1S42.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



15 



navy, notify to us moreover that" next year they mean to have boats 

 like this running on each side on the 1st and lOtli of overy month. 

 This is but one company, one which has not yet moved we believe, 

 for we understand tlie Sirius to have lieen sent out by another, and the 

 Great Western it is well known belongs to Bristol, (jlasgow too will 

 DO doubt bestir herself, and above all we must leave room for Liver- 

 pool. The sole marvel is that Liverpool lias waited so long, a secret 

 onlv to be explained by the extent of interest there invested in the 

 American liners. We see that a company is now started at that port 

 who announce immediate operations." 



To us it appears still more marvellous that the establishment of At- 

 lantic steam voyaging should have been accomplished by England at 

 all when America had palpably the greatest benefit to receive from 

 the execution of that measure. The Americans would it is alleged 

 have taken a share in the Atlantic enterprises had they not built their 

 hopes upon a project which was to send a ship across the Atlantic by 

 the instigation of a barrel of blue vitrei, but which failed. This cir- 

 cumstance is however insuflicient to account for the torpidity of the 

 Americans, where there is anything expected to be won. Had the 

 expectation of a profitable result been as sanguine in the United States 

 as for some time it was in England, it is the opinion of the best in- 

 formed persons that we should not have been left to enjoy the steam 

 monopoly of the Atlantic. The fact appears to be that the Americans 

 were better judges than we were of the amount of profit to be realized 

 by the transport of passengers and light articles of merchandise across 

 the Atlantic, arising in part from the experience they had had of At- 

 lantic steam voyaging before we began. " Scarce ten years had 

 elapsed after Fulton first committed his novel little pinnace to the 

 wafers of the Hudson, ere the Savannah, a new steam vessel of 300 

 tons crossed from New York to Liverpool, and at several subsequent 

 periods has the voyage been accomplished. The reason why Atlantic 

 steam voyaging has not grown up among the Americans maybe traced 

 to the conviction that the adventure would not be productive of that 

 Honey of Hyblas, vulgarly called monev."* 



The Quarterly proceeds — "What is to prevent a fair competition 

 now ? What account is to be made of a curve or two in a river with 

 steamers of 300 feet long, and a speed of 15 miles an hour, as practical 

 men best versed in these matters expect to see in a very few years? 

 And indeed the American boats upon the Hudson have been running 

 at much more than this rate for years." We confess we should like 

 some verification of all this before we believe it. Our readers may 

 trv their penetration upon the following, which to us appears mere 

 childishness. 



" We were speaking, however, of the first sensation, the achieve- 

 ment has produced, and which we venture to predict will at some 

 future diy be a matter of no little historical curiosity. The New 

 York editors seem scarcely able to contain themselves, 'side by side 

 with the old world at last,' says one, — • Now then for the coronation,' 

 cry half a dozen more — and then the files of European journals un- 

 rolled! Fifteen days from Bristol, &c. S:c. A revolution this such as 

 the world rarely sees even in our eventful age — a revolution thoroughly 

 overturning the old systems of most of the business world at least — 

 yet effected as it were instantaneously, and without one drop of blood." 

 The following is a magnificent example of that figure of speech 

 u?u illy termed nonsense. 



" Some one has predicted that presently we shall have Covent Gar- 

 den market stosked by the other continent ; as to the floral depart- 

 ment there may be something in it for aught we know, and indeed in 

 some others too, for if the Miners' could bring the Duke a present of 

 fresh venison from his western admirers, we certainly get a clear vision 

 here of divers good things to come. We say notliiiig however even 

 of Yankee ice dropped in dog days at sun-rise upon every door step 

 in London as in Boston — not one word — ' Xil admirari,' we repeat, is 

 our motto ; ' keep cool,' that is, ice or no ice — dog days and all." 



