Waterways and Water Transport in Different Countries by J. Stephen Jeans

be readily adapted to the present canal boats; and, “Lastly, that the commissioners shall be fully satisfied that the invention or device will lessen the cost of canal transportation, and increase the capacity of canals by any means of propulsion or towage, other than by a direct application of power upon the boat, which does not interfere in any manner with the present method of towage on the canals, and complying in all other respects with the provisions of this Act, may be entitled to the benefits thereof.” The system known as the Belgian system, or any mode of propulsion by steam engines or otherwise, upon either bank of the canal, was, however, excluded. A number of attempts have been made to meet these desiderata, of which the system known as Baxter’s is, perhaps, the most successful. On the running canals of China, Sir George Stainton observed a boat of light construction, with only 14 tons lading, of 8 feet width of floor, about 10 feet width of water-line, and 50 feet of extreme length, drawing 2 feet 3 inches of water, and sharp at the ends, dragged against a stream whose velocity was 5½ English miles per hour; and, although there were twenty-eight trackers, or men hauling at the line, fastened to the boat, besides three men in the boat, poling it on, it advanced only at the rate of a quarter of a mile an hour, notwithstanding that the channel was not materially contracted, in either width or depth of waterway, in proportion to the section of the boat. Many suggestions have been made, and not a few experiments carried out, with a view to enabling canal boats to navigate waters covered with ice—the use of canals in cold countries being usually limited, from this cause, to about one-half of the year only. None of them appear, however, to have been very successful. About the year 1796, the Chevalier Bentancourt Molina presented to the Society of Arts a model of a barge, having a windlass in its stern, which gave a circular motion to a pair of knives or scythes, or a lever giving an alternating motion to knives, for mowing off weeds close to the bottom of a canal in which the barge is to float, or on the sloping sides of the canal; for which purpose the knives could be made to revolve at any depth below the surface of the water, and either horizontally or inclined at any angle. In most winters it happens that an ice not more than 1 or 1½ inches thick continues for a considerable length of time on canals and other stagnant waters. This, or even a less thickness of ice, is sufficient to stop the trade upon the canals unless the ice is broken; and for this purpose it is advisable, every morning of a frost, unless the ice should be found more than usually thick, and the frost increasing and likely to continue, to break the ice. This was in some cases done by a strong and square-headed barge, whose sloping or projecting head was covered with strong iron plates. One of these barges, being drawn along the canal and into each lock by several horses, has a tendency to rise upon the ice, and thereby breaks it down before the boat. About the lock-gates it was necessary to break the ice by stamping with the end of a pole. Mr. Symington provided the head of his steam-barge with stampers, to be worked by the engine, for breaking the ice before it in frosty weather. The tempting prospects of towing a train of ten 100-ton barges with scarcely any more power than would be required to tow only one of them, and the alluring advantages of speedily loading each separate barge, and of detaching and attaching barges at intermediate wharves along the canal’s course, were held out in a proposal recently discussed in France for adopting single-width canals. On the other hand, however, it has been argued that in this case a regular time-table would have to be strictly enforced; all boats would have to be made up into trains, involving loss of time at starting; there would be delays at the turn-outs, where the canal was widened for allowing the return trains to pass; and steamers could no longer go where and when they pleased. Bridges and locks, being already of single width, could be built no cheaper; while the proposed long locks, of 150 metres = 490 feet length, to take a train of barges, would cost much more than the present French locks of 126 feet length. Even with very few locks, a single-width canal would not come more than one-ninth cheaper than the ordinary canals of double width. At the outside, therefore, it would not take off more than 1 millime per tonne-kilom. = 0·016_d._ per ton per mile from the tolls. Under the head of towing, the only possible saving would be in consumption of coal in the steam-tugs, which on the Willebroeck Canal costs about ¼ millime per tonne-kilom. = ·008_d._ per ton per mile; if half this were saved in a single-width canal, ¼ millime = 0·004_d._, would be all the economy thereby effected. As for dispensing with barges on all except the tug and the rear barge of a train, it has been argued that it would be practically impossible to work a train of rudderless barges round the bends of a canal, and it would be a most tedious and difficult job to handle the barges separately at the wharves and docks where the train has to be made up or dispersed; moreover, the cargoes would not get properly watched, with so few men to look after them. The total saving possible on a single-width canal, 0·020_d._ per ton per mile, would be likely to be swallowed up by the extra management expenses consequent upon having to organise the canal service on a similar plan to that of railways. FOOTNOTES: [303] Paper on the canals and shallow draught steam navigation of Canada. ‘Journal of the Society of Arts,’ 1888. [304] Select Committee on Canals, 1883, Report, p. 44. [305] Report App. 2, p. 206. [306] Report App., 2, 117-119. [307] Ibid., 2, 1548-1550. [308] Ibid., 2, 1281-1283.