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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 21, 1906)
THE" SUNDAY OREGOXIAX, PORTtTAXO, OCTOBER 21 1906. 42 tpjr&ii farm JLjy MEW JTpy T Dangerous Vocation for Men "Sand Hogs" Working Under the. Bed of the WHlamette'River for Pier Foundation. liiL WhoLabc All Day in SuMqueous Compressed Air. SMWmmA 277) IT ILJjn R1US BY C. H. WTLAJAiia ORXNO- It way slowly down In the river bed below Swan Island, de vouring the mud at the bottom, feel ing along carefully. Inch by Inch, In Its search for a solid foundation to rest upon, the first caisson for the "Willamette River bridge of the Portland & Seattle Railway la being driven. The caisson Itself la a big, pier-shaped maaa of heavy timbers . and Iron bolts, Riled In with concrete. But at the bottom of this huge. 900-ton structure, men are working In a little compartment. Into Which air la constantly pumped to keep the water out and the men alive. ' In the chamber below the river bed the men work' like badgers, digging up the mud and clime with their hands. They ere on their knees In the yellow water, and plastered with the muok which gives them an animal color, they look like Strange, Silurian monsters, half beast, half flan. Their work consists of feeding the end of a hungry hose, called the pump, which eats sand and muck with relish. It sucks the solution up and carries It to the top of the caisson, where It is blown out like a stream from a fire hose. ' The two-lnoh hose the men feed with mud Is -Insatiable. The reason that It is blways swallowing and is never satlefled Is that the air in the little space below the bed of the Willamette is compressed until It exerts a pressure of ten pounds to the square inch above the usual atmos pheric pressure that one Is familiar with everywhere. Life Always In Danger. This same air pressure is the best friend of the men working down there with 900 tons of concrete. Iron and timbers hang ing over their heads like the sword of (Damocles. For such a small thing might disarrange the plans of the engineers, and tny one of a dozen little things would mean "curtains' for the pressureman, as lie. Is politely oalled, or just plain "sand bog," If you would be his friend. Meanwhile, he never thinks about these things, or, if he does, he never shows It. Ills work Is to feed the end of that hose with mud and muck and mire. If some body blunders, as he often does. It Is up to the "sandhog" to drown helplessly. This happens, too, but If tie dies he does It with his back to the wall, decently, ls a man should. Or, if he whimpers and cowers, no one knows It, for In that little chamber fortified with timbers and con crete, he cannot make himself heard, no darter how hard he tries. Breathing Compressed Air. A little Journey down Into that hole (Under the river gives the uninitiated a sufficient number of thrills. First, one climbs into an Iron tubing Just big enough to admit a man.. A. little iron ladder is bolted to one Bide. You back down elow Ip, and in a minute it Is pitch dark. Boon somebody whom you have newer met you learn later It Is the first locktender yells In one ear to flatten yourself against a side of the tube and stand on certain des ignated places, so he can open a trap door under your feet. You hear two sharp blows on the iron tubing, and a door closes further down. The man beside you opens his door and the air screeches through with a whistle that deafens you. f&ion you go down this same ladder to another locktender and another door, and the process is repeated, the first door hav ing been bolted down. This time your bead feels queer and the ears ring. "Hold your nostrils and swallow hard. la the command of the lock tender. This equalizes the pressure on the ear drums and you can hear again. Boon you see a glimmer of el ec trio ln candescents below and you emerge, feet first, Into the working chamber of the roalsson. You now stand In the mud (below the river's bed, 24 feet below the -Burfaoe of the 'Willamette. On the Bed or the River. Here you see the sandhogs at work. IThey are original muck-rakers, on all "Tours, with their eyes on the end of '.the hose which they they are stuffing -With sand and mud. On their knees in tlw mire, they are paddling the stuff to the end of that insatiable hose, which Japs It up hungrily. The lights gleam mistily through the room, where the fn!r is at such a pressure that one can't whistle. A man's heart action Increases per ceptibly, and, although It is rather tchilly, as compressed air chills things, you perspire freely and wonder why. tiOne of the artists who came with me feels nauseated and his nose bleeds. The clapper valve slobbers com fireseed air, olanglng at every throb ,cf the engine up above; you can. hear .workmen on the top of the caisson -."hammering on more timbers, but their blows sound a long way off. You know the man In the engine-room on the machinery barge moored alongside the caisson is watching his engine as a mother keeps guard over her baby, and that therefore there can be no falling of the air supply, but Just the