Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 March 1891 — Page 6

BORING A BIG TUNNEL.

RAPID PROGRESS OF THE ST. CLAIR WORK. 4 Working: Under an Air Pressure of Over Twenty Pounds to the Square Inch—A Great Engineering Achievement Which Will Probably Be Duplicated Soon.

i,nd will be of immense importance in the transfers between Chicago, Milwaukee, Grand Haven, Muskegon, Bay City and Detroit to Buffalo, Toronto, Suspension Bridge, Wiarton, North Bay, Kingston, Montreal, Quebec, the White Mountains and Portland and intermediate points. In the summer of 1887 large and costly plants were erected for the tunnel machinery, in Ontario some 1,900 feet from the river, in Michigan about 1,800 feet back. In each plant were included three boilers, a pair of hoisting engines, a ventilating engine with a blower capable of 10,000 cubic feet a minute, a hydraulic pump, a drilling machine, a bolt-screwing machine, a planing machine with extra bed and table, a'water pump, two electric light dynamos and engines, a carpenter shop, a blacksmith shop, and a machine shop. The permanent plants are a small pumping house in Michigan, and in Ontario a brick engine and boiler house, containing at present boilers, four electric light engines and dynamos, two ventilating “blows,” and the two great pumps for draining the cut The great cuttings for tunnel approaches were begun on New Year's Day of 1889, says the Chicago Inter Ocean, The Canadian was begun somewhat narrow. At a depth of fifty-eight feet a landslide deposited about sixteen feet of ■soil in this cutting. Work was started again about ten rods farther back. At the portal the Canadian great cutting is sixty feet deep. It is 260 feet wide at Us broadest portion. From the portal it

MAP SHOWING POSITION OF TUNNEL.

rises one foot in fifty feet for 3,192 feet. The American great cutting is fifty-two feet deep, about 200 feet wide at its (broadest part, and rises one foot in fifty feet for 2,533 feet. An inclined track •was laid for flat cars lo haul out the tunaiel soil. In September, 1890, two steam shovels began work on each side of the river. jJEach shovel was attended by a ‘locomotive and train of flat cars. Hundreds of men are employed day and night. When the tunnel proper was ■commenced scarcely more than two layers of the soil had been removed. The -tunnel company grew impatient, 'and on Monday, Feb. 9, 1891, took the Canadian work from the contractors. Over 800 men are employed. As the tunnel will not be opened for traffic until after the approaches are completed the work on the cutting is being rushed. Mr. Alfred E. Boach, an American engineer, designed and used a shield in the Broadway tunnel, New York City, in 1868. Since then similar shields have been used in Chicago, Buffalo, Hudson River, London, and other tunnels. This excavating shield may be compared to a cylinder with no head. It is a circle of steel \platos. Inside these plates are braces, doors, and aids for thejworkmen. In the front end are knife-edges to penetrate the soil. In the rear portion of the shield, around the main walls,'are hydraulic jacks, each supplied with a valve, so that its action may be independent of others. The material of the tunnel walls, masonry, or cast iron, is built in the rear of the shield. Pressure is applied to the hydraulic rains, and thus the shie’d is pushed ahead the length of the jacks’ pistons. The soil is pushed into the front of the shield, and the men remove it by loading it upon cars, which are pushed out to the tramways, on which they are drawn by mules, or horses, to the entrance of the tunnel, where they ate hoisted to the regular .flat cars and taken to the dumping ground. While the men are removing -the soil in front the men in the rear are busy erecting the walls of the tunnel. In case of iron plates, a revolving crane lifts thg plate by means of a counterbalance height to the desired position, where itT§ bolted to the other plates. When the section of the tunnel is completed, and the pistons of the rams have been drawn back, the air is applied again, and the jacks pushed forward for another section of the tunnel to be put in. By this arrangement the workmen are always protected from danger above, around or below. The air pressure keeps the water back in front, and the ■comp’eted tunnel protects the rear. Two shields wore used in the St? Clair tunn 1. Each weighed eighty tons. "They were brought in sections to the Qorth bank of the cutting, where they ■were erected. Then came the problem of placing the shields in position. Wooden tracks were laid, huge ropes were placed Around each shield, and they were gradually lowered by men. In eighty min«tes they were in place at the proposed mouth of the thnnel. Each Shield was 16 feet long, and had an outside diameter of 21H feet The steel plates were l inch thick. Esch.skield had twenty-four hydraulic rams at equal distances apart. Each ram had a stroke of 2 feet and a diameter of 8 inches. Each iime the pistons were shoved ahsad the

