4

WATERWAYS JOURNAL.

 

and visionary, while it is certain that
if the two s-chemes were carried out
there would be an enormous waste of
public funds upon an utterly futile,
though vast, enterprive. _

The effects of purely disintersted
personal study were shown in the
changed attitude of members of the
deep waterway convention after the
trip to New Orleans. ‘One of the dele-
gates, a man prominent in Chicago af-
fairs, said that 75 per cent of the
members of the different bodies at-
tending the convention were con-
vinced that the magnificent scheme
upon which so much oratory has been
expended was a “fake.” It is a “fake”
in all its parts, including the Chicago
end.

This is said with no thought of im-
pugning the good faith of those who
have worked for it. Vvhat has oc-
curred has been a stampede over a
fascinating idea. The temptation to
public speakers has been resistless.
Everything has been favorable to the
grand rush, but it must be checked
by the -sound sense of our people.
When that is severely applied to the
baseless fabric of these waterway
visvions, the stately ships traveling
through the heart of a great conti-
nent will melt into thin air and all
the wondrous trade will fade away.

The country, the state, the city may
then esteem themselves fortunate if
little has been expended on the pa-
geant over and above the‘ easy-flowing
oratory.

MONONGAHELA RIVER NOTES.

 

The steamer Ve.sta, of the Jones &
Iiaughlin fleet, received a new shaft
last week.

Engineer Jos. Haught, of the steam-
er Lee H. Brooks, had his 1icense.sus-
pended for six months for carrying ex-
cess-ive steam, and a lock-up safety
valve was ordered placed on the
boile-r.

Capt. Nep Wishert died at the Odd
Fellows’ Home at Grove City, Pa., aged
76, on last Monday. Capt. Wishert
was form-erly captain on the Sam
Brown, Valiant and other boats. He
was also inventor of the Wishert sy-
p-hon, which is in ‘general use on many
of the Pittsburg towboats.

Steward George Morely died at the
home of his sister, at M-cKee’s Rocks,
last wee-k, aged 67 years. Mr. Morely
was a Civil War vete-ran, and was
h-ighly respected by his many friends
on t-he river.

Capt. Frank Vlfiilliams of the Mo-
nongahela River Packet Comp-any has

accepted a position at Lock No. 5,
Brownsville, Pa.
Any information ‘regarding the

whereabouts of Arthur McKay and
Ray Hiumphries will be gladly re-
ceived by their friends at the rooms
of M. E. B». A., No. 30, House pui1d-
ing. When last seen they were cross-
ing the Sixth. street bridge, linked
arms, ‘bound for a wat-ch meeting on
Troy Hill, on New Year’s eve.

Mr. Ray Hoard is taking it e-asy at
his home, Lock No. 9, while his boat,
the Marion, is ‘laid up for ice and high
water.—S. L.

 

—The towboat Margaret and Hen-
rietta are towing ties out of the Ten-
nessee River to Paducah.

W HY RAILROADS
BESTED STEAM BOATS.

By John M. Sweeney.
(Continued.)

Chicago, January 11, 1910.——One
very interesting fact in the railway-
waterway contest for business is, that
where the railways have occupied the
narrow plateaus, generally lying be-
tween the base of the hills and the
river bank, in such sections as the
:Ohio Valley and tributaries, they
have in many cases -so located tracks
as to interfere with the ease -of com-
mlunicatio-n to and from the boat
landings. And have been assisted to
this end by concessions and easements
of streets and public property by the
towns and. »cities themselves. At the
same time the 'muni-cipality has con-
tinued to levy a wharfage -charge
against the steamboat. That there is
some public spirit and interest in
the waterway question is evidenced
by the growing attendance at the sev-
eral waterway meetings and conven-
tions; while apparently t-here is no
case- of boat—l~anding charge, wh-ere
i-t would not be to the interest of the
town to abolish such czharge entirely;
yet in most places the lo-cal political
situation is responsible for some of-
ficial or position, of wharfmaster, the
aboliti-on of which would reduce the
number of city ofiicials.

