The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1875-03-12
4 HUGE ENTERPRISE.
Tunnelling the English Channel from
Dover to Calais. zz.+.-
Philadelphia North American.

luliddEIpilld NOIiu AIiiSIltuH
For SO many years have we been accus
toned to discussions of the feasibility OF
connecting England and France by rail.
way tunnel, that the scheme has come to be
regarded as one of those things destined te
linger permanently in the limbo of good
intentions. AS long ago as 1888 French
engineer-M. Thome de Gamond-began
to agitate the subject and to spend time
and money i'll investigating the strata
through which the tunnel must pass; and
III 1857 he exhibited plans and models
showing how he proposed constructing it.
Before this, in 1865, an Englishnan, Sir
John Hawkshaw, had enlisted in the work
by sinking borings ON both the French and
English coasts, and examining the entire
bed of the Channel between those points
by means of a special contriyed apparatus.
| AT last, III 1872, the Channel Tunnel Com
pany was incorporated with the gentlemen
above named and Mr.. James Burnlees as
its engineers. Finally, when the Lord
! Mayor Of London visited Paris at the
opening of the new opera-house few
weeks ago, he had an interview on the
subject with the French Minister of Public
Works, and it transpired that the French
and English governments had come to an
arrangement for commencing preliminary
operations. ..
The points selected for the termini of the
tunnel are St. Margaret's Bay, depression
in the chalk cliffs four miles east of Dover
and spot near Calais. On this line it is
believed a continuous stratum of homoge-
neous chalk, 800 feet thick, runs from shore
to shore under 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 solid, has been proved to be imper-
meable by water; so that nothing could
interfere with the work of boring except
the occurrence of fissures in the stratum =.
2O0 feet deep or more, and it is believed
that if such assures ever existed they have
been filled up ages ago by the wash of the
sea. Work is to be commenced at both
ends with newly-mounted auger-like
machine which deposits its debris upon an
endless belt that carries it away to the
rear. The auger bores driftway seven
feet in diameter, and advances through the |
chalk at the rate of a yard to yard and |
quarter per hour; so that it is computed !
this preliminary opening may be made |
within four years for $4,000, 900, though |
experienced contractors do not hesitate to |
reduce both amounts by one-half. The
completion of the work for the passage of J
railway trains will require, it is thoeght, an |
additional four years and 100000, 900. At |
present there are Immediately to be sunk
shafts 750 feet deep on either coast, from
which driftings are to be run outward at a
downward inclination of one foot in eighty. |
1t seems to be assumed that the proposed |
submarine railroad must prove a financial !
success. The number of persons crossing
the Channel in 1869 between four ports on
either side was 100000. and since then it
has greatly increased. Most of those, it is
thought, would prefer to travel under
ground, though at a higher cost. than to
incur the horrors of the Channel passage,
even with all the mitigations promised by
The Bcssemer and Castalia steamers. The
problem Of ventilation is expected to pre-
sent no great difficulties and security will
De as absolute as on land. A great increase
ooth in passenger travel and freights is
looked for.