Omaha daily bee., 1910-11-01

Government Authorizes Start on Big
Steel Contract.
FORTY.sEvEN PAIRS OF GATES
sixty thousand Tons Of steel RE
Uutred 10 build Great Locks that
VIII ne Used in the
CRnr1.

PITTSBURG, Oct H.-Mischievous boys
dreaming tonight OF gates they will seize
as Hallowe' en- trophies would not in the
widest nightmare imagine such enormous
gates as are being made In Pittsburg for
the Panama canal They will be largest
gates in the world. .Any one Of the ninety
two OF them, for there are to be forty-six
pairs in all, will be about az high as
siXstory building, as wide tsiXty-five feet
many city buildings are and seven feet
deep or thick. The structural steel that
will go to make them will weigh 6O.OOO tons,
or more than eight times as much as was
used to build the Eiffel tower in Paris.
The mighty portals. designed TO admit a
worlds commerce from one ocean to an
other, must withstand a tide Of criticism
as well as a tremendous pressure of water
and possible commissions Of the earth, For
years the controversy over gates OF no
gates, locks or sea level has been the
dividing issue Of the canal problem. In
the face Of fear in some quarters that the
foundations on the isthmus are not sure
enough for locks, that earthquakes or
water pressure would dislodge them and
that an enemy's mines or accidental ex-
plosions might easily destroy them, the
government has begun to build the gates.
Five and Half Millions.
The cost will be S5,5OO.OOO. The builders
are the McCnntic Marshall Steel Construc-
ton company, a half Of whose Independent
plant here has been given over entirely to
the gate contract OF the $4,000 tons of
steel required the heaviest single piece will
weigh about eig1teen tons These will be
the base girders, which are seven feet long
and which will be placed much like the
! OF of atrN
series OF Orders above them will range
/ from 3S feet apart near the bottom to 8
feet apart at the top, and over the skele-
ton structure thus formed a sheathing Of
/ water-ught armorp!ate will be bottled,
much after the fashion Of clspboards on q
/ house. The thickness Of the plates will
] range from an inch at the base to I-l6 Of
an inch at tine top. The weight of a sin
! gle gate will be about 600 tons and the di-
mansions are 4 to 81 feet high. so to 65 feet
| wide and feet thick.
! The thousands Of individual pieces,
numbered and fitted TO 20 together as
easily as childrens blocks, will be shipped
by steamer via Baltimore and with them
will go over four hundred skilled struc-
tural steel builders from Pittsburg to set
| them up. The advance guard Of experts
leaves here in December and the first
/ NgIh pIObhUly viii utHln early III 1911
1t will take three years to complete the
Job.
The location of the forty-six pairs OF
gates will be twenty at Gatun dam on
the Pacific side, twelve at Pedro Miguel
and fourteen at Miraflores near the At
lantic entrance. The gates are designed
to hold back water 474 feet deep in a
channel 10 feet wide which means a
pressure OF a million pounds. Engineers
in reply to alarmists, ,point out that even
II a tremendous explosion earthquake
| should damage or destroy one or more
sets of gates, no great disaster would en-
sue, for all locks are to be made in dupli-
cate. TO accommodate traffic in both direc-
lions at once, and the wTeckage of one sci
Of locks would only necessitste the diver
sion Of commerce into another set. But
really violent earthquakes have not oc-
CURED in the Panama region for more
than two centuries and It would require
a mighty seige for an enemy to destroy
the locks.
Each lock will be ample for a ship 3
per cent larger than any vessel nov
afloat and It has been estimated that al
many as a hundred ocean ships may b.
handled in q single day. There are NJ
locks approaching these In size. The
famous Suez canal Is a sea-level affail
and the few great lock canals would hav,
to combine their gates to equal the size
and strength OF the great doors o.
i