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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (May 5, 1907)
Thwmpfein the JfSrK ofTtmnm W ''HEN man takes to emulating the mole; and becomes a burrowing ; animal, he accpmplishes remark- tble feats. : In imitating birds and fishes he has done toonderssuch stupendous things that tyour night think he, would be satisfied. Not he J . TJis ambition stops not with .dominion 4 over the surface of the earth and the waters there oft nor yet, over the air. He h as been burrow ingAn great earnest for a number of years, ' nnd the results of his work underground are marvelous. sHe has grubbed his way through- the ase -of the Alps for one" thing;, has linked Italy' and, Switzerland by fast train on- a nearly level track. He is making New York city a part of North America. "'New. York, you know, has always re garded itself as an island" surrounded by noth ing worth mentioning. Now it must acknowl edge relationship with ' the jest of the con r t'ment. , ' ( Father, Knickerbocker is such an indus y trious mole that subterranean and subaqueous operations in which he is engaged or, has recently completed will show a cost of about $400,000,000., " : v " ' , ' But , the world may be given even a 'greater surprise by the mole t man. He pro poses to burrow under the English Channel to France twenty -four miles and under JSCrtng OiraifS from a lasna SO OWertO. tl e Canal. Experts have recently declared that It does not promises to make it possible for the traveled fTomptr in "mcn"t w",thVunneJ. fctlon . . . m New York. Bays John B. Munbr, a distinguished en ' jo journey oy steeping car an me way from gineer: New York to London. ' c it 11 fWiliW .JTasfjid nrraars under tfze Jftectoax2&VBkJfai. York feat ehowa. One need r o farther than. New Tork city to find aocompllehed a' thing- almoat wonderful as the tunneling of the English Channel a more cost- ' ly, difficult thing- than the dlggUig- of the Panama ,, Indeed, subway Improvements recently' completed or nearlng- completion In New Tork will cost the fclty ' , and Individual corporations no less than $160,000,000. ' Those that may be referred to as facta accomplished or to come are: The Pennsylvania Improvements under the East river, 180,000,000; Hudson Company's T tunnels, subways, etc, 100,000,000; Battery tunnels ; and sub way extension, 19,000,000; New Tork and Long Island tunnels, $4,000,000; subway extension, $90,000,000. But In addition to , this must be considered the sTreat project to pipe water to the city from the Cats kills, which has already been started, and for whloh contracts averaging: f 1,000,000 a year have been given out The final estimated cost of this water enterprise U 1112,000.000.' . . Which ought to convince any one that Father Knlck- i erbocker Is somewhat of a mole himself. , , ,t V The cost of the lock canal across the Isthmus of Pan ama la estimated to be about $140,000,000, and for the aea level $m,000.000. . v;, :; , t " "" I canal; easier than tunnels Much- is said of the difficulty of digging- the Panama A uurr rvtAtM. AFJtVOXf. TO WATER. - fvmtJ&3 TO Ml' WfT HAT divides Italy from Switzerland? Not long Y ago one would have correctly answered. The " YY Alps." Now a better answer would be, "Noth- : i ; lug." t -r ' , : ' .'VvvV'j- " ':"::.r . - Por with the opening to traffic of the Slmplon tun nel longest In the world that Imposing barrier, . which Napoleon surmounted by one of the greatest feats of' tUa day, practically ceases to be a barrier. Napoleon : built a road over the Alps; present-day Napoleons fcave demolished the Alps, How strange It seems, now that one may go by fast train through the twelve miles of tunnel, from the ..land of flowers and cerulean skies to the. very throne of the snow king how strange to think that but a few months ago the intervening pinnacles of tower lag evergreen and whiteness made these places almost as ; far apart as the temperate sone of the United States la ' . '. crom the North Pole! -, r How strange, tqo, to consider that the mountains ; srtlU stand there, as forbidding as ever In appearanoe, ' but all: ineffective-in face of the cunning devices of tnMLBih-,' '; ;U r'.: " . r,.x-1 -;;-. ' For a man has-virtually burrowed through the base fcf the Alps the prise mole feat of the centuries.'