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52 THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN.
BALTIC-BLACK SEA CANAL
COMPANY FORMED IN RUSSIA.
A company has just been organized in Russia.
under direct Imperial authority, to construct the
long talked of Baltic and Black Sea ship canal,
and it is declared that the necessary capital,
$200,000,000. will be raised without difficulty by
Dutch. French, and American capitalists. Mr.
Rukteschel is the engineer. His plans are founded
upon the utilization of the rivers Dnieper and
Western Divina. These streams, starting in the
Valdai hills, run nearly parallel, in a southwesterly
direction, and make a sharp turn to the northwest
and the southeast respectively. The points
where they make this bend are about sixty miles
apart. Mr. Rukteschel proposes to cut the connedting
canal between these two points. The
daring feature of his scheme is the provision that
the entire canal, extending from sea to sea, shall
not have a single lock to delay navigation. The
connecting arm between the two rivers is to be fed
by a canal extending 200 miles to the great Pinsk
swamps, and tapping many streams whicli take
their rise in them. The Pinsk swamps occupy a
space half as large as all France, and are fed by
multitudes of springs, lake Jid. which appears to
be the collecting basin, is seventy feet higher than
the bed of the proposed connecting link. The
estimated length of the canal is 1,400 miles, of
which 330 will follow the Dvina, and 1,065 the
Dnieper. The proposed depth is thirty-one feef.
six inches; the width at the bottom 140 feet, and
at the top 265 feet. The estimated amount of excavation
of earth is something less than three
thousand million cubic yards, which it is estimated,
can be executed with American steam
shovels at a cost of $112,500,000. About thirteen
million cubic yards of rock must be blasted, at
an estimated cost of $10,000,000.
The strategic importance of such a canal, if
it should ever come into existence, would be immense.
For one thing, the Dardanelles would
cease to be a source of controversy. Commercially,
the canal would enable the Donets coal,
which is found in an extent of territory as large
as all England, to drive British coal from the
Russian market. The Russian Baltic ports now
consume every year about 4,500,000 tons of British
coal, for which they pay more than $25,000,000.
It would reduce the rail haul of export grain
from an average of about 1,000 miles to 300 or
400 miles, and enable Russian wheat and rye to
compete on extremely advantageous terms with
foreign imports. It would bring South Russian
iron to the St. Petersburg works, and stimulate
the trade of all kinds. It is estimated, besides,
that a large percentage of the transit trade from
the Mediterranean to Northern Europe would be
diverted to the new route. The calculations of
the engineer, which of course, are exceedingly
sanguine, point to a total traffic of 20,000.000 tons,
which he reduces to 15,000.000, which, at $1.50 per
ton, would yield $22,500,000. Upon these figures
he builds expectations of profits of 10 per cent.
upon the investment.
New Larry For Coaling Locomotives.
The Helmick Foundry-Machine Co. is building
an electric larry for coaling locomotives at its
modern plant in Fairmont, W. Va., for the
Moore's Run Coal Co., Bridgeport, Ohio. It will
hold 13 tons of coal. It is the same in general
construction as the larries now in use at Tunnelton
and Clarksburg on the B. & O. R. R., which
were built by the Helmick company. These larries
are a new departure from methods heretofore
in use for coaling locomotives. The coal bin is
built adjacent to the railroad tracks and sufficiently
high to permit the larry passing under the
bin, where it takes coal at as many different
points as may be necessary. The engineer of an
approaching train gives as many short blasts of
his whistle as the number of tons of coal wanted.
The larry is then run under one of the gates in
the bin and the scales, which are built with the
larry, are set for the number of tons wanted.
The bin gate is opened and when the required
amount of coal falls into the larry the scale beam
rings an electric bell or flashes a light. The gate
is then closed and the larry is moved out on a
bridge over the tracks, a chute is lowered and
the coal is dropped into the tender of the locomotive,
which loses only the time to stop in proper
position on the track to take the coal, there being
practically no delay beyond the stopping and
starting of the train.
$29.30 Colorado and Return From Pittsburg Over
Pennsylvania Lines.
G. A. R. excursion tickets will be sold at the
above fare. Their sale will begin August 29th
and continue daily until September 3d. Tickets
may be obtained to Denver, where the National
Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic
will be held September 4th to 7th, and to Colorado
Springs or Pueblo. The fare is an unusually
low one. and the occasion presents an exceptional
opportunity for a sight-seeing trip to
Colorado and the West. Excursionists may go
over one route and return over another, making
the trip via Chicago, returning through St. Louis.
or vice versa. Full particulars may be ascertained
by consulting J. K. Dillon, District Passenger
Agent, 515 Park Building, Pittsburgh Pa