The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1913-10-15
CAlSSOn WORKERS
Perils and Difficulties That En-
compass Their Labors.
THE FEARFUL AIR PRESSURE.

Great Danger Lies In Coming Out OF
the Lock Into the Open Air
Laboring on the firm earth. with "all
out of doors" to breathe. perspiring
and mayhap grumbling at ones hard
luck, person seldom If ever stops to
think that men work day after day
deep down in the water or the mud,
with none but artificial light to guide
their movements and only the air that
is pumped to them to breathe.
People who work in the open air
would have only to labor for a very
short time in divers suit, caisson I
or an air lock, getting d taste of what !
it is like and how ii feels, to he cured
whatever of gruinDHng ut their lot and 4
thank their lucky stars that il has been !
ordained that they work on top of the
earth.
The work of a diver. his sensations
while under water and his experiences
have often been written about. but
those of the air lock and the caisson
worker have not. While he does not
face the danger Of fOuling pipes and
lines. as does the diver. he stays down
longer. gets warmer, and his great dan
ger lies in the stagnation of blood and
paralysis resulting from the change of
atmosphere
While the man working on the sur
face of the earth bears up an atmos-
pheric pressure of fifteen pounds to the
inch, men in the locks bear IL pressure
Of from fifteen to fifty pounds of com
pressed air. according to the depth.
The heaviest pressure ever worked I'M.
der was borne by five divers on the
Swedish coast-siStyf pounds. Four
of these died Il few minutes after com
ing out.
While. as a general thing. the diver
stands not hearty the amount of pres
sure and seldom stays down more than
two hours, the men in the Hudson
rFer tunnel stood pressure of forty
y SIX pounds and worked in four hour
shifts. Some men stayed down twenty
hours ut Il stretch. but did not work all
the time. and Superintendent lIaskins
stayed down once twenty-four hours.
The SENSATIONS experienced are pc
cuhar. When man hrst steps il
there are Il tingling in the ears and Il
pain in the head. and when he talks IL
is apparently through the nose. This is
caused by the pressure. and the remedy
( is to hold the nose, close the mouth
and blow against the ears. This re
lieves the pain and stops the sensa ton
When the pressure is all on the worker
feels all right and experiences DO dis
comfort Then there is sort OF ex
hilaration, and Il man does more worl
in the lock than he could do outside.
The danger lies in coming out of The
pressure into the open air. 1t is theI
that man is apt to suffer from stag
nation of the blood and paralysis ca us
ed by the change in the atmosphere
Besides this, man may be attacked
in the head or stomach with sever
pains. Three out of five cases wher
the head and stomach are attacked re
suit fatally.
Another severe malady resnltin
from the change is what is called til
bends" This is the air getting i
between the flesh and the bone 1t
extremely painful and so severe that
quart of whisky administered in hal
an hour would not intoXicate the y;
tient The stagnation and paralysl
. are the worst dangers and do the wor
quickly. Many men have been keele
over by these causes. and not fe'
, die. Old timers at the business some
times get caught The remedy fl
this paralysis is a quick return to tt
, air lock.
The men as general thing do M
, remain n great many years at the bus
;. ness. and a man should oever work ;
, it after he Is forty years of age.
Cutting a hole and building II tunn
through water is an extremely difficu
thing and by many was thought to
. impossible Still it was done in Il
case of the Hudson river tunnel. al
!. the method is very interesting.
The work on the tunnel had pr
crossed until body of water w
struck How TO tunnel through I'll
hole of water was Il puzzling quest1o
1t was done in this way: A SO can
d balloon was constructed by making
netting of wire rope and covering 1t
a netting with canvas. The interior
3 the balloon was then filled with bl
) clay and salt hay. When filled t
V balloon. thirty feet in diameter. weig
l. ed 40 tons. The hole of water W
l. then located. and with the aid OF
l. huge steam derrick the baDoon W
dropped into the hole Thtn, seve
v seow loads OF dirt We're dumped do,
IS on to the balloon and the whole thi
II left to settle
', At the end of ten days the work
lie cutting through the balloon WAS
Us gun. This was a very difficult job
n idea OF what hard cutting it was m
he be gained from the fact that IT tc
two months to dig through the thi
feet,-St Louis Globe Democrat
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I'll The Spinsters Jest.