Norwich bulletin., 1913-05-01
THE PANAMA CANAL;
 WHY IT HAS SUCCEEDED
Many Difficult Propositions Encoun- tered and Overcome In Its Construc- tion.

More than any other undertaking in 1 the worlds history, perhaps, the Pan- anna Canal is due to the combined development of many elements of civ l iizatiOn. While the French engineers l failed to complete the canal, we must | remember that no one could have sue 1 ceeded at that time, and we must give
 them credit for courage. engineering i ability and a creditable achievement. i Without Col Gorgas to first elim- i mate the mosquito and make the Ca nal zone not only livable but com ! fortable and even attractive the canal never would have been built. With out the modern developments of ex- | caVating machinery and of concrete
 the great locks at Gatun, Pedro Mi l guel Mirahores and the nine Emile cut 1 at Culebra would never have been | comuleted within a reasonable time 1 Without the repair shops at Cristobal Gorgona, Empire and Balboa to keep ] the locomotives. steam shoVels and | other machinery in operation the rapid | progress would have been impossible And without the selection of proper l material to stand the climate, not for ; getting the too often overlooked ntem i of betting, the cost in delays and in
 actual money might be difficult to l compute
 ! The shops at Cristobal and Balboa 1 handled the repairs for the dredges i and other excavating machinery at the ] Atlantic and Pacific ends of the canal | respectively. This includes the barges which carry the material away to be dumped, some being self propelled and
 called by their French name 'clappets" as well as tugs, launches and any sort
 or sea- going craft which may be used
 The largest shops are at Gorgona enlarged from the French shops at this l place, and here all the locomotives and l cars for the excavation work as we'll l as for the Panama Railroad are re- ! paired At times this shop has em- | ployed 1S,00 men. It is difficult to see the necessity for such a large shop until we stop to consider that the Isthmian Canal Commission railroad ] bull solely in the Culebra cut and for i hauling the dirt Cor spoil" as it is called) away from 1t. is about the size of the Boston and Albany Railroad ; There are over 300 locomotives and ! 4,000 cars, and most of the locomotives are big ones weighing over 100 tons each. They are very unlike the usu- al contractors locomotives we usually think of in connection with excava-
 tion work.
 1 At Empire the steam shovels are re- paired and the shops employ about TOO men at times. It takes a lot of shop 1 work to keep the dirt flying but they are kept at work with as little delay
 as possoibel by a thoroughly organized plan of action and a corps of inspect
 ors and workmen.
 The inspectors visit each shovel as 1t works away, and not only gets the reports of the shovel engineers, but look 1t over for weak spots and worn parts Any needed repairs are re- ported to Empire by telephone so that 1 repair parts and supplies can be pre- i pared in advance,
 After the dirt trains have stopped
 running at P. M. the repair train
 starts out from the Empire shops and
 makes it's rounds to the steam shovels l which are in need of its services This l repair train consists of a heavy loco
 motive, large wrecking crane, box car, which is a fairly well confirmed
 machine shop, and another box car filled with supplies and parts ordinar- | fly used. such as bolts and nuts, pack
 ings and similar pieces.
 1 The train takes the small machine shop directly to the shovel to be re- 1 paired and in most cases does all that
 is needed without it's leaving it's posi- ! ton or losing a minute from the work
 an excellent example of real efficiency 1 Sometimes a whole new arm or boom | is swung into place by the wrecking
 crane and a trip to Empire with it's attendant delay is avoided. And these arms or boOms weigh several tons and
 are not easy to handle. But the aim of everything is to keep things nov ing and push the job through to com l pletion.
 | At Empire, too. is the main air-com- | pressing plant of the largest air-com-
 pressing system In the world Three | stations-Las Cascadas. Empire and Rio Grande-pump into about 14 miles | of 10-inch pipe line, which carries | compressed air to drive the drills for preparing the rock for blasting.
 Aside from the strictly repair work l to the locomotives and cars the shops | at Gorgona can be called the manu- l featuring shops of the zone A good l sized foundry epuipcent Is provided | for making iron bras and steel cast l ings for all purposes needed in the ca nal work. And while 1t Is the inten- l ton to buy as much material as pos l sfble, it has been found necessary to | make many repair parts which should 1 have been made in the States on ac-
 cousA af fhe ahsrt-sighted policy of