The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-07-12

four feet in a single day il desired. operated
as they are by engines almost as powerful
as those used for the steam shovels.
These land dredges, or land crabs. as they
might he called work in the marshes and
other places where the surface may be
slightly covered with water and too soIt 20
uphold the weight of the shovels. Then
there Is the dredge which makes q. channel
through the earth and, as fast as the water
is LEI in, floats upon it.
This is merely fiat boat provided with
the arm and jaw and Is used TO follow up
the dry land machines.
After IL comes the deep water dredge.
which cuts away at the bottom and puts the
finishing touches to the channel This also
might be called a floating steam shovel, for
some which will be used at Panama are
fully as powerful as the ones which cut
into the rock and take from the bottom not
only mud. but hard clay and even powders
which may be embedded in it..
Where the bottom is oozy and sandy. how
ever. sand suckers will be provided, which
draw up the material from the bottom and
force II. perhaps half mile away. on
shore through pipe lines taking out acres of
them will handle no less than tifty cubic
yards every minute.
After the canal is completed these suction
dredscs will be employed in the harbors at
depth.
But after the dynamite and shoves and
dredSeS have performed their labor another
Undertaking is to carry the immense mass
or rock and earth to places where 1t Will
not be washed down into the ditch. and
here, again gigantic mechanical arms will he
employed. some of which will do as much in
a day as so laborers with shovel and wheel
barrow. There are two or three kinds OF
One, which Is called the cantilever. is real
ly railway suspended in the air. II is
supported by a steel tower. which contains
not only the engine which operates the rail-
way, but moves the entire continuance along
the ground whenever necessary on a NAM
moth railway track especially built for it.
length. One portion of it projects over the
ditch which is being made. 1t Is peculiar
from the fact that the cars are beneath in
stead of above it. They are immense iron
other IN minute or two
RAPID TRANSPORTATION.
Lowered by a rope into a ditch they are
filled by the shovelers and then hoisted to
the arm about as soon as it takes to read
this description Whiring to the other end
of the cantilever the bottom of the bucket
opens and its contents are emptied upon
the pile of debris.
Up it goes again to the arm to repeat the
operation. When working at full speed this
railway carries load nearly every minute,
for while the full car Is going from the
ditch an empty one is returning to il. and
no time Is lost. Such is the capacity of this
transferring apparatus that in a day it
will make a mound forty or fifty feet in
height.
AS fast as the work on the ditch pro-
crosses it is moved forward. After the
buckets are filed their contents are not
touched by hand.
The man In the little engine-house in the
tower does all the rest by pulling two or
three levers when he gets the proper sign
from the signal man. 1t is not necessary
even to load the buckets by hand. for what
are called self-loading buckets have been
invented. which. dropping to the bottom of
the ditch separate like two shells of a
clam, and merely pull of the lever closes
them upon the rock and earth.
OF course, the ordinary railroad is to be
brought into service in carrying supplies
to the scene OF operations. but II material
has to be carried across one Of the deep
valleys which are to be found on the 18TH
mus, and perhaps placed on a hilltop. 1t
can be hauled through the air a thousand
feet above the surface by another aerial
railway.
cable from one hilltop to the other. Along
this runs a trolley. to which is attached
the box. or barrel, or block of stone, or
piece Of wood.
Loads of two and three tons at a time
can be moved from one point to the other
in as many minutes.