Part 38 (1/2)
From Commercial Australia find the trade of the United States with the Commonwealth.
FOR COLLATERAL READING AND REFERENCE
From a cyclopaedia read the history of Australia as a convict colony.
Commercial Australia.
Footnotes:
[1] If the edition for free distribution is exhausted, these may be purchased from the Superintendent of Doc.u.ments, Public Printer, Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C.
[2] The greatness of Palmyra was due to the trade along this route, and its decay began when the route was abandoned. The present town of Tadmor is near the ruins of the former city.
[3] Cosmas Indicopleustes--in early life a merchant, in later years a monk--visited India and Ceylon during the first part of the sixth century. His writings contain much valuable knowledge, but in the main they are theological arguments intended to disprove the Geography written by Ptolemy.
[4] The date is variously given as 1169, 1200, and 1241.
[5] To Waldemar III. of Denmark it dictated terms that made its power in Scandinavia supreme.
[6] For a complete list of books for reference, see p. xii.
[7] The record time on this route was made by the Lucania in five days, seven hours, and twenty-three minutes, from Daunts Rock, Queenstown, to Sandy Hook light. The fastest day's run yet recorded was made by the Deutschland--601 nautical miles, a speed of 24.19 knots.
[8] In Congress the River and Harbor Bill always receives a generous appropriation.
[9] In many instances goods designed for the spring trade in the Western States are started via the ca.n.a.l in October, reaching their destination at Chicago some time in April, the cargo having been frozen up in one or another of the ca.n.a.l basins during the winter. The rate paid for this slow transit is considerably less than the amount which otherwise would have been paid for storage; moreover, it is nearly all clear profit to the ca.n.a.l boatmen.
[10] The minimum depth of the ca.n.a.l is 22 feet; its width at the bottom is 160 feet. It was begun September, 1892, and completed January 2, 1902, at a cost of thirty-four million dollars. More than forty million cubic yards of earth and rock were excavated. All the bridges crossing it are movable.
[11] This is on the supposition that night travel will be too dangerous a risk. With a continuous travel the time would be about thirty-three hours.
[12] On one great trunk system the average ton-mile rate in 1870 was one and one-seventh cents; in 1900 it was just one-half that sum.
[13] The modern steam-making boiler has from thirty to one hundred or more tubes pa.s.sing through it from end to end. The heat from the fire-box as a rule pa.s.ses under the boiler and through the tubular flues; it thus increases the heating surface very greatly. The forced draught is made by allowing the exhaust steam to escape into the smokestack, thereby increasing the draught through the fire-box.
[14] A single locomotive of the New York Central has hauled 4,000 tons of freight at a speed of twenty-five miles an hour. A ”camel-back” of the Philadelphia & Reading hauled 4,800 tons of coal from the mines to tide-water without a helper.
[15] The Vanderbilt boiler with cylindrical corrugated fire-box invented by Cornelius Vanderbilt, great-grandson of the founder of the New York Central, marks an important step in locomotive building. The cylindrical form largely obviates the necessity of an array of stay-bolts to prevent warping; the corrugated surface gives greater heating power.
[16] The Central-Atlantic type of locomotive ill.u.s.trates a modern improvement. The driving-wheels are placed a little forward of their usual position, while the fire-box, formerly set between the wheels, now overhangs each side of a pair of low trailing-wheels. By this means the heating surface of the fire-box is increased nearly one-half. A lever controlled by the engineer enables the latter to transfer 5,000 pounds weight from the trucks to the driving-wheels when a grade is to be surmounted. The daily run of such a locomotive is greatly increased.
(_See cut, p. 61._)
[17] A line from Vienna to Triest was opened about 1854; Germany was joined to Italy across Brenner Pa.s.s in 1868; France was connected with Italy through a tunnel near Mont Cenis in 1871; in 1882 the traffic of Germany was opened to Mediterranean ports by a tunnel under St.
Gotthard. In this manner trunk systems have gradually developed.
[18] The building of the West Sh.o.r.e Railroad is an ill.u.s.tration. After both roads had suffered tremendous losses the New York Central settled the matter by purchasing the West Sh.o.r.e. This was one of a great number of similar cases both in the United States and Europe.
[19] In Great Britain the ton-rate is about $2.30 per hundred miles; in Germany, $1.75; in Russia, $1.30; in the United States, $0.70. The difference is due as much to the length of distance hauled as to economical management.