The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1870-01-29

steps we went together to the
bottom of the well. There we
found door of an oval shape,
aud about two feet in diameter.
Looking in we saw a room about
six feet high, deep and wide-a
sort Of cold and damp "Oven."
"Crawl in and I'l follow" said
Colonel Eads. In we went through
the oval hole, knocking off hat.
and slightly humping q head
Colonel Eads came, also, with a
pine stick and lighted candle
stuck on it, Or we should have
been in Egyptian darkness. The
Colonel closed the little iron
door by which we had entered,
and it shut us in "air tight" He
then pointed to another similar
door right opposite, and said:
'sThat opens directly into the air.
chamber under the whole pier.
[ will let the compressed air in
here gradually, and when the
equilibrium is established, that
door will open Of itself, and we
will go in through it," So saying
he turned the faucet of a brass
stop-cock, the air from the air
chamber came singing through it
like steam from a boiler valve,
the strange sensation crept over
us.
What if something should burst
down here? What power could
open the door behind us, now
being held by the giant pressure
of the compressed air? Suppose
fainting came over one, and this
roaring, ringing, laundering in
the ears should last for life! But
i'll just one minute and q half the
rush of air ceased, the other door
opened, the ears were all right,
and with no unpleasant sensation
phere,. and crawling through the
door stepped upon the sand into the
air-chamber. Ten or dozen men
were hard at work, each with a
candle, the huge caisson was all
around us, glistening with water
drops and from rust in solution,
and the fat, iron roof was over
head, with all-its tons of stone
and pier above us. The sand was
damp, but not wet, as the COM
pressed atmosphere drove all the
water out through the sand and
up through the water, which we
had observed before we came
down, to he bubbling around the
pier, like champagne in glass.
WHAT WE FOUND UNDER THE PIER.
We walked all about the air
] 1l, tn
side to side, and saw how the
! sand is removed, and how the air
is supplied for the inmates to live
on. Powerful air pumps, worked
by steam on boats upon the sur
face Of the river, force water down
tubes that are run through the
stone work Of the pier, and they
keep pure the atmosphere. No
less than seven powerful sand
pumps are also seen with their
feet projecting down to the bot
tom, and lifting it up through the
pipes. and throwing it out above
the river. Three of these pumps
will take this sand away as fast
as workmen can lay the stone
work on the pier, and in 4 hours
| tlc pump We SftW dU "oIh CooA
out 81 cubic feet in IL minutes,
or one hundred carloads in about
four hours. But how can a pump
throw out sand? some one asks.
just as silly as we were before
we saw it! A temporary we'll, or
box, is put under the foot of a
pump, and q large hose brings
down water from a force pump
above. This hose opens in the
box, the water is sucked up the
sand pump, and two or three men
shovel sand into the box to min
gle with the water and be thrown
out with it-and that is how the
sand pumps work! Their success
has been fully tested-the work
is going on satisfactorily-and if
good luck happens, Col. Eads will
find his first great pier resting OIL
the solid rock within thirty days
from now.
A Southern dentist thinks thai