[264] Paper on “Inland Transport in the Nineteenth Century by Land and by Water.” By F. R. Conder.
[265] Select Committee on Canals, Report, 1883.
[CHAPTER XXVIII.]
SYSTEMS OF TRANSPORT AND HAULAGE.
The cost of transport, whether by land or by water, is necessarily largely affected by the method of propulsion or traction employed. On the ocean, on lakes, and, for the most part, on rivers as well, steam and wind are the systems available. On canals, however, the wind is practically impossible as a motive power, and steam is not always convenient. It has, therefore, become necessary and customary to employ other methods. Of these, the most common in Great Britain is horse traction, which, however, is often varied by manual labour on the towing path. In either of these forms, traction is slow, tedious, and costly, but there are many cases in which it is not possible to make use of any other system. Much depends upon the width of the canal, the number of locks that have to be passed through, and other conditions that affect the problem. It has, however, been placed beyond all doubt that where steam traction can be introduced, it is much more economical than either horse or manual labour. Steam may, of course, be employed in either of two ways—either in the form of a tug-boat, with a number of barges in tow, as on the great lakes of the United States; or, where the locks are not long and wide enough to permit of this system, in the form of a locomotive, instead of a horse, on the towing-path. The former system is, of course, much more general, and, so far as it is possible to judge from recorded experiments, much more satisfactory than the latter. But there are few towing paths that could not be adapted for a narrow-gauge railway, and a small locomotive engine might, therefore, be frequently employed where a steam-tug was out of the question.
Besides the systems of traction already named, there are various systems of chain towage that have been employed, especially on the Continent, with more or less satisfactory results. These usually take the form of ordinary chain towage, by an endless chain or rope, laid along the bottom of the canal in lengths of two or three miles, the tug being drawn along by the engine pulleys engaging with the rope or chain; or endless chain towage, by which, as practised on the Rhone, the tug carries two independent engines, each of which puts in motion an endless chain drawn along by the tug. This chain, on the Rhone, receives a motion like that of the bucket chain of a dredge, but the upper part remains horizontal, while the lower follows the bottom of the canal, the length and weight of the chain being determined by the adhesion necessary to draw the tug.
Another system which is practised in France to some extent, and especially on the Rhone, is that of a keel carrying at the stem or prow a large wheel with cams, which draws the boat along by pushing against the bottom, the initial motion being given by a steam engine.
The moving of boats upon canals or narrow rivers, where sailing is impracticable, has always been attended with difficulties. Where the width and depth of water will admit, long oars have been used, worked by one or two men on each side of the vessel, as is done on the coal barges or lighters on the Thames. On the Tyne, at Newcastle, these keels are said to have been in use ever since 1378, and are rowed by an immense oar on one side, another being used at the stem to steer by, and so to counteract the tendency of this strange mode of rowing.
It is said that the large oar is hung by an iron ring, so as to admit of its being laid on the gunwale of the keel, when not in use, but not of its being removed. Owing to the want of any regular and proper path on which horses could travel by the sides of rivers, the first hauling or towing of boats was performed by men. This still continues to be the case on the canals of China and some other countries; and in this country most of our navigable rivers were without horse towing-paths until the early part of the present century. Formerly ten or fifteen men were seen tugging at the hauling line of a barge on the Thames in the meadows of Twickenham. A good horse-path now begins at Putney bridge, on the south side, and continues uninterruptedly on one side or other of the river to the extreme points of the navigation. These essential appendages to navigation were even more recently adopted on the Severn river. The towing path on many of our old navigations is continually interrupted and broken off by mills and other obstacles without any bridges for the crossing of the towing horses and boys. On the Ouse river, below Bedford, the towing-path used to be interrupted at the end of almost every field by high and dangerous stiles, over which the ill-fated navigation horses had to leap, encumbered by their harness and the heavy rope.