1842.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOl RNAL. 



13 



should hope to witness the adoption of these means of arriving at a 

 correct conclusion in the investigation of the merits of Atlantic steam 

 voyaging, were it not an invariable attribute of keen disputations that 

 the attainment of a correct conclusion is regarded as matter altogether 

 unimportant. 



The clamour and confusion which marked the original discussions 

 relative to Atlantic steam voyaging have now happily subsided, but 

 although they made such an unceremonious noise, they have left no 

 verv distinct recollection as to what that noise was all about. In truth 

 it was not very easv to tell that, even at the time : for so much of pal- 

 pable absurdity was mixed up in the doctrines currently attributed to 

 the most distin<niished of the disputants, as to destroy in the minds of 

 men unaiTected with the steam ra'jita — all confidence in the genuine- 

 ness of the imputed declarations. Men of penetration indeed regarded 

 the representation that suppositions pregnant with absurdity were 

 the sentiments avowed by eminent inquirers, as a sort of rune dc 

 giurrc intended to shake the reputation of those whose arguments 

 were unsusceptible of refutation. But the manoeuvre was successful — 

 the advocates of the Atlantic enterprise were " willing to swear any 

 tiling for their client," and the faith of the multitude was equally com- 

 prehensive. Manv of the absurdities so industriously disseminated as 

 thesentiinenfsof distinguished men, were really in some measure be- 

 lieved to be the veritable doctrines of those eminent persons, and of 

 those who rejected such a supposition, but a small proportion was 

 aware of what the actual doctrines really were. We have been at 

 some pains to supply this defect of information from authentic sources : 

 it is our present purpose to state, — 1st. The nature of the opinions 

 reallv entertained upon the subject of Atlantic steam transit ante- 

 cedently to its establishment; and, 2ndly, The present condition of 

 the Atlantic enterprise, restricting the meaning of that term to the 

 line of communication between Great Britain and New York, to which 

 it was originally applied. 



The discussion of the question of Atlantic steam transit first at- 

 tracted the public attention during the meeting of the British Associa- 

 tion, held at Bristol in I'sSS. One party alleged that the establishment 

 of a line of steamers between Great Britain and New York, of suffi- 

 cient si^e and power to enable them to perform the passage i.v one 

 TRir, would inevitably be a most beneficial speculation. Another 

 party, of which Dr. Lardner was the representative, contended that 

 there were no good grounds for believing that the performance of the 

 voyage in one tkip was practicable, with sufficient economy to render 

 the enterprise successful ; but that if the voyage were resolved into 

 suitable stages, the enterprise might then be brought under conditions 

 which promised a fair prospect of a beneficial result. To understand 

 clearly the force of the reasonings, we must first have a clear concep- 

 tion of the capabilities of steam navigation. 



