Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-02-12
The Work of Great Genius Con-
trasted With that of
Scholar.
The Early Career Of Mr.. Eads and
His Building Of the st. Louis
Bridge.
Professor Norton and His LabOrs in
Civil Engineering and Scientific
Research.

academy OF science Two at leaSC nave at
tanned distinguished reputation for their
work in that department of applied science
called civil engineering. Both are dead,
but their fame is a precious heritage, and
their work part oil our American history
SO that from a cursory review of their pro-
jects we may gain much that is of interest
and more that is of value.
The first of these is James Buchanan
Eads, who was born III Lawrenceburg, Ind,
in May, 1920. As a boy he showed an IN
usual fondness for mechanical appliances,
and among his feats was the taking to
pieces of patent-lever watch with no tools
except his pocket knife. He began his ca
reer like typical American, and arred
his first money by selling apples in the
streets, which he did in order to secure
money with which to buy the necessities
of life for his mother and sisters.
His early life is full of interesting infor-
nation, but we must pass that over, and
trace his relations with the mighty Missis-
sippl, whose waters he held as as if SPELL
bound at his command. At the age of
nineteen he became a clerk on one of the
river steamers, and there learned the ma
ture of the shifting channels, whose I'M
checked tendency at one moment ingulfs
the rich plantation and at the next floods
the cities that are on the banks of that
river.
A few years later he invented a dlving-bell
boat, for the purpose of recovering cargoes
of sunken steamers. The invention was a
success, and subsequently a company was
organized whose operations extended from
Balize, La, to Galena ILL.,, and into the
tributaries of the Mississippi. He ac-
quired the knowledge of the laws which
control the flow of siit-bearing rivers, and
he once said of the Mississippi that
there was not stretch in its bed City
miles long, betwee st. Louis and New
Orleans, on which he had not stood on
the bottom of the stream beneath the
shelter of a diving bell.
In 1915 he disposed Of his interest in
the diving company, and founded In st.
Louis the first glassworks built west of
Ohio river, but, two years after, the
new venture failed. Mr.. Eads then re-
turned to the business of removing OBJ
structions from the channel Of the Miss
issippi river. Some idea Of his success of
this may be gained when subsequent to
the fire which, in 1849, destroyed twenty
nine steamers at the landing in st. Louis,
Mr.. Eads succeeded in moving the wreck
of most of them. In 1857 he retired from
this business, having made a fortune esti-
mated at upwards of a half million dol
lars. During the four years that followed
he remained inactive.
Soon after the fall Of Sumpter he re,
ceived letter from Acknowledgement
Bates, of Lincoln cabinet saying: BE
not surprised if you are called here sud-
denly by telegram. If called. come in
stantly. Under certain contingency it
will be necessary to have the aid Of the
most thorough knowledge Of the western
rivers and the use of steam on them, and
in this event | have advised that YOU
should te consulted" Subsequently he
saw Mr.. Lincoln, and in July, 1861, pro-
posals were published calling for the con-
struction of number of ironclad gun
boats for service on the Mississippi.
The contracts for these were awarded to
Mr.. Eads, and he agreed to build seven
vessels within sixty-fve days from the sign
ing of the papers. The timber to form
their bulls was still uncut the rolls for the
manufacture of the armor plates were not
yet made, and the engines existed only as
pig iron and bars but in forty-fve days
the st. Louis-the first United States iron
clad-with her boilers and engines on
board, was launched at Caroudolet, near
st. Louis. In quick succession the re.
mainder of the feet were brought into
commission. OF this wonderful feat, DR.
Charles B. Boynton writes in his history
Thus one individual put into construc
ton and pushed to completion within one
hundred days a powerful squadron o.
eight vessels, agglegating five Thousand
tons, capable of steaming nine knots an
hour, large, heavily armed, fully equipped
oil fc,. Of
large guns, The fact that such work
was done is nobler praise than any that
can be bestowed by words"
We pass from shipbuilding to bridge
building. Soon after the close of the civil
war Mr.. Eads became interested in the pro-
ject of bridging the Mississippi Proper
Legislative authority was at first songh
for, and bills permitting the construction
of his work were passed, SO that it was not
until August, 1867, that actual work was
begun. In the construction of this bridge
MIR. Eads had to deal with problems which
had never before confronted an engineer
but they were all duly solved, and on Jul,
4, 1874, with appropriate ceremonies. thi
finest specimen of metal arch construc
ton In the world was thrown open to tn
public.
1t consists of three arches, of which tn
central one has clear span of $50 feet
while the two side arches are 500 fee
each. Its granite piers all rest upon the
bedrock underlying the river deposits
Two of them are much deeper than any
previously built. One of these, wei ghins
45,0 tons, was sunk to the bed
rock, 1876 feet below high waite,
mark, through 80 feet of sand anc
gravel. Another, weighing 10000 tons
IS founded on the rock 100 below
high water mark. Many novel de-
vices were designed by him in the con
structlon of the caissons by which these
enormous piers were sunk through the
sand to the rock. The arches were bull
out from the piers until they me
In the center. An exact account O
the money spent in the construction O
the bridge was kept, and the following
emount Is given as its cost-S6. $50, 279 SO
The deepening of the mouth of the
Mississippi river was the next great worE
executed by Mr.. Eads. After considera
BILE preliminary work in the way O
securing aid from congress, he be
gan, IN 1875, the construction O
jetties on each side of the natura
channel at such a distance apart tina
they should, by contracting the channel
quicken the current. and thus not onl,
prevent the deposition of sediment, bu
scour out the bottom and increase tn
depth. Each jetty was over two miles i
length, and was constructed of tiers c
woven willow mattresses sunk In positio
and loaded with stones. the surface abov
water level being protected by d rough mi
sonry. The interstices in the structur
thus formed quickly filed with silt, an
t,eca,Oa Dractjca lly inSprarahIp