El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-07-20

finger to a completed 95-tOn steam shovel
as tail as a hay stack.
The wards outside OF it are full Of car
wheels and of steam shOyels being re-
paired. I stand beside one Of the great
shovel buckets to show YOU its height IL
will hold five tons of rock. Nearby are
rolls of wire cable and heavy machinery,
barrels Of insulators, for electrical use,
and great piles of poles, used for tamplng
the dynamite. The steam shOvels now
on hand are worth something Ike $780,
900 and their repair parts are as dell
eatelv made as the piYOts and wheels OF
a watch They must be exact to prevent
the great machines from destroying
themselves
Mending Steam ShOvels.
We have now on the isthmus more
than 100 shOvels and from 10 to u are
sent IN for repairs every month. They
are mighty machines which Viii take up
from five to 10 tons OF earth and rock
at a bite, and each represents the WORK
of 500 men. Ten steam shOvels are equal
TO 5000 men. and you can therefore see
how necessary it IS that the repairs be
made upon time Each shovel cost many
thousands of dollars, and the destruction
of one means a great loss. Some have
been ruined BY beng caught IN the slides,
but nevertheless nave been taken out and
repaired. This was so with shovel No.
22S. whichwe;<hed 95 tons. It was aeon.
plete wreck when it was pulled out OF
the slide 1t CueuTacha. and the trucks
were not recovered until weeks after the
main part of the machine had been
brought to the shops. Nevertheless al
the parts were brought finally together
and the whole was Overhauled and rebuilt
and again put to work.
The Great Air Compressors.
Among the interesting features Of En-
pire are the air cOmpressOrs which are
supplying about 300,000,000 cubic feet Of
pure air every month. There are three
of these plants, one at Las Cascades, one
at Rio Grande and another at Empire
They feed a huge pipe which runs from
one end of the Culebra cut to the other.
and through other pipes supplies the air
for the drills and other pneumatic tools,
HOSTS and also the shops. They are now
working 80 drills.
This compressed air Is taken through
a complicated system of pipes, much OF
which has to be taken up and relald
every month. The main pipes of both
air and water run along each side OF the
cut, and they are carried across the cut
from one bank to the other on a bridge
not far from Empire. 1t takes about
200 men to keep the piping and water
service in order. ana the pipes have to
be watched night and day for leaks and
breaks.
white Ants and the Canal Bridge.
And lust here / must tell YOU how
near a very small thing came to delay
ing the canal construction. and there
bv costing Uncle Sam MANY thousands
of dollars You may have heard Of the
white ant. 1t is not as long as your
finger nail, but 1t came within an ace
of holding back this work and laying
off for a time thousands Of men, 1t
did this in connection with the susDen-
sion bridge which crosses the gorge from
one side of to the other. The air and
water mains are carried across on this
bridge. and had it fallen they would have
broken and it would have taken weeks
to have repaired the damage.
Now this bridge was thought to be
strong The piers at its sides were
made of a combination of steel and wood,
and the parts which upheld the cables
were of oak in order that they might
be the stronger. The oak timbers formed
in fact. the KEY to the work. Not
long ago it was thought thew had best
be examined. and a man climbed 70 the
top. He found that the white ants had
been eating the oak, a wood of which
they are especially fond. and that they
had got so far that within a few
weeks longer the timbers would have
crumbled to dust, allowing the bridge
and pipes to fall into the cut. 1t IS
needless { o say that repairs were immedl-
atelv male and that in such way as to
prevent any danger from these insects
in the future.
FRANK G. CARPENTER.