isjo.j 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



163 



of iU committees, to whose protection tliis important lunncli of navigation 

 Ijas been intrnsteil, tl\e infornialion iuid experience of some of tlic individuals 

 whose lives liave been devoted to its improvement and practice from its earliest 

 origin in this country : — in order that practical knowledge may form the basis 

 of legislalicMi upon a subject wliich affects more or loss directly the interests 

 and business of, probably, a great majority of the American jieople." 



The nienioriulists liere declare, unequivocally, tluit such restrictions, 

 instead of producing improvement, must retard the progress of science, 

 and clipck the employment of capital, without, at the same time, en- 

 suring the objects, wtiicli they are intended to eftect. To show how 

 little desirous they are of concealing facts, and how little daunted by 

 the exaggerations of their opponents, the memorialists append to 

 their pamphlet Messrs. Pringle's and Parke's concoction of one hun- 

 ilrod accidents, which Irave occurred to English steam-vessels, leaving 

 the ungullible portion <d'the public to form their own comments on the 

 case. These commissioners remind us of the quack who attempted 

 to frighten the old lady out of her tea, by assuring her that it contained 

 a millionth ])art of prussic acid, and that it would certainly carry her 

 olV. " A verv slow poison," said she, "for it has been eighty years 

 iib(nit it already." Facts sliow that the loss of life by English steam- 

 ers, in the very worst year, 4838, was not one twentieth of the num- 

 ber annually lost in sailing vessels, and the amount of property not 

 one fiftieth! On the coasts of the United Slates last year, above 40U 

 sailing vessels were lost, and lUUO lives. On the New York waters 

 the contrast is as strong. 



" Those who have laboured to inllanie the public against these unfortunate 

 men may well be reminded, that it is now thirty years since the juiblic have 

 enjoyed the use of passenger vessels impelled by fire and steam, and that dur- 

 ing this period not less than thirty mUlinns nf ijcrwns have lieen Iranspoited 

 from time to time, in the various steam boats wlncb have run to and from 

 the city of New York, and that these steam boats liave probably navigated a 

 distance equal iojiflceii millions nftiiilcs, and tliat in all this prolonged and 

 vai'ied e.\])osurc. ncrr,-, Imi once, lias a sijir/lc life been lo^t tiy fhebuniinyofa 

 steam boat. This fact alone, to the unprejudiced, s))eaks volumes in favour 

 of the general care an<l skill of the parties, who have been concerned in this 

 species of navigation." 



To expose the absurdity of the protection law, and to give a fair 

 idea of what it may be expected to produce here, we give the follow- 

 ing table of known accidents and disasters to American steam-boats 

 since the law of 1838, w liich was to liave been such a ))alkidium to 

 the old womeu. 



" It may be seen that the most numerous and fatal of the accidents by 

 steam haye happened soon after the semi-annual inspections of the first of 



April and October. This fact will not appear surprising to ]iractical men ; 

 who fully understand tliat the care and skill of official inspectors, (■annot be 

 advantageously substituted for the uncontrolled vigilance and practical know- 

 ledge ami skill, of those wlio are in the constant care and superiulendcnce of 

 the boats and engines ; ami to whom a good reputation, the desire of safety 

 and the love of life, afford sti-ongcr and more efficient motives to correct ac- 

 tion, than can ever be fui-iiislicd by the requirements or penalties of special 

 enactments of the legislative power. 



"The Cinciimati Gazette is stated to have published a Hst of steam boat 

 disasters on the western waters during the last year. The sum total of losses 

 is 40 ; of this number, 32 were an entire loss ; snagged, 21 ; struck rocks, or 

 other obstacles, 7 ; burnt, :> ; burst their boUers, 4 ; run into other boats, 3 — 

 40. There were snagged on the lower Mississippi, 11 ; on the Jlissouri, I ; 

 on the Ohio, 4 ; on the Ya/.oo, 1 ; on the Red River, 1. It is remarkable 

 that a majority of the boats were snagged on their downward trijis. Lives 

 lost, by bursting boilers, 39 ; by other causes, 6. Total, 45. The amount of 

 property destroyed in boats and their cargoes, is supposed to be not less than 

 a miUion of dollars. 



