The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-09-22
BIG DREDGE
 ON HER WAY Hydraulic Affair Has
 Been Finished. VOWED UP BY sNAG FULLER Engines and Boilers of Senator Pettus" on Bank Here. wm Resemble the rrame Boat. E.- sentiaIIy and They Are Making Haste to Arrive in Mont
VOWED UP BY sNAG FULLER

sucker were drawn in the office of the United States Engineer here months ago, but there being no con- venient facilities for boat building at Montgomery the work was placed in the hands of contractors in Mobile. The big boat was finished some days ago and is being lowed up stream by the snag pulier. General Twining," the delay in the trip being caused by the snag butler having to stop every now and then to do a little work. At the river bank above the landing here are the engines of the dredge and her boilers, but the mechanism of the dredging apparatus were installed at Mobile on the boat.
 In almost every particular the new steamer will be similar to the freight and passenger boats of the river, ex- cept that instead of having a com paratively sharp bow like the traffic boats. she will have a blunt nose like a flat. the difference being because the great weight of the borer will be out in frost. The dipper dredges now in use in the river have been found in some classes of work inadequate and the need of the dredge was impera- tive
 The modus operandi of the latest addition to the fleet is comparatively simple. Extending from her bow,
 
 built on the order of the booms of modern steel derricks. a double bow with supports between the side pieces. There are two of these and between them in a large pipe at the end of which Is a revolving screw to loosen the mud with. A big suction pump on the boat draws in the water and mud as the mud is loosened and at anoth- CT pump the water is separated from the mud. allowing the solid matter to pass on along to the outlets.
 On either side of the boat there is an outlet which is coupled with long lengths of flexible. or metal. piping of the same size. This outlet pipe Is raised or lowered by means of light derrick and allowed to hang over a nat boat in which to deposit the matter removed, or In some instances to dis charge the mud on the river bank, provided the bank Is low enough. The hull of the new boat, 125 feet long, and added to this the stern wheel and the screw boom at the bow, make her somewhere about ITO feet over all. The steamer is thirty i've feet wide and trihe over six feet deep.
 As yet the name of the captain of the new boat has not been announced, but 1t is generally supposed that one of the dredge captains now in the em- PtOy UT Lil0 government VIII De DTO- noted to the new boat. unless the po- sition Is governed by the civil service regulations.
 As soon as the steamer arrives the remainder of the work will be tackled, for there are places in the river now where she Is needed. It is thought the work of completion will take some time and certainly the workers will have a beautiful time getting the heavy engines and boilers on tho boat from the present landing without use of derrick.
 The report of Captain J. B. Cava- naugh, formerly in charge of the en- gineering department here. is as fol- lows:
 the junction of the Coosa and Talla- poosa eleven miles below Wetumpka, on the Coosa river. and from this junction to it's junction with the Tom bigbee to form the Mobile 1t consti- tutes a 312-mile link in a waterway S15 miles long, from the Octenaula and Coosawattee rivers in Georgia to the Gulf of Mexico.
 'The river was originally so ob- Etructed by logs. snags. over-hang- ing trees, and shoals, many with a depth of but 2.5 feet. that during the low-water season navigation was practically only by day. Long deten- tions were frequent at many of the shoals below Selma and when the wat CT was unusually low traffic was sus- pended between Selma and Montgom- cry for three or four months in the year.
 ''The original project. adopted in 1878. for the impromevent of this stream provided for securing a low water channel four feet deep and 200 feet wide by removing snags. logs. and overhanging trees; by construct ing works of regulation. and by dredg- ing. all at an estimated cost of $229,- TAI. On this project $1S5,000 was ex- pended. principally in snagging op- erations and the construction of works of contraction. These expenditures greatly improved the condition of the channel. freeing it from Instructions. and secured a iow-water depth of four and one-half to five feet.
 Tn 1891 the original project was amended to provide for a low-water channel six feet deep. which was to be secured in the same general way as contemplated in the original project, and the estimated cost was placed at S3s6.251, provided that at least S100,- 900 should be appropriated annually, and $lO,000 8 year thereafter for maintenance. The project is about ten per cent. completed.
 Upon this project there has been expended to Juno 30th. 1907. s3OS.- 6b9.06. largely for maintenance, but until recently appropriations have been very small and the channel has been deteriorating work on the river being confined to the operations of the snag boat. During the last two years the plant has been thoroughly oVerhauled and materially increased operated throughout the working sea- sons
 The river and harbor act of March 3rd. 1905. contemplated securing a continuous channel not less than four feet deep in the Alabama river by open channel work, and as the benefits to be derived from the improvement are very great. funds should be pro vided for the vigorous prosecution of work.
 "on June 30th, 1907. the maximum draft that could be carried to Mont Romery at low water was about three and one-half feet, but due to unusu- ally favorable conditions for the last year the limiting depth available has been at least one foot greater than this. These conditions. however, were very unfvorabie for work of improve ment last season.
 '"The actual head of navigation ts Wetumpka, on the Coosa river, and the variation of the water level Is from nothing to ffty-nine feet at Montgomery. Ala.
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