Elmore County Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1910-1915, 1913-03-01

| lily used, such as bolts and nuts, pack
ings, and similar pieces.
The train takes the small machine
shop directly to the shovel to be re-
paired and in most cases does all that
| is needed without its leaving it's posi-
tion or losing minute from the work,
an excellent example Of real efficiency.
Sometimes a whole new arm or boom
is swung into place by the wrecking
crane and trip to Empire with its
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.
pletion.
At Empire, too, is the main air
COMPRISING plant Of the largest air
COMPRISING system in the world.
Three stations-Las Cascades, Empire
and Rio Grande--pump into about IA
miles Of 10-inch pipe line, which ear
ries compressed air to drive the drills
for preparing the rock for blasting.
Aside from the strictly repair work
to the locomotives and cars the shops
at Gorgona can be called the manu-
featuring shops Of the zone. A good
sized foundry equipment is provided
for making iron, brass and steel cast
ings for all purposes needed in the
canal work. And while it is the inten-
ton to buy as much material as pos
sible, it has been found necessary to
make many repair parts which should
have been made in the States on ac-
count Of the short sighted policy of
some manufacturers in charging exor-
bitant prices for repair parts. It has
repeatedly been found cheaper to
make pattern and casting and then
machine the casting than to pay the
price asked and wait for it to be made
Nearly all the machinery which has
gone to the Isthmus has been found to
require strengthening to stand up un,
der the severe work Of the canal ex-
cavation. Crane arms have to be rein.
forced, car sides strengthened and
other machinery parts increased in
proportion. The old French rails have
been largely used for such reinforcing
and there seems to be no end of them
They make excellent I-beams for the
sides of dump and other cars and are
also used in reinforcing concrete
structures in many places, even includ
ing the edges of curbing for street
sidewalks. Bridges of short spans have
also been built of these rails, and they
have been put to more uses than can be
mentioned offhand. Whoever bought
them bought them with great liberal
ity, to put the matter mildly.
j Everything about the whole canal II
on a big scale, even though the sue
cess Of the largest may depend on The
proper working out of the smaller de
tails. The locks at Gatun will lift thu
vessels SIS feet from the sea level t.
that Of the lake, which is formed b,
the huge Gatun dam. The lake will
cover 164 square miles and flow tn
water from the locks at Gatun through
the great Culebra cut and to the lock
on the Pacific side at Pedro Miguel
The locks will accommodate vessel
1000 feet long by ITO feet wide ant
drawing As feet of water. But as tn
average vessel in the tropical trade /
under 600 feet long, auxiliary or in
termediate gates are provided SO tina
40 per cent of the water for lockin
|, vessels can be saved unless the vesse
, exceeds 600 feet.
: The Gatun locks are about l /.
| miles long, of solid concrete, and forr
the largest concrete structure in tn
I world. They are double, to allow tn
passage of vessels in both direction