" On events like these, flic provisions of statutory law^ can have but little 

 influence ; except as they may operate to deter the men of means, foresight 

 and mental ability, from a business already too hazardous fo their private in- 

 terests, and which, most unwisely, has been made sidjject to the proscriptive 

 action of the popular press, and of the national legislature." 



Another extract gives a more powerful lesson. 



" That the safety of steam boilers from explosions, does not necessarily de- 

 pend upon working with so low a pressure as five or seven pounds to the 

 square inch, and that a reasonable increase in the proportionate strength of 

 the boilers in steam vessels would remove all immediate hazard, and nearly 

 end the catalogue of these disasters, is rendered apparent by the facts which 

 relate to this branch of navigation, as it has l)ecn carried on in various direc- 

 tions from the city and port of New York. Here, wliere steam navigation 

 was first successfully established, and where it has probably attained its highest 

 degree of efticicncy, we might have expected that accidents ami disasters 

 would, not unfreipiciitly, attend flie use of a power af once so novel and 

 energetic. The accidents and fatalities which have here occurred, as well as 

 their probalile pro]iortion fo the pressure of steam, the number of boats em- 

 ployed or trips made, flie nmnber of miles navigated, and the number of pas- 

 sengers which from time to time have been exposed, arc set forth in a table. 



" The fable, so far as relates to the service jjerformed on the different 

 routes and the number of iicr.sons cxjiosed, is made up approximately, by 

 esfimafes founded on n\y general acquaintance with our sfcaiu navigation ; 

 but is bchcved to be sufficiently correct for general purposes. I have sepa- 

 rated the business of the fifteen years which it comprises, into three several 

 periods of five years each, commencing with 1824; early in which year the 

 navigation, in this state, which had previously lieen controlled by the asso- 

 ciates of Fulton and Livingston, was thrown open to all conipctifors. 



" It appears from the average results of the table, that during even the first 

 period of five years after the navigatioa was throw n open to imblic competi- 

 tion, the ratio of sfeam accidents was only equal to one, for more than 20,000 

 trips or passages ; anil that the average loss of life was only equal to one, for 

 nioi'c than 1 20,000 passengers exposed. Thus, at the fair outset of this noble 

 enterprise, a degree of safety was attained for the passenger, such as may well 

 challenge comparison with any artificial means of transit or locomotion that 

 have ever been resorted to by the human I'ace. 



"It appears further, on comparing the results for these several periods, 

 that the ratio of steam accidents for the first and tliiid periods, as compared 

 with the probable nnmljcr of trips made, has decreased from one in 20,317, 

 for the first period, to one in 317,105, for the third or latest period ; showing 

 a diminution of the ratio of accidents in the average period of ten years equal 

 to about 84 per cent. The ratio of lives lost from these accidents during tlie 

 same period, has also decreased from one in 126,211, to one in 1,98.'), 787 ; 

 equal also to a diminution in the ratio of personal hazai'd, in tliis short period, 

 o/ 84 per cent. 



" It appears also from the table, that during the first of these periods the 

 average number of miles navigated by all om- steam boats, to each explosion 

 which occurred, was c(|ual to 235,G4() : a distance equal to many times the 

 circumference of our globe, and about equal to that from the earth to the 

 moon. But even this ratio has been rendered tenfold more favourable in the 

 short average period of ten years, being for the latest five years, 2,733,725 

 miles navigated for each explosion ; or more than eleven times the distance 

 from the earth to the moon ; and reducing the ratio of hazards in proportion 

 to distance, almost 90 per cent. 



" This remarkable diminution of accidents and hazard, it may be seen, has 

 taken place in the very jieriod in which the average working pressure of 

 steam has been more than doubled. It has also been attained solely by pro- 

 fessional skill and experience, and witliout any aid from legislative interfe- 

 rence ; for the law of Congress on tliis subject was not in force till near the 

 close of the year 1838. Had such a system of legislation been at first adopted, 

 there are sound reasons for concluding tlmt it would not have prevented dis- 

 asters, but might have greatly retarded the rapid advance in safety, as well 

 as improvement, which has been so happily attained." 



It is thus seen that with an increase of pressure a decrease has 

 taken place in the number of casualties, In the first period the esti' 



