Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1892-08-26
THE NIAGARA FALLS TUNNEL.
In October Next 5000 Of the 1000 Fee
Will Have Been Completed.

NIta.RA FALLS, Aug. 25-For nearly
two years small army of men have been
delving away here day and right away down
in the bowels of the eaI.h blasting away
great masses of rock with dynamite, then
looseping them up with picks and loading
the material in cars TO be carried away to
the surface.
ON Oct I, ls9D. the great Niagara Falls
tunnel was began, and on Oct I. lSa2, this
army will haze forced "A passageway 5000
feet in length through solid rock which for
ages has held back the torrents of the Mag
ara river. This will leave only 1000 feet
to be- blasted to complete the work rs origin
ally intended.
The contractors are happy they have
made much greater progress than they an
ti,ipatcd and will, if notl ing unforeseen
OCCURS. finish their work long before the
allotted time There are 1900 men on the
pay roll, and an actual working force of
800 men, divided into two shifts are work
ing one by day and the other By night, so
that the work never stops except at meal
hours.
Ten hours on and ten off is the daily
routine for each man. 1t makes no differ
euce to him whether he works at night or in
bosom where he tolls the darkness is not
disturbed by a single rav'of sunlight. Little
wires threading the path of the great holes
give out here and there dim sparks of
electric light which ts iukle ike stars in the
gloom.
On an average 400 pounds of dynamite
are used every twenty-fOur hours. or car
load every sixteendays. Enough dynamite
L.,
carelessly exploded on Broadway, is touched
off down in the tunnel every week. This
deadly explosive is received at the work in
a frozen state and stored in big magazine
From this receptacle it is taken 10 thaw
house as needed. The thaw house is a
building separate from all others. Eight
feet away from it is fre-proof stove
house, and heat is generated in the thaw
house by means of hot water.
The vast amount of work that remains 10
be done is a light task compared with what
has already been accomplished. The great
water race in which the huge turbine wheels
will turn will be an elongated excava-
ton accommodating four wheels in row.
The wheel pit viii he about 40 feet deep
from the surface of the ground to the point
of discharge from the wheels. The actual
water head will be about 10 feet.
The canal which is To admit the water
from the river to the wheel pits is more
than a hundred feet wide and will have a
water depth of u feet The channel Is
fully half excavated and the massive walls
which will compose its sides and contain the
gates for the water supply. are progressing
with all possible speed.
The undertaking of the Tunnel Power
Company has stimulated the Niagara Falls
Hydraulic Canal Company. and their old
raceway ia being dredged to carry depth
of II feet of water about 30 feet wide. The
wheels will he placed on the company prop
erty on the river bank not far from the
mouth of the new tunnel.
There is little room for factories there,
but huge battery of dynamos will be ar-
ranged for the conversion of the enormous
power into electric force In this manner.
it is claimed, il il possible to develop nearly
as much power as the tunnel enterprise
now promises.