33

t

because during that year the line was opened, in parts, from Harper’s Ferry to Cumberland.

The application for the year 1841, gave a result of #>27,210 belowthe actual expenses. I stated at the time that the subsequent ex-penses would be likely to fall below the calculated expenses. Weaccordingly find the result for the next year comes S34,000 below theformula. Here, then, is another, and most conclusive, confirmation ofthe correctness of the formula, and of the principles on which it isfounded. If wo take the sum of the expenses for the two years, wefind the calculation 45515,000, and the fact 45507,288.

But we have yet a third case: the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad report for 1843, exhibits, as has been stated, the results on the Balti­ more and Washington Road, likewise for that year. These, togetherwith those of 1841 and 1S42, are presented in the following

TABLE.

Name of Road.

Year.

Length

in

miles.

Gr’de

in

feet

Miles

run.

Thro’h

tonnae.

Thro’h

travel.

Actual

expenses.

Calculat’d

expenses.

Error pr.cent.

Halt. & Wash.

1841-2

30$

91,428

27,369

1)4,260

$ 73,684

76,166

Kail. & Wash.

1843

30$

90,716

26,470

86,880

68,866

71,676

4

Here is an agreement within 4 per cent.

When I presented this formula in the November number of theJournal, and exhibited its application to seventeen lines of railway, Istated that these seventeen lines were all the roads for which I hadbeen able to collect the statistical information necessary for theapplication. I had written to many companies, and had generallybeen supplied with the facts required, and which were not given intheir reports. In some instances, however, they were unable tofurnish the information which I needed; in two instances I receivedno reply to my letter; and in one—and I am happy to say one instanceonly —the officer declined making the affairs of the company public.

Since then the three companies above named have published theirreports; and they are the. only reports for the year 1S43, which Ihave yet received. These reports add confirmation to the previousproof. Still, I advance the formula as an approximation only, whichI hope, with the aid of my professional friends, and future facts, so tomodify and improve, as to render its application general and certain.It is the expression of the true law ; but the constants arc to be builtlip by multiplied facts, until there can no longer be room to doubt itsindications.

I have endeavored, so far, to conform to the method which modernscience points out as proper to be pursued in practical inquiries.Much injury has been inflicted on the great cause of internal im-provement, and especially of railroad improvement, by the erroneousopinions of enthusiastic, but unwise, advocates. But a new orderot' things has grown up, and a new system of enquiry is rapidly

E