Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-12-11
DIGGING THE PANAMA CANAL
Four Hundred Thousand Dollars for
Three Canal Dredges.
PhiL1IeguLin Pecord

1he largest dredging machine ever con-
structed will be launched in this CITY
within a few weeks. This immense mud
digger is one of the three being constructed
by Slaven Bros, of California, at Petty,s
Island, for the Panama Canal Company.
! the aggregate coat of which will be over
| $4O0,OO The one now so near completion
is 100 feet long, go feet wide and II feet
deep. When all the machinery is in place
| 1t Will contain 800 tons of iron. On each
| OF the three monster dredges there will
! be eight separate engines, the pair of
high pressure engines which run The
dredge being of 25O-hOrse power each.
The dredges are of a new patent and
| WORK Win series OF buckets on an endless
| chain, There are eighteen of the buckets
to each machine, which can (ife and dis
| pose of 1920 cubic yards of dirt in an bour
| or combined capacity per hour for the
| three dredges of 4, $50 cubic wards. Thus.
In four months, working twelve hours q
| day, they could dig out 9,200,0O0 cubic
feet, or a canal eighty feet wide. twelve
feet deep and nearly fifty miles long.
Aiter the dirt is sscoOped up in lhe buckets
1t is run up the long arm of the dredger.
| fifteen or twenty feet below. The honnor
Is made Of iron and weighs five and a half
| tons. From the hopper the dirt is
forced by machinery into and tbroueh
huge pipe, three feet in diameter and
,I LOO long, to its place of deposit.
The. pipe has fall of eighteen feet, and
to insure the easE passage of the dirt
| through it heavy stream Of water is CON
stantly forced through. The stoppage in
the work of digging is never very long.
The dredger rests upon a "spUdn or pin,
upon Which 1t can be EeVolved without
stopping the dredging buckets, thus
enabling the operators to dig from siGe to
side at Will. The machinery for the first
dredger, which was manufactured in
California, is now here, and as soon as
the hull is launched will be placed ON
board. Before taking the big digger to As
pinWall number OF preliminary tests will
be made with it in the Delaware river.
The second dredger will be commenced as
soon as the first is launched, and work ON
the third will be started as soon as the
second is finished.
Inc Canal Construction and Banking
company, OF Which the Messrs. Slayen are
agents, ia addition to the building of the
dredgers, have a contract with the Panama
Canal Company to dig out ten miles of the
canal, Tor Whfch they are to be paid
~, OOn,OOd Mr.. L. Ward, who is the Sm.
perintendent of Construction in connec-
ton with the building of the dredpers in
TINS city, has just arrived here from the
1stnmus OF PanaJAa, where he has put nm
slXty-elght buildings along the route Of
4
$2,OOO,OoO contract. He saws the work
preparatory to the commencement OF dig.
glng out the great canal is about finished.
Inc canal company has so far spent about
$2O,O0O,OOO, and he has no doubt that the
canal VIII be completed within the ten
years sneeiaed by the engineers There
are ne states, about 5000 men at FORK,
1t is not unlikely that the bfg redger,
the construction Of which Mfr. Ward is
experimenting, may be first experiment.
ed upon in starting the work of digging
the proposed ship canal aoress the Della
ware and MARYLAND peninsula. NJ, A.
Slaven, who is President of the California
Bank and Construction COMPANY, and his
brother, H. B. SlaYen will be in PhiIa-
delphia in few days, having lust com
pleted an examination of the route OF the
proposed Delaware and MARYLAND canal
with the President Of the company. Col.
Horace h. Tibbetts, of New York. Col.
Tihbetts will sail for Paris soon. where.
he says, capital sufficient 10 build the
canal without government aid has been
guaranteed. His company has charters
from Delaware and Maryland to construct
the canal by the Sassafras river route. II
is proposed, however, to give the falifor.
MIA capitalists an opportunity TO invest
there, and 1t is saia that the SIayens are
favorable 70 the Delaware and Marvl.nd
scAeme, and will put money il Is.