The Suez Canal, opened in 1870, was used by only 486 vessels, with a total net tonnage of 436,609, but its use was steadily increased, until in 1891, it rose to 8,698,777. When the canal was opened, it had cost $100,000,000, that is, $1,000,000 a mile, and since then $40,000,000 more have been expended in improvements. These are large amounts, but the canal pays annually from $4,000,000 to $5,000,000 over the interest of its bonded debt.
The introduction of railroads into England and the United States marks a great era in the progress of these two nations, not to say that of the whole world, though the event is of comparatively recent date, as the following account taken from a recent issue of the New York Tribune goes to show:
“The Chicago Record says that Edward Entwistle who has lived in Des Moines, Iowa, for forty years, ran the first passenger engine. He was born at Tilsey’s Banks, Lancashire, England, in 1815, and was apprenticed to the Duke of Bridgewater, who had large machine shops at Manchester. The first railroad for general passenger and freight business was completed in 1831, between Manchester and Liverpool, a distance of thirty-one miles. The Rocket, the first locomotive or passenger engine, was built under the direction and according to the plans of George Stephenson, in the works where young Entwistle was serving as an apprentice. Stephenson engaged Entwistle as his assistant in the engine. The line being opened for general traffic, young Entwistle was put in charge of the Rocket, and for two years made two round trips every day between Liverpool and Manchester, one in the forenoon and the other in the afternoon. He came to this country in 1837.”
When Mr. Plant was nine years old, there were only three miles of railroad in the United States. They were completed in 1827. Now there are 173,453 miles, and the speed of trains has been increased from ten miles an hour to more than seventy miles. The sleeping-and parlor-cars have made travel one of the great luxuries of this most luxuriant century. The first ocean steamer that crossed the Atlantic was the Savannah, which made the trip to Europe in the year 1819, the year Mr. Plant was born, and in 1838, the first regular line of Atlantic steamers was established.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Railroads Established—Engineering Progress—Steel, Iron Steamships—Horse Railroad—Kerosene Oil in Use 1830—Sewing Machines—Agricultural Implements 1831-51—Sanitary Progress—Philanthropic and Christian Progress—Higher Education—Medical Progress—Humane Care of the Insane—Sailors’ and Seamen’s Home—World’s Fairs—Religious Reciprocity—Arbitration—Numerous Inventions and Discoveries—Concluding Remarks.