VIII. The "Eureka.”

This boat, which was built and is owned by Hiram Niles, Esq., of Buffalo, is of iron, full size, and weighs, with her machinery, 79% tons. She is unusually sharp, forward, below load water-line, and carries her machinery, consisting of a Perry and Lay compound engine and two screw propellers, forward.

Her cylinders are 8 and 16 inches in diameter, and the stroke of the pistons is 12 inches. Her boiler has 103 square feet of grate, and consumes, as the captain informed me, two tons of coal in 24 hours. The screws are 42 inches in diameter, and have a pitch of 4 feet 8 inches; these are so disposed that their axes are parallel with those lines of the bow which lie in the same horizontal plane, and are driven by a level wheel upon the outboard end of the engine shaft.

On the 17th of September I joined the "Eureka," at lock 5, while she was bound west with a cargo of 150 tons.. She ran from this point to the head of the 16 locks, making the passage of 13 locks in three hours and five minutes. The time occupied in locking ranged from 6 minutes and 20 seconds to 9 minutes and 55 seconds. She did not enter the locks readily; this was partly on account of her extreme width, and partly, I think, on account of the location and arrangment of the screws.

The steamer left lock 18. at 2.12 P. M., and at 2.25 became disabled by the breakage of one of the bevel wheels. During the run of 13 minutes, while the engine was making 116 revolutions, the speed was observed to be at the rate of 2.7 miles per hour. The "slip was, therefore," 56 per cent.

No clearances or statements of detentions have been furnished by Mr. Niles, who, it is understood, on account of the unsatisfactory character of the "Eureka's" machinery, withdrew her from competition.

IX. The "George A. Feeter."

This is an ordinary "bull-head" boat, transformed by Mr. Louis Stagg, of Springfield, Ohio, in accordance with a peculiar idea of his as to the best and most effective means by which the formation of the wave or swell may be prevented.

Mr. Stagg says: "The device or invention consists in taking the water in on either side of the boat and discharging it at the stern, through channelways placed in the bottom of the boat, starting from a point one-third the distance of the full length of the same from the stern." This plan, says Mr. S., "is based upon a hydrostatic law that

water drawn diagonally from the sides of the boat, revolving in opposite directions, will pass out in straight lines, without lifting or agitating the surface of the water, absolutely preventing the wash of the banks or injury to the canal or its structures."

The channel-ways are each 52 inches in diameter, and meet at a point 7 feet from the stern; from this point a single trunk, 7 feet wide and 52 inches high, extends directly to the stern. The combination, therefore, in plan resembles the letter Y.

The screws are 4 feet in diameter, are placed 2 feet within the hull, have a feed space extending 9 feet forward, and revolve in opposite directions. The machinery consists in a pair of Gothic inclined engines, with cylinders 10 x 12, and rated at 60 horse power.

The boiler is horizontal return tubular; has 16 square feet of grate surface, six 6-inch flues and seventy-two 2-inch return tubes.

The "Feeter" left Buffalo, on her first and only trip, on the 16th of November, with a cargo of 6,000 bushels of corn, weighing 168 tons, and drawing 6 feet of water.

No statement of detentions has been furnished, nor did the several collectors note the hours at which the boat passed their offices; but the dates are as follows: Buffalo, November 16th; Albion, 17th; Rochester, 17th; Palmyra, 19th; Montezuma, 20th; Syracuse, 21st; Utica, 24th; Schenectady, 25th; West Troy, 26th. The time consumed in making the trip, therefore, appears to have been about 10 days.

The coal consumption is put by Mr. Stagg at 13 tons in 24 hours. He accompanied the boat as far as Rochester, and states that the speed between Buffalo and Rochester averaged 3 miles per hour. The probable correctness of this statement, as to speed, is indicated by the indorsements on the clearance.

This boat cannot carry 200 tons, and, therefore, cannot meet all the requirements of the law. Mr. Stagg claims that she can carry 150 tons and tow four loaded boats. Her ability to do this, however, remains to be demonstrated.

X. The "Central City."

This is a new side-wheel boat, built expressly for steam propulsion by Mr. T. D. Davis of Syracuse. She is quite sharp forward, is 98 feet long and of the usual width.

The peculiar feature of the "Central City," so far as her machinery is concerned, consists in the provision which is made for adjusting the immersion of the paddle wheels to the draft of water, so as at all

times to insure the maximum efficiency of the paddles. The wheels, boiler and engine rest upon a frame which is supported by four vertical screws, by which the entire machinery and wheels may be raised or depressed at will. When the boat is loaded, all of the machinery will be even with or above the deck, leaving the entire space underneath available for the stowage of cargo. The wheels are placed in recesses built in the sides, at the stern of the boat, are 12 feet in outside diameter and have each 12 paddles 26 inches long by 22 inches deep.

1

The boiler is 4 feet in diameter, has 14 square feet of grate and about 230 square feet of heating surface.

The engine is single, non-condensing, with a cylinder 10 inches in diameter, 17 inches stroke of piston and is geared to the paddle-shaft in the ratio of 6 to 1.

