The record-union., 1896-11-29
A WONDERFUL DREDGER.

a few words, but every word is preg-
| nant of important results to commerce,
| transportation, the spread of civiliza-
tion and the conquest of the earth by
| restless man. He has solved the prob
lem Of deepening shallow rivers, so that
innumerable streams now unused by
| commerce may become highways of
| cheap transportation. He has solved
the problem Of canal-cutting at a cost
low enough to insure the commercial
success of the Nicaragua project, and
| ultimately Of many similar plans for
uniting sea. with sea. He has assured
the permanence of a navigable channel
in the Mississippi River from ST. Louis
to the Gulf of Mexico without the ex-
penditure of millions of money. He has
prepared the way for the opening of a
| water route of incalculable value from
| Chicago to the sea through the drain
age canal, the Illinois River and the
Mississippi.
1T was not long before Mr.. Bates was
sent for by the Mississippi River Com
mission Government Board, which had
been struggling for years with one of
the greatest modern problems, that of
keeping a depth in the Father of
Waters sufficient to permit even light
draft steamers to ply between ST. Louis
and New Orleans. Twenty millions OF
dollars have been spent for this purpose,
and in recent official communication
the Secretary Of War said the only re-
suit was eighteen inches more of water
for distance of fifty miles, This dis
the commission, which had done as best
II could with the means at it's command,
and 1T really overcame many great OBJ
stacles. 1t was to the credit of the
commission that it alertly, and in dis
regard Of the traditions with which it
was more or less incumbered, sought out
the young man who had achieved so
much on the drainage canal, and asked
him to build a hydraulic dredger for
use in deepening the Mississippi In
fact, the members of the board builded
wiser than they knew. They were after
an Improvement, but they found revo-
luton.
Mr.. Bates built a machine under
contract. He was to have S172. 900 for
1T If it should be found capable of re-
moving 1000 cubic yards of earth per
hour If it was able to remove 2,4OO GU
bic yards, he was to have a bonus or
premium, Of 90 per cent. Of the contract
price. The official tests have Just been
finished near Memphis, and his great
dredger has demonstrated it's ability
to do things that are we'll nigh in
credible, but they are official, and must
be believed. An average Of the tests
III ordinary river sand, according to the
requirements, gave results of a little
over 5000 yards per hour. The maxi
mum was as high as 7,79S yards. Mr.
Bates, therefore, gets his bonus of $685.
600, which he has been in Washington
arranging to receive from the treasury
If, however, he were paid according to
the capacity Of his machine pro- rata, he
would receive the enormous premium of
$500, ,OOO
In other words, this machine will go
through a sandbar at a speed of from
five to ten feet minute, cutting its
way through a solid bank and leaving
behind it a channel forty feet wide and
twenty feet deep, etc.
HOW IT OPERATES.
'In front Of the machine are six in
take pipes turned downward Surround
ing each of these is cylinder fitted with
knives, which is kept in revolution all
the time, so that the knives cut and
chew up the sand and mix it with the
water. This process, it should be re-
membered, goes on all around the in
take pipes, and in these pipes the sue
ton of great steam-driven centrifugal
pumps is pulling away at the loosened
mass Of sand and water. 1t is easy to
imagine the result. Great solid streams
of debris flow in the pipes at a rapid
speed. The hydraulic engineers have
calculated the speed to a nicety They
know to the fraction Of a foot what
speed the current must have through
these pipes In order to carry the sand In
solution.
This is the way in which the hy-
draulic dredger steams to a sandbar
attacks it, cuts it's way through, almost
without an effort, and is then ready for
the next one. There is not a bar on the
Mississippi which it will not go through
IN three hours when fitted with self
propellers or tenders. These bars are
usually 1000 or 1000 feet across. It
Is not necessary to remove them alto
gether. The bed of river trayersine
an alluvial country is a series of long
| pools separated by bars which have
formed between them. 1t is not neces-
sary to remove the bars en- masse. but
only TO cut a channel from pool to pool
through which the steamers can pass.
When the channel is once cut the river
Will widen 1t by natural means. etc.
Thus the problem of maintaining a
| channel in the Mississippi River at low
water is solved. Where there is now
out tour and one-half feet Of water in
the autumn, there will be, after a few
OF these dredgers have been put to work.
fourteen feet. In two years it is possi-
bic TO have fourteen feet of water from
81. Louis to the sea every day in the
year. Five hydraulic dredgers will do
the work. if employed four or five
months a year, at cost of $40 OOO q
month each. This is almost magic
modern magic.
Inc significance of this achievement
Is that the problem of maintaining low
water navigation in all alluyial streams
IS soiVeu. 1t is applicable to the Mis-
souri,, TO the Illinois, to the Sacramento
10 the Volga, to the Danube. to the
Dnieper, to the Hooghly in India +o 49,
La rata, to rivers in all parts Of the
world. 1t is fair to predict that no In
vention or achievement, since the do
Veiopment of steam navigation hos
done as much for water transportation
upon rivers as this successful annlica-
,, 'ion u nyorauiics TO river-bed dredging
VIII do in the near future"
1t Is not necessary for us To co,,,,.
iurlner upon the possibilities Of this
great machine The field for such a mon
Ster earth-eater in Califo..ae 4, -