same one thinks how nice it is to see the open eky and visions are apt to corns up of . caisson accidents you have read about. Aiming for a Hard Foundation. The foreman pokes around quite as If he likes It, telling the men where to work out the mud next, and directing the settling of the cutting edge of the caisson. . He carefully examines the mud, for it Is like a sailor's chart to liim. and tells Just how deep he is. The caisson Is aiming for a stratum of hard cement gravel which lies 40 feet be low low water. The caisson Is intend ed to Imbed Itself in this layer, which offers solid footing for the million Hollar steel bridge. AX the bottoms of the holes dug out by the sandhogs, the water Is seeping In from the river, but at the cutting edge the air Is bursting out every crev ice It can find, for, although a caisson Is calked with oakum as carefully as a palling ship, this Is not to keep the water out. but the air In. The pres sure of the air Inside must be greater than that of the water outside, or the caisson cannot work. If the ajr falls the water will come In and drown you, end this, too, makes you friends with that clanging valve that lets In the air from the compressor up above. Although it is stst aad, slimy- down j. , .j. , Xx a-s,,. Jf I ' I li p o u - X" ' ; S , - - - , , . X .wf XX --v - . XX.- 4 r ; - - - r t. 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It may smolder there for days unknown to the workmen until it eats away' the three-foot wall that, is a barricade against the river. If this" is discovered before an accident comes, the only thing to do is to "drown" the caisson. When It Gets Extra Hazardous. After one has been In that little cham ber down In the ooie of the river bed for a short time, he Is quite ready to come out. After being locked through the com partments, he Is mighty glad to see the gray of daylight show at the top of the tube. Pier R, for which the caisson is sinking, will be anchored to the hard gravel layer, when it is reached, a few weeks in the future, by tons and tons of concrete that will fill the chamber where men are now working. Behind the working chamber con crete is being poured in as the caisson sinks, so that when finished It will be a solid pier of concrete, with three feet of timbers on the outside. The timbers will end at five feet below low water and the pier above water will be faced with orna mental granite blocks. As the caisson sinks, increased air press- ure Is required, and the men work ahorter shifts and the pay Increases in propor tion to the depth. Now they work eight hour shifts. In the deeper workings, the men will come up with their noaes stream ing with blood. Some may be attacked with the "bends," but no matter how hazardous the work is, there are always men ready to accomplish It. The deepest known caisson driving was done in Australia, where men worked at a depth of 108 feet. A pier In the East River, New York, also comes near the depth of the Australian work. A press ure of 45 pounds to the square Inch' is be lieved to be the limit of human endur ance, and shifts of one hour only are worked in such conditions. The regular scale of wages for caisson workers does not recognize anything below 90 feet, this being the greatest depth that men are willing to risk the lives of others unless some extraordinary circumstances make it necessary to go deeper still. There are many risks the caisson work er takes In his extra hazardous vocation. There is always danger of an accident to the air supply. The utter helplessness of the pressure men when anything happens makes the situation ail tne more learrui. An accident occurred some time ago in the East when something happened to the air supply and the men made a wild scramble for the tube to get out of the death trap. In their mad rush they lammed the door to the air lock, and, im prlBoned in the narrow tube, drowned like rats in a trap:- When nelp came it was only by cutting the dead men to pieces that they could be taken out. OXtentlmes a caisson turns over while men are worklne in the chamber at the bottom. This Is caused by too little weight on the caisson and too strong an air Dressure below or by a tilting of the cais son because of the excavation of too much dirt on either side. A combination or such unfortunate mischances usually cause accidents of this kind. When this happens, the sandhogs drown as a matter of course. Apaln, the strong air pressure In the working chamber may cause a "blow out." when the air forces itself through the mud below the cutting edsje and es capes In a monster bubble at the surfare of the river. This happens when the earth is dug away ahead of the lower beam of the caisson and the pressure of air breaks through the earth wall. After such an accident, the water usually rushes bark and drowns the workers lr the cais son. Peculiar blowouts sometimes occur. Workmen have been Mown bodily through the mud at the river bottom and shot up to the top of the water. Inclosed In the . big bubble of compressed air that would brook no restraint and have escaped un harmed. Such a