.'.?. . Thla moat atupendous work of its kind has been for some time attracting" attention all over the world. Passengers are making the f:rlp in a few hours. , It is becoming one of the best paying railroads in Europe. ' With the boring of the main tunnel completed, work . iwaa begun on a smaller tunnel, 'parallel to the first ' one. Which la designed to permit of travel both ways a the same time.; These tunnels are to be made self v ' jrentllating by cross galleries, S00 feet apart "At ona terminus la the town of Biiga, in Switzer land; at the other, Iselle, In Italy. Modest vUlagea When the grea project was first : promulgated, ' these . ' places have become prosperous, and are rapidly growing. Costing tlMOO.OOO, the great , work was paid for Jointly by the Swiss and Italian Governments. Tea thousand men were employed In carrying It out : ENORrrous obstacles conquered - It Is scarcely possible for the normal mind to eon- i 0elve of the immensity of this achievement; of the ' normlty of the obstacles: of the discouragements, ' J ,- criticisms, hardahjpe associated with it - - .v-. Not the least If the dlfflculUes was the BCounter-ft ,"'''i4 lag, now and then; of boiling hot springs, which. If V ; J , they did not scald the workers outright made it very " V (unpleasant for them, and always delayed operations .. .tor days. . - ... i At ona time the temperature rose to 131 degrees Fahr-' nhelt, and work coujd not be resumed until the tempera- ' ture was cooled by spraying with Ice cold water to ' counteract the effect of the scalding springe This , i .means that-machinery for manufacturing Ice had to'v"v?' be Introduced down in the bowels of the earth, and, In '" addition, spraying apparatus had to . be Installed. '' Fifty-eight thousand cubic feet of air. per minute was supplied for the workers. The amount of wtr. discharged per minute, by means of drains cut In the yock was 16.000 gallons. - Another difficulty met was a great bed of moving send, which threatened to bury the workers alive. - Water welling up Into the workings at times threat ened to stop progress. Special tools, such as the Brandt . drill, which advanced the tunnel from the' Swiss side more than twenty feet dally, were invented to com plete the tunnel; hardest of granite, encountered In . many places, did not at all deter the determined ' urra, "The crosstown tunnels of the Pennsylvania Im provements necessitate handling some of the ground by . compressed air shovels, as the emission of any quantity of fumes possibly detrimental to workmen Is, not permitted In underground work. Similarly, the use .of animal power for hauling Is rarely possible, and ' man power being Impracticable on a large scale, the ' use of electrical or compressed air .haulage apparatus Is necessary. "" -v . - , "Again, all underground work must be conducted by artificial light, and therefore, for the same avoidance of fumes, eleotrlo wires and pipe lines must be main tained under' the worst possible conditions of moisture and corrosion and' liability to breakage by blasting.? And this refers to dry land boring only. Immensely greater are the difficulties in tunneling under water. - There the workers "sand hogs," they are called' must breathe compressed air while they work, for this ' is necessary to keep the water from, rushing in - and drowning tnem, sometimes it does come in, and then. GMT C. - , - 1 if the men cannot get to the safety lock or draw the emergency curtain in time, they perish. , v Compressed air Itself is responsible for the death of, on an average, a man a day on the New Tork work inga. For If one comes too suddenly from the com presfed air chamber caisson to the outer atmosphere he gets the caisson disease and collapses. . It's more dangerous to be a human mole than Just, an ordinary, old-fashioned mole. " ' . The Pennsylvania Railroad's plan Is to tunnel under the Hudson river, continue across Aflanhattan Island to. It will come up again next year, and Its friends profess to have assurance of sufficient support to carry it The