The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-05-30
PANAMA
CANAL

inland end Of the section. the big
tWenty-inch suckers, one on each side.
operated by centrifugal pumps. begin
work with such tremendous suction
power that they pick up pieces of
anchor chains and anything else not
too big to pass the guards. BY the
time the Sea-end of the dredged sec
tlon is reached the dredge has sucked
up enough material to fill its bins.
linen it steams out to sea, opens up
the doors at the bottom Of the hold
ana pte its cargo into the ocean.
mere are also stationary suction
dredges, ladder dredges, dipper
redges etc, eighteen Of them in all.
some or these were used in the days
OF the French company, and We're re-
claimed from the jungle. The Ameri-
cans Hoated them out on high waters.
spent a little mOney in repairs, and
made them ready for service again.
In the Gatun Lac region some if
the work was let out to contract. A
little knoll here, another there, did
not Justify moving a steam shovel, so
the contractors were furnished with
little old French hand-dump cars and
rails and told to go ahead. In one
contract Spaniards could earn scarce
ly enough to pay their way. Jamaican
negroes were not able to earn any
more by the task system than they
earned with the canal force. French
negroes from Hayti and Martinique
were the best men on the job and
were able to earn about $3.50 a day.
In the Culebra section the steam
shovel is king, and dynamite by the
carload Is used to loosen the material.
There were 153 big we'll drills, 235
tripod drills, and nan hand drills
at work throughout the year sinking
two and a half million linear feet Of
holes. Into these holes was placed
the major portion of twelve million
pounds Of dynamite. In the handling
Of this vast quantity Of explosives
only one man was killed.
In Culebra Cut a big shovel Will
load a twenty-car train as quickly as
it can take a hundred mouthfuls Of
spoil. h trains are then pushed to
the dumps, and with a big plow at one
end of the train and a horizontal
hosting engine at the other end, it is
a matter Of ten minute to unload
500 tons Of spoil.
South Of Mirat1ores, in the section Of
the canal which is to be a sea-level
ditch, there is a long stretch of rich
alluvial soil underlaid with rock. The
engineers have attacked this soil with
a giant hydraulic e~NcavatOr, and liter
ally are washing it away The big
pumping station here is capable of
forcing thirty thousand gallons Of
water a minute. through a pipe which
taperS from a fOrty-inch diameter to
sixteen inches. and from this extend
four or five flexible nozzles, from four
to six inches in diameter, each Ope-
rated by a gang of men. These noz-
ZleS are aimed at the earth to be at
tackled, and with q pressure OF 13O
pounds to the square inch the water
is forced out of them. The men Ope-
rating these nOzZleS call them guns
| and indeed a small-sized cannon shoot
ing a constant stream Of iron would
not take away such quantities Of earth
as these wonderful water guns.
The washed-loose material flows
with the water into big sunlps, where
it is attacked by a series Of twenty
inch suction pumps mounted on con-
| crete barges. These pump it far out
of the bed of the canal into the
jungleS and s!>amps.
After the alluvial soil is washed
off and pumped out, the remaining
1900 600 cubic yards Of rock will be
blasted and removed by steam shovels.
In the last stretch Of the canal inside
the short line on the Pacific side it is
necessary to do ~subaQueOus blasting.
A barge is fitted up with a large bat
terry of we'll drills, and with these a
series of holes is made, in which heavy
| charges of dynamite are placed and
fred by electrical connection.
At Balboa the canal diggers literal
lv are damming back the Pacific
ocean. There is a little island five
miles out in Panama Bay known as
| Noas Island. A dixie from the main
land to this island has been built
| four miles Of the way. This dixie is
parallel to the axis Of the canal and
is to act as a breakwater. An artificial
peninsula five miles long and hun
dreds Of feet wide is a novel sight.
No. 2-Building the Dams.
Gatun, Canal Zone, May 25.-The
integrity Of the a Canal will de-
pend upon the stability of the dams
that are to hold in check the billions
IF Gallons Of water in the great arti-