KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



transport large quantities of water without pay, from ocean to ocean. With any 

 ordinary care the danger of straining vessels in transit would not be possible. A 

 substantial road bed is an absolute necessity for the success of the Ship Railway. 

 If we had to build over ground that would not sustain it I should excavate a canal 

 through such part of the route and float the ship through that part of it until the 

 solid ground was reached ; but we shall have no such ground as this on our 

 route. If but one ship with a full cargo had ever been taken out on a dry dock 

 without injury it would be proof that others could be taken out in the same man- 

 ner. I have the names of a score of loaded vessels that have thus been lifted 

 out of dock, and in traveling over the ship railway they could not possibly be 

 subjected to as much vibration and jarring as powerful steamships are by the 

 action of their propellers upon going at full speed." 



To the question whether the English engineers had faith in the success of the 

 undertaking he replied : 



"Yes; I never have met a civil engineer who questioned the possibility of 

 constructing a railway, locomotives and cars by which loaded ships of any size 

 could be carried across the isthmus. In rare instances, I have met civil en- 

 gineers who doubted whether the ships themselves would bear such usage. Ship- 

 building is a branch of civil engineering, and experienced builders of ships are 

 best qualified to judge of the possibility of such transportation being done without 

 injury to vessels. Many of the very best ship-builders in this country and Eng. 

 land have given me their written assurances that any seaworthy ship will bear 

 such transportation on a good railway, if ordinary skill and care can be used in 

 adjusting the supports under her. 



"As to the economy of transporting freight, my inquiries in England satisfied 

 me of the absolute truth of what I had always contended upon this point, namely, 

 that transportation by ship railway is unquestionably more economical than by 

 canal. The cost of transportation on the ship railway should be much less than 

 that upon the ordinary railroads, for the same reason that transportation on large 

 vessels, barges, steamboats or ships is much cheapened in proportion as we in- 

 crease the size of such vessels, for the same reason that transportation by rail can 

 unquestionably be greatly cheapened by increasing the quantities which are moved 

 en masse. I have no question whatever in my own mind that a ship railway to 

 carry barges of i,ooo tons capacity can be built and operated much more econom- 

 ically between Chicago and St. Louis than by the construction of a canal to float 

 the same sized barges. They could be loaded in the lake, and transported by 

 rail to the Mississippi, and towed down to New Orleans without re-handling car- 

 goes. It has been off"ered in evidence before the House of Commons, in Eng- 

 land, that coal is transported for one farthing or one-half cent per gross ton per 

 mile on English railways, at a profit to the road and defraying the cost of re- 

 turning the empty cars. I am satisfied that the actual cost of transporting car- 

 •goes on a well built ship railway across the Isthmus, a distance of 125 miles, will 

 not cost more than sixty-two and a half cents per ton from ocean to ocean. This 

 would cover the motive power, repairs and maintenance of every kind, including 



