The record-union., 1897-10-17

sure DeiuS less WlIniu the subway =
than on the outside, it was impossible
to keep the gas out. The pneumatic
blower remedies this trouble by increas-
ing the pressure until it is slightly
above that on the outside.
In this connection it may be noted
| that compressed air is rapidly assum-
ing a foremost place in the activities
of the underground city. In addition
| to transporting mail cleaning pipes
and keeping conduits free from gas, it
has been found available for certain
| kinds Of power work, such as drilling
and excavating. Compressed air can
| be tranmitted through buried pipes
without greater loss than attends the
| it is recognized as an important rival
| TO the subtle flufd."
| By far the greatest length of wire
that extends below the city streets is
| used in the telephone service. Fifty
! thousand miles of wire is a great deal
| when one comes to think of it. Seven
| teen thousand separate wires leave the
great Cortlandt street exchange in New
1 York, and are carried throughout the
/ city in these labyrinthic passages, and
/ yet if a break occurs in any part of
| this 10000 miles it is not necessary TO
| tear up the whoe line, or any part of II,
/ to determine where the trouble lies.
! Perhaps the break occurs late at night
and is due TO a fire. The operator in
/ the exchange finds that one line is not
working. By calling up various sta
tions and cutting in a loop, he can To-
| &1,o l. l,or 4a;r CT,
tions. The size of the wire is known,
and by obtaining a "ground"-that is.
/ by making an earth connection and cal
culating this relatively with the size
of the wire-the seat Of the trouble Is
| located within a few feet. Meanwhile
| the Superintendent of Construction is
called up by telephone, and, summon
ing the men in the repair squad by tel
| ephone in thirty minutes or an hour
| the break is repaired and the line is IN
working order again.
| VAULTS BENEATH THE STREETS.
At present the vaults beneath the
| streets, which are variously used as
| storerooms, engine-roons or shops, are
kept within limits, but the older por-
ton of the city is still honeycombed
the largest buildings in New York face
each other across Nassau street where
it emerges into Printing House square.
The American Tract Societys building
| is twenty-three stories high, and the
New York Times building has thir-
teen stories. Between them the street
looks like tunnel, but it is really only
the cover for still deeper passages. The
( ssrTT oc~S'' building
| extend exactly to the middle of the
| street, while the vault on the opposite
side extends to within a foot of it. 1t
may give one a nervous feeling to think
that there is less than foot of solid
soil beneath the thousands that throng
! Nassau street every day, but in reality
there is no danger SO long as the vaults
are kept in repair. At the intersection
of Reade and Duane streets there is a
little restaurant entirely below the
street where men eat their luncheon
every day in calm unconcern of the
fact that the heavy trucks of the man
ufacturing district are rumbling back
and forth above their heads. There
are similar cases in many places in
lower New York. and thousands of dol
lars of coin and treasure are buried
in safe deposit vaults some of the
chambers in which will extend well
out beneath the streets.
Besides those that fill a useful pur-
pose at the present day, there are other
deserted and cobwebbed vaults that tell
an interesting story Of forgotten ambi-
tions and abandoned schemes. For in
stance, below Broadway in New York,
between Warren and Murray streets,
| within a stones throw of the City Hall,
is buried an underground railroad pro-
ject advanced a quarter of a century
ago, ard killed by the financial panic
of 1878. A tunnel still connects these
two streets, and in it lies rotting the
first car that was built to run on the
buried road. The matter is of curious
interest now that an underground rap
id-transit system is being planned for
the metropolis. Between Elm and Null
berry streets in the once notorious
Five Points district, is another ancient
and well-nigh forgotten passageway
that has aided many criminal to give
the slip to the officers of the law.
MODERN CAVEDWELLERS.
Though the modern underground city
is already SO great in extent and en-
ploys so great an amount of human ac-
tivity, it is more than possible that it
is still only in its infancy In this
connection an interesting suggestion
comes from General w. F. Sooysmith,
the well known building engineer. He
says that with the increase in the erec-
ton Of structures of immense hight on
narrow plots of ground it Will be found
profitable to remove, not only a large
part of the soil beneath them, as at
present, in sinking foundations, but all
the natural earth that exists between
the surface and the rock foundation
in some cases fifty or sixty feet below,
He points out that, when neatly tiled
and well lighted by electricity. these
underground rooms would answer nice
ly for storage chambers, barber shops
and many kinds of Offices that now
occupy valuable space above ground
And so it seems more than likely that
in the twentieth century city the an
clent cavedwellers will be outdone by
the occupants of our great office build
lngs, and that in time the skyscraper
will extend as far toward nadir as ii
now does toward the stars.
Old and New in Conflict.
"T !" said the eminent pact oro,5 ~