Here is a fine chance for an exhibi-
tion of real interest in practical wa-
terway en.cour.agement. Why should
not the commercial organizations in-
vestigate thoroughly this question,
under their own control, in addition to
passing the usual resolutions?

There is told of one particular city
where the wharfmaster receives a
fixed salary, which is greater than the
present total collections from wharf-
age, while this ofiicial performs no du-
ties other than the collection of
wharfage charges. If true, such con-
ditions should present a most potent
set of reasons for an example in
aboliizshing wharfage at that point.
Let the ‘good work begin.

One fo*recasr’t of the report o-f the
United States National Vvaterways
Cornmission, found recently in the
daily press, refers to the notation of a
“peculiar phase” by the commission,
in a fallin-g off in the transportation
of coarse freights «for long distances.
One considerable item in this class
would be found in the entire cessation
of the water haulage of Iron Mountain
ore from‘ St. Louis to the coal fields
of the Upper Ohio Valley coals; and
the western markets of fabrications
from these same ores.

Consider the one item of cut nails.
No nails were -made west of the Upper
Ohio River before the establishment
of a factory at Belleville, Ill. This
concern used Illinois and Indiana
coals, requiring more bushels of these
coals to produnce a keg of nails than
of the Upper Ohio aV11ey coals; and
this excess, together with the greater
first cost -of the coal delivered at the
works, justified the towage o-f the ore
to the U' -per Ohio fue-ls, and the re-
turn of t e lmanufactureda product, to
St. Louis} at a‘ profit. That is, the dif-
ference in the item -of fuel cost alone
was more than the cost of transporta-
tion, by water, of both the ore and
nails.

Now, this only emphasizes that cer-

tain law, that the movement of a
product can -only be -profitable» from
a -point where it is cheap to one where
it is dear. The superficial View of the
fact that this business of ore and pro-
duct towage is of the past usually
blames the railroads for suppressing
it; but we must not forget that the
ncut-nail industry of a few years ago
has almost entirely disappeared from
the Ohio Valley. Factories have
been dismantled, and -machines re-
duced to scrap, while the energies of
the people are directed to other
products, which are distributed over a
larger initial territory, in smaller
units of shipment, »considerin.g points
of the compass; that is, over a greater
nulrnber of radial lines than the one
great water highway.

This same newspaper forecast, men-
tioned before, of the acrommission’s re-
port suggests as one reason for decline
of steamboat business on our rivers,a
greater speed of trains-. If this is in-
tended to imply that the railroad
makes quickler deliveries of freight
than boat lines, it is surely wide of
the fact, the exact contrary being the
well known experience of any ship-
per.

Unless greatly mistaken, the P. &
C. Packet Company at one time is-
sued through bills of lading from
Pitsburg to Chicago, and were able to
secure a quantity of tonnage because
of the lessened time of transit, even
between Pits-burg and Chicago, where
the quick delivery to Cincinnati, or
Lower Ohio River rail points, more
than offset any advanta.ges of through
rail. This ability to arrange such
through routing seems to have disap-
peared following some of the rail-
road consolidations.

