Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-05-01
WORKING IN A TUBE"
Remarkable Experience In a Lock IN
Compressed Air.

AS the lockkeeper turns the valve.
writes A. w. Rolker in Appleton's
magazine, there is a scalp raising
screech as if your ear We're next the
safety valve of a locomotive blowing
steam, and as the inrushing air eX-
pands it fills the tiny chamber with
fog so dense that you cannot see your
hand before your eyes. Wider and
and wider the valve is opened, the
fog becoming even denser and the
racket increasing until the air fairly
drOnes and your eyes and eardrums
and your very scalp tremble with the
air that is vibrating about you. For
the first time in your life you realize
that sound may inflict physical pain
and that there is a possibility that it
may kill.
No sooner is the big valve opened
than you feel the pressure against
YOUR eardrums. a big wad of cotton
seems thrust into each ear, and two
big fingers seem to push the Wads
more and more firmly until each time
when you swallow or blow into your
nose the sensation disappears only to
begin anew. Should you purposely
delay swallowing, within twenty Sec
onds the pain becomes intense ana
finally excruciating, as if pair OF
knitting needles were being pushed
deep into your ears.
Nothing short Of the faith that
others successfully withstand these
sensations prevents you from becom-
ing unduly excited, for actually you
are in the throes of about as disa-
greeable a situation as you care 10
meet For the eternity of half a
minute the racket and fog and ear
pains continue. Then the noise ceases
as suddenly as it began. Out of the
fog comes the voice Of your guide:
Feeling all right? Ears all right?
No trouble to breathe? Oh, you'll DE
all right! Again the valve screeches
and the air drones, the top of your
head throbs, and you are shaken
within and without.
Gradually, after the lapse OF ten
minutes, when the pressures in the
heading and the lock become more
euualized, the din begins to slacken;
then it falls more and more and fades
to nothing, after which the lockman
opens the heading door and you gaze
upon another length of tube" like
that you left behind.
How does it feel to be under forty
pounds pressure? There is no sensa-
ton to it-none whatever-whlch Is
the trouble, for in case your heart is
going to give out there is no warning
symptom until too late. Against eV-
cry square foot of the surface OF your
body is a pressure Of $50 pounds
and the only thing that prevents you
from being squashed is the 5,6O
pounds, per square foot pressure in
side of you, yet you do not feel this.
The pressure from without is so
great that were it not for the pres
sure within you would be smashed
| nat as lOdu Iuli oNSi ny - N
roller, and the pressure within you is
so great that were it not counterbal-
anced by the pressure from without
you would explode to atoms like the
shell of a dynamite cartridge.
Yet you have no means of realiz-
ing this. You feel perfectly natural.
You breathe normally and without
effort. You move about without Re
ing conscious Of eXertion. Only a
| feeling as of water left in the cars
after bathing remains.
The noise of rumbling cars and
scraping shovels from ahead sounds
natural SO does the voice of your
guide Only your own voice seems
strange in your own ears-far deeper
in pitch than you ever have heard II
and far off, not as if it came from
vour own mouth, but as if from ten
feet behind; also, and this strikes you
queerly until you have found the
cause, all sounds are chopped OIL
short, for in this heavy atmosphere
there is little echo and carrying pow
er. Even the explosion of a dyna-
mite cartridge makes no more noise
than a shotgun fired above in day
| light.
In this dense atmosphere were you
to try to whistle with your lips or to
blow a ccrnet or a fife you might
blow your lungs out without produc-
| ing a sound, for the pressure would
resist any sound waves of which your
lungs were capable. Owing to the
excessive supply Of oxygen, were you
| to light a match it would burn with
the rapidity of tinder, amid volumes
of smoke.
| For the same reason an oil lamp
or a lantern would burn itself out
within a few minutes, emitting vol
umes of SCOT that would completely
hide the flames. And for the same
reason a lighted pipe or cigar will
burn of itself without suction, and a
single mouthful of smoke is all you
would be able TO get out of a cigar
cite. Were you to bring an empty
corked bottle into this pressure from
the outside, the pressure against the
cork, unbalanced by pressure from
within, would be so great that you
would be unable to pull the stopper
These are a few instances of what
you find when under forty pounds OF
pressure.
WIZARDS IN FIGURES.