The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1912-04-09
CARPENTER AT PANAMA
A Trip Through Uncle Sans Mighty Channel Tn
and Out From the Pacific.
By FRANK G. CARPENTER.
By FRANK G.. CARPENTER.

IoHlpleteQ. or. as Mr.. COmber saws.
me only all-Uool, yard-wide canal
mat We now have. The dredging on
poslte where we star, IS all done. and
TINS Is SO OF a great part-o Of the chan
nei from here to the locks at Mira
nOFeS. from those locks out to the
sea the canal is nine miles in length.
II is 900 feet wide at the bottom
ano tor the greater part of the way
80 feet wide at~the ton II 10 now
only about thirty feet deep for the
stretch which runs from he wharf
70 the locks: but that running out to
the Pacific is ~forty-nve feet deep and
IS as VIC as a good-sized river.
1t Looks Like the Jordan.
The canal here is lined with low
forest-clad hills which rise on each
size OF it, a thousand feet or more
back from the shore. The banks and
this thousand-odd feet are covered
with a thick vegetation consisting of
plants which will live in salt water.
Ihey are mostly maneroves, and l
am told they will die if they cannot
be fed by the sea. They are for the
most part bushes ten or twelve feet
IN height, and they look Just like the
vegetation which covers the valley Of
the Jordan opposite Jericho and the
alkaline soil running from there down
to the Dead Sea.
Riding VI the canal we seem to be
gong through q river in from the
ocean. The scenery is beautiful and
the water, which is salt mixed slight
/ ~ with the inflow from the Rio
Grande. is THAT Of the Pacific ocean.
I Our launch takes us up the canal
/ until We are stopped bv a dam Of
Culebra spoil and the mud from the
1 dredges which is now being built
across the channel. Were it not for
| this lam We could go clear to the
first locks. and Mr.. Comber tells US
that he could within a few months
open the canal for ordinary ships to
that point.
sail the Pacific which are over thirty
e feet deep, but this canal will Re
e forty-fve feet in depth all the way to
e the locks. and mighty dredges are
still working. What they are doing
] will tell farther on.
1t has been found, however, that
4 there are certain kinds of excavation
which can be done cheaper and bet
o ter in the dry than in the wet. For
Il this reason is the dam which is now
rising before us. The water will ze
kept out and the great steam shOVels
n and other machinery will Deepen that
part Of the channel and then the dam
n will be RACED and the Pacific will flow
to the locks. The com . leting of this
pdIl OI lHc WOIk WItI1N tIIle IS sure
. 1t will all be done long before july
n 81. 1912.
a Machinery Which Does Things.
le But take a look at some Of tn.
ID mighty ~dredges which are working
e, about US. There at the right is one
st which moves a gigantic steam shove
70 SO arranged that it works in the wa
ID ter. 1t has a great stea msS engin,
re upon it and this moves a steel arm
- ~.y@- <~~t-r $50 -
r, which is a ShoVel-like hand which
m claws down into the bottom of tn,
Ia canal and takes up about five ton
in OF earth at a time. It does this in
as steel bucket which SWINGS aroun m
Of drops its contents into a barge at tn
re side.
is There are altogether. l venture
something like q score of ~dredges a
work on the canal and the dredgin
is going on on both sides of tn
isthmus.
There are other machines whicl
I crush the rock in the bottom of tn
y. canal into such pieces that it car b
of taken pu: by the shovels. There
IN one such at our right. 1t is know
as the Lobnitz rock dredge. AS W
lis look we see immense iron piles risin
and falling. Those piles each weig
N. twenty tons, and when one of the1
drops 40. 600 pounds Of steel fall upo
the rocky toes OF the canal. The
di- crush the rock and it is then read
OIL for the dredgeS.
he We move on down the channel /
or an Ingersoll drilling dredge. This
ed to pierce holes in the ocean bed thu
he it may be broken up by explosive
Of The dredge is a big f'atboat contain
an ing an engine and having three de-
rickS hke those OF an OH wei F1Sn
above II. fath oeIffth mas d arr
'rk which Works Sixty Ieet uIoer wave
on and makes wells or hties IN the be
an of the canal as big around as the lf
his Of a man. These holes are sunk
rs. a depth of five feet or more and the
ed load e. with dynamite. When a scol
it'll or SO have been maze the eiectflci
~ ic turned on. 1t flashes like ghtniI