This system has been eminently successful, and a great increase in the coal traffic on the canal has been the result. On the Weaver Navigation, horse-haulage has been entirely given up in favour of towing by steam barges which themselves carry cargo.
Steam v. horse-haulageIt has also been shown that on a movement of 4,000,000 tons of merchandize by cargo-carrying-tugs, on the Aire and Calder, the cost was 0·03d. per ton per mile, the figure used in the calculation above. Horse-haulage on the same route costs 0·14d. per ton per mile, nearly five times as much, and on the smaller Leeds and Liverpool Canal, on to which boats are taken from the Aire and Calder, horse-haulage is at 0·33d. per ton per mile, or eleven times as much as steam-haulage and more than twice as much as horse-haulage—on the larger canal.
Chain and wire-rope haulage.Other methods of haulage besides horse and steam are in use. The chain and wire rope systems used on the Continent have met with little success on English Canals, no doubt owing to peculiar local circumstances. The wire rope was tried on the Bridgewater Canal, but could not be properly adapted on account of the large number of bends and turns, and the consequent difficulty of working the traffic in opposite directions.
Oil and gas engines.Another system of haulage makes use of motors in the shape of oil or compressed gas engines—the advantage over steam being that less room is required for machinery, and thus more is available for goods.
