The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1875-03-05
A Huge Enterprise.
I TUNNELLING THE ENGLISH CHANNEL
! FROM DOVER TO CALAIS.
PHILADELPHIA North Americana

philadelphia North Americana
For so many years have we been ac-
custOmed to discussions of the feasibil-
ity of connecting England and France
by a railway tunnel, that the scheme
has come to be regarded as one of those
things destined to linger permanently
in the limbo of good Intentions. As
long ago as 1888 a French engineer-M.
Thome de Gamond-began to agitate
the subject and to spend time and money
in investigating the strata through which
the tunnel must pass and in 1867 he
exhibited plans and models showing
how he proposed constructing ii. Before
this, in 1865, an Englishman, Sir John
Hawkshaw, had enlisted in the work by
sinking boringsOn both the French and
English'coasts, andexaminningthe entire
bed Of the Channel between those points
by ean Of Especial contriyed appa-
ratus. At last, in 1872, the Channel
Tunnel Company was Incorporated,
with the gentleman above named and
Finally, when the Lord Mayer of Lon
don visited Paris at the opening of the
new Opera-house q few weeks ago, he
had an interview on the subject with
the French Minister of Public Works,
and it TRANSFERRED that the French and
English governments had come to an
arrangement for commencing prelim-
mary operations.
The points selected for the termini of
the tunnel are St. Margaret's Bay, q
depression in the chalk cliffs four miles
east of Dover, and a spot neal Calais.
On this line it is believed q continuous
stratum of homogeneous chalk, 500 feet
thick, runs from shore to shove under a
depth of water nowhere more than $50
feet. Through this layer the tunnel is to
be run at least 200 feet below the bed of
the channel. The chalk, where sold,
has been proved to be impermeable by
water, so that nothing could interfere
with the word of boring except the occur
renee of assures in the stratum 300 feet
deep or more, and it is believed that if
such assures ever existed they have been
filed up ages ago by the wash of the
a Work is to be commenced at both
ends with a newly-mOunted auger-like
machine which deposits it's debris upon
an endless belt that carries it away to
the rear. The auger bOres a driftway
seven feet in diameter, and advances
through the chalk at the rate of a yard
to a yard and a quarter per hour; so
that it is computed this preliminary
opening may be made within four years
for 100000, though experienced con-
tractors do not hesitate to reduce both
amounts by one-half. The completion
of the work for the passage of railway
trains will require, it is thought, an adj
ditiOnal four years and $4,000 1000. At
present there are Immediately to be
sunk shafts $50 feet deep on either coast,
from which driftings are to be run out
ward at a downward i%nclinatian of one
foot in eighty.
1t seems to be assumed that the pro-
posed submarine railroad must prove a
financial success. The number of per-
sons crossing the channelin 1869 between
four ports on either side was 100000,
and since then it has greatly increased.
Most of those, it is thought, would pre-
fer to travel underground, though at a
higher cost, than to incur the horrors of
the channel passage, even with all the
mitigations promised by the Bessemer
and Castalia steamers. The problem of
ventilation is expected to present no
great difficulties, and security will be
as absolute as ON land. Agreat increase
both in passenger travel and freights
is confidently looked for.