estimated cost of two tunnels, side by side and twenty-four miles long, under the channel, la $80,000,000. It would seem like a much more tremendous under taking tnaa going under East river from JJw Tork to. the Jersey side, but It would be so only -in respect to length. The difficulties would be hardly different The ' English Channel is comparatively shallow Its depth Is not much mora than half the height of St Paul's Cathe draV'ln London ' It baa been suggested, to appease those conservatives ' who fear, for England In case of war, that a viaduct might be constructed at the end of the tunnel, so that on a declaration of war, the arches of this link could be destroyed. , . The bill - provides for two parallel tunnels, each eighteen feet wide, with a separate drainage tunnel to carry, off any water that might oose Into the train tun nels. These tunnels would be cut through an impervious ' , bed of gray chalk that lies under the white chalk forming . the : familiar Shakespeare Cliff. . The tunnel base would rest upon a bed of Impervious . gault cUy. From 8000 soundings that they, have made, . .engineers believe this chalk extends all the way across the channel. . In mid-channel the tunnels would have ISO feet of this chalk above them, which would aeem to be very good protection against an Inrush of sea. The chalk may be bored easily ny a rowy ih : i. ii. , tntT-four miles could be com pleted in less time than the twelve miles t the 81npJ tunnel. ;' Would It not be strange to think of an all-rail route from' the United States to Europe? ; ' " Xhe scheme for a tunnel under Bering Straits from the northwestern coast of the American continent to Siberia has for years been discussed, and we maner nas been pressed In Russia by Baroh Loloq da XObel. repre u.tt the Amerloan-TranssJaakan-Slberlaa ' Company, A year ago the Russian Ooremment was disposed to , consider the plan favorably. '? ' ' On April 1, this year, however, the Cabinet of the . 4?w reieetad a croDoaal mada on behalf of tha Ameri can syndicate for the construction of the tunnel, wit, as Is the ease in England, this Is ona of the steps of mod erst progress which -cannot be permanently post poned. It seems but a question whether England or One of the tunnel projects that have been formu lated is the proposal to . link Ireland with Scotland. The cost of this would be $60,000,000. T Another project which baa been talked of for twenty ; years U the connecting of the uie or wignv wiia jaig- Millionaire Collects Small Sum FORTT-ONE years ago Jaoob Schnellbacher, a mil lionaire brewer, shoe manufacturer and real es tate owner, of Peoria, 111., then a boy to Germany, led a cow. two and one-half miles, - for which , he was promised 34 cents. - ' ' - ., The owner of the cow failed to pay, but Schnell bacher never forgot Even after he had won a fortune be continued to dun a nephew of the debtor, who Uvea vu-wav, awe -w wvr - - . '. -l.kA ewe. M AJfAHnm thsa . nephew in the Rookery. Building, Mr. Schnellbacher demanded the money. An acoountant figured out the debt at compound Interest, and said It amounted to 77V cents. To eaoh of his three sons Schnellbacher f ave twenty-five of the pennies. He-kept S cents and he half ef a penny, which had been sawed In two to effect an accurate settlement of the claim. , . t Bells Rino Out Their Own Lives BELLS church bells,' town hall bells, fire bells, all kinds of bells-are born only. to die. -They; ring , out their life. , , . . . Each bell has a predestined fate It can stand so many blows and then expiree. If a bell Is not rung, it may live Indefinitely: but If It Is rung, the day will .4 come when the last stroke of the hammer will breax Its heart, choke Its breath and send a crack shivering t through the metal. .. ; i ; A SCO-pound bell, which was carefully observed, and which was struck-blows of 178 pounds of force, broke after 11,000 blows. A 4000-pound bell broke after 18,000 blows of ISO pounds force. LITTLE less than half a century ago there " was ; not a gallon of machine made paint in the world. : At, that time all house paints were made, in the old-fashioned way- by ' stirring turpentine, - white lead and linseed oil - to