PROCEEDINGS OF THE POLYTECHNIC ASSOCIATION. 449 



a course of internal improvement, and her greatest work was a canal 

 extending- from Philadelpliia to Pittsburg, a distance of about 400 miles. 

 This and other projected canals were finished, and after a number of years 

 of varied success they were st)ld to private companies, which now control 

 them. 



Thirty j^ears' trial proved the Erie Canal a success; and while it 

 answered the purpose of its projectoi's, its capacity was not adequate to 

 the demands that were being made upon it, therefore an enlargement was 

 determined upon, and in 1862, the first year of its completion, the receipt 

 of five million dollars demonstrated that its enlargement was not completed 

 any too soon, and that its capacity should have been as large again as that 

 determined on, for already thousands are clamorous for its further enlarge- 

 ment. To meet thb demands upon its capacity, Major Taylor has invented 

 a plan of gates which, by their adjustment to the present locks, will give 

 a length of chamber of 140 or 150 feet. 



Such an improvement could be immediately availed of, that is, they could 

 be adjusted to all the locks on the Erie and Oswego canals in one winter 

 season of suspended navigation. Such an alteration would accommodate 

 the business of the canal for several years to come; at any rate until either, 

 the canal could be enlarged to double its present capacity, or a new canal 

 be made on another route, which Major Tajdor thinks is practicable from 

 the Erie canal, at Macedon, to Seneca lake, at Geneva, using Seneca lake to 

 its head, thence to Owego on the Susquehanna river, which river could be 

 made navigable to Great Bend, thence by a new canal to Stockport, on the 

 Delawai'e river, using the Delaware, when practicable, and a canal on its 

 bank, and also a canal from Port Jervis to the Hudson, at H avers tr aw. 



The Susquehanna, at Owego, is 382 feet above the level of Seneca lake, 

 between which points the distance is some forty miles. From Great Bend, 

 on the Susquehanna, to Owego, the river has a gradual fall of less than 100 

 feet in a distance of seventy miles, showing that it can easily be used by 

 means of dams and locks. From Stockport to Port Jervis, the Delaware 

 descends some 400 feet in a distance of seVenty-five miles. This could 

 easily be overcome by a canal on its banks. From Port Jervis to the Hud- 

 son, at Haverstraw, the descent is 450 feet. At Haverstraw the land for a 

 mile or more on the bank is quite level, and is only about ten feet above the 

 level of the river. 



A plane extends back from Haverstraw a number of miles towards Port 

 Jervis. Several things can be mentioned in favor of such a route for a 

 canal. There is plenty of water. It would be nearly one hundred miles 

 nearer than by the old Erie, and the overslaugh, near Albany, would be 

 escaped. 



Major Taylor gave the quantity of grain that had been received at 

 Chicago ending with the year. It was something like 58 million bushels; 

 also, the tonnage of the boats employed on the canal', which was about 

 500,000 tons — the number of boats at about 4,000; the speed of the boats 

 as li miles the hour, and the average passage as 14 days from BuflFalo to 

 Albany. He also gave the length of the boats as 98 feet and their width 

 11 feet, and that the largest of the recently built boats could carry about 

 [Am. Ins.] • 29 



