, 1890-04-05

"AN0 w "a Ma GIO ~ ~ 0Ld&C6 Vi ku6
work, before the sixty thousand tons of
steel, the six hundred thousand cubic feet
OF granite, and the one hundred thousand
cubic yards ofconcrtte masonry were fttetl
toeAch other as accurately and absolutely
as are the works OF the tinie&t watch grac.
ing Il lady s wrist, and yet possessing the
strength OF q mountain. The imagination
Is tOTcibIy appealed to by the sinking OF
the iron c~aiSSOnS, each laden with cOncrete
amt masonry to the weigh. If over three
thousand tons, while the wOrkmen, for the
most part Italians, who are specially skilled
III such dangerous employ, entered the
rocky base of the river by locks, and worked
below the water and in the electric-lighted
chamber OF the caiSSon itself at a pressure
"f tour AtmoSphrreS. Some notion of the
dltlcultI and import nee OF these early
operations may be gathered from the fact
that when one water-logged caiSSon canted
over, and two mel were drowned while the
water was being pumped out, it took nine
months 10 repair the miShap. All such
vast and dab gerouS undertakings are sure
10 De necessarily attended with a certain
percentage OF loss of life, and it is evidence
OF The care and caution with whichthe haz.
ardous work was done that the death-roll is
stated 10 be remarkably low. During all
the perllOuS seven years of labour. when an
large IA body as from two to four thousand
men were often employed at a time. but
nifty SIX OF these private soldiers of the
army of science lost their lives through
accident. Full OF interest, too, are the &C.
counts of how all the component parts of
the bridge from the giant tubes which
form the arms ofthe cantilevers, through
which an army could be marched, down to
every detail of %riveting and bratticing.
were all fitted together in the workshop
before they went to the waterside, and so
much labour was saved ; how the granite
piers that support the steel girders were,
with the splendid dudacity peculiar to en-.
glheers, Quilt up from below, being hoisted
up a loot at a time by hydraulic Jacks
now MI. ArrOl of the firm of Tancred,
Afrol, ana Co., the contractors, invented
a portable hydraulic ~riveter, which drove
III the huge BOLTS with the strength of a
steam hamme and the precision of a watch
maker and how finally the whole surface
OF steer covers an are of over twelve acres
81 metal, and will require a constant staff
Oh one hundred skilled men to keep daily
"atch and guard over it's health. Time
was When SUCH records would be looked
upon as extracts from ''The Arabian Nights
entertainments, or the imaginingA of the
Iahcl1ul brain of a Jonathan Swift or a
JON utA Llcy are Uub buO
verltles OF science and human skill. The
financial obligations of the work, amount.
ing 10 some three millions of money, have
Oeen naturally undertaken by all the rail.
ways directly interested in the new short
cur, such as the North British, the North.
eastern, the Midland, aud the Great Nor
theTn, and already new connecting lines of
railways have been started. It would be
quite unfair and out of the question to
dIscuSs or compals the relative advantages
which one railway may have over another,
tor the bridge will certainly prove a stimu-
lus to increase of passenger aud goods
traffic over all lines, however remote from
the Forth.
The greatest credit Ia due to everybody
connected with the work to the compan-
les who had the pluck to demand its con-
structlon; to the engineers who thought
out its wOndrOus detail and brought
mechanical science in it's highest power to
bear on the duties they undertook 10 the,
hrm OF contractors who tackled the pracuisA
cal work with such untiring energy and
devotion that they were able year after
year to turn out eighteen hundred tons Of
finished steel per month and, finally, to
the united skill OF all the artifcers and
mechanics and wOrkmen employed. Every
man who laid d stone of a pier, or drove .
Tivet, or helped to place a ~caisson may
worthily share in the pride which all con.
cerued must feel today when His ROYAL