The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1904-12-13
THE GREAT SIMPLON TUNNEL
Engineers Have Met With Seemingly
Insur1nountable Obstacles.
W aSllington Times.

The outlook ior completing the
Simplon tunnel in Switzerland. one
OF the wonders OF the world. has re-
Gently boceme gloomy. Alter
piercing gigantic tube through the
rock heart of the highly Alps for
distance OF about twelve miles. work
has practically come to standstill.
owing to the tapping of a spring O.
hot wateY Only a few hundred
yards remained to be bored and the
entire undertaking was expected to
be completed by next April. The
pumps are unable to cope with the
flow. and even if the engineers can
overcome this difficulty it is feared
that in the very center of the noun
tain is a great and insurmountable
molten mass which will bar further
progress.
The dangers and difficulties of the
Si1nplon have been stupendous, and
many lives have been lost since the
commenc cement of the work, which at
the outset was declared by more than
one expert to be an impossible task
Accidents of all kinds have happened
to delay the progress OF the work.
On many occasions vast under
ground lakes have been Unexpectedly
tapped and broken in upon, and in
a few moments the flooded workings
have become a scene of terror and
destruction. A seething, ever-lncreas-
ing torrent OF sometimes cold, but
more often of almost boiling water
has swept all before it, dashing the
terrified workmen like corks against
the rocks, drowning and crippling
them.
The intense heat in the tunnel has
from the commencement been
source of discomfort and even danger,
and the sudden rises of temperature
have more than once completely ovel
come whole gangs, of workmen who
have been rescued and removed to
the mouth of the great shaft in a
fainting, half-sufocated condition.
The Simplon tunnel, the work on
which was begun six years ago, and
on which 10000 men have been en-
gagged, will, if ever completed, be the
longest in the world. The reason
for it's great length is that its course
is at far lower altitude above sea
level than that OF other Alpine run-
nels. 1t is to be twelve and one
half miles long, and is 2,31o feet above
sea level
The work Of piercing was COM
menced at Brigue on the Swiss side
and at Iselle on the Italian side, sim
ultaneously. All the miners are
Italians. 1t was thought that the
mountain was composed OF vertical
strata but horizontal beds were met
instead.
The rapidity with which the Sim
plon has been constructed may be
better judged by comparing the time
taken in excavating the two other
great Alpine tunnels-the St. Go
thard and the Monr Gents. When the
Mont Gems tunnel, (seven and half
miles) was commenced in 1859, the
engineers expected to take twenty
wears to complete their tasks Rock
oerforators had not then been invent
ed and the work was done by manual
labo, alone. While the tunnel was
thus being slowly and laboriously
hewn by hand through the rocks the
first machine drills and perforators
were invented, and with their help
the tunnel was completed in IL years
The more modern St. Gothard tun-
mel (nine and a half miles long) was
completed in eight years.
Ono OF the greatest difficulties at
tending the work in the Simplon IS
the necessity for obtaining continual
supply OF pure, cool air in the tunnel
so that the -rorkmen shall not SUIT
focate from the foul heated atmos-
phere. The heat in the workings is