Steam Engines employed for purposes of industry, and also in mining enterprise, exclusive of that employed in navigation and locomotives. Hence, it is shown that the amount of horse power employed in mining and manufacturing enterprise in France increased 257 per cent. in ten years; and in Belgium 94 per cent. in only five years. Our English returns are incomplete. Steam vessels of Great Britain, the United States, France and Russia, chiefly engaged in Commerce. The steam marine of the United States is immense, amounting in 1852, according to Andrews's Report, to 1390 vessels, with an aggregate tonnage of 417,226, of which 96 (tonnage 91,475 ) were ocean steamers, 529 were coast steamers, (tonnage 121,025 }), 765 were interior steamers, (tonnage 204,725), of which 601 (tonnage 135,559) were on the rivers.‡ The Mercantile Marine of Great Britain and United States. During the year 1853 there were built and registered in the United Kingdom 645 sailing vessels, of a collective burden of 154,956 tons; 153 steamers, with a tonnage of 48,215, making the total aggregate of ships building during the year of 203,171 tons, independent of the vessels built in the colonies. A striking fact in the ship building of the United Kingdom, is the rapid increase of iron ships. Of the 153 steamers built last year, 117 were of iron. Of the sailing vessels, 10 were built of iron, averaging 857 tons each. On the Clyde, which is one of the finest ship yards in Great Britain, more than half the vessels now on the stocks are of iron. Over 250,000 tons of shipping were built in the United States in 1852, and a still greater amount in 1853. At present the aggregate amount of tonnage owned by each of the two countries. does not materially vary.§ Great Britain and Ireland have a navy 678 vessels and 18,000 guns. France,. Turkey, 328 vessels and 8,000 guns. 175 vessels and 7,000 guns. 74 vessels and 4,000 guns. Official Report of the Secretary of the Treasury, 1847. Report of the Societé Maritime, 1846. U. States Gazateer, 1854. New York Tribune. Map of Europe embracing latest Statistics, published by Cowperthwaite, Desilver & Butler, Phila. 1854. Such are the results which our recent investigations have disclosed, while seeking to trace the onward march of productive industry, in opposite hemispheres. However rapid may have been that advance in the Old World, in energy and perseverance-in inventive genius and mechanical skill-in an extended application of the useful artsin the employment of mighty agencies known to us but as yesterday -and, above all, perhaps, in the adaptation of the wonderful powers of steam-the New World has by no means suffered herself to be left behind. It is but justice to the latter to show how fully she appreciates and avails herself of this newly acquired knowledge, by her rapid advancement in the operative and industrial arts, in so wide a field for human enterprise. We cannot perform this duty so efficiently as in the language of one of her own citizens and most distinguished engineers. The admirable and truly eloquent address, from which we take the following extracts, was delivered at the successful termination of one of the most important undertakings in the system of internal improvements in Pennsylvania. It reached us soon after we had embodied in the preceding pages the statistical results which were elicited during the preparation of the present volume.* "We have already alluded to the indications which past experience affords of the probable future consumption of coal in this country. The subject is of primary interest, and we may, therefore, venture still to add some reflections upon the causes which are now at work to extend this consumption. "In estimating the probable growth of this trade, we must, to some extent, endeavour to free our minds from the shackles of old opinions, and the influence of ancient example. We must learn to feel the truth, that we live in an age that bears little resemblance to the past, and the progress of which cannot be safely judged by the history of the past. "This is essentially the age of commerce and of steam—the foundations of which are our coal mines. "In the machine-shop and factory-on the railroad and canal— on the rivers and the ocean-it is STEAM that is henceforth to perform the labour, overcome resistance, and vanquish space. And it is not for human intellect to assign a limit to the application of this power, in a country like that which it is our fortunate lot to inhabitintersected by noble rivers, and penetrated by numerous bays-with an extensive sea-board, lined by flourishing cities, and possessing, along with boundless enterprise, all the elements of national wealth. "But, look where we will, the evidence of the truth, that we live in an age of which the progress is not to be measured by examples from the history of the past, is prominent before us. "Taking the iron trade as an example, we find that the mere increase of the production of this metal, in the valley of the Schuylkill alone, during the last eighteen months, exceed the entire production of the furnaces of Great Britain, ninety years ago. The manu Report to the Stockholders of the Schuylkill Navigation Company, by Charles Ellet, Esq., President, January 4th, 1847. facture of cotton in Great Britain which has increased about one hundred fold in the last seventy years, and of the same and many other articles, as well in Europe as in this country, exhibits results almost equally striking. "There was, in fact, no appreciable iron trade, and, indeed, but little trade at all, in the present ordinary use of that word, anterior to the introduction of the steam engine-an instrument of power deriving