Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1876-11-15
sl9,02l $1,000
THE ST. GoTHARD TUNNEL
The Greatest Tunnel in Europe
The Direct Route from Eng
land to India.

The foreign correspondent of the
Boston Herald, writing from Leipsic,
says: While at Goeschenen ! had an
opportunity of seeing the st. Gothard
tunnel, which is now being bored
through the mountains from Goes.
chenen towards Germany. The APP
proach to the tunnel on the Gocsche.
men side is in the midst of the widest
and most picturesque scenery. A
number of workshops, sheds, cam
tines, and various small buildings
cluster about the mouth, and give to
an otherwise wild spot the busy hum
and noise of enterprise, for the click
ing of machinery, whistling of the
engine, and hammcring from the
blacksmithing is incessant, as the
work is continued, day and night, by
gangs of two thousand men, who, un-
der Nj. Favre's direction, prosecute
the work. These men have been at
work, in varying numbers, however,
just four years the present month,
and it will take all their energies,
united to the work of those on the
Italian side, to finish the undertaking
by 1880. This of course, if the mon
cy does not give out, and there is a
good deal of trouble in securing all
that is needed. AT present the entire
route is surveyed from Luzerne and
Zurich TO Milan, and parts of it cut.
In the tunnel three and threc-quar-
tors kilometres have been completed
on the German side, and about four
and a quarter on the Italian. The
tunnel will be ten miles long. The
workmen employed are almost all
Italians, and work eight hours out of
twenty-four. Dynamite is used for
the purpose Of blasting, and all the
drills are the ordinary chilled steel,
the diamond drill being unemployed.
The usual machine for driving the
drills is employed, and works entire
ly by means of compressed air, which
is brought from the reservoirs by
means of a large iron pipe. These
reservoirs are supplied by number
of condensing engines which are
turned by water, for which purpose a
mountain stream is, some way above
the north of the tunnel, diverted into
a sluice-way. A strength of ten to
twelve atmospheres is always main
tanned. Compressed air is also used
to work the engine, which carries its
reservoir behind, like a tender OH an
ordinary engine, only it is about six
ty feet long and of cylinder-boiler
shape. 1t runs easily and smoothly,
and, being without any heat, is much
pleasanter to work. 1t is used main
Iy for hauling the stone from the in
terror to a side track, after it is
brought away from the immediate
vicinity of the blast by means OF
horses. Although this tunnel and
route will take long time to com.
plcte, it will unquestionably be of
the greatest service when time is con.
sidered, as the route is from England
to Cologne, along the Rhine to Frank.
fort, then Bazel, Luzcrne and St
Gothard, and you are in Italy. The
engineers in charge prove sufficiently
that the high grade to which the road
attains before passing into the tunnel
will in no way impede the hauling oil
! freight, and that with good speed
Ii will, unqucstionably, be part OF
the direct route to India from En-
gland, and decidedly the shortest Il
Italy. A competitive route through
the Rhone Valley and by the Sim.
plon Pass through Italy is projected
in France to keep this travel through
France, but is still in embryo. 1
would have the advantage OF having
! the railroad finished as far as Scisse
! and built as far as the foot of thu
pass.