The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-11-25
Combines Six Engines.

/ Between one and two cubic yards
makes a good-sized wagon load Tor two
horses on a level road. Shovels have
been invented worked by steam or cleo
trio power which will actually take up
in single scoop enough to III three
wagon loads, or a single car OF the size e
works SO rapidly in soft ground that it
will take out 5000 cubic yards in ten
hours. It is gigantic machine, and
when operated by steam power, requires
no less than six different engines to
perform it's different functions:
What the engineers call a land dredge
will be used in addition to the shoyels
on the Panama ditch. It is intended to-
work merely on the surface and will
form the advance guard Of the ma
chinery which will be used in the at
tack on nature. It takes out about a
yard at each Dip, and is principally
used in sandy formations and in cut
ting off the sod and other vegetation.
AS already stated, the floating dredges
are known as shallow and deep water.
The shallow dredge will do it's work
on parts of the canal where the show
els have gone deep enough to allow
two or three feet Of water to run into
the excavation and where the bottom
is mud and sand. It will dig this out
to depth Of eight or ten feet, then
ish the work. This does in the water
what the rock shovel does on land.
It is very powerful machine, and
when driven by steam requires from
four to six engines. It's arm, to which
is. attached the bucket, is 50 long that
it can be lowered from twenty-five to
thirty feet. The bucket is also pro-
vided with teeth, which cut into not
largest Of these dredges will take out
and dump from 1000 to 5000 cubic
yards in day. It is expected that
the mudsuckers' can also be used to
advantage on some parts Of the canal
as well as in the harbors. These ma
chimes have pipes extending to the bot
blades, which stir up the material on
the bottom. It is sucked thru the pipes
and forced ashore thru other conduits
so rapidly that some of them can strip
off a space equal to an acre of ground
to depth of three feet in ten hours.
To carry away the debris far enough
so it will not be washed back into the
ditch, a novel form of railway will be
employed. It is called cantilever con.
veyor for the reason that it is elevated
to a height of fifty or sixty feet above
the ground and supported by one OF
two steel towers.
The completion Of the world g great.
est engineering work Will be notable Tor
the remarkably small amount of human
labor on account of the truly wonderful
apparatus which has been described
Calculations have been made showing
that single one of the steam shovels in
day will perform more service than
500 men, while single one of these
cantilever conveyors is calculated to be
actually equal to 1000 men. In other
words, it would require as many tc
shower the earth into barrows and carts
| trundle or haul it to the refuse banks
and unload it, as is handled by a single
one of these machines in given time
Consequently the classes of men who
will be principally required to connect
the Atlantic and the Pacific will be ex
4 perts in this or that vocation, such as
electricians, machinists, mine workers
and experts familiar with explosives
Even the services of the steam engineer
4 will be in little demand for the reason
that electric power will be substituted