Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1871-09-20

work was accomplished within ~ years.
reckoning from 1862. But if the work was
finished at an earlier date France bound her
self to pay 100000 more for every year
gained upon the stipulated time. The in
centive which France thus professed to afford
has certainly attained It's end. The work is
now finished eleven years before the limit
named, and accordingly France will have to |
nav 81 100, 600, beside the a, 1000 900 ofthe
original stipulation. She also bound herself
/ to paw fiva per cent interest on the money
due for the work as it proceeded from year
4 to year. Had the construction continued |
beyond the stipulated term of twenty years,
/ Italy would have lost 100000 for every
year in excess Of that period
tbs BORING OF THE TUNNEL.
( The engineering difficulties were Of the
most discouraging character. The constitute
ton of a tunnel nearly eight miles long,
where no vertical shafts for light, or air, or
refuse were possible. where the work must
he begun from each end, where the Levels
and the angles must be Eperfeet to insure
meeting, presented a problem which even
the boldest engineer might shrink from with
alarm All former experience In construct
/ ing tunnels was # little avail. The
occasion demanded man Of genius gifted
with the determination This man was found
/ in Sommeiller, who, however, owed much to
the inventions of his professional predecess-
ors VI. Mans, Belgian engineer, had
devised a machine to cut rock, and this
machine was to be worked with springs to
cut the rock into blocks, and so do the work
of many men. NJ. Calladon OF Geneva,
struck the key Of the position by suggesting
the use of compressed air, but he had not
the honor Of showing how it was TO be used
as motive power. MIR. Bartlett, an
/ English engineer having invented an engine
. f,,r hnrf Win NJ,
Sommeiller adapted it To be used by
COMPRESSED air, and thus the means OF Dor
y ing the Mont Gems Tunnel was secured.
Another invention, however, was needed to
utilize ali these tTiumuhs Of human lnPenu-
ity The use of stcaIa as q mo tive power
was hopeless in so confined space; the
labor ot human hands equally hopeless
in point OF time; bat with a wondrous
Arbitration of means 10 ends, the falling
waters of the Alpine valleys were imprisoned
to comuress the air the air was conducted
along vast tubes as the cuttings advanced,
and after doing all the hard work Tor human
hands, escaped from its imprisonment, and
made .cxi-tcnce possible for TIE very men
who made this air slave The machine
employed by NJ. SammeIller weighed oOO
pounds and bored hole inches IN diane
ter and feet deep IN 20 minutes. Eleven
lot these machines were placed on a movable
.suuu5rt. and could he worked at almost any
angic. Three or four large holes were bored
lin the center Of the heading, and round these
i0tIcr holes If the ordinary size. IN all 50
holes The large holes were only TOR the
rurr,-e of weakening the rock The other
.aoI,- we're flied with explosive material. and
,,er. fired in succession and in dctachment=.
.be-inning with those nearest the center, and
" rkir, outward. Tie advanced heading
. was tlcanIv rlaee where these machines were
.,sea tf.e enlargement 8f the tunnel to the
.f5I -fg. the building. SIS were all per