82 REPORT— 1861. 



Freight as affected by Differences in the Dynamic Properties of Steam- 

 ships. By Charles Atherton, Chief Engineer, H.M. Dockyard, 

 Woolwich. 



The national importance of steam shipping is a theme which demands no 

 demonstration; and any attempt to originate, promulgate, and popularize 

 inquiry into the comparatively economic capabilities of the steam-ship as 

 devoted to the international conveyance and interchange of the products of 

 nature and of manufacturing art, irrespective of its application as an engine 

 of war, is a task which requires no laboured introduction in support of its 

 being favourably received for consideration by an association devoted to the 

 advancement of science. 



The former papers on ' Tonnage,' 'Steam-Ship Capability,' and 'Mercan- 

 tile Steam Transport Economy,' which tiie author of this further communica- 

 tion has been permitted to present to the British Association, and which 

 appear in the volumes of its 'Transactions' for the years 1856, 1857, and 

 1859, were devoted to an exposition of the technicalities of the subject as 

 respects the mutual quantitative relations which displacement, speed, power, 

 and coal hold to each other in the construction and equipment of steam- 

 ships with a view to the realization of definite steaming results. So far, 

 therefore, these investigations have had reference to the constructive equip- 

 ment of steam-ships; but the course of inquiry now submitted for considera- 

 tion is intended to be a practical exposition of the extent to which the expense 

 per ton weight of cargo conveyed is affected by the various conditions of 

 size of ship, dynamic quality of hull with reference to type of form, weight 

 of hull with reference to its build, the economic properties of the engines 

 with reference to the consumption of fuel, and the steaming speed at which 

 the service is required to be performed, all which circumstances, respectively 

 and in their combinations, affect the economic capabilities of steam-ships for 

 the conveyance of mercantile cargo, and consequently freights charged, to 

 an extent not publicly known because hitherto not specially inquired into 

 nor promulgated by the press, and which in the distinctive details above set 

 forth do not appear to have been duly appreciated even by the parties most 

 deeply concerned in the mercantile control and prosecution of steam-shipping 

 affairs. The aggregate expenses incidental to the prosecution of steam 

 transport service must generally regulate the average rates of freight at , 

 which goods are conveyed; and, seeing to what an extent the ultimate cost 

 of manufactured goods is dependent on the cost of transport, often repeated, 

 as freight charges generally are in the various stages of transition of material 

 from the raw to its manufactured condition and its ultimate consumption as 

 a manufactured article, it becomes evident that this investigation especially 

 concerns the manufacturing interests of the country. Economy of price 

 inducing quantity of consumption, is the characteristic feature of the manu- 

 facturing enterprise of the present day ; and it is the absolute cost of goods 

 which affects consumption, irrespectively of the various causes in detail by 

 which the cost may have been enhanced. Under these circumstances, it is 

 remarkable to what extent the manufacturing interests, though keenly alive 

 to legislative imposts, whether foreign or domestic, affecting the cost of 

 goods, and sensitively jealous of legislative interference in the control of 

 labour, as affecting the cost of manufacture, pass wholly unheeded deficien- 

 cies and imperfections in the practical control of shipping with reference to 

 freight charges, though equally affecting the ultimate price of manufactures. 

 Such incongruity demonstrates the necessity for popular exposition and 

 inquiry into the various circumstances and combinations of circumstance* 



