of modern times. Steel has enabled men, instead of building 10-ton cars to carry 10 tons of cargo, to build 12-ton cars to carry 20, or 14-ton to carry 30; each improvement of this kind represents a saving in the dead weight of the train, and a consequent reduction in cost. Steel has furnished a material for the bridges over which the cars are carried, enabling a span of 500 feet to be constructed as readily as a span of 250 feet, with the iron formerly employed.

The size of the small circles indicates the railroad mileage of each country at ten year intervals. To facilitate comparison, the circles for 1850 are printed black, and those for 1890 are shaded. Note the disproportion of mileage and area.

352. Development of the railroad system after 1850.—Improvements in the construction, the equipment, and the operation of railroads, for the mere suggestion of which there is scarcely space here, explain the rapid growth of the railroad system shown in the figures at the opening of the chapter. It will be noted that over 99 per cent of mileage has been constructed since 1840, and that even in 1850 the world had made but a mere beginning in railroad construction. About the middle of the century began a movement toward the consolidation of existing lines, which had formerly been operated in short stretches by independent companies. The student should note that this consolidation proceeded largely along the length of railroads, not in the modern fashion by the union of parallel and competing lines; and it is almost impossible to exaggerate the benefits that resulted, in increased efficiency of management, improved service, and lower rates. About this time (1854) the first railroad was built across the Alps; the Union and Central Pacific route was opened in 1869, beginning the era of the transcontinental roads; and investors and engineers, who found the older and more advanced sections adequately supplied with railroads, began now to build lines far out into new territory, to open up fresh land and develop new trade.

353. Importance of railroads at present.—Some attention will be paid hereafter to the decisive influence which the railroad has exercised on recent commercial development; and in the history of commerce in particular countries the thoughtful student will not fail to recognize this influence even when it is not specifically pointed out. In leaving the subject at this point, however, the student may be grateful for a summary estimate of the relative importance of railroads and other instruments of production in our modern life. A good authority has estimated that one quarter or even one third of the total invested capital of civilized nations has taken the form of railroads. It is doubtful whether the manufacturing establishments of the world are equal in value to its railroads; while the world’s whole stock of money would buy but a fraction of them. The railroads of the United States carried in 1900 a thousand million tons of freight at a cost of a thousand million dollars, and at the rate of less than three quarters of a cent per ton-mile. The student may, from these figures, estimate the service of railroads to the average individual in the country, and may rest assured that the work they do could not be accomplished by the means in use a century ago, even if the whole annual product of the country were squandered in the attempt to carry it on.

QUESTIONS AND TOPICS

1. See the suggestion on the treatment of the statistics in sect. 315. Combine the statistics of the sections 315 and 342 in one chart, if practicable. See below, sect. 354, for the explanation of carrying power; a steamer is estimated to have four times the efficiency of a sailing vessel, in this table.

2. What is the cost of transportation over roads in your vicinity? What system of construction and maintenance is pursued?

3. Write an essay on one of the following topics, from the circulars of the Office of Road Inquiry, U. S. Department of Agriculture. (Copies may probably be secured gratis on application.)

(a) The proper method of constructing and repairing earth roads. [Circular no. 8.]