Recently the Waterways Journal
published some interesting informa-
tion concerning the life of some en-
gines and machinery and its contin-
uous operation. Capt. George Prince
of Natchez now owns a pair of en-
gine-s which go back beyond any rec-
ord yet found. These cylinclers are
about 13 inches in diamet-er by 4%
feet stroke, and were built originally
for a boat called “Peru,” supposedly
near 1838. The Peru sunk in the Ohio
River, near Moundsville, W. Va. The
machinery was taken out of the wreck
and used in ‘C’rawford’s flour mill, near
the head of Wheeling Island, on the
Oh-io side. Here it did duty until
1871, when the mill was dismantled,
the engines were purchased by C-apt.
Princels father and again put afloat
on the towboat Iron Valley. Later
they were moved over to a new hull;
which became the Belle Prince, a11d
operated continuously on that b-oat
until she sunk in 1907. Capt George
Prince bought the wre-ck of the Belle
Prince, took out the machinery, and it‘
is now in good order and r-eady for
more work. These engines are slide
valve, ‘with poppet cut-off, and these
cylinders have never been rebored or
the slide-valve ‘seats faced since their
original construction, so far as ad-
vised. All the time this machinery was
bu-ilt no cupolas were in use in foun-
dries for melting; the air furnace was
the universal method, and cold-blast
charcoal pig metal the material. Man-
ufacturers of that period later de-
plored the introduction of cupolas
and hot-blast pig -metal as productive
of inferior work, compa.ra.tively. How-

ever, we ‘seem to be holding our o-wn,
if the fact is assuring that the high-
pres.-sure engines in Capt. Maddy’s
Ohio, which a.re slide-valve, poppet
cut—off, 121/2 inches in diameter by
4% -feet stroke, built for the steamer
Elaine in 1881, have been in active
operation for thirty years without re-
boring of the cylinders or facing of
valve seats. One thing We= must not
forget, either, that our steamboat en-
gines are always worked up to their
maximum, for twenty-four hours out
of twenty-four hours, and hot ten
hours, often at a minimum load, under
the control of a governor, as is the
case in stationary pra-ctilce. Any way
one takes it, there is no reflection on
the pop-pet «cut—off engine.

These Peru engines have two ex-
haust outlets on each side pipe, the
reason for which caused much discus-
sion at times, but was never ex-
plained to the entire sati-sfaction of all
the disputants.

What a story these engines might
tell, if only endowed with. memory
and the power of expres=sri—on, about
their tre-at'ment from the variety of
engineers who have had them in
«charge. Not the 1ea.st amusing might
be told of that one who asked at the
b-oat store for ten feet of “inch and
three-q.uarters cotton rope.” Being
told they had none, and ask-ed what
he wanted it for, said: “I want inch
for the rods and three-quarters for
the plu'nge=rs.” “Oh,” the boat store
man replied, “I thought you wanted a
big rope.” The enginee-r said: “Do
you think I’m a d fool, and wanted
a .hawser?”—Jno. M. Sweeney.

DECVADENCE OF OLD
STEAMBOAT LINE.

 

The new year: saw the “Iinis” of the
Lower Coast Transportation Company,
which for many years has operated
the good old steamboat Grover Cleve-
land in the iower coast trade. The af-
fairs of the c-ormpany will be immedi-
ately liquidated, and their boats and
other properties will be sold. The
coming of the many gasoline boats in
the short run to the lower coast, a par-
tial failure of crops, several acciden-ts
to the steamboat Grover Cleveland‘,
all-l pastened the end of the company.
Messrs. Robert Jones and D. Caer,
who have been with the company for
a number -of years, will still be found
on the lower landing, and will most
probably take up the receiving and
d-ischarginsg business on their o-wn ac-
count. Clerk Frank Huener has ac-
cepted a like position of the steamb-oat
Alice. Several others of the crew of
the Gsrov-er C»level.and, it is reported,
will operate a gasoline boat line in,
the lower coast trade. As to whether
the affairs of the Merchants’ and Grow-
ers Transportation Company, owning
the powerful El Riito, will also be
liquidated could not be learned this
morning, but it is said‘ that negotia-
tions are pending for the sale o-f the
boalt.

RIVER STEAMER WRECKED.

Mobile, Ala., Jan. 10.~—The river
steamer New Haven, fro=m Demopo-lis
to Mobile, was wrecked yesterday near
Demopolis by striking a submerged
0b.S*tI‘ulciti0~n. Loss -e«‘st=im'ated at $10,-
000, -covered by insurance. There was
no loss of life.