case occurred In Boston. Another recent one was in New York. A workman in the shield which was being driven for a tunnel under the East River was suddenly Bhot out of the tunnel by a blowout, and he gasped with surprise when he found himself at the top of the water unhurt. While he was wondering what had happened, a passing boatman pulled him into a skiff with a boathook. It is not often that caisson accidents end so happily, and the responsibility for the lives of their men is a heavy one io engineers directing caisson work. Produces Slystcrlous Disease. But more perilous far than the occa sional accident is the mysterious, dread disease, the "bends." which Is still a puzzle to physicians and for which no remedy has been found. It acts as a temporary paralysis of parts of the body, and is very painful. After several at tacks, caisson paralysis, a permanent dis ability often results. A peculiar feature of the bends is that while In compressed air workmen do not suffer from it. but as soon as they reach the surface they are taken with the most violent cramps and pains. The disease Is supposed to be brought on by the pressure of air cutting off the circulation. When the pressure is released, great pain fol lows. A pneumatic caisson Is no place for workmen who are not in good health, or who are not level-headed. Oftentimes the lives of the whole crew are imperiled by the actions of some foolhardy pressure man. In building a bridge across the St. Lawrence at Quebec a wnoie crew nar rowly escaped drowning because a num ber of French Canadians on the work de termined to whip one of their fellow workmen. The Canadians were not experienced in caisson work, but they held a grudge aKalnst an older man in the party and suddenly pounced upon him and beat him. In the scuffle that followed the end of the pump was thrown out of the water and the air rushed screeching out of the pipe that usially carries water and mud. This lowered the pressure and we r poured in from the river. The fighters were deep in water before they noticed their plight, and, becoming alarmed, re leased their victim, who knew the remedy and saved the lives or me c. Musings for Three Minutes BY MARCUS W. BOBBINS. IF you wish to be a success in this world, hire a barker with a mega phone. It will Increase the gate re ceipts. Get the crowd to coming your way and It will be but a short time before you can be lolling around In a Morris chair, drinking mineral water and taking a sea voyage to the Sandwich Tianr!. Don't get them, and It means that you have to get up early to catch the first trolley down town, have a glass of beer and free lunch for your dinner, and get baldheaded footing col umns under a gas light. But getting the crowd, that is tne question. The hardships or tne eariy pioneers is not in it with this modern problem. The old settler can .give you all the harrowing details of how the Indians once chased him half way across the state, or how at one time be got snowed in on a prospecting trip and nearly starved to death he re he could get out. Tnese stories are ofttlmes halrraislng and make you hold your breath and wonder tnat me poor man ever lived to tell the tale. But getting and keeping the crowd beats them all. There Is often Just as much excitement In running a corner grocery and trying to keep from going bankrupt as there was in being chased by the Indians. Then again a fellow can get a reasonable amount of trou ble out of trying to corner the wheat market or going long on Amalgamat ed. He can get enough to cause him to sit up nights and do some figuring. Once get the crowd and you are all right. You can be nominated Gover nor of New York, President of the United States or Constable of the pre cinct. To get the crowd you have got to attract their attention, and noise is the great American method. The scale keeps on rising higher and higher each year and if it goes on much longer we might Just as well live in a boiler factory. The billboards are getting bigger and bigger and the scareheads In the newspapers larger and larger. If these latter keep on growing, they will have to be run as a separate edi tion. The megaphone is typical of our present age. In fact, it might properly be classed- as the megaphonlc age. Everybody shouts from the housetops, and these are not any two-story adobe affalrB, but are 14 to 20-story steel skyscrapers. It is a long ways down to the ground, and that has a tendency to make the shouting a little bit stren uous and the mixture of the sounds is somewhat confusing. The travelers along the sidewalk get a Jumble of sounds about Alkali Ike's Soap being best for the complexion: that the Guaranteed Rebate Railroad is the shortest route to Chicago, both going to and coming from I can ap preciate the desirability In the latter case); that William Ward or some oth er fellow will save the country, pro vided you elect him to Congress.' Thus the changes are rung, from face powders and automobiles to Cu ban Generals and reform District At torneys. Instead of going West, get a mega phone and commence to holler. t Grant's Pass, Or, f
