VERSUS FLOATING BRIDGES. 23 



Plates 17 to 24 illustrate the vessels that were built as a result of my efforts. 



When they heard that I was building a self-propelled barge of 1,000 tons 

 carrying capacity and, worst of all, with propellers instead of stern wheels, I was 

 ignored, ridiculed, and what not. 



I remember distinctly when we came up the river the first time when all navi- 

 gation had stopped, without any smoke, loud whistle, big waves or the like, how 

 we were looked upon with eyes that plainly told that they did not believe what they 

 saw. 



Just above Demopolis is the sharpest bend in the river, which bends at the 

 radius of 365 feet. I had the barge so designed that I felt sure she would turn at 

 a radius of 350 feet at full speed, the barge being 240 feet long and 32 feet wide, 

 propelled by two propellers and controlled by three balanced rudders. When we 

 came to Demopolis we were received by a delegation of citizens who doubted 

 whether we ever could go around Devil's Bend, and I invited them to come along. 

 When I told them that we would attempt to go round the bend at full speed some 

 of the party already on board felt they had better go ashore, feeling safer with the 

 solid ground under their feet. When we came to the bend, plugging away at 8 

 miles an hour, and attempted to negotiate the bend, the captain, not trusting the 

 barge to the pilot, stood at the wheel himself, and having heard so much about this 

 shallow, sharp bend, overestimated it and turned so quickly that he barely escaped 

 coming on the other side. 



These boats have been plying successfully ever since, carrying freight over 

 this route, a distance of 1,050 miles, and returning empty, at a total cost of 40 

 cents per ton, or about ^ mill per ton-mile, one-tenth of the average railroad 

 charge. 



In the construction of this boat I departed from the old ideas and placed the 

 cargo on deck, not cutting any hatches in the deck, making the deck like the bottom, 

 airtight and watertight, shut oflf by watertight bulkheads. Twice these barges, 

 fully loaded, coming downstream at a speed of 14 miles, ran on a boulder, ripping 

 a hole in the bottom several feet square, yet we never had repairs of more than 

 $1,200, notwithstanding that the shipyard was 400 miles away from the nearest 

 accident. Always have the barges been able to go to the yard under their own 

 power, and never have they passed in total accidents over 2 per cent of their in- 

 surance value. By placing the cargo on deck I had the advantage of having the 

 entire hold available for strengthening purposes, so that I could place the steel 

 where it would do the most good and have as much as possible the steel members 

 under compression, letting the hydraulic pressure counterbalance the load pressure. 

 The result was that I could use very light material, the hull being built out of 

 j4-inch plate and frames out of 2^ by 2j/^ by j^-inch angle iron. The further 

 result was that the barge, although she carried 1,000 tons net, had only 170 tons 

 of steel in her, and, together with the machinery, bunkers, and the like, a total of 

 240 tons. These barges displaced 1,240 tons of water, were given a speed of 8 

 miles per hour with only 150 horse-power, using for this purpose gas-producer 



