Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-09-15

could not undertake to finish the
work. AS one man has, more than
once, saved Greece in ancient times,
so one man saved the Corinth ship
canal from the fate of the ranama-
M. Syncros of Athens, a banker, who
has the reputation of being the
wealthiest man in Greece, formed a
new company composed entirely of
Greek capitalists, with a capital of
5000, coo francs. All the concessions
that had been made to the French
company were turned over to the
Greek company. An agreement was
made between the old and the new
company by which the latter receives
per cent on 5000, 900 of capital. The
receipts of the canal will be divided
between the two companies, the old
receiving three fourths and the new
one-fourth thereof. The new COM
pany began work in 1890.
The canal is $500 meters in leng tn,
which is not quite four miles. The
minimum depth is twenty-five feet,
and it's average breadth 200 feet, and
is, therefore of a sufficient size to
al ow two warships of the largest
type to pass through it side by side.
The Corinth canal differs from the
Suez canal in that its sides are almost
vertical, n construction which was
made possible by reason of its being
cut through rock for the most part,
whereas the Suez canal is V-shaped,
because of the sand that was encoun-
tered.
A mile from the west end the
channel is spanned by bridge, but at
ITS height of 230 feet above the water
level will not interfere with the pass
age of the tallest masts On the high
est point of the lsthm an ridge, 265
feet above the sea level, lighthouse
has been built. At the eastern en-
trance Of the channel, which is pro-
tected by breakwaters several light
houses have been erected. Through
out its length the channel will be
illuminated by electric light, so that
navigation at night will be as safe as
in daytime.
In making the cut the engineers
adopted a system of wells and tuu-
nels.
This was found to be the easiest.
quickest AMI least expensive way of
accomplishing the work Vertical
wells were sunk, tunnels driven hori-
zOntally, and the earth was drawn out
JHIOAB III llt luHItlS.
Altogether IL, 800, 900 cubic metres
of earth were taken out of the cut.
Three great steam eXcavators were
used in doing this work, and steam
dredges were employed for the parts
below the sea. The number of the
workmen employed on the canal aver
aged 1900 throughout the period OF
its construction, twelve years. The
canal was to have been completed in
1858, and the cost was estimated al
80, 900, 600 francs. 1t took almost five
years longer and cost 20, 600, 600 francs,
or Sl4, 00U, 600.
The canal is actually completion OF
the cut begun by Nero. The modern
engineers at first intended to utilize a
natural ravine which traverses the
greater part of the Isthmus, but they
abandoned this plan for the same rea-
son that it was abandoned by the
Roman emperor A great number OF
mountain torrents empty into this
ravine, and the water from them
would have seriously interfered with
the work of construction.
But, great as is the historical inter.
est which attaches TO the Corinth ship
canal, it is far outweighed by the
question of its future. What is it in.
tended to do? What will il accom-
plish?
The mainland of Greece or, to give
that country its modern name, the