The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1912-04-07

part of the work within time is sure.
II Will ali be done long before July
81. 1912
Machinery Which Does Things.
But take a look at some of the
mighty dredges which are working
about US. There at the right is one
which moves gigantic steam shovel
SO arranged that it works In the
water. II has great steam engine
upon II. and this moves a steel arm
over forty feet long, at the end of
which is a shovellike hand which
claws down into the bottom of the
canal and takes UP about five tons of
earth at a time. 1t does this In a
steel bucket. which swings around
and drops its contents into a barge
AT the side.
Tnere are altogether, venture.
something like score of dredges at
work on the canal, and the dredging Is
going on on both sides of the isthmus.
There arc other machines which
crush the rock In the Bottom of the
canal into such pieces that 1t can be
taken out by the shovels There Is
one such at our right. 1t is known :,
the Lobnitz rock dredge. AS we look
we see immense iron piles rising and
falling. Those piles yich weigh
twenty tons, and when one OF them
drops 10000 pounds of steel fall upon
the rocky toes of the canal. They
crush the rock and II is then ready
for the dredges.
We move on down the channel to an
Ingersoll drilling dredge. This ,s 10
pierce holes In the ocean bed that II
may be broken up by explosives. The
dredge Is big flatboat, containing an
engine and having three derricks like
those of an oil well rising above II.
Each derrick has a drill which works
sixty feet under water, and makes
wells or holes In the bed of the canal
as big around as the leg Of a man.
These holes arc sunk to a depth OF
I'VE feet or more and then loaded with
dynamite. When score or SO have
been made the electricity is turned on.
1t flashes like lightning from one
charge to the other. and there is q
series of mighty explosions The sea
is cast into the air, tho water boils
and bubbles and becomes muddy WITH
the debris. An instant later 1T is quie,
again and a vast amount OF rock On
the bottom is ready for the d!nner and
Diam shell dredges.
These drilling machines go on per-
petually. They are run day and nigh
with the exception OF Sundays. Tins
IS SO of all the marine work at this
end of the canal. The men work IN
two shifts of ten and twelve hours,
and are paid accordingly The ten
hour men are Americans. The twelve
hour men are gangs of Frenchmen and
other foreigners. who came hero years
ago and who have stayed with the
work.
We move farther out to the sea,
following q barge which IS taking
thousands of tons Of rock to be dropped
into the deep Pacific. We pass a boat
upon which Is a great dipper lifting
wagonloads of earth out OF the water
and throwing them into barges That
dipper holds two wagonloads of rock
and 1t looks almost human rs it rises
and swings about through this air. 1t
poises over the boat and then leisure
ly drops it's jaw. throwing into the
dredge a great quid Of tobacco like
Garth weighing four or five tons
The Great suction Dredges.
And then there Is the great steam
er dredge. tho Culebra. which through
pipes sucks in mighty streams of mud
gravel and rock and pours them
into the mud bins, which form q part
of It's construction. It 10 just like
It's sister, the Ancon, which Is at work
on the other side OF the isthmus
These dredges make me think OF the
old song:
''The prettiest girl I ever saw
Was sucking cider through straw"
Each has two gigantic straws OF
steel, which extend down, at the sides
and pierce the mud flats or gravel bed
and suck at everything that is small
enough to passt through the six by
nine inch holes in their shoeu Tho
best material for than Ia gravel, and
the most difficult IL heavy clay or
rock. Solid rock cannot be excavated
but Jumps as big as mans head are
carried through tho pumps without
harming them.
Not long ago tho .Culebra drew
about sixty feet OF stool chain from
Panama Bay and tnrsw It into the
bins. and on the other side of the
isthmus the An,hn lifted a carncn bail
from tho bottom OF Limon Bay. Guam
titles Of flsh, cells and shells are taken
up In these pipes and thrown with