gether with a .at ick. i 1 Today the paint industry is one of the greatest in" America. There are upward of 250 paint fac tories in the country, employing more that 50,000 people. if The annual output of these factories is ap proximately 100,000,000 gallons. M ; ' From nothing in 1860, to a sea of paint in 13071 1- If this annual product could be brought to gether it wSuld make a "sea" of paint a little over half a mile square and ten feet deep. In it could be floated much of the navy of the' United States. Thirty-third street, tunnel under the East river, and then .come out on Long Island, where immense yards WW give Brooklyn direct railroad connec- And. most -wonderful, nerhans. of ll tartn rtnn nected with ths triumph of engineering, the workers, some of them must be 150 feet long to reach lt--o that and stations . tions with the rest, of the world Carrying big trains across . the river on ferry boats will be practically , done away : with when these tunnel Improvements are complete.- - . ' A peculiarity illustrating the ingenlons trend of tun ) Del work of the time 1 Incorporated in the Pennsylvania tuimeL Instead of resting on the concrete bottom of the tunnel, the tracks will . be ' supported by immense atnol piles resting tn the rock foundation beneath the river v' again, are the . subway, tracks, of the Hudson system. connecting with four tubes under North river, bringing trolley cars from the nearby Jersey cities. Over this are the surface track of the Sixth Avenue Railway, and then the elevated struoture. v : Off bnd on for years there have been periodical at- tempts to tunnel under the English Channel from Calais, m r rance, tojuover, in ij.Tgiana. 1 I ' N A discussion In Congress one member referred to the United States as the "paint pall of the world." At present this "paint pair needs additional stirring, and one of the greatest paint manufac turers In the country says that there Is room for 10,000 ; more men In the Industry. "We want men men men! . Is the cry In almost every paint factory. ' ; . From this "world's pail is sent cut paint to every civilised land under the Sun. American pklnt is used was burned, and the agent was severely lnJurej4w'B1u't vwir uiiivui m American paini came, over, mya la the end the threatened revolution subsided. ! x Not long since a wrecking vessel discovered-a sunken ship in Lake Huron. .She was the Belgian, lost several years ago.' Her cargo was supposed to be practically worthless, so no" effort waa 'made to raise ber- - - '...' ' :'; --, : '- v A clerk In a paint factory dlscovered'that the was v loaded with paint; argued that ; the paint, tightly In closed in cans, should still be good, and formed a little company to recover the, cargo.'' Nearly 15,000 gallons were recovered, netting a nea 'profit of over $18,000. ' "PA WT SCHC OLS-, ARE COMMOrJ "Paint schools" are now quite common. The manu facture of paint has beooine a science, and in a large number of the big plants courses of study and practi cal work are given young men applicants who havo -an ambition to become experts.: :' : That there Is a large and steadily growing field fof young men; with these ambitions is shown In the fact that 10W skilful .chemists are now employed by American paint factories. V ; 'K'VX; ' Statistics recently : made for 'ths ' government show that city people paint their homes on an average of . every two and one-half years; farmers every , years. , . ' " ' J Of 10,000 rural. house owners visited, 4000 still old-fashioned paint can and turpentlnebpttlejilMOO used ready-made materials and 1400 TwedTnb paint at all.,. , im uiunuwu 01 x airview,. ; umo, ' was at one time iry seven usedwkV , 4300 nsedV Indeed, once, years ago. the work was actually be- '.in India, China, all the countries of South America, entirely painted by the women of the placa.-The women. who started simultaneouslv from th Hvln mnA th. ItalUn side, met in the middle of tha mountain met so evenly that there was scarcely a fraction of an inch dlSorenc on either side when the openings came tOROther. . - , . '.