The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1871-01-11
Completion Of the Mont Cenis Tunnel.

The greatest achievement of the age,
the COMPLETION Of the Mont Ce.iS Tnn,
mel, by which the Alps have been pierced
through from France to Italy is ALI
nuunced. 1t was 4 prodisiouS work and
occupied twelve Years of continuous Ia
Dor, hight and day, Sundays not excepted.
The whole DISTANCE bored vas { .
niles,s44 being bored from the Italian
side, and from the French ahont 3, at
which points. in the bowels Of the tun,
nel, with more than nile cf 4 pS tow
crinc abovc their heads, the workmen
met to rtf=r congratulations after so great
wo:h. The frs, Napoleon constructed
4 road through the pass of Mont GEMS,
at an elevation of 800 feet above the
level Of the country, thirty miles long
ana eighteen feet wide, at cast OF 4.
600, 600 francs. The present undertake
ing cust>,he lives IF about 1000 men,
killed at different stages Of the work
through acci,lental explosions and other
wise, and l70 ,000, 600 francs. I e work
men were divided into three relletS, eight
hours being given to labor and s'xlee"
to rest. The height Of the arch Is q
f.r, 7 inches, and the width in the broad
est part 26 fee, 2? inches The compile
ton of the tunnel has been achieved
three or four months sooner than was
articipa,cd, and it will now require
about six months more to complete the
railroad which is to thread it and make
the Journey from France to Italy.
The work was begun in 1857. a,
first the ordinary hand drill was used to
pierce the rock, and the solid masses
were blasted ont with powder. This
method of operation, which was kept up
On the italian Sislc until 1861. and on the
French side until 1868. would have re
quiresl upward Of fifty years for the com
pletion of the work. Accordingly il
brhnovcd the projectors TO brth'nk them
Of some u,ore expeditions method ot pro-
cee,l:ng. The use nf steam was ont ol
the question, aud The a,teution OF the
Italian engineers was therefore turned
to device for using compressed air as
the motive power. This matter present
ed no very great difficulty in its general
principles but great deal of expcrlmen
ting was necessary before it could b.
put into successful practice.
4 marhine was finally invented and
put into operation which could stand out
side by one Of the streams that catHr
down from the mountains, and, with It's
aid, force the air through long tubes Il
the drilling apparatus. ThiS latter is a
machine which works in galley nine
feet square, and carries large number
Of perturators, each Of which bores a sep
arate hole in the rock. BY the com
pressing machine, the mir is forced into a
reservoir, and thence it passes through
flexible pipes to the cy lindcrS containing
the drills of the pe.forating nachinss.
BY the opening Of valve, each drill is
forced against the lace of the rork with a
force OF abou, 200 pounds, .urnc,: slight
", and withdrawn. Two hundred OF
these blows are given every minute with
each drill; and, when holes of the re
quired depth have been bored. the air l.
turned off, and the machine withdrawn a
short di tance The holes are bored III
such way as to converge slightly to
wards each other, so that every blast vii;
bring down a considerable mass Of rock.
st first powder vas used in the blasting.
bnt there were many obvious objections
to tii>. As soon as any considerable
progress had been made, ard subsc
quently, gun cotton was tried. This
was afterward displaced by the use Of
nitro glycerine. The rate of progress
has varied, of course. with the hardness
of the rock, aud has been from one and II
half to three feet per day. Among the
Incidental appliances EMPLOYED by the
workmen. are gaS-honse, miniature
water works, and machinery for supply.
ing their own lungs with air as well aS
thpse Of the pcrfora,ing machinery.
Thus the three essentials of comfortable
life-lisht, air and water. are received
from the outer world by machinery.