340 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
the rail, it will be seen that we really need no heavier rails and ties than are used 
on first-class railways. With the pressure of the ship thus distributed it is plain 
that she cannot bend, twist or strain in any way, unless the earth gives way under 
her, and this is not likely to occur if ordinary care be used in building and main- 
taining the road-bed. Any inequality in the level of the track can be compen- 
sated for by a strong spiral steel spring, allowing several inches of play. To 
avoid bending the ship in changing from one grade to another, the cradle would 
be run on to what may be called a tipping-table, placed in the line of the railway. 
This would rest on a fulcrum at the middle and on hydraulic rams at each end, 
so that the ends could be raised or lowered to conform to the different grades. 
To avoid curves in the railway, turn-tables long enough to receive the cradle 
would be placed at necessary points in the main track, and on these the cradle 
would be turned to the right or left to change the direction of the ship. The 
cradle will be nothing more than a moveable dry dock. This cradle or dock 
upon wheels will be backed down upon the railway, on a grade of about one foot 
in roo, until it reaches a, sufficient depth of water to enable the vessel to be 
floated upon it. When the ship is in position she will be safely secured over the 
cradle, and then the car will be slowly drawn forward. As the water becomes 
more shallow, the vessel will naturally take her position upon the cradle; the 
supports will then be moved up against her hull, while still afloat, so that she can 
not move on the cradle, and she will be drawn up the incline until she reaches 
the level track above. Here two powerful engines will be attached, and the 
vessel will be at once started upon her journey across the Isthmus. At the end 
of her journey she will be put into the water in the same manner that she was 
taken out. The objection is urged with great pertinacity that it would be im- 
possible to carry a vessel in this way without straining or injuring her, but the ~ 
ablest engineers in the world, among them Hon. E. J. Reed, Chief Constructor 
of the British Navy, have declared that it can be done with perfect safety. The 
strain could not possibly be as severe as that experienced in rough weather at 
times at sea. If she bent at all in the direction in which she is most easily bent, 
longitudinally, she must bend the earth under her. A canal with locks would be 
a constant menace to your commerce, and an injury to one of the locks would 
suspend operations on the whole line. 
Another strong objection is that a canal, once constructed, can not be er- 
larged to meet the wants of increasing commerce. No one knows, in view of 
the progress of ship-building, what the ships of the future will be, and a number 
of canals constructed years ago, of supposed ample size, are now useless, or 
nearly so. A tide-level canal, such as M. De Lesseps proposes, would cost from 
$300, 000,000 to $400,000,000, and the cost of maintaining it would be beyond 
all reasonable estimate. In the report upon the Nicaraguan Canal, recently 
made to your Chamber of Commerce, it is estimated that 8 per cent per annum 
could be realized by the company, and the tolls not exceed $2 per ton. ‘This 
estimate is based upon $100,000, 000 as the aggregate cost of the work, which sum 
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