- , . ' tvea years were consumed In this boring, opera tion considerably less time than a mole could have tuade his way through. - . : , o-. j bimpion pierced, what next? Does anything In the ."timnhng line seem Impoeilblet - It 1 believed by R,rn. .!? I."' w.'il Probablr be among the reallt itl. w,,?f.t.h,utu.re' thllt no very dlsUnt day tun ?lf JT.111 England and France and North America ana iiioerja. bo, even though the Atlantic should p rioiMmea-with rail, It may be. possible to go from T..Y?r" Hn0 Ih a Pullman sleeping car. there will be no strain from within on the great tube it will simply be required to Keep out tne water. This work will be completed before M10. . Another big enterprise is the building of the Belmont be completed before 1910. tunnel -from Xong Island City to the Orand Central gun on the English and French sides simultaneously, both governments . having -. passed ; the , required legisla tion. . V., . 1, Vi ;-. . .'-.- - , But suddenly- there wasa atop to the work. In the British Parliament there arose a: preponderance ; of ja,rPW.Am ueoouu Ms wair--r 'Ctft.r ;iirglng tM trien in vain to do the work, sent a ; ohrM ?'' pa,nt revolution committee . to a ; big paint manufacturer ; who wasin- In Costa Rica. In that Uttle country's capiUl city - -11 Amt l !Lvt:t-i -.?.V.-." .WM . f ' ' . - .la wuuiu Station bv tha Looa Island Railway"Company, - As Is the case with the Slmplon tunnel, that being . constructed under ': the Hudson liver the first part of - the Pennsylvania's scheme was so well planned by the engineers that the holes started from the opposite sides , of the river met perfectly in the middle.': . To get a vivid idea of what the human mole has done In New Tork, one might stand, some time, at the :. corner of Bizth avenue and Thlrty-seoond street. , where ;five railroads actually are superimposed. ; , Lowast at h iiinmvi . h,f nnlnf te thmt nt fh SJ!fW;iJ P1 tlrrlnfc:, proces v a means to: bring in an Invading force In the event of That Uttle U really iiaoossibil notonw . PennsylvanU company, for express trains from the . . lnaPie.not only the Slmplon .,, West and local trains from New Jersey and Long Island" Think of England becoming known as "northwest France," say, all on account -of man's propensity to emulate the mole! , - . But the channel runnel proposition will not down, for It represents progress; and-against that force England's conservatives find themselves growing helpless. i As late as last winter the agitation in Parliament and among the people became so strong that the con tinuation of the tunnel seemed on 'the point of being , taken up. - But the measure was lost at last ; . . Although the bill to empower the resumption of work , on .the -tunnel has been killed temporarily, it Is believed - " 1 "T-rt''':.;- ' "'.'; '.'.:; ,."" ' , . - .w . -x. - ln-r. was a nauve estaoMsnment. .wnerem pami was , , Mt out it' There, were 127 bulldinn- mi.ii i.'ii.. - . - - - w wg aaa vuv place, Which included the yjllage haU and church, i 4 Few people know that a turpentine famine la threat ening, and that If turpentine alone were used aa a thin- - ner In paints the product -would cost the consumer sev' eral times-what it does now. There are also other and better "bases"-than white lead. , . ner - Recently the French Government passed a law nro- hlbltlng the use of white lead because it was Inluiioua ta . health. Zinc white is now used largely In its place. " ' " ' , . It la predicted that within the. next ten years the ' , pamt Industry of the United States will represent a can- ital of a billion dollars, wilT employ 100,000 men and will ,. produce annually at least 800,000,000 gallons of paints and 7 varnish . , . J - . Then cams the ; first shipload of American paint' . The owner of the local industry' was , a politician In -high favor, and he tried -q get government action to prevent the entrance of American paint But ho lost ne was soon tnreatened with bankruptcy by tne hustling Americans. , He threatened to turn against the government unless action was taken and did so. sin .ny of his constltuentssunported him.. Paint ba the great toplo of conservation , in the Costa lan ' came Rican capital. A carload ' of the American product was . waylaid and dumped. Xhe atore of one of the American agents