shield moved enough to allow a section, or a foot and a half, of the tunnel to be made. The air could have been forced to press 3,000 tons on the shield, but the greatest pressure used was 960 tons. By regulating the pressure of any valve the direction bf the shield could be-varied at will. An observation of the shield’s direction was taken every morning, and by a diagram any variations, even to the smallest fractions of an*inch, were detected and regulated. The variation scarcely ever excelled a fourth of an inch. When the shields met they fitted exactly, which in itself was a marvel, for they had been burrowing farther and farther into unknown soil, yet controlled

j\R E Grand ifTrunk • Railway under [■the River jßt. * Clair, near Lake t Huron, is a wonderful engineer- , ing achievei ment. It is an important link I in the commercial union of the United States and Canada. It will greatly facilitate the traffic over the several thousand miles of railways in the Grand Trunk system,

by brilliant minds and wonderful inventions. The American shield started duly 11, 1889; the Canadian Sept 21, 1889; they met at nearly midnight of Aug. 30,1890. The Canadian had gone 2,686.10 feet, and the American 3,313v85 feet. Work had been pushed night and day, in shifts of. eight hours, for electricity lighted the shields and tunnel, and early completion of the tunnel was a great object. The average progress of each shield was ten feet a day; but one day twenty-seven feet and ten inches was accomplished, and the record of tunnel construction was excelled. Chief Engineer Hobson advised having these tunnel walls of cast iron. Each section was composed of a key and 13 segments, each segment being 4 feet 10 inches long, 18 inches wide, and 2 inches thick. Each had inside flanges C inches deep and an inch and three-quarters thick. In each segment were 4 holes in each end and 12 holes in each side flange. These 32 holes were occup ed by steel boits, each seven-eighths of an inch in diameter. Each section of the completed tunnel was a circle whose radius was 9 feet and 11 inches. Each section required for the longitudinal joints 56 bolts, and for the circular joints 15t bolts, a total of 213 bolts for each foot and a half of the tunnel. It required 828,150 bolts to fasten together the 27,000 tons ot the east-iron lining of this tunnel. Each segment was heated and dipped into a vat of coal tar. By the time it was cool the tar was dried in. This method was the happy thought of a workman. Another workman invented a tool which increased three times the rapidity of loading the clay upon the cars.

Tunneling was nearly stopped at tho line of the river by water and quicksand. Compressed air was tried. On each side of the river, beneath the shore lines, air-tight bulkheads of brick and cement were built across the line of the tunnel. Above each car-track and on each side of the bulkheads were erected two airlocks. each seventeen feet long and seven feet in diameter, with air-tight doors at each end. The outside door would be opened and men or mules admitted to the air-lock. Horses could not stand the pressure. The door being closed and tho air-valve opened, the air-pressure would bo increased until t le atmosp teres of the lock equaled the atmospheres inside tho inner portion of the tunnel, when the inner door could be opened, and the men or animals admitted to the works. It took several minutes to properlydn-

crease or docrease the air-pressure on a man. Certain rules had to be obeyed. The workmen had to have vigorous bodies, and be examined by the company’s physician before receiving admission to the compressed air. Two deaths resulted from the bad results of the air-pressure. The air caused terrible feelings, especially to strangers. In the beginning of the under-river section the three gangs, each of twenty-five men, worked under

TUNNEL BUILDINGS IN MICHIGAN.

an extra atmospheric pressure of ten pounds to the square inch. This was increased slowly and at interva’s, to twep-ty-two pounds per square inch, or abodt two and one-half times the usual atmospheric pressure. (The proposed limit in the Chicago Fourteenth street tunnel is forty pounds per square inch.) Quick

CANADIAN PORTAL TO ST. CLAIR TUNNEL.

