The Project Gutenberg eBook ofBritish Canals: Is their resuscitation practicable?This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.Title: British Canals: Is their resuscitation practicable?Author: Edwin A. PrattRelease date: November 23, 2014 [eBook #47435]Most recently updated: October 24, 2024Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Chris Curnow, MWS and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file wasproduced from images generously made available by TheInternet Archive)*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BRITISH CANALS: IS THEIR RESUSCITATION PRACTICABLE? ***
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
Title: British Canals: Is their resuscitation practicable?Author: Edwin A. PrattRelease date: November 23, 2014 [eBook #47435]Most recently updated: October 24, 2024Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Chris Curnow, MWS and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file wasproduced from images generously made available by TheInternet Archive)
Title: British Canals: Is their resuscitation practicable?
Author: Edwin A. Pratt
Author: Edwin A. Pratt
Release date: November 23, 2014 [eBook #47435]Most recently updated: October 24, 2024
Language: English
Credits: Produced by Chris Curnow, MWS and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file wasproduced from images generously made available by TheInternet Archive)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BRITISH CANALS: IS THEIR RESUSCITATION PRACTICABLE? ***
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
AQUEDUCT AT PONTCYSYLLTE (IN THE DISTANCE).AQUEDUCT AT PONTCYSYLLTE (IN THE DISTANCE).(Constructed by Telford to carry Ellesmere Canal over River Dee. Opened 1803. Cost £47,000. Length, 1007 feet.)[Frontispiece.
AQUEDUCT AT PONTCYSYLLTE (IN THE DISTANCE).(Constructed by Telford to carry Ellesmere Canal over River Dee. Opened 1803. Cost £47,000. Length, 1007 feet.)[Frontispiece.
AQUEDUCT AT PONTCYSYLLTE (IN THE DISTANCE).
(Constructed by Telford to carry Ellesmere Canal over River Dee. Opened 1803. Cost £47,000. Length, 1007 feet.)
[Frontispiece.
BRITISH CANALS:IS THEIR RESUSCITATION PRACTICABLE?BY EDWIN A. PRATTAUTHOR OF "RAILWAYS AND THEIR RATES," "THE ORGANIZATIONOF AGRICULTURE," "THE TRANSITION IN AGRICULTURE," ETC.LONDONJOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.1906
BRITISH CANALS:
IS THEIR RESUSCITATION PRACTICABLE?
BY EDWIN A. PRATT
AUTHOR OF "RAILWAYS AND THEIR RATES," "THE ORGANIZATIONOF AGRICULTURE," "THE TRANSITION IN AGRICULTURE," ETC.
LONDONJOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.1906
The appointment of a Royal Commission on Canals and Waterways, which first sat to take evidence on March 21, 1906, is an event that should lead to an exhaustive and most useful enquiry into a question which has been much discussed of late years, but on which, as I hope to show, considerable misapprehension in regard to actual facts and conditions has hitherto existed.
Theoretically, there is much to be said in favour of canal restoration, and the advocates thereof have not been backward in the vigorous and frequent ventilation of their ideas. Practically, there are other all-important considerations which ought not to be overlooked, though as to these the British Public have hitherto heard very little. As a matter of detail, also, it is desirable to see whether the theory that the decline of our canals is due to their having been "captured" and "strangled" by the railway companies—a theory which many people seem to believe in as implicitly as they do, say, in the Multiplication Table—is really capable of proof, or whether that decline is not, rather, to be attributed to wholly different causes.
In view of the increased public interest in the general question, it has been suggested to me thatthe Appendix on "The British Canal Problem" in my book on "Railways and their Rates," published in the Spring of 1905, should now be issued separately; but I have thought it better to deal with the subject afresh, and at somewhat greater length, in the present work. This I now offer to the world in the hope that, even if the conclusions at which I have arrived are not accepted, due weight will nevertheless be given to the important—if not (as I trust I may add) the interesting—series of facts, concerning the past and present of canals alike at home, on the Continent, and in the United States, which should still represent, I think, a not unacceptable contribution to the present controversy.
EDWIN A. PRATT.
London,April 1906.
CHAP.PAGEI.INTRODUCTORY1II.EARLY DAYS12III.RAILWAYS TO THE RESCUE23IV.RAILWAY-CONTROLLED CANALS32V.THE BIRMINGHAM CANAL AND ITS STORY57VI.THE TRANSITION IN TRADE74VII.CONTINENTAL CONDITIONS93VIII.WATERWAYS IN THE UNITED STATES104IX.ENGLISH CONDITIONS119X.CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS142APPENDIX—THE DECLINE IN FREIGHT TRAFFIC ON THE MISSISSIPPI151INDEX157
HALF-TONE ILLUSTRATIONSAQUEDUCT AT PONTCYSYLLTE (in the distance)FrontispieceWHAT CANAL WIDENING WOULD MEAN: COWLEY TUNNEL AND EMBANKMENTSTo face page32LOCKS ON THE KENNET AND AVON CANAL AT DEVIZES" "42WAREHOUSES AND HYDRAULIC CRANES AT ELLESMERE PORT" "48WHAT CANAL WIDENING WOULD MEAN: SHROPSHIRE UNION CANAL AT CHESTER" "70"FROM PIT TO PORT": PROSPECT PIT, WIGAN" "82THE SHIPPING OF COAL: HYDRAULIC TIP ON G.W.R., SWANSEA" "88A CARGO BOAT ON THE MISSISSIPPI" "110SUCCESSFUL RIVALS OF MISSISSIPPI CARGO BOATS" "114WATER SUPPLY FOR CANALS: BELVIDE RESERVOIR, STAFFORDSHIRE" "128MAPS AND DIAGRAMSINDEPENDENT CANALS AND INLAND NAVIGATIONS" "54CANALS AND RAILWAYS BETWEEN WOLVERHAMPTON AND BIRMINGHAM" "56SOME TYPICAL BRITISH CANALS" "98