The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1910-03-18
able assistants are making to keep
down expenses. The dry excavating is

uo"H eAPcHoeS' ne uiy eAcaFdtiHS ID
done almost exclusively by shovels and
trains. Very little is done with picks
and shoves. There is scarcely a horse
to be seen in the great Culebra cut.
There is not scraper in use. The
steam shovel which takes out from
I2h to cubic yards every two or
three minutes, moves along as it does
its work on a temporary track. A
train of eighteen fiat cars stands on
Ia track beside it and is moved by an
engine as fast as the cars are loaded.
One shovel will easily load from three
Ito five such trains per day The shovel
digs out a bank twenty feet high and
does its work with apparent ease Soft
Ircck and 4 mixture of rock and vari-
Gus kinds of clay are picked up by
the shovel. Where rock has been blast
ed out it is also taken up by the
shovel Each shovel does the work of
500 men. 1t uses ton and hall
of coal per day. Three men operate
it and from six to ten common labor
10 "''i'o III iiioNIHS, tHt tIQCh,
the main work of moving track is
done by steam filters having the power
OF over 500 men. The changing of
track is done promptly and effectively.
There are fifty-one miles of track in
the Culebra cut, which is nine miles
long A mile of track is moved every
Gay. There are fftyeight steam SHOW
els in this cut Over 200 trains of
rock and earth are taken out every
day. There is no night force.
The making of Culebra cut is by far
THE biggest task on the entire canal.
This important work is under the di-
rect supervision of Louis X. Rourke,
a tall, brainy, energetic, out-spoken
gentleman from Boston. He is assist
ant superintendent of the central di-
vision of the canal i'm which 10000, 900
of the total of l74.O00,O00 cubic yards
of eXcavating is to be done. Mr.. Rorrke
is a man of forty-fivc or fifty years.
He graduated from the Boston Tech
nical school in 1895. He soon after
went to the isthmus where he became
section foreman on the Panama rail
road, learning much about the country
and the proposed undertaking. Later
he went to South America where he
engaged in railway contracting When
work was commenced on the canal
he returned to the isthmus and accept
ed the position of foreman on dump
ing pile Colonel GOethals soon rec
OgniZed his native ability and his ca
under him and promoted him, making
him assistant of the central division
which is thirty-two miles long. He
is very active and decidedly practical
and outside of Colonel Goethals is
doubtless the most successful man in
the isthmus. The colonel says he will
recommend Louis X. Romke for mem
bership on the canal commission should
there at any time be a vacancy In
Culebra cut there are steam shovels
and trains operating at a dozen differ
ent elevations. There are scores of
drills at work, though the rock does
not appear so hard as in our ordinary
ouarries. Many holes are drilled at
the same time The power is furnished
by compressed air plants. A ten inch
main pipe running the entire length
of the cut. The dynamite is arranged
so that dozens of charges can all be
fired by electricity at the same time
The noise is often deafening. Charges
range from Is to 200 pounds each;
. 100000 pounds of dynamite are used
every month Accidents of course oc
casionally occur. Last fall a prema
ture discharge of dynamite killed TWEEN
work in the Cnlebra cut division. Some
cars are SO constructed that they are
!, dumped by compressed air, others are
unloaded by steam shovels. 1t re
! Quires only five minutes to unload q
!, train of the latter described style OF
cars.
There have been several dangerous
slides. in the Cuebra cut. At one time
thirteen different slides, covering TWEEN
ty-seven acres, in all one million cubic
leeJ Vi citTlH, Ncic III HioIloI, SiluIIS
fourteen feet per day One steam shove
was upset and another covered. Al
!, the slides will be entirely eXcavated
This will be only one per cent of the
work in the Culebra cut. Five million
cubic feet of concrete will be used ir
| this cut and the banks will be covered
, with vegetation so as to keep then
from washing.
, Besides teh l07 steam shovels, there
, are 375 locomotives at work along thu
, canal and on the Panama railroad
, Some of the engines use crude oil
, A California company has constructed
a pipe line from Panama to Colon
The oil is loaded from the ships OF
, the Pacific into the large tanks a
Panama.
f 1t is difficult for the steam shovel
, to work steadily more than two-third
f of the time, but their output has beer
increased so per cent during the las
= year. The average capacity of ;
shovel is $4,000 yards per month. On
made a record of 5S,4S3 yards. On
days excavation was 3,94l yards. TIL
channels of two rivers, the Obispo ant
the Rio Grande had to be changet
in order to avoid flooding Culebra cut
:. This required at one place a ninety fiv
foot cut and the excavation of a mil
lion yards of earth and at anothe
tno huiIdip0 Of hiuh dix