THE SHIELD IN PLACE IN GRADE.

sands on tha Canadian side caused the highest air-pressures to be exerted upon that side. The compression of the air kept the quicksand and water from.overflowing into the tunnel. Leaks were Invisible. The viewless walls kept back the flood. Compressed air was used on the Canadian side from May 28,1890, and on the American side from April 7,189 a The completion of the hole was the beginning of the erfd. A vast amount of work had yet to be done. The tunnel was cleaned and the tramways’ beds of clay, about two feet thick, were removed. The cast-iron walls were painted with some anti-rust compound, hundreds of thousands of bolts were tightened, and

brick and concrete were placed in the lower half of the tunnel to prevent it being ousted by the brine from the meat cars. Above the cement are three drainage conduits, two thirty inches long, and one in the middle, eighteen inches square. Over these and their dividing timbers are wooden ties, nine feet long and eight by eight inches square. On these ties rest extra heavy steel T-rails, 100 pounds to the yard, of standard American gauge track, four and one-half inches wide. On each side of the T-rails are wooden guard rails, ten by twelve inches. Both sides of the track are planked. All the timbers are of pine, and have been soaked in dead oil of tar. Safety ladders and platforms have been placed for workmen and watchmen. The inside diameter is 19 feet 10 inches; 21 feet the outside diameter. In the top of the tunnel gre ttfo ventilating tubes, each 20 inches in diameter. It is constantly lighted by electricity. The tunnel will nearly drain itself.

LOWERING OF THE SHIELD TO THE HEADING.

The surface water in the cuttings will be taken caire of tho portals. It is estimated that not over fifteen gallons a minute of water escape into the tunnel proper. This is a small quantity for over a mile of linear surface. It will drain into a pump-shaft on the Canadian side, 112 feet deep, down to the rock, and fifteen feet in diameter. The portals are big limestone blocks, arranged 148 feet long, 36 feet high, and from 10 to 5 feet wide, with sloping comb. The tunnel entrance is flush with the lining, and is twenty feet in diameter. The portal’s only lettering is two lines—- “ St. Clair. 1890.” From the portals, on each side of the railway track, limestone retaining walls oxtend to the entrances of the great cuttings. At the

portals these walls are 6 feet high and 5 feet wide; near the beginning of the cutting they are 5 feet high and 3 feet wide. It was estimated that the tunnel would cost $2,500,000, plants, materials, and labor included. Not much will be left of that sum. It is likely that a second tunnel will be built beside this one. If so, this one’s plant and experience will be quite serviceable. If it is built it will be made of cast-iron, as that has been found to be better than masonry. The tunnel and its approaches have a total length of 11,725 feet, divided as follows; Canadian cutting, 3,192 feet; American cutting, 2,533 feet; from Canadian portal to water's edge, 1,994 feet; from American portal to water’s edge, 1,71 G feet; tunnel under water, 2,290 feet; total length of tunnel, 6,000 feet, Grades in the cuttings are one foot in fifty feet, in the tunnel, one foot in 1,000 feet The greatest depth of water above the tunnel is 40.47 feet; and the least depth of clay above the tunnel is 8.43. The number of feet from the level of the water to dhe top of the tunnel is 57.83 feet; and the number of feet from the level of ti>3 water to the rock, 86 feet. Considerable difficulty was met in selecting locomotives for the tunnel service, as most kinds emitted too much smoke and gas. Coke engines have been chosen. Each locomotive can haul two dozen loaded cars. One engine will be at each side of the St." Clair River, and another will be kept in steam ready for any break-down. The tunnel soil has been dumped in

the two switching yards until a level place has been graded off large enough for twenty-two miles of side-tracks. On the Canadian side a huge ice-house has been built for meat cars. It is B>ofeet long, 30 feet high, and the same wide. It is partitioned into twenty-seven bins, each twenty-eight feet square, and has a track on each side. Although the tunnel itself was completed in January, 1891, with perhaps the exception of a little plastering, the delay on the approaches prevents opening for traffic. There will be a grand celebration of this important international occurrence The leading officials of the Governments of Canada and the United States will be invited, besides many other distinguished people It is expected that the banquet will occur under the river. * It is probable tnat the Detroit River will soon be tunneled by the Michigan Central Railway at Detroit, and before long the Grand Trunk will put in another tunnel at Port Huron. Considering cost and subsequent expense, tunnels mav yet prove to be cheaper than bridges.

