Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 31.djvu/455

Rh three thousand (2,990 exactly). What caused this? The introduction of steam hoisting-machines and grain-elevators upon the wharves and docks, and the employment of hydraulic appliances and steam-power upon the vessels for steering, raising the sails and anchors, pumping, and discharging the cargo; or, in other words, the ability, through the increased use of steam and improved machinery, to carry larger cargoes in a shorter time, with no increase—or, rather, an actual decrease—of the number of men employed in sailing or managing the vessels.

Statistical investigations of a later date furnish even more striking illustrations to the same effect from this industrial specialty. Thus, for 1870, the number of hands actually employed for every 1,000 tons capacity, entered or cleared, of the British steam mercantile marine, is reported to have been 47, but in 1884 it was only 28; or seventy per cent more manual labor was required in 1870 than in 1884 to do the same work. In sailing-vessels the change, owing to a lesser degree of improvement in the details of navigation, has been naturally smaller, but nevertheless considerable; 28 hands being required in 1884 as against 33 in 1870 for the same tonnage entered or cleared; to which it may be added that if in these comparisons the tonnage of freight actually transported had been taken, in place of tonnage entered and cleared, whether light, partially, or fully loaded, the difference in the labor required for maritime transportation in favor of 1884 would undoubtedly have been even greater. Another fact of interest is, that the recent increase in the proportion of large vessels constructed has so greatly increased the efficiency of shipping, and so cheapened the cost of sea-carriage, to the advantage of both producers and consumers, that much business that was before impossible has become quite possible. Of the total British tonnage constructed in 1870, only six per cent was of vessels in excess of 2,000 tons burden; but in 1884 fully seventeen per cent was of vessels of that size, or larger. Meanwhile, the cost of new iron ships has been reduced, in Great Britain, from $90 per ton in 1872-'74, to $65 in 1877, $60 in 1880, and less than $40 in 1885-'86. Prior to about the year 1875, ocean-steamships had not been formidable as freight-carriers. The marine engine was too heavy, occupied too much space, consumed too much coal. For transportation of passengers, and of freight having large value in small space, they were satisfactory; but for performing a general carrying trade of the heavy and bulky articles of commerce, they were not satisfactory. A steamer of the old kind, capable of carrying 3,000 tons, might sail on a voyage so long that she would be compelled to carry 2,200 tons of coal, leaving room for only 800 tons of freight; whereas, at the present time, a steamer with the compound engines, and all other modern improvements, can make the same voyage and practically reverse the figures that is, carry 2,200 tons of freight with a consumption of only 800 tons of coal. How, under such circumstances, the