The sun., 1909-02-14
AMERICAN WAY AT PANAMA
Continued from First Po0e.

become obstructed 30 that the salt water
couldn't enter the marsh at high tide
and that the harmless salt marsh had
gradually been converted into fresh
water bog and a first class breeding place
for the mosquitoes. A little sprinkling
Of oil on the water and the mosquitoes
and malaria rate began to dwindle.
This IL only one Of many instances
constantly recurring in the fight that
Is being waged by the sanitary depart
ment OF the Isthmus. Up TO this time
a particularly dangerous mosquito has
bluffed the sanitary department into
refusing TO allow night work on the canal
but now efforts are being made to brave
even this night worker. DIR Gorgas
il experimenting with a gang Of men
on a night shift and II they get along
all right work will be pushed on the con-
creting by night gangs under powerful
electric lights.
The sanitary department on the 18th
mus has got this mosquito question down
to q point where they can tell you just
how much chance a larva or skeeter
that Is to be has OF ever reaching the
blood sucking stage. The malaria mos
quito when he Ia in his larva existence.
so they say. has to come to the surface
of the water for air once every two min
utes.
That brings him up thirty times a
an hour or 72O times a day. In the
twelve days of his larval existence his
life is endangered in an oiled bog just
s.o4O times. What q swell chance for
the moequito
The labor saving devices employed
on the canal were a surprise even to some
Of the engineers who accompanied Mr..
Taft on his tour OF inspectio n The
big steam shovels seem almost TO be
things Of iife-black monsters nosing
around in the cuts. swallowing whole
wagonloads Of dirt and rock at a single
gulp.
Regularly every seventeen OF eighteen
seconds that big black snout dips down
into the bed Of earth and rock, the monster
groans once or twice with his chains,
puffs sharply over the exertion. swings
his immense head out over fiat car and
then spits out the load az II II had sud-
denly become distasteful to him.
cubic yards at each dip. or enough earth
and rock to fill two horse wagon twice
over. In the month OF December these
monsters took out Of Culebra cut alone
1, ,334, $40 cubic yards, or about cartload
every ten seconds Of the working day.
Since the Americans began work on the
Isthmus these steam shovels have ripped
out something like IS. .927, ,ee4 cubic yards
The total excavations made by the Amer
leans amount TO about o2.751 .92i cubic
yards.
Figures compiled by one Of the engineers
in Culebra cut give some idea Of the saving
in labor represented by one Of these big
steam shovels. 1t was estimated that
each shovel in the cut represented the
work Of l2i men and that the forty-four
shoyels represented the work Of 5,458
laborers, as compared with only about
400 men actually employed in connection
with the machines.
1t is estimated further that the steam
shovels require only about one-third
as much drilling and the use Of only about
one-third as much dynamite as would
be required for hand laborers. Some
idea Of what this means may be got when
it is known that In January alone the
drillngs on the canal amounted alto
gether to something like 70 miles, and
that in the present fiscal year alone
II, ,2s3. 600 pounds OF dynamite is to be
delivered on the lsthmus.
Next TO the steam shovel the track
shifter is the most awe inspiring creature
on the Isthmus. He is a conglomera-
ton Of cranes. He picks up a length
OF track ties and all with one crane
as a terrier would rat. then with another
crane he gives it a sidewise pull that
bends the steel rails like two pieces Of
licorice. When he drops the track it
has been shifted about feet
One Of these track shifters can move
5. 400 lineal feet. or l2O feet more than
mile, in eight hours. With hand labor
this would require force Of 500 or 600