Part 3 (2/2)
TRANSPORTATION--OCEAN AND INLAND NAVIGATION
Of all the adjustments which come into the lives of a people none has been so far-reaching as the gradual localization of industries each in the region best adapted to it. For instance, manufacturing industries require power, but not fertile soil; therefore the manufacturing industries seek nearness to fuel or to water-power, and a position available for quick transportation.
Farming does not require any great amount of natural power; on the contrary, level land having a great depth of fertile soil is the essential feature. The farmer must therefore look first of all to conditions of topography and climate, and secondly to the means of transporting his crop.
Mining cannot be an industry in regions dest.i.tute of minerals; the miner must therefore go where the mineral wealth is found, without regard to climate, soil, centres of population, or topography. But two things are required--the mineral products and the means of getting them to the people--that is, ready means of transportation.
A century or more ago, each centre of population in the United States was practically self-sustaining. Each grew its own food-stuffs, and manufactured the articles used in the household. But very little was required in the way of transportation. The means of carriage were mainly ox-carts, pack-horses, and rafts. There was a mutual independence among the various centres, it is true, but the independence was at the expense of civilization and the comforts of life.
[Ill.u.s.tration: OCEAN TRANSPORTATION--ROYAL MAIL STEAMs.h.i.+P OCEANIC, WHITE STAR LINE]
Beyond an independence that is more apparent than real, such a plan of social and industrial organization has but little in it to commend.
Intercommunication increases knowledge, and under the conditions that formerly prevailed, there was a lack of the breadth of knowledge that comes with the mutual contact of peoples.
The utilization of national resources, such as the productiveness of the land, the existence of iron ore, coal, copper, and other economic minerals, finally brought about the policy of a territorial division of industries. This, in turn, made the prompt transportation and exchange of commodities essential; indeed, without such a plan, industrial centres could not long exist.
The man whose sole business is manufacture must look to others for his supply of food-stuffs and raw materials, and these are produced more economically at a distance from the centre of manufacture. Thus England must look to the United States for wheat and cotton, to the Australian Commonwealth for wool, and to New Zealand and the United States for meat. Her chief wealth is in her coal and iron, and these make the nation a great manufacturing centre. So, also, the manufacturer of New York must go to Pittsburg for steel, to Minneapolis for flour, and to Chicago for beef.
The application of this principle is very broad; it is the foundation of all commerce, and it underlies modern civilization. For this reason the question of transportation is just as important to a community as the industries of agriculture, mining, and manufacture. Food-stuffs are of no use unless they can be transported to the people who want them; nor can peoples remain in unproductive regions unless the food-stuffs are brought to them.
The gross tonnage of goods is transported mainly in one or another or all of three ways--namely, by animal power, by railway, or by water.
Thus, the cotton-crop of the United States is usually transported by wagon from the plantation to the nearest station or boat-landing; by rail or by barge to the nearest seaport; and by ocean steams.h.i.+p to the foreign seaport.
Water transportation is more economical than land carriage, for the reason that less power is required to move a given tonnage through the water than on the most perfectly graded railway. Steams.h.i.+p freights, as a rule, are lower than those of sailing-vessels, because a steams.h.i.+p has more than twice the speed, and, being larger, can carry a greater tonnage. Freight rates on the Great Lakes are higher per ton-mile than on the ocean, because the vessels are necessarily smaller than those built for ocean traffic. For a similar reason, river and ca.n.a.l freights are higher than lake freights. Railway transportation is economical, partly because a single locomotive will draw an enormous weight of goods, and partly because of the high speed at which the goods move from point to point. Animal transportation is more expensive than any other means ordinarily employed.
=Ocean Transportation.=--In many respects, water-routes form the most available and economical methods of transportation. Intercontinental commerce must be carried on by means of deep-water vessels. Therefore an extraordinary development of ocean carriers has taken place in the past century.
One important period of development began with the rise of American commerce. Just after the close of the War for Independence, it was found that deep-water s.h.i.+ps could be built of New England timber for thirty-five dollars per ton, rated tonnage, while a vessel of the same burden built in Europe cost about forty-five dollars per unit of tonnage. Two types of vessels came into use--one, the clipper s.h.i.+p with square sails, was used for long ocean voyages; the other, the schooner, with fore-and-aft rigging, was employed mainly in the coast-trade.
[Ill.u.s.tration: A SQUARE-RIGGED s.h.i.+P--A TYPE NOW BEING REPLACED BY FORE-AND-AFT RIGGED SCHOONERS]
In speed and ease of management these vessels surpa.s.sed anything that had ever sailed. In time they became the standards for the sailing-vessels of all the great commercial nations. The types of the vessels are still standards.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MODERN STEAMs.h.i.+P]
=The Development of the Steams.h.i.+p.=--Another important era in ocean commerce began when steam was used as a motive power for vessels. The first deep-water vessel thus to be propelled was the Savannah. Her steam-power was merely incidental, however, and her paddle-wheels were uns.h.i.+pped and taken aboard when there was enough wind for sailing. Up to 1860 almost all the ocean steams.h.i.+ps were side-wheelers, propelled by low-pressure beam-engines.
The next most important improvement was the screw-blade propeller, placed astern. This means of propulsion called for higher speed of the engines, and in a very short time compactly built high-pressure engines took the place of the low-pressure engine with its heavy walking-beam.
The latter carried steam at a pressure varying from twenty to thirty-two pounds; the modern boiler has steam at 260 pounds per square inch.
Ocean steams.h.i.+ps have gradually evolved into two types. The freighter, broad in beam and capacious, is built to carry an enormous amount of freight at a moderate speed. The White Star liner Celtic is a vessel of this cla.s.s; her schedule time between New York and Liverpool is about nine days. The Philadelphia of the American line, though not the fastest steams.h.i.+p, makes the same trip in an average time of five and one-half days.[7]
Twin-screws, instead of a single propeller, are employed on nearly all the large liners. The gain in speed is not greatly increased, but the vessel is far more manageable with two screws than with one; moreover, if one engine breaks down, the vessel can make excellent time with the other.
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