PARISIAN AIRS.

Permission Asked to Erect Kiosks in the Streets of New York. At the meeting of the New York Board of Aldermen a petition was presented in behalf of a company who ask the privilege .of erecting convenient booths—or, as they are called in Europe, “kiosks”—on public thoroughfares. The petitioners propose to

A PROPOSED KIOSK.

pay $25 annually for each booth, which is to 'be a tasteful design and built of glass and iron in a substantial manner. The booths, in addition to the conveniences, will be so arranged as to sell flowers and periodicals, and be let to newsdealers, who will be charged not more than $6 a year rent. In consideration of this low rental the lessee is to k&ep the booth clean and in perfect order, well lighted and free from objectionable characters. Such booths have proven a success in Paris, Vienna, Berlin and other European cities, and the projectors see no reason why they should not be introduced in New York, particularly when a good revenue for the privilege is given to the city. The authority of the board to grant the privilege was questioned by some of the members, and President Arnold referred the petition to the Law Committee.

PET FOR THE QUEEN.

Victoria in Receipt of a Lion’s Whelp from Central Africa. The Queen of England recently received a royal gift. It arrived in Liverpool from the regions of Central

Africa by the steamer Mandigo last month. It was a lion cub, which the Sultan of Sokoto requested the Boyal Niger Company to present to her Majesty. The cub was allowed much liberty on board and was greatly petted by both passengers and crew. Mr. Bartlett went down to Liverpool to bring it to the Zoological Gardens, where it is now safely lodged.

The Woodcock’s Whistle.

I have been much interested in all your woodcock bird whistle papers, and as my experience has extended "liver more than half a century of woodcock shooting (and many seasons’ shooting I have bagged from 100 to 150 birds), and the bird always interested me, I have spent many pleasant hours in studying its habits in spring, as well as fall and summer shooting. I want you to put down my vote to the wing theory. I know the bird has a little mouth talk, or note, which I have often heard when birds were mating and strutting on the ground in the spring, and the same note I have heard often from the old bird when I have been catching the young chicks; but the sound or note is not the same as the whistle of the continuous-flying, full-plumaged bird, and I have so often had the slightly wounded bird in my hand, and held by the bill or feet, make, as I am sure, the same whistling with his wings, that I cannot be mistaken; and the bird when not in plumage, held the same way, does not make the whistle. I kDow that we do not all hear, see nor think alike; but any person who will take a full-plumaged woodcock that is lively, hold it by the bill or foot, and let it have full use of its wings, cannot but be convinced the whistle is made with the wings. Audubon should be pretty good authority, and he reoords the noise as made by the wings; and among all my bird, acquaintances I do not remember one bird, that has a continuous month note when flying,, but very many have a wing whistle when flying, such as the gold-eyed duck, whistling swan and others, and can be heard a long distance. The drumming ruffed grouse, noise of the wings of the flushed quaii and many others talk with their wings as well as their mouths. —Forest and Stream.

LIVES AND SHIPS LOST.

GRAVE FINANCIAL CRISIS IN FRANCE. Tha Last Descendant of Christopher Columbus May Attend the World’s Fair— Suffering- and Death Among Stock is England—No Sites Provided. At London information is received of terrible damage done to shipping by the recent storm. Wrecks are reported all along the coa<t and news has just been received that the steamer ’Brinidad was lost during the storm and all her crew and passengers drowned. So far eighty persons are reported drowned. The British ship Dryad, Captaig. .Thomas, bound from Shields to Valparaiso, has has also been wrecked off Stast Point. Her crew, consisting of twenty-four men and officers, have been dro.wried. The Dryad was an iron vessel of 1,035 tons burden. She was built at Liverpool, and was owned by J. B. Walmsley, of that city. A foreign steamship, the name of which is unknown, was wrecked off Start Point, near Dartmouth, Devonshire, England, during the recent blizzard. All the crew and passengers were drowed. Among the schooners lost off Start Point wasthe Lunesdale. Four of her crew were drowned. Her captain was saved. The schooner Lizzie Ellen was also lost, and two of her crew were drowned. Cornwall continues isolated from the rest of England. Many wrecks are reported to have occurred on that coast, and at Land’s End a number x>f people have been frozen to death. Laborers numbering hundreds have been sent to clear the railroad lines in Devonshire and Cornwall, where the snowdrifts have piled up so heavily that cuttings twelve feet deep have to be made. The mss to farm stock is enormous, and will entail much suffering among, tho farmers, who have already lost considerable money by the terrible weather experienced at the end of last year.

