The western steamboats are on the high pressure principle, with a force of six or eight atmospheres. The boilers are on deck, in the bow of the boat; the cylinder is horizontal; there are two wheels, one on each side. Formerly, a single stern wheel was generally used. Only one engine is used to a boat. The pistons are not of metal, an arrangement which necessarily involves a great loss of power, but which renders repairs more easy, an important consideration with inexperienced engineers. The engines are of very simple construction and cost little; those for the largest boats cost from 10,000 to 14,000 dollars; the engines of the French government packets in the Mediterranean cost nearly 60,000 dollars. The cylinders of the most powerful engines in the western boats are of 30 inches diameter, and seven feet stroke. These boats consume enormous quantities of wood; the larger ones burning from one and a half to one and three quarters cords an hour; the rate of speed rarely exceeds ten miles an hour even down stream.
In the east a good steamer from 175 to 200 feet in length with copper boilers, which are necessary to resist the action of salt water, costs from 70,000 to 80,000 dollars, including the furniture. The carpenter's work of the hull costs about thirty dollars a ton, exclusive of the iron. The engine, when there is but one, costs from 12,000 to 15,000 dollars, exclusive of the boilers. The North America cost 100,000 dollars; a good boat, well taken care of, lasts about twelve or fifteen years in the east. The eastern boats are very fast and safe, and of late years, great improvements have been made in their construction, principally by Mr Stevens of New York. They move at the rate of fifteen miles an hour in still water, and generally carry nothing but passengers. Their usual length is from 180 to 200 feet, with a breadth of twentyfour or twentysix, without including the paddle-boxes; their usual draught of water about four or five feet in the rivers, and from six and a half to nine feet in the bays and seas. Their engines are on the low or mean pressure principle; the cylinder is vertical, and they often have two engines; the stroke of the piston has been carried to ten or eleven feet; the diameter of the cylinders, in some of the boats, is five feet four inches. They consume from twentyfive to thirty cords of wood an hour.
The number of steamboats in the United States, at the end of 1834, was 386 of an aggregate of 95,648 tons, of which 237, with a tonnage of 64,347 tons, were on the western waters. [In 1839 the number of boats was about 800, with an aggregate tonnage of 157,473 tons; of these about 300 were on the western rivers and 70 on the lakes.—Transl.] There were in France, in 1834, 82 steamboats, with a total tonnage of not more than 15,000 tons, beside 37 belonging to the government. The whole number of steamers in England is about 480.
Note 22—page 268.
Summary Statements of the Public Works in the United States.
The six tables which follow present a recapitulation of the statements given in Letter XXI., with the cost per league in francs. [Many of the statements in the Letter are slightly varied from the original, in conformity with official reports, and the cost and distances have there been reduced to English measures and Federal money. In these tables the author's statements are given without change because sufficient materials for a total recasting of them are not accessible to the translator. In reducing federal money to francs, M. Chevalier assumes the dollar to be equal to 5.33 francs; the league is of 4,000 metres, and consequently equivalent to two and a half English statute miles.—Transl.]
I. Lines between the East and West.
II. Lines connecting the Valleys of the Mississippi and St. Lawrence.
| Length. Leagues. | Total Cost. Francs. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Names. | Canals. | Railroads. | Canals. | Railroads. | Cost per League. | |
| Ohio Canal, | 122 | 22,720,000 | 186,200 | |||
| Miami (1st section,) | 26½ | 5,227,000 | 197,200 | |||
| (2d section,) | 50¼ | 11,000,000 | 219,000 | |||
| Wabash and Erie Canal, | 84 | 16,800,000 | 200,000 | |||
| Michigan " | 37½ | 37,500,000 | 1,000,000 | |||
| Pittsburg and Erie " | 41½ | 5,000,000 | 120,500 | |||
| Beaver and Sandy " | 36¼ | 7,250,000 | 200,000 | |||
| Mahoning " | 36 | 7,200,000 | 200,000 | |||
| Mad River Railroad, | 61½ | 10,500,000 | 170,700 | |||
| Welland Canal. | 11¼ | 11,040,000 | 982,300 | |||
| Canals on the St. Lawrence, | 13 | 20,000,000 | 1,538,000 | |||
| Louisville and Portland Canal, | ¾ | 4,053,000 | 5,400,000 | |||
| Totals | 459 | 61½ | 147,790,000 | 10,500,000 | ||