The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1870-12-30
A HOLE THROUGH THE ALPS.
Completion Of Mont Gents Tunnels
A Twelve Years. Task Ended..s
The Engineering Feat Of the

Age.
A dispatch from susa says the Alps
were pierced through on Monday, and the
workmen from both ends Of the Mont
Cents Tunnel Joined in congratulations
upon the completion of the great work.
The work on the great tunnel,
which had been talked Of Cor over
a quarter Of q century, was actually
begun In 1857, on the Italian side.
A little later operations were begun on the
French side. The tunnel passes under
the three peaks called Col. Frejus, Mt.
Grand VallOn, and the Col. de.la-Roue,
the first being on tho French, the third
on the Italian slope, and the second al
most equl-distant between the two. Mont
Conis, from which iE takes It's name, is II
or IS miles from tho French entrance and
more than 90 from the italian entrance,
but 1t probably enjoys the honor of the
tunnels baptism from the fact that it is
much better known than any of the sum
mits or ranges in the neighborhoOd.
HOW THE WORK WAS ACCENT LISTED.
The work on the Italian side continued
for four years, when, about 1000 yards
haAing been completed, the perlorating
machines were brought into reQuisition.
The ordinary motive power, steam, could
not be employed In operating these ma
chimes, as steam needs fire for It's genera.
ton, and fire needs air for its support
After long deliberations and countless
experiments, compressed air was EN-.
ployed. The machine Is composed of II
or Is iron tubes, in which, by a vibrating
motion caused by herise and fall Of water
and regulated by piston in the tubes, theair
Is compressed 10 One.siXth its natural bulk.
This when released exercises an ex-
panslve force equal to that of six atmos-
pheres. As the piston ascends 1t forces
the water up, COMPRISING the air and
driving 1t into reservoir; as 1t descends
valve Is opened near the top, through
which the air rushes into the vacuum, and
Is In turn compressed and forced into the
reservoir. From the reservoir large iron
pipe conveys the compressed air into the
tunnel. Ten Of these perforators were kept
constantly at work. The drills working
by the compressed air were kept con-
SANITY boring tho rock at the rate Of nine
feet day. The perforatOrs were not In
troducGd into the tunnel at Fourneaux,
on the French side, until 1868, two years
after they had been in use on the Italian
side.
TIE ENTRANCE TO THE TUNNEL
is 25 feet and as many in height. Dur
ing the progress Of the work, double
railway track ran into the tunnel, carry
ing the implements and the stone for the
mason work and bringing out the frag-
ments of broken and blasted rock. A
temporary wooden partition divided the
tunnel into two equal galleries, above and
below; the rarifed air from the lower
gallery rising and passing out through the
upper, and fresh air coming into the
lower to supply its place.
For some time after the work was be-
gun, visitors were admitted at all times,
but as the work progressed, stricter rules
were adopted, and permission was given
TO inspect tho work only on two fixed
days Of the month. The visitor is taken
in charge by the director OF the workmen,
who gives him n long India rubber coat
aud a lighted lamp attached to half u
yard of wire, and with these they set out
upon their journey.
INTO TIE BOWELS OF TIE EARTH.
After going some distance the patch OF
daylight furnished by the entrance is lost
sight Of, and the darkness seems positive
ly tangible. Ahead through tho black.
ness glimmer number OF lights, and the
rum6ling sounds of the wagons carrying
out the debris Is heard. Then comes a
dull, heavy rumble, echoing and rCechoing
through the gallery, and seeming to shake
the mountain from base to sum1lit. 1t is
the sound Of an explosion. One follows
another in rapid succession, and, after
seven or eight, the wooden doors, which
arc closed Just before the blast, are thrown
open, and clouds Of yellow smoke come
pouring through the tunnel in such den
sity and volume as to bepOsitively painful.
At the time OF the completion OF the tun.
mel the wOrkmen from the Italian side
had been Al miles into the mountain, and
those from the French side about 8 miles,
the whole distance being z As miles.
FOUR MILES FROM THE OUTER WORLD.
and with more than mile Of Alps tower
ing above their heads, the visitors find the
men and machines at work. The drills
make two hundred revolutions minute,
and scatter innumerable sparkle oil fire
from the rock. Aiter about ninety holes,
three feet in depth, md two to three
inches in diameter, are bored, they are
charged with powder and tamped, when
tho miners Withdrawing behind the
wooden doors-the slow match Is ignited,
and the explosion takes place So the Ia
Dor has continued without interruption
day and night, week after week, includ-
ing Sundays, month after month, year al
ter year. The workmcn were divided in.
to three reliefs, eight hours being given to
labor and sixteen TO rest. The common
laborers received only three francs day,
and the skilled but five francs.
THE CASUALTIES.
or course, in such work innumerable
accidents must happen. 1t has been told
that more than 1000 workmen have lost
their lives up to 1870; but the guides and
directors declare that not more than fiity
o; sixty had been killed outright, though
q number Of others had been seriously
wounded. Most Of the accidents have
occurred on the railway, from the falling
Of rock and from premature explosions.
One premature explosion killed five men
and wounded nine others, three Of them
fatally; and one rock falling crushed three
men to death. 1t Is not improbable, there
fore, that during the twelve years in which
the work has been going on at least ], 900
men have lost their lives.
The cost Of the tunnel has been about
40, 100000 francs.
Nervous Debility.
Thousands suffer from 1t. A weak,