Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1871-01-05
A TRIUMPH OF HuxAN GENIUS.

teen years upon the great Mont Cents
met and clasped hands a few
days ago. Although it will require
months to put the tunnel In
running order for regular trains, the
success Of that bold and almost auda.
cious undertaking may be regarded as
fully established. Whilst this work
will be ranked among the other mar
wells Of useful construction peculiar to
the present generation, such as the
Atlantic cables, the Pacific railroad
and the Suez canal, the Mont Gems
tunnel is in several ways more inter-
esting and wonderful than any of
them. 1t is more than seven miles and
a half from the French entrance, near
Modane, in Savoy, to the Italian en-
trance, near B~ardonneche, and the
whole Of this vast distance had to be
worked from the two ends, as the
mountain through which it is cut Is
far too high to permit the sinking Of
sshafts'' In order to furnish additional
ends or faces from which to carry on
the work, according to the practice In
all long tunnels. It would have been
a work Of almost If not quite equal
difficulty to sink shafts q mile in depth
rs to cut the great tunnel itself. But
these Shafts" as used in ordinary
tunnels, have another important use
besides furnishing additional means for
carrying on the work; they supply the
fresh air and ventilation which are
indispensable to the working of the
tunnel. The vast depth Of the Mont
Cents tunnel ~precluding the use of
"shafts," some other mode of venti-
lation was essential, and here the en-
ginesrs encountered their first forbid
ding difficulty. After the cutting had
penetrated some distance into the mass
of the mountain, every discharge of
blast powder left the confined air space
of the tunnel filled with sulphurous
and other noxious gases unfit for
breathing, and these vapors moved
away so sluggishly that a great deal
of time was lost before the workmen
could go to their labors again. 1t was
therefore Indispensable to get fresh air
to the inner end Of the tunnel rapidly
and in large volume. Whilst the best
means for the solution of this formula
BILE problem engaged the attention of
the engineers, they also found that
drilling" by hand labor was far too
slow a process for a tunnel nearly
eight miles long. The hand labor or
that country was cheap enough, but it
consumed too much time, and time is
a large element in any work where
interest is to be paid OIL many millions
of dollars. But what Kind of ''power"
could DO used was the next problem,
and, at the first glance, it seemed to
be quite as difficult to solve as the
question Of ventilation without shafts.
Steam power could not be used, be-
cause the fires would still further
yitiate the air in the tunnel by con-
sumlng the oxygen and emitting suffo-
eating gases. Atlast, by IL of those
inspirations Of genius which OCCASION
ally come to the aid Of the engineer,
and thereby make possible the SEEM
ingly impossible, both these formidable
difficulties were overcome BY the use
of compressed atmospheric air."
This air, compressed" by an inge-
nious system Of hydraulic and pneu-
matte machinery placed outside of the
tunnel, was carried by iron pipes to
the remote interior of the cutting, and
by It's force it first supplied 'power''
for drilling the rock, and then the
escape" or "exhaust" air furnished
pure fresh air for the men to breathe.
Thus, the practicability of the eight
mile tunnel, "without shafts"
was demonstrated by q pure triumph
of intellect over what seemed to be
physical and scientific impossibilities.
The precision Of the science and art OF
engineering will be popularity under
stood when the reader reflects that the
working parties who cut the tunnel
were working in opposite directions,
from two points nearly eight miles dis
liant from each other, a mile under
ground, with no guides except those
furnished by science as to whether they
we're going straight towards each other
or not; and yet they met each other
exactly, at nearly for miles distant
from daylight at either end! Tho
work was originally undertaken by the
Sandman Government, the whole Of
ths. territory at that time 1850 being
Italian, and the engineers who planned
the work and machinery were Italians,
Messrs. Grattoni and Sommeiller.
subsequently the expense was shared
jointly by the French and Italian Gov
ernments. 's ~
Il