BANK OF FRANCE IN THE BREACH. A Great Financial House of Paris Badly Embarrassed Is Tided Over. Another great European financial house has been caught by the fall In Argentine securities, and the effect was felt in London in an uneasy feeling on the stock exchange. The Societe des Depots et Comptes Courants, of Paris,* a leading monetary institution of France, was forced by its embarrassments to appeal for aid to the government. The society now has only 84,000,000 on hand to meet obligations amounting to $17,000,000. Mq Rouvier, Minister of Finance, was appealed to, and to him it was stated that the sum of $13,000,000 was needed to carry the concern through the crisis. M. Rouvier called a meeting of leading financiers to devise means for relief. It was finally arranged that the Bank of France should advance $15,00.0,000 to the society, which -sum is guaranteed by the bills of the society, and the latter calls for SIOO per sharo from its stockholders, and the financial houses jointly guarantee the sum of $4,000,000 to the Bank of France. The assets of the society will be assigned for the payment of advances. The report of the society’s embarrassment caused a heavy run on its funds, but ail demands were met. The shares of the institution have fallen S3O, shares being now quoted at $97. One hundred and sixty thousand shares are owned by 3,800 people. The situation, as stated by friends and directors, is as follows: Sight and seven-day deposits and current accounts, $15,090,000. The society had on Jan. 31 in its treasuryos2s,ooo,900 in paper or in current accounts. There was also a sum of $25,000,000 of unissued stock which was available at call, for only $20,000,000 had been paid up, and it was only a question of the value of the bills and the chances of immediately realizing upon them that the Bank of France made the guarantee it has given to the five houses aiding tho society. Last Descendant of Columbus. There is a project on foot to have the great Columbian Exposition opened by the only living descendant of Columbus. A sad but interesting reminiscence of the late Dr. Thomas Weston, qf the Department of Publicity and Promotion, is the following letter on the subject which he addressed a few weeks before his death to Major Handy: Dear Sir: The last living member of the Columbus family is the Duke of Seragua, of Madrid. He was recently reported to be dying, but I think he has recovered. He is a literary man and an artist of some repute, Of the twenty-nine autograph letters and books annotated in the hand-writing of Columbus, he possesses sixteen or eighteen. In early life lie was obliged to appeal for help to keep b, dy and soul together, and pensions were granted him by Cuba and Costa Rica, which he now enjoys. He has held i portfolio in the Spanish Cabinet, and is a Vice President of the “Americanistes,” of which Dom Pedro, ex-Emperor of Brazil, is honorary President. His collection of autograph letters, Columbiana pictures, and lithographed portraits—many of the latter his own work —is unsurpassed outside the walls of the Louja. in Seville, where are, as yet unexamined, the manuscripts of the Spanish Government, the accumulations of centuries. I am of the opinion that, if overtures were made to the Duke of Seragua, he would loan his collection, and, perhaps, attend himself. Believing that this comes under the head of promotion, might I suggest that, should other arrangements not have been made, the “last of his race” should touch the lever that sets the machinery of the World’s Columbian Exposition in motion. Respectfully submitted, Thomas Weston.

Money lor Prisons, but No 81tes. A piece of imperfect legislation enacted by the late Congress in its closing hours has come to light The discovery was made that the act approved March 3, providing for the erection of three United States prisons and the confinement therein of United States convicts, is rendered absolutely inoperative*for the purposes intended through a blunder in drawing the bill. Its intention was to authorize the Attorney General and Secretary of the Interior to purchaso three sites and cause tp be erected oh them suitable prisons for the incarceration of United States prisoners convicted of crimes by any courts under the jurisdiction of the department of justice. Not a cent, however, is appropriated for the purchase of sites, and the entire law is therefore useless.

