The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1885-05-08
CUTTING a TUNNEL.

Describing the work on large tunnel
in Pennsylvania, correspondent Of the
Philadelphia Times gives this account OF
the manner in which the work is
pushed:
"Inside the tunnel q busting scene is
presented. The racket and rumble OF
the drills, the hurry and furry of labor,
the shouts OF the engineers giving
instructions to the men, the yells OF the
car-drivers to the mules moving
mysteriously with their loads through
the dark, the fickering of wandering
lights, the ceaseless drip of water from
the cold roof above and the possibility
of rocks falling down upon one at any
moment, make up an experience novel,
indeed, to the uninitiated. One set of
men work from o'clock in the morning
until 0 in the evening, and are then
relieved by another set, who work all
night until 0 in the morning. Not o
moment is lost Everything is hurried
forward. Workmen have no chance to
daily, for time is eminently money in
laid up, but the work goes right on.
Large masses of rock sometimes crum-
BILE from the roof and come crashing
down, sometimes killing man or two,
sometimes not Lately, owing to the
thawing of frost-bound rocks and to the
spring rains, accidents of this kind have
been unusually frequent.
All the latest improved machinery is
used A mammoth steam shovel is
operated in loading trucks with earth
and rocks. This tunnel is to have a
double track. No coal or ore of any
kind has yet been struck in the tunnel,
notwithstanding Tuscarora Mountain
and the neighboring mountains were
believed to contain hematiSe, The
rocks cut out of the tunnel are all of
slate formation, with an occasional
admixture of limestone and soapstone.
These rocks are piled up in vast banks q
short distance from the portals OF the
tunnel. The masses of slate, diyersely
tinted, placed side by side, dark blue,
gray, red, brown and snge green, form
to the eye pretty contrast of color
About coo men are employed on this
tunnel and about the same number on
each OF the other large tunnels in the
neighborhood. Every man wears
rubber boots for protection against the
water, which collects on the floor of the
tunnel An average mau wears out
fifteen OF twenty pairs OF boots in year.
The majority OF the men are newly
imported Italians and Hungarians.
There are some few Swedes and a
number of negroes and white Americans
from Virginia and Maryland The men
of each nationality encamp IN the
settlements here by themselves Most
of the negroes are accompanied by THEN
families but among the ioro.glers there
are but few women and no children.
They live in very close quarters, some
times upward OF fifty OF them living
together in one shanty, where they
cook, eat and sleep in single apart
ment, without screens or partitions.
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Prof. TAFT has Submitted u paper on
Condensation and Eyaporlfou to the
Royal Society, Edinburgh. He pointed
ont that the present mode of treating a
liquid in presence OF its yapor was not
rigorous, in us much as the pressure is
undoubtedly different in the two parts,
while in the surface layer between them
there is complex form of stress. II
attention be confined to the isother.
mails of the interior parts OF Il liquid, or
of its vapor, the present method will
apply vigorously. With this proyiso
the isothormals under the critical point
consists of two parts separated by an