Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 May 1901 — A Lesson From the Clam. [ARTICLE]

A Lesson From the Clam.

Attention was recently called here to the fact that engineers have taken a hint from the beaver in building a dam with an arch facing the current. It is said that they are indebted to the clam for the idea of using a water-jet in sinking piles in sand. The story is that the jet was first used in 1852, and by the advice of George B. McClellan, afterward the well-known general. It seems that he was walking on the seashore one day when he saw a dam close its shell and squirt a little stream of water into the sand, by which means it was able to bury itself more easily. This gave him the idea of the water-jet in pile-sinking.