The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1882-03-25
The Channel Tunnel.

On the French coast the company
which obtained concession from the
French government in 1875 to construct
the southern half of the proposed chan
mel tunnel have made considerable and,
so far, satisfactory, progress in the exam
nation of the chalk cliffs near Calais,
which are believed to be the ohtcrop of
continuous bed of homogeneous chalk
running beneath the sea between the two
shores, and by invitation of the Paris
committee the engineers and officials OF
the English Channel Tunnel Company
and some others yesterday visited the
works. The borings are near the little
village of Sangatte, which, according to
Murray, is about six miles from Calais.
The buildings are not merely temporary
sheds, such as might suffice to protect
the workers during the prosecution of ex-
detrimental borings, but substantial cree
tons of brick, with concrete floors, a high
brick chimney shaft, and tramways run
ming a distance of perhaps hundred
yards, to the edge of the cliff, over which
the eXcavated chalk is thrown, the cliffs
at this point rising precipitously from the
beach to height of over one hundred
feet. In one large building is the ma
chinery, designed by M. CUlladon, for
driving with compressed air the boring
machines, This will be superintended by
M. Welker, who was in charge of the air
COMPRISING machinery used in the St.
Gothard tunnel. Two shafts have been
sunk at a distance of forty or fifty
yards apart, and by the larger
nf fho OF n lid -
examine horizontal cutting. About
the borers have found the CRAZE de Roslen,
strata corresponding to the lowerportion
of that homogeneous gray chalk which
some of our biologists have called the
chalk without flints. At depth of sew
enty-eight feet the brick lining of the pit
ceases and the employment of wooden
"tubing'' begins, this being carried
down to depth of 204 feet, when the
chalk becomes so dry and hard that
lining is nolonger required. The depth
of the shaft is about 280 feet, and going
about six feet lower down by ladder
through hole at one side a gallery eight
feet high and ofa the same width is en-
tered. This opens into one of equal d.
ttlnOUOA lItliIiiit5 hOdiIJ s1o llS NJ "hS ICo,
which, with a slightly upward inclina-
ton, to provide for drainage, runs in
northeasterly direction, but trending to
the northward- that is, toward the sea
with curve having radius of one
kilometre. 1t is to be 1850 yards long.
Artificial ventilation has not been found
necessary so far, the two shafts, with both
of which it is in connection, providing
for an up and down current of air. This
gallery is about 10 feet below low-water
mark, but no portions of these workings
have yet been pushed out under the sea.
NJ. Alexandra Lavalley, the contractor
for the Suez Canal, who has offered to
undertake the construction of the tunnel
or the French conceSsi0nGireS, is to drive
another gallery of equal length in the
same direction as, but not Immediately
over, the one already begun. He will
employ Brunton' 8 cutting machine, while
in the lower gallery Beaumont machine
will be used, both machines being driven
with compressed air. 1t is found in the
lower gallery that there is but little per-
collation. of water, and that such as runs
in comes from springs in assures. What
does flow in is pumped out at the rate
of sixty gallons per minute. At depth
28S feet bed of green sand less than
even feet thick is reached, and then the
gait From the town of Dover the APP
proach would, as is now suggested, pass
at depth of 300 feet below the seaward
spur of the outer wall of the CASTLE
London Times.