The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-06
THE TRGNSFORMABLE CANAL,
N9HH FORMER CHIEF ENGINEER
9tOR THE FRENCH COMPANY
ADDRESSES THE PRESIDENT.

~ walton and special AppucaDlnty OF
T7Is Method TO Work on the Isthmus
Consulting Board Described as be-
longing TO "RetrOsrnde" Party OF
Engineering Profession, and Its Report
BIASED and Partisan in spirit-ItS
Estimates, Based on Exaggerated Unit
of Cost, Calculated to DisprOye
Feasibility or ''Transf ormation"-Best
Practical Engineers. Favor Dredging
Rather Than Dry DiRginE-Value OF
b 9ambOA Lake as Dump and as Power
Generator IgnOred-Transro rmation TO
LOckless Waterway, strait OF Pam
amA,n Compared TO Lowering and
widening Street without Interrupting
Notwithstanding for the Huge
Gatun Dam-MethOds and Machinery.
: Mr.. PRESIDENT: ! submitted to you In
March Of last year a project OF construction
Of the Panama Canal, and you have referred
II to the Internal ional Consulting Board,
which rejected 1t.
1t was based on the principle OF reducing
10 the minimum the excavation in the dry,
which offers untold difficulties on the lsthmus,
and Of employing to its maximum the exca-
walton by floating dredEes which dlsposes OF
all the Isthmian difficult les, does away with
the labor question and preserves there the
- plollNit5 VI ui'
J 1t has everywhere. II the unloading OF the
Boows can be made in q deep body OF water
close to the point Of extraction.
l indicated as the dump in deep water the
enormous Gamboa Lake, created by the
Gamboa dam in the high Chagres valley. In
the very centre of the Isthmus, in close con-
tact with the level where dredges will float
and load the scows and easy to connect with
this level by flights OF small barge locks as
are required by the sCows. =
/ wrote to you that If the sea level canal
were contemplated at once 1t should be built
by this method, even If an earlier exploitation
was out of the question.
] showed how the conditions TO be created
In order to allow me use of the dredging sys-
tenn could satisfy also within four years tho
needs Of the worlds by allowing
the opening to traffic at the beginning of the
dredging, II the successive levels, to be
created foo the works of the dredges. were
connected with adequate locks for inter-
national transit.
This is known as the principle of transfoA
nation, which | first presented in 1887.
2 i gave TO you in March last, and with more
complete details to the board in September.
the technical solutions which allow the mex
penslve and gradual elimination of the locks
during the process of deepening, which allow
the complete indcpend ence and reciprocal
freedom Of the works and OF the transit, if
the standard channel of $50 feet adopted for
the first lock canal Is brou ght to 800 feet or
mnre for the sea level passage. page 226,
report OF the consulting boardD ~"
II showed to the board that, thanks TO the
extraordinary progress made recently in
dredging rock and earth, il could be reason
ably contemplated to give not only 200 feet
10 the sea level passage. but 500, which would
create the perfect waterway free from any
tide lock, free from any dan ger OF obstruction
NARAtUh aliAaa In Tim 1nnFN n,,t, 800 ,1-
any danger to arise from an eventual de-
etruction OF the GamDoa dam, thanks to its
elimination as a dam, that will result from the
system Of construction which will raise the
bottom, Of the whole valley of the Cha gres
above the dam and TO the level of its crest
on several miles by the dumping Of four to
six hundred million cubic yards brought by
the soows (Page 234 and following, report
Of consulting board.)
4 termed the invulnerable waterway to be
thus created the Strait of Panama" be-
cause. IL 1t Is still about three times less wide
ut the water level than the BosporlIs, the
strait between Europe and Asia Minor. at
Hussein Pacha and at KAYAK, it is also about
three times larger than the standard Panama
Canal hitherto contemplated. 1t is a free
interooeRnio waterway of a size intermediate
between q canal and a natural strait, and de-
serves legitimately either denomination.
L profess for several members of the In
ternational Consulting Board personal senti-
ments Of friendship, but his cannot prevent
me from demonstrating that the scientific
spirit has not inspired its studies, so far as
the report shows. and that the conclusions
they brought forward are in vital places
erroneous and misleading.
Before leaving for France next week am
compelled by the sentiment of an memorable
duty to appeal from President Roosevelt
badly Informed to President Roosevelt better
informed. and this high duty | am discharging
publicly now.
There are parties in science as there are in
politics, and partisan. spirit excludes the
scientific spirit of experimental induction.
those who want TO. develop as far as poss ible
the employment OF the dredging exca walton.
account Of the scientific and experimental
fact that this system possesses exclusively
marvellous qualities of simplicity, power and
are created for the works OF the dredees and
their annexes. as they are provided for in he
retro GRADES, tSspired by by" the ep pTejudie;es 'o Of
prolonged habits OF mind, are those who
want to sustain the excavation by steam
their marked inieriorty in every respect, an
inferiority enormously increased by the
labor and climatic conditions of the Isthmus.
1t Is the. spirit of the last which has pre-
vailed In the consulting board; it is not the
experimental scientific spirit Of first.
1t has transformed into mountains the
gravel in the path of the hydraulic system;
IL has transformed into grave the mountains
In the path OF the dry system.
EXPERIMENTAL N ! PRICES OF DREDGING Ex
.AGOERATED BY 300 PER CENT.-INvERsE
TREATMENT ron THE PRICES OF DRY
EXCAVATION.
An obvious example of that tendency to
ostracize unduly the dredging and to favor
the dry digging can be readily gathered from
the examination of the unit prices admitted
by the consulting board for the only two
kinds of works the United States has vet
undertaken on the Isthmus, II put next to the
cost which results from actual experience.
On pages 395 and 800 Of the report Is to be
found the. average cost per cubic yard of
removal Of the ground in the dry at Culebra,
This cost is figured from actual expenses
during fifteen months.
Actually the most perfect steam shovels.
according to the American ideas, are work.
Ing at Culebra; no Improvement in the price
therefore can be hoped from an ameiioration
of the plant. but & large increase in cost must
necessarily happen as the cut will be deem
ened; the haul to the dumps viii be longer
and the ~ceaseless troubles to result from con-
tinuous invaslons OF water will be increased
alarmingly.
the other. hand, the average cost per cubic
yard Of the removal OF the ground In the wet
system. The cost OF actual dredging in the
Colon harbor Is seven cents and in the Panama
harbor eight cents. This results from data