Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1907-01-23

ZION was MADE TO the vice chancellor
to restrain the directors of the Chan
mel Tunnel from Committing the
crime" of establishing an under-sea
communication between England and
France. Peers, bishops, members OF
parliament, and other notabilities
amongst the signatories were Huxley,
Herbert Spencer and Robert Brown
ing-and such an outcry was raised by
the military party, headed by Lord
Wolseley, that the board of trade
stepped in and stopped the work. In
1883 the whole question was referred
to joint select committee of the lords
and commons, who, after Sitting the
evidence for and against, afterwards
published in ponderous report of
nearly 600 pages, decided by major
ity of two not to recommend the
project. Since then the Channel Tun-
mel has been marking time, waiting
until public opinion in England was
ripe for reconsideration of the
scheme, and now, after the lapse of
nearly quarter of century, the
moment seems to have come for the
resumption of the work.
If man, through racial prejudice,
has placed difficulties in the way of
| building the tunnel, nature, on her
part, has done her best to make
things easy for the engineer, for
stretching continuously, and without
fault, from shore to shore, there runs
the gray chalk easy to excavate and
impervious to water, an ideal material
for tunnel work. This formation,
known to the French as Cenomanien,
is some 81 feet thick at Dover and 80
feet thick at Sangatte, and the maxi
mum depth of the tunnel will be 300
feet below sea-level. The total length
Of the excavation necessary is 30
miles, and there will be two tunnels,
Is feet in diameter and As feet apart,
communicating with one another by
transverse galleries at intervals OF
every quarter-milc. The motive power
for the trains will be electricity, sup
piled from large power-house on
each side of the channel, and the rail.
way tunnels will be kept dry by the
drainage galleries beneath them,
which will carry off the infiltrated
water to either end, where it will be
pumped to the surface. Various
schemes exist for safeguarding the
exit on the English side in times of
emergency-flling the tunnel with
poisonous gases and destroying it by
admitting the sea were two of the
genial devices recommended by the
military committee of 1882. But it
is generally admitted that the formid.
able Dover batteries commanding the
exit, plus an arrangement for TEN.
porarily flooding the English end,
should suffice to calm the fears OF the
most timorous alarmists.
The total cost is estimated at $780,
100000, and of this sum half will be
raised in England and half in France.
The next receipts are estimated, on a
very conservative basis, at something
over 100000 per annum; but the
amount of traffic which this pleasant
and rapid means of communication is
certain to create, will probably sur
pass the dreams of it's most sanguine
promoters. The work can be COM
pleted within seven years, by which
time, perhaps, the development of
| the flying machine will have estab-
lished yet another means of commune
cation, so that the tourist of 1913 will
have the choice of travelling from
England to the fair land of France by
land, by water, and by air.