ON THE March to Constantinople. AN AMERICAN INVENTOR THE ALLY OF THE MUSCOVITE. Peter the Great may justly be credited with having been the greatest civilizer of his race. To him is due the credit of nationalizing his country and inaugurating vast industries, through the medium of the Ship. So far in advance of his time was he that his startling innovations and wonderful discounting of the arts of diplomacy must have endangered his head had he not been fortunate enough to have been born a despot. Peter’s last will and testament outlined the policy to be pursued by his successors, looking to the aggrandizement of Russia, and startling though its terms are in their selfishness, they are so thoroughly diplomatic that his successors have religiously lived up to their full meaning. And so it comes to pass that the ever-advancing and constantly-tightening grasp of Russia on adjacent territory is alarming the Governments of the Old World and may, indeed, in the near future, somewhat concern ourselves. The Canadian Government is now urging Great Britain to erect defences on the Pacific Coast, for the reason that Russia, in pursuance of her peculiar policy, is enlarging her works and arsenal at Vladivostock, opposite British As early as last May the St. Petersburgh correspondent of the New York Tribune contributed the following report of the progress of the Grand Trunk Railway through Central Southern Siberia to the Pacific Ocean and China:
And only a few weeks ago the same journal printed the following, as a sequel to the above:
THE FIRST STEP. The occupation of Asia, so long determined on by Russia, was a problem most difficult of solution. Many years were spent in devising ways and means to navigate the Aral Sea—the first thought being to transport machinery and material for the construction of steamers over the mountains—a project which was at length abandoned as impracticable. But a solution was at hand. In the year 1860 a novel system for the construction of vessels was introduced in Great Britain by an American, through whose efforts a Company was formed and an extensive factory established at Liverpool. This Company, on proof of the value of its system of construction, secured a contract with the British Government to construct a number of steamers for the East India Company of Bengal—Moorshedaba. As an evidence of the financial solidity of this company, and the class of men who invested their capital in that concern, it may be mentioned that Sir Charles Manby, the great English civil engineer, was President, while such men as Sir Robert Stephenson, President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and John Hamilton, also well-known as an eminent engineer, were members and stockholders. The entire capital and membership of the Company belonged in London—Liverpool simply being selected as a factory site. The steamers under course of construction by this Company were 150 and 200 feet long, built on the new system of CORRUGATED GALVANIZED IRON, three-sixteenths of an inch in thickness. By this system the weight of hull of a vessel was reduced one-third and the draft reduced in proportion, while the strength was increased two-fold by means of the corrugations covering the entire outer surface of the hull, which corrugations take the place of frames or timbers, thus increasing the interior capacity of a boat of given draft while vastly increasing her strength. The great utility and superior qualities of this mode of construction was fully demonstrated by the building of several supply boats for the British Navy, as well as military wagons for the Army, and other constructions on the same principle for miscellaneous purposes. The steamers built by this company were so constructed that they could be DISJOINTED AND TRANSPORTED IN SECTIONS, being so arranged that they could be set up and taken apart with the utmost celerity, and without the aid of more than passable shipbuilding or mechani THANKS OF CONGRESS AND IS TO RECEIVE A GOLD MEDAL. Information of this system of construction reached Russia after its value had been proved by the American, English, French, Austrian and German Governments, and Mr. Francis was invited to visit that country, where he was received by the Emperor. In 1860, Admiral Boutakoff, of the Imperial Russian Navy, was ordered by the Emperor to proceed to Liverpool and examine the system of construction, with a view to its applicability to service on the Aral Sea, in Asia, and report as to its utility. From documents placed in possession of the writer, he is enabled to present a copy of the Admiral’s Report, as follows:
TEST OF CORRUGATED IRON LAP MADE IN LIVERPOOL BY ADMIRAL BOUTAKOFF, R. I. N. TEST OF CORRUGATED IRON LAP MADE IN LIVERPOOL BY On a call from the Russian Government, the inventor submitted photographs and drawings of the steamers constructed by the Liverpool Company, addressed, according to instructions, to the Grand Duke Constantine. After some little necessary correspondence, shorn of all diplomatic red tape, a contract was entered into between the Imperial Government and THE STRANGEST ROUTE EVER TRAVERSED BY SHIP. From Liverpool they went first to St. Petersburgh—thence to Moscow—on to Nijni Novgorod—across the Volga—over the Ural Mountains—to the Aral Sea, in Asia—where they were at length unboxed, the sections once again put together and, lo, a PROUD FLOTILLA GRACED THE ARAL, upreared as if by magic hands. This was the initiative in Russia’s grandest Dream of Empire. These vessels had crossed the Aral barrier, and swooped down like things of life on the insulated sea, the inhabitants of whose shores fondly dreamed they dwelt secure in Nature’s fastness. Impossible would it have been to transport vessels in their entirety over the rugged heights, and deadly impracticable would it have been to attempt their construction on the Aral seaboard, in full view of an alert and suspicious people. Here it may be well to introduce three letters, the originals of which are in possession of the writer, and which are fully corroborative of the preceding statements.
(Letter from Admiral Boutakoff to Mr. Francis.)
On the launching of the steamers, the Emperor congratulated Mr. Francis on the success of the invention by which the first obstacle that After the survey of the Aral, only rendered possible by the construction of these vessels, fortifications were constructed on the shores of that sea, and the long-deferred conquest of that section of Asia was, to all intents and purposes, accomplished. In order to still further emphasize his gratitude, the Emperor caused Mr. Francis to be created a Knight of the Royal Order of Saint Stanislaus, one of the richest decorations in the gift of royalty. Following is a copy of the parchment:
Shortly after the securing of his patents in Russia Mr. Francis disposed of a portion of his corrugated system patent to Baron Rumin, Chamberlain to the Emperor, covering Moscow and the Rivers Volga and Don. After the contract was drawn, a request was made on the part of the Baron to include the Caspian Sea, and to which no objection was made, as little value was placed on the Caspian at that time, on account of its shallow water and isolated position, no one supposing that a RAILWAY WOULD EVER CROSS THE JAXARTES and join both the great rivers that flow into the Aral Sea, connecting commerce with the Aral and Caspian, as well as China, and so onward to the Pacific Coast. A factory was eventually established by Baron Rumin, on the Banks of the Volga, for the construction of steamers, and practical workmen were sent to this factory from the establishment of Mr. Francis, at Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York. This brief account of Russia’s struggle for supremacy among the family of nations, so intimately interwoven with the history of one of America’s foremost inventors in the life-saving field, is another instance of the Providence that rules the destinies of the world, through the lives of unassuming and patient workers. From experiment came invention. The Life-Car, in this instance the outcome of extended experiment on the part of Joseph Francis, proved the value of the corrugating system, the fame of which, within a few years, spread all over the world. The Life-Car, the first construction under the corrugated system, was merely the germ of the widespread uses to which the system was and is applicable, as has been shown. Steamships, floating docks, pontoon bridges, military wagons and railway cars are only a few among the many constructions to which the Francis system of corrugated iron was applied by him and those to whom he sold the right to manufacture. The Life-Car, then, was the suggestion that led to the construction of the portable, strong, light-draft ship, which proved the most powerful implement, in Russia’s hands, of working out the vastest scheme of empire ever conceived in the brain of man. Mr. Francis, successful in all his inventions, has been honored beyond most men by foreign potentates, and now is about to receive what he holds to be the crowning honor, the bestowal of the gold medal awarded him by two Congresses, with the double thanks of this chosen body of representatives of the people. |