Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-01-19

is now six or eight feet lower than the
bottom of the river, and yesterday we
went down into it and saw the men at
work. In the center of the pier he left q
circular we'll nicely finished with brick
sides, and six or eight feet across. This
well reached to the very bottom, IS now
fifty feet deep, and has a fight of
steps built circling, next TO the
wall, from top to bottom. Down
these steps we went together to the
bottom of the well. There we found a
door of an oval shape, and about two
] feet in diameter. Looking in We saw a
room about six feet high, deep and wide
"a sort of cold and damp "oveD "
"Crawl in and I'll follow, = said Col Eads
| In we went through the oval hole, knock
ing off hat, and slightly humping head.
Col. Eads came also, with pine stick and
a 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 SINH
lar door right opposite, and said: ''That
opens directly into the air-chamber under
the whole pier. l will let the compressed |
air in here gradually, and when the equi- |
ibrium is established, that door will open |
of itself, and we will 60 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
boiler valve. The strange sensation crept
over us: What if something should burst
down here2 What power could open the
door behind US, now being held by the
giant pressure of the compressed air 2
Suppose fainting came over one, and this
roaring, ringing, laundering in the ears
should last for life But in just one
minute and half the rush of air ceased,
the door opened, the ears were all right,
and with no unpleasant sensation we were
in the condensed atmosphere, and crawl
ing through the door stepped upon the
sand into the air-chamber. Ten or a
dozen menss,ere hard at work, each with
candle, the huge caissOn was all around
US, glstening with water-drOps and from
rust in solution, and the flat, iron roof
was overhead, with all its tons of stone |
and pier above US. The sand was damp, |
but not wet, as the compressed atmOs-
phere drove all the water out through the |
sand and up through the water, which we
had observed before we came down, 10 be
bubbling all around the pier, like cham
payne in a glass
WHAT WE FOUND UNDER TIE PIER.
We walked all about the air chamber
from end to end, and side to side, and
saw how the sand is removed, and how
the air is supplied for the inmates to live
on. Powerful pumps, worked by steam,
on boats upon the surface of the river, i
force water down tubes that are run q
through the stone work of the pier, and !
they keep the atmosphere pure. No less !
than seven powerful sand pumps are also .
seen with their feet projecting down to l
the bottom and lifting it up through the a
pipes, and thrOwingit out above the river.
Three of these pumps will take this sand
away as fast rs workmen can lay the
stone work on the pier, and in four hours
the pump we saw at work took out fifty
four cubic feet in eleven minutes, or one
hundred cart loads 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 well, or
box, is put under the foot of pump, and I
q large hose brings down water from
force pump above. The hose opens in
the box, the water is sucked up the sand
pump, and two or three men shovel sand
into the box to mingle 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-an if good luck hap
pens, Col. Eads viii find his first great
pier resting on the solid rock within thirty |
days from now.