82 TRANSPORTATION 



was proportional to the number of inhabitants of the railroad 

 station, to which the inhabitants of the surrounding country must 

 be added; but also the different grades of economic importance of 

 the region must be distinguished, and very large as well as very 

 small places be omitted. According to the statistics of 1866, he 

 found that each day 6.5 passengers and 2.1 tons of freight cor- 

 respond to each head of the population concerned with trans- 

 portation. These numbers were changed in agricultural districts 

 to 4 passengers and 1.5 tons of freight, and in the more densely 

 populated industrial districts to 9 passengers and 3 tons. 1 This 

 method has been perfected by Launhardt, who added to it a general 

 theory of tracing. In Launhardt's view, the characteristic of the 

 universal development of transportation consists in the fact that 

 the work of preparing for the single case of transportation constantly 

 increases in order to diminish thereby the executing work necessary 

 for utilization. Evidently the technologist has thus discovered 

 independently for transportation the law observed in production by 

 the economists of increasing substitution of circulating by standing 

 capital. 



The diminution of the executing is equivalent to the lowering of 

 the expenses. In order to proceed economically, one must endeavor, 

 when determining the direction and construction of a road for 

 transportation, to make the expenses for the unit (" ton-kilometer " 

 or Parson-kilometer) as small as possible, these expenses being a 

 function of the yearly interest of the capital stock, the yearly number 

 of transported objects, and the expenses for operating the trans- 

 portation; at the same time the consumers' advantages must be 

 considered, which are due to velocity, security, regularity, frequency, 

 and efficiency of the transportation. On this general basis Laun- 

 hardt has construed different theories about tracing of streets and 

 railroads with regard to the markets, accessibility, connection with 

 other ways, and construction of centers of intersection; these theories 

 strongly support the economic conception of technical problems, 

 and have been extended to all branches of engineering. An import- 

 ant consequence was the individualization of the railroads by the 

 engineers, their division into main lines, branches, local lines, second- 

 ary lines, etc. 



In many regards transportation has touched upon jurisprudence. 

 Each developed community must create regulations for the right 

 of ways. Although real estate is private property, yet the want of 

 communication presupposes the usage of at least certain roads by 

 all. Through this, numerous legal questions, often very compli- 

 cated ones, arise. Moreover, transportation involves many dangers 

 for the security of persons and of property and of the maintenance 

 1 Annales de ponts, chaussees, 1S66, p. 145. 