If any given steam vessel, moved according to the ordinary practice, 

 by the conjoined agency of steam and sails, be laden with coals to the 

 extent of her capacity, she will in that state be capable of performing 

 a voyage of a certain determinate length, with her engines acting for 

 the whole time at their full power. Now it is well known that the 

 same vessel is capable of making the same voyage by the agency of 

 sails alone, for although steam vessels when propelled by sails alone, 

 without working their engines, may be inferior in speed, or in nautical 

 qualities, to an ordinary ship, yet we know that they are capable of 

 )).;rr ■rilling long voyages unassisted by steam, as has been abundantly 

 proved I'V the voyages of the Madagascar and other steam vessels to 

 India, .is well as by numerous government and other vessels. Between 

 the perfonnance of this voyage with the greatest expenditure of fuel, 

 which will in ordinary circumstances be when the engines are worked 

 at their full power, and with the expenditure of no fuel at all, we may 

 manifestly fix upon a given point where the expenditure of fuel 

 during the voyage shall be precisely what we please. For we may 

 cither work the engines during the voyage for such a proportion of 

 the time as shall exactly consume the quantity of fuel we li ive fixed 

 upon, or we may work the engines for the whole period of the voyage, 

 with such a diminished exertion of power as is capable of being pro- 

 duced by the quantity of fuel we propose to consume. We niav there- 



fore easily maintain the machinery of a steam vessel in uninterrupted 

 action for any length of voyage we think proper, provided onlv that 

 the amount of power exerted by the engines be correspondingly dimi- 

 nished, or what is the same thing, that the engines be, if worked at 

 their full power, corresponding small. The question therefore of the 

 practicability of a steam voyage of any length whatever, resolves it- 

 self into the practicability of making ships very big, and engines very 

 little ; a question which can hardly be supposed any one should be so 

 insane as to contest. Yet even this absurdity has been attributed to 

 Dr. Lardner, who is represented to have said at the Bristol or Liver- 

 pool meeting of the British Association, that for a steamer to reach 

 America was a physical impossibility; and this too in the face of the 

 well known fact that the steamers Savannah, Ciir.noa,&c.,/larfa/rfa<fy 

 crossed the Atlantic long antecedent to the date of the Bristol meet- 

 ing! .And was a falsehood so preposterous believed ? It was and 



is probably extensively believed to the present day. But it will be 

 objected, " Dr. Lardner said that we might as well attempt to establish 

 a steam communication with the moon as with America." If Dr. 

 Lanlner ever made use of any such expression, we presume he onlv 

 meant to intimate that the Atlantic enterprise was in bis opinion a 

 visionary one. When we talk of a bubble speculation, we do not in 

 general mean that the said speculation has reference to the manufac- 

 ture of hollow aqueous spherules— or if we speak of sunset or sunrise, 

 we are not usually interpreted as expressing our disbelief of the Co- 

 pemican system — so in like manner if we institute an analogy between 

 any given enterprise and a tunnel through the earth, or a railway to 

 the moon, we are usually understood to express our belief that it is of 

 a verv hopeless character. Of physical impossibilities we rarely venture 

 to speak— the subject is abstruse. We should not be warranted in say- 

 in"' that in reriim natiira it was a physical impossibility to bore 

 through the earth, or with the assistance of photography to hare a tele- 

 graphic communication with the moon, yet we are warranted in treat- 

 ing projects such as these as "trifles light as air," and in associating 

 by a common figure of speech, projects of which we would express our 

 disapprobation with these unsulKtantial fantasies. It is difficult to 

 discover upon what principle Dr. Lardner is to be deprived of the use 

 of the universally employed language of metaphor, or why a doctrine 

 is to be forced upon him which every man in his senses must utterly 

 disavow. But it appears obvious to us that no very figurative accepta- 

 tion of the expression attributed to Dr. Lardner is necessary, as will 

 appear plain enough from the following considerations. 



The mere abstract practicability of performing voyages of any length 

 whatever by steam vessels is so palpable that it cannot require another 

 remark. But in practice other considerations arise. The vessels 

 must be of a sufllcient power to ensure a rate of progress considerably 

 superior to that of sailing vessels, and (they must be so capacious that 

 whilst furnishing suflicient stowage room for coals, they will render 

 comfortable accommodation to passengers, and space for a moderate 

 quantity of cargo. These questions being satisfactorily disposed of, 

 another question of still greater consequence presents itself. Will 

 vessels of the size indispensable for long steam voyages, of adequate 

 power, capacity and accommodation for the navigation of the track of 

 ocean between Great Britain and New York in one unbroken voyage, 

 p.vY THE PROPRIETORS? The question ofsuccess Or failure is sooner 

 or later merged into the question of profit and loss. 



The profit or loss of steam voyaging is manifestly a function of a 

 multitude of local and individual circumstances, which are incapable o<; 

 reduction to any general form of expression. But f</(r/«^an!ii;)i, the 

 longer the voyage is w ithout relays of fuel the more remote becomes 

 the prospect of a successful result. For in proportion as the length 

 of the voyage is increased, the siie of the vessels suitable for th-- per- 

 formance of that voyage must be increased in a corresponding, though 

 not in the same ratio, and the expense of maintaining steanv vessels of 

 such power and tonnage as to be adapted to the pcrforrounce of un- 

 usually long 'ovages, is sudi that scarcely any line of im'ependent un- 

 protected traffic is sufficient to sustain it. It may '.leiice !«.• safely 

 assumed as a gener.il principle that in cases where tliij only sources of 

 revenue are flic profits u|>on freights and p isscugers, and the pecu- 