Baron Hirgch’s Bit Donation. At New York, Banker Jesse Seligman drew by cable on Baron Hirsch, of Paris, for the 12,000,000 francs, or 82,500,000, which comprises the fund the income of which is to be used to-assist poor Hebrew immigrants in America. The draft was immediately honored, and Mr. Seligman deposited the funds with several trust companies. The trustees of the fund are to have a meeting and decide how it is to be invested. They will put it ia gilt-edged securities only.

Did You Know This?

“He died of kidney complaint* “You say he was a dentist?* “ Yfea*r. v. “That settles it. Ha had the dentist’* usual disease. ” The man added; t-*.-' “DentfstS'Si'e fieceliarlV-Susceptible’ to diseases of the kidneys. They stand still so lodg at their' work that they Weaken their vital organs. Usually the kidneys are the first affected. You may set kidney disease dovkii as the professional ailment of dentists.' "—Free Press. . ■ i .4> ti ... This country has 1,000,000 miles of telegraph wires.—enough-to reach forty times around the globe. .> ; , q •

Let’s reason together.. Here’s a firm* one of the largest the country pver,,Jhe world over; it hai grown, step by step, through' s6 yeiir;s to greatness—and it sells patent medieinOs!—light ' “ That’s enough t ‘ ___ 9 * 11 1 ‘ W. .Y in Wait a httle-*-This firm pays the newspapers good 1 rtiOHey (expensive work, this advertising 1) to tell the people that they have faith in what they sell, so much faith that if they can’t benefit or cure they don’t want your money. Their guarantee is not indefinite and relative, but definite and absolute —if the medicine doesn’t help, your money is “on call." Suppose every sick man and every feeble woman tried these medicines and found them worthless, who wquld be the loser, you or they? The medicines are' Doctor Pierce’s “Golden Medical Discovery,” for blood diseases, and his “ Favorite Prescription,” for woman’s peculiar ills. If they help toward health, they- cost SI.OO a bottle each! If they don’t, they cost nothing /

SHILOH’S CONSUMPTION CURE. The success of this Great Cough Cure is without a parallel in the history of medicine. All druggists are authorized tcwsell it on a positive guarantee, a test that no other cure can successfully stand. That it may Become known, the Proprietors, at an enormous expense, are placing a Sample Bottle Free into every home in the United States and Canada. If you have a Cough, Sore Throat, or Bronchitis, use it, for it will cure you. If your child has the Croup, or Whooping Cough, use it promptly, and relief is sure. If you dread that insidious disease Consumption, use it. Ask your Druggist for SHILOH’S CURE, Price io cts., Co and si.oo. If your Lungs are sore or Back lame, use Shiloh’s Porous Plaster, Price 25 cts. DADWAY’S fl READY RELIEF. THE GREAT CONQUEROR OF PAIN. For Sprains, Braises, Backache, Pain in tha Chest or Sides, Headache, Toothache, or any other external pain, slew applications rubbed on by hand act like magic, causing the pain to instantly stop. For Congestions, Colds, Bronchitis, Pneumonia, Inflammations, Rheumatism, Neuralgia, Lumbago, Sciatica, more thorough and repeated applications are necessary. All Internal Pains, Diarrhea, Colic, Spasms. Nausea, Fainting Spells, Nervousness, Sleeplessness are relieved instantly, and quickly cured by taking'inwardly 20 to 60 drops in half a tumbler of water. 50c. a bottle. All Druggists. DADWAY’S n PILLS, An excollent and mild Cathartic. Purely ‘ Vegetable. The Safest and best Medicine in the world for the Cure of all Disorders of the LIVER, STOMACH OR BOWELS. Taken according to directions they will restore health and renew vitality. Price 25 eta. a Box. bold by all Druggieta ft m FAT FOLKS REDUCED to 25 lbs. per month by harmless herbal \\ / / (remedies, pio starring, no inconvenience *- v * . J no bad effects. Striotly confidential. Send 60. far circulars and testimonials. Addresa Dt> O. w.g. SNYDEB, 213 State street, Chicago, IIL Tutt’s Pills enable the dyspeptic to eat whatever he wishes. They cause the food to assimilate and nourish the body, give appetite, and DEVELOP FLESH.’ Office, 39 & 41 Park Place, New York.

The Soap that Cleans Most is Lenox.