its efficiency almost entirely from coal, which, through its agency, has given birth to modern commerce, to modern enterprise, and a mighty impulse, too, to modern civilization. "A quarter of a century ago-within the memory of almost all here present those magnificent boats which now give life to the Delaware and the Hudson-the seven or eight hundred which traverse the Mississippi-and the thousand which circulate on other waters of this country, had no existence, except, perhaps, in the imaginations of those who were then considered wild and visionary enthusiasts. Now, every year brings forth new specimens, each in its turn regarded as the noblest creation of bold invention; and each week presents some new enterprise, by which the Atlantic cities. are brought into closer connection with each other, and with foreign ports. "The use of this power on the ocean has but just commenced; yet enough has already been accomplished to point to an approaching revolution in the coasting trade and foreign commerce of all countries. The next year promises to witness new lines of ocean steamers, connecting this country with England, France, Germany, and South America, and traversing the coast from New York to New Orleans. "A quarter of a century ago, and there were not more than a thousand tons of anthracite annually raised and exported in all this Union; now the increase alone is more than a thousand tons per diem, and compounding rapidly upon that. "But still we can form no accurate estimate for the future increase from the past. New elements are daily introduced into the problem, of which no human intellect can determine the value. "The introduction of the railway system over all Europe and even Asia-over this continent and the West India Islands-over Russia, and even into the Papal States, offer a guarantee of a future consumption of iron and coal, and all the chief mineral products of the earth, to which no bounds can be assigned. "Each railway requires iron for its track, engines, cars, and frequently for its stations. Each new steamer requires coal to drive it-iron for its engine, and sometimes for its hull-and five tons of coal for each ton of iron it consumes. "Every steam boat that is launched, and every road that is forced into the interior, gives birth to new enterprise, new wants and new commerce. "The manufacture of the iron, and the propulsion of the machinery require coal; the quantity increases with the expansion of the railway system; the system extends the area of civilized population, and consequent agricultural wealth. This wealth needs transportation, and this transportation again needs coal and iron. "In this country, peculiarly, the consumption of this fuel is increasing with the general increase of population where it is employed-with the wider area over which it is used-with each new purpose to which it is applied-with the growth of every description of manufacture requiring power, with every new improvement by which the cost of its conveyance is diminished, and with the extentension of inland, coast, and ocean navigation.' Thus far has been exhibited in the foregoing pages an interesting picture of the wonderful advance made, in our day, in the application of the mineral combustibles. We have seen, and let us note the fact, that this enormous advance has not been limited to a single district, but that it has simultaneously proceeded in all the coal producing countries of the earth. Doubtless a very large portion of this is ascribable to the prodigious extension of steam power, occasioning a corresponding demand for mineral combustibles. We should exceed our prescribed limits were we to adduce the evidences of this increased application of steam, through the agency of coal. Nor, indeed, is it essential to our purpose. But we are quite sure that we cannot more appropriately terminate this introductory section, than by citing the following expressive passage, which we find in the Bulletin of the Central Commission of Statistics in the kingdom of Belgium; to the author of which we have here to acknowledge our obligations. "Industry has undergone a complete transformation since the establishment of machinery. The development of mechanism is owing to the application of steam as the moving power. Steam has been substituted in a multitude of operations, for the natural agents. If we had to write the history of industry, we should represent man seeking at first to direct, to his advantage, the elements of nature, and subsequently creating new forces and more powerful agents. In the first period, man finds masters in every thing which surrounds him; the means at his disposal are very confined; his knowledge and his capital are limited; regulations badly conceived; the small extension of outlets; the difficulties of transportation;-all restrain his capability of production. "In the second period, the state of affairs changes: he has subdued the natural elements; he disposes them at his will; the science of mechanics procures him the most powerful agents; natural philosophy, chemistry, discover to him a part of their treasures; capitals are no longer locked up; the slender profits of agriculture impel them back towards industrial occupations. Interior shackles have disappeared; treaties of commerce establish, between the people, fixed relations, The power thus convertible to the purpose of lightening the labour of man was felicitously illustrated by Sir I. F. W. Herschel, in the remark that the ascent of Mount Blanc from Chamouni, is considered, and with justice, as the most toilsome feat that a strong man can execute in two days. The combustion of two pounds of coal would place him on the summit. |