But further. "It is only thirty years since Fulton ascended the Hud- 

 son with bis boat. In lb 10 there was no such thing in all England, 



* Tlioughls on Steam Lcxwmollon. Weale, IMO. 



and as late as 1620 there were only thirty-five. The most important 

 improvements also have been rtn/ recently introduced, and without 

 particularizing these, it is sufficient to say lh.it the learned Dr. Diony- 

 sius Lardner's miscalculations on this subject of Atlantic naviguion, 

 have evidently been caused by almost wholly overlooking these same 

 improvements, even so far as some years past are concerned, Cand a 

 year in such a progress as this agent is making is a matter not to be 

 overlooked), or regarding them too much as mere speculations not 

 likely, or not yet fully proved to be capable of great practical effects 

 (as they have already been*, while as relates to what may yet be 

 established, though now it is but experimental ; or of what may be 

 discovered of which nobody now dreams, the calculations in question 

 have apparently left no lee way fur the ingenuity or our successors, 

 or even our contemporaries, it was taken for granted that all had 

 been done which could be done — that there were not any ' hidden 

 powers' hereafter to be brought to bear upon steam navigation, as well 

 as upon other things, and to supersede steam itself altogether. How 

 grand a mistake this was we need not say, let us beware of its being 

 made again." 



In reference to this statement it is proper to observe that Dr. Lard- 

 ner's deductions relative to the Atlantic enterprise were formed, as 

 we shall presently have occasion to show more in detail, from the 

 performance of the Medea, and that the Medea was at that time the 

 most perfect existing steam vessel in reference to the distance over 

 which she might be propelled by a given quantity of fuel per horse 

 power. 



In regard to the omission of "lee way" in his computation, it is 

 difficult to see upon what grounds the admission of such an element 

 conld be justified. Atlantic sleam voyaging in the year IS3l), either 

 was or was not beneficially accomplishable. The point was evidently 

 alone ca])able of being determined by a comparison of the difficulties 

 of the enterprise with the existing capabilities of steam voyaging; 

 and how were the existing capabilities of steam navigation to be as- 

 certained except by a reference to the performances of the best exist- 

 ing steam vessels ? If Dr. Larduer did this, he did all he was called 

 upon to do ; he was not called upon to say that Atlantic steam voyag- 

 ing would be profitable in lS3(j, because the progress of improvement 

 might perhaps render it so in ten years time, or in ten months time. 

 It would have been highly unphilosopliical to have basr>d computations 

 upon circumstances which were not really exist<'nt. No man can say 

 that in any branch of science or art all his been done that can be done, 

 but it is quite time enough to adopt discoveries when they have been 

 actually found out. 



Once more — "It cannot be doubted, we think, that the passage of 

 the Atlantic by steam will even in the coming ten years be brought to 

 a state of (so to speak) artistical luxury and perfection, of which those 

 who have started the enterprise themselves little think." 

 Alas — alas I how has this prediction been verified ! 

 But we cannot enter upon a subject so agonizing as the loss of the 

 President — the wouuils are not yet cicatrized, but bleed afre>.h at the 

 tenderest touch. The wail of the widow and the orphan — of the 

 affianced bride and the childless father, is yet sounding in our ears; 

 and memory rekindles emotions which are only to be assuaged by time 

 the comforter. The repetition of such calamities is now, heaven be 

 praised! unlikely. And oh! what can be the reflections of those, if 

 any such there be, by whom the one dire calamity Ims been directly or 

 indirectly superinduced ? Can any thing be more reprehensible than 

 that reckless ]>reclpltation which not merely sets at nought nil con- 

 sideration of failure and ruin, but tampers without compunction with 

 the lives of the best and noblest of the land ! 



Having in the preceding pages adverteil on several orcanloia to 

 what Dr. Lardner did not say, we shall now attempt to show the n.iture 

 of the opinions respecting the Atiiintic enterprise he rtalli/ did enter- 

 tain. We are fortunately in postcssion of un authentic and well known 

 record U(ion this subject, in the shape of nn article written by Dr. 

 Lardner for the Edinburgh Review, and which will be found in the 

 131st nunibi'r ( 1h37), of that publication. From thil article we shall 

 make considerable extracts. 



