Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-02-04
TO TUNNEL THE OCEAN.
The Great Problem Claimed to be AIT
tIlOritatiyely Solved.
The Practicabnity Of Deep Sea Constructions
Demonstrated-Th is No Longer Any
thing Impossible.
Chicago Globe.

A remarkable German lHFtHtioH HIS
settled forever not only the question of
excavating quicksand and silt, but OF
constructing masonry in deep sea water.
1t is now declared to be quite possible
and practicable to construct q tunnel of
heavy masonry directly on the bed of one
of our great lakes or rivers, or upon the
bed of the ocean, by simply freezing a
solid cylinder OF ice and building your
tunnel through it. No practical engineer
would ever have risked his reputation
TO become the father of such
a scheme. But it remained in this, as in
so many other of the great inventions,
for the foolish things Of the earth to
confound the wise, - and to demonstrate
that it is not invariably true that a lit
tie learning is q dangerous thing.
Shakespeare tells us that wrens find
prey where eagles dare not perch. 1t IS
not at all remarkable, therefore, that
this bold achievement is the invention OF
a Iayman It is remarkable, however,
that experts have so promptly taken hold
of it. But Gen Sooy Smith is one of the
most advanced men of his profession.
He says nothing in subaqueOus work is
now impossible -
When he was engaged in building the
tunnel under the Hudson river, between
Jersey City and New York, he says he
bade farewell forever to the sunlight
every time he entered ''the dangerous
hole. - But to-day he says the work
could be done with absolute safety, and
at n fraction Of the cost. In building
tunnel through sand or quicksand, or any
percolated soil, pipes would be forced
horizontally in a circle considerably
larger than the bore of the tunnel. This
circle would then be frozen and excav-
ated to within eight or ten feet from the
end Of the pipes Then another circle Of
pipes would be inserted and the
excavation be pursued in the
same manner Thus the tunnel
would be lined up and finished rs
fast as excavated, section by section,
until the work should be completed, be-
ing enabled to pass through any kind of
soil.
1t is to the difficulties encountered i'll
sinking the shafts Of the iron mines of
Michigan that we are indebted for the
stupendous results which are now to as
tonish the world In sinking Il sixteen
foot shaft through quicksand to the
depth of 100 feet it was found that the
ground was frozen solid perpendicularly
feet in diameter, leaving a frozen wall
fourteen feet thick to surround the shaft
which the workmen are now deliberately
and safely excayating and stOning up.
This is an exhaustive experiment. No
further demonstration is necessary to eS-
tabllsh the possibilities which now await
all subaQueous engineering. No storms,
no tides can possibly prevail against such
ponderous monoliths, placed in position
by these simple means.
OF the great revolution in sUbaqueOus
engineering now at hand this country
must needs be the theater. Behring
straits will doubtless be the first of the
great waterways of the world to feel the
new impulse, which in connection with
our Pacific railroad system, (mal1ing the
easy leap of only thiTty-siX miles to the
eastern shore of Siberia, and meeting the
Russian roads, already projected under
American engineers, along the southern
slopes of the Yablonoi, or Stanonoi
mountains } is destined ultimately to find
its way to Northern China, Pekin
and yellow sea. Next, the Alaska
peninsula and the Aleutian islands,
extending along the plateau at
the southern extremity of the Behring
sea to the shores Of Kamtchatka and
thence southerly to Japan. Then the
great Geographic plateau along which
the cables are already laid, between Ire
land and New Foundland, and which, il
has already been discovered, is being
constantly elevated by the accretions Of
rock and soil fioated down by the ice
bergs of the Arctic sea. 1t is now gener-
ally admitted that these icebergS are
really parts Of GLACIERS originally formed
ON the mountain slopes of Greenland
and Labrador, which, floating down
from the mouths OF their valleys, are
borne southwark by the great polar
current, deposting their debris upon the
borders Of the gUlT stream. 1t viii re-
quire only little further effort of
science, therefore, to harness some
engineery TO these masses, and persuade
them 10 dump their loads just where they
are most needed, rather than float them
away beyond the range of economic pur-
pose. There is a wide field OF usefulness
clearly perceptible in all this. All things
are possible to him who wills.
1t cannot be supposed that the world
will be content with one subaqueous line
any more than with one Atlantic cable,
one Pacific railroad or one canal across
the Isthmus Others viii be projected as
soon or before the first line is in opera
ton
Coming back to the initial fact which
underlies all the vast range of possible
ties that are crowdmg upon us in this
connecticut was an obscure Belgian
doctor who knew nothing of engineering,
that nevertheless first applied to engineer
ing purposes the important process which
has rendered all these things possible.
His was the genus to discover its applI-
cability-it remains for experts to utilize
il To their further purposes. A few years
siGce the great Mills building on Broad
street, New York was found TO be sinking
on its Broad street front; and a Balti-
more dentist by the name of Hopes
thought he could sink a caisson filled with
concrete in such manner as to find
bottom below the quicksand He was
accorded the contract, and succeeded,
and the building was saved. But this
freezing out process Of the Belgian doc
tor solidifes the quicbsand itself, and
blasts and handles it rs if it were solid
rock It is q fortunate thing for him that
his American patents have fallen into the
present hands.
Gen. SoOy Smith, who has so assidu-
ously applied himself to the task of per-
-