Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-06-01
HOW THE JETTrEs ARE MADE.

HOW THE JETTIEs ARE MADE.
Since Captain Eads made his very success
full appearance at Memphis as lecturer,
many of those who were interested on that
occasion have expressed desire to know how |
the ietties with which he is connected are |
constructed. As Is usual with great achieve
ments, the means are very simple. but they |
involve much scientific knowledge, and re-
ouired for their success the direction OF |
mind eminently practical In its character
TIE Mississippi, as the maps show, does not
enter the sea in one stream, but divides into
several channels, called passes. One OF these,
named South pass, was allotted to Captain
Eads to try his grand experiment; the chan
mel here was generally fourteen feet deep,
but in some portions only eight feet, and IN
one spot the greatest depth was seven and
Lalf feet. Along each side of this channel
Captain Eads has constructed. artificial banks.
They were formed, not of stone, but OF will
lows. The willows were bound together IN
masses called mattresses, and were sunk
where wanted, and retained there by layers
of stone being placed upon them; they ex-
tend two miles and quarter. At the base
the width of the mattress work is one hum
dred feet; it then diminishes gradually,
until at the top it is but twenty
five to thirty feet in width. AS
water passed through these fragile walls
they deposited a portion OF their sediment
among the interstices of the twigs, owing
to the obstruction the latter opposed. The
Al,n lot oil fro q
walls solid embankments, then strengthened
them by further sediment which was contln-
ually deposited on each side of them. Here
is where one Of the grand features OF Cap
tain Eadss system comes into view. He
built no entertainments; he set his traps to
catch the material for the embankments, and
the laborer that deposited the material was
the river itself. This was not the only work
he set the river to do, as we shall see. These
two embankments were thousand feet from
each other and between them rolled regu-
lar current from the Mississippi, along reg
lar channel. That channel is carried out
from the lands end until rapid declivity is
reached and there deep sea begins. The
water in the pass having now regular cur
the water was high, became the servant OF
Captain Eads and obediently washed out the
mud and sand of the bottom, carrying 1t to
deep water in the sea until from the eight
feet deep of 1875 there is now, through the
entire channels recently reported by Cap
tain Brown, the officer appointed from
Washington to make an official inspection for
the governmental depth of twenty-three
and half feet. This depth was not cut out
by Captain Eads; at his command the river
itself performed that immense labor. The
youth in the Arabian story summoned the
slaves of the lamp, and by his direction they
raised an immense palace, and filed its
rooms with rich treasures. So Captain Eads
| dictated to the waters of the mighty river of
the west, and they constructed passage to
the sea along whose liquid surface treasures
will glide from all quarters of the earth to
furnish the rooms of thousands of homes Of
the American people. A vast and wonder
full work has been done, and he who per-
formed 1t has done it in a way that shows the
play of that lofty faculty which men call
genius But this was not the ''be all and the
end all" of Captain Eads's achievements. AS
the water scooped out and washed away
the shallow bed over which it flowed,
until that bed became deep one, the
| soil that had formed it had to be
deposited somewhere else. Those who
did not see all that Captain Eads's eyes had
discovered, declared that all this soil would
| be deposited in front Of the jettles, and that
its amount would oe every day increased by
the waters of the river depositing there the
sediment they bring with them from the
plains of the north and from the vast alluvial
at the foot of the Rocky mountains. This
, continued deposit would make new bar op-
posite the termination of the Jettles that
would spread until it reached the jetties them
selves, and put an end to their navigation.
Then new jetties would have to be constructed
through the new bar; they, too, would be
INSTRUCTED in time by the same means, and
so the whole business would be but one per-
petual disappointment. But Captain Eads
had another servant at his orders beside the
Mississippi-this one was the sea itself. He
had remarked that there was an east wind
| blowing almost continually at the mouth OF
| the pass; the consequence was a current
| alongshore running westward. He so fixed
the direction of the jetty channel as to make
the stream issuing from it strike this current
at right angles; therefore, as the stream from
the jetties runs straight forward into the
sea, the current passes through its entire
length and carries off in its flow the
deposit of sediment made by the Mississippi
water, as the latter loses impetus on flowing
into the sea water, and so instead of falling
to the sea bottom in front of the jetties, tht
sediment is carried off to the west of them
where it does no harm. This is how Captain
Eads has the sea to work for him. Other in
stances equally interesting might be detailed
of the difficulties surmounted, and of the In
genious and effectual wayi which they hav'
been vanquished by the genius and wonder
full power of resource manifested by Captain
Eads. We read with profound admiration
how one man invented the steam-engine, an
other the cotton-loom, another the canal, an
other the railway, and another the telegraph
but we have in Captain Eads a man tina
ranks with the greatest of these, fertile i
expedient, quick to avail himself of incidents
resources, compelling the very forces that ap
pear adapted only to obstruct his designs t
| labor for him, ne has the characteristics tina
} constitute true genius, and in what he ha
done with the st. Louis bridge, and with tn
) jetties, and what he will do with the Missis
slppi river when he commences to check il
overflow and to make it navlgable at all sea
r sons, he is constructing for himself niche i
f the temple of fame that will give his name
e place in all future history.