This boat was completed late in November last, and was able to make only a single trip from Syracuse to Albany, where she now lies. While making this trip she forced her way through the ice from Schenectady to Troy, after horse-boats had ceased running.

I was not able to join this boat on her trip, and, therefore, know nothing, personally, of her performance. Mr. Davis, however, expresses himself as quite satisfied that the boat will prove to be a

success.

XI. The "Montana."

This is an ordinary "lake boat" remodeled to receive a feathering paddle-wheel in the center of the stern. For this purpose a recess was cut about 6 feet wide, having its forward bulk-head vertical and distant about 10 feet from the stern. The paddle-wheel is 8 feet in diameter, to the axes of the paddles, and has eight curved paddles of boiler iron, each of which is 6 feet long and 21 inches wide.

The engines are two in number, direct-acting and non-condensing; the cylinders are 9 inches in diameter, and the stroke of the pistons

is 18 inches.

The boiler is of the horizontal locomotive type, 4 feet in diameter and 10 feet long; it has 13 square feet of grate surface, and ninety 2 inch fire tubes, 4 feet 3 inches long, the latter, together with the fire box, making about 288 square feet of heating surface.

The "Montana" has made one or two single trips, but, I believe, has not performed to the satisfaction of those interested in her. The plan resembles that involved in the "Port Byron," except that the trunk is wanting, and that the wheel is smaller and the buckets longer.

I saw this boat on the canal while coming east on board the "Bax ter" on the morning of the 14th of November. It was quite dark at the time, and I was unable to judge as to her behavior. I was unable to join her at any time, as no information was furnished as to her

movements.

Neither clearances nor statement of detentions have been furnished by the captain or owners of the "Montana."

The foregoing comprises all the boats to which my attention has been called during the last two seasons of navigation. Others have, I believe, been upon the canal, but whether or not they were considered as competing for the reward offered by the State, I am not informed. The list certainly embraces all that can by any possibility claim to have made the preliminary trips required by resolution of the Commission, or to have carried the cargoes and made the speed required by the law.

HORSE-BOAT "TIME."

In order to judge correctly as to the relative capacities and economy of steamers, as compared with horse-boats, it is of course necessary to know the average time of the latter between Buffalo and Troy. For the purpose of ascertaining this time, I caused an examination to be made of the clearances of 72 boats arriving, consecutively, at West Troy from Buffalo. The results of this examination are as follows: Average time between Buffalo and West Troy, 10 days 2 hours and 46 minutes; average cargo, 227 tons; average speed, 1.42 miles per hour. This examination was commenced on the 16th of October, and in only two or three instances was mention made of delay due to sickness of horses. It is assumed, therefore, that the results obtained fairly represent the average performance of the horse-boat between Buffalo and Troy.

STEAM TOWING.

The opinion is expressed by many persons interested in canal navigation that the true solution of the problem of "steam on the canals" is to be found in the employment of steamers which shall simply tow trains of boats, carrying no cargo themselves, or shall carry moderate cargoes themselves and shall tow one, two or three loaded boats besides. The arguments advanced in support of this opinion, and which seem plausible enough until critically examined, are that only one engine and crew may thus be made to do the work of several engines and crews, and that the space occupied by the single engine,

even though it be of greater power, will be much less than the aggregate space occupied by the machinery when applied to each boat, and, therefore, that the average paying cargo will be greater. The economy of steam towing on the canal will depend mainly upon the relative speeds of the tow and of the single steamer, and upon the costs at which these speeds are attained. If it be possible to tow a train of boats from Buffalo to Troy in the same time that the single steamer requires for the same trip, and with the same expenditure of power per ton, then there can be no further question as to the superior economy of that mode of transportation. But can this speed be attained?

The effective surface of the propelling instrument which may be employed upon the canal is limited by the depth of the canal and by the width of the locks. Hence no larger propelling surface can be employed in connection with the towing steamer than can be used in each steamer that does not tow. Now, the "slip" of any propelling instrument, and the loss of power due to it, increase rapidly with the work it has to do. It follows, then, since the work of the towing steamer must necessarily be much greater than that of the single steamer at the same speed, that a much larger per centage of the power of the former will be uselessly expended in "slip" than will he thus expended in the latter, and hence that the towing steamer cannot use its power as effectively as the steamer which does not tow. If the power cannot be used as effectively in the one case as in the other, then, with the same proportionate expenditure of power, the towing steamer cannot attain the same speed that can be maintained by the steamer without a tow.

This is a serious objection to towing, but it is not the only one. The canal steamer passes through the canal with a necessary average detention of say six minutes at each lock, or seven hours between Buffalo and Troy. The towing steamer passes a lock as quickly as the former; but after it has passed, it must wait for the first and succeeding boats of the tow to be locked through. Each additional single lockage will require nearly or quite double the time required for the first, on account of the greater difficulty in the management of the towed boats, and of the necessity of waiting for the locks to be "shifted," or for a boat to be locked in the opposite direction. The time of three single lockages is therefore required for the passage of the >teamer with one boat in tow; but the boats already locked through must still await the slow process of locking the balance of the tow. If there be two boats towed, the detention will be increased five times;