Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1913-04-03
CAISSON WORKERS
PeriIs and Difficulties That En-
compass Their LaborS.

Laboring on the firm earth. with all
out Of doors" TO breathe. perspiring
and mayhap grumbling II ones hard
luck, a 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 10 them to breathe.
People who work in the open air
would have only TO labor for very
short time i'll divers suit, caisson
or an mir lock. getting Ii taSte of what
II il ike and how il feels. 10 he cured
whatever of grumblirg nj their lot and
thank their lucky stars that il has been
ordained that they work on top of the
earth.
The work of 4 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. be 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 W an atmOS-
pheTic 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 10 the depth.
The heaviest pressure ever worked I'M
der WAS borne by five divers on the
Swedish cOaSt-sixty- five pounds Four
Of these died few minutes after com
iEE out
While. as a general thing. the diver
stands not nearly the amount of pres
sure and seldom stays down more than
two hours, the men in the Hudson
river tunnel stood pressure of forty
six pounds and worked in four hour
shifts. Some men stayed down twenty
hours at a stretch. but did not work all
the time. and Superintendent Haskins
/ stayed down once tweutyfour hours.
The sensations experienced are pc
! culiar. When man first steps in
]
! pain in the head. and when he talks it
! is apparently through the nose. This is
| caused by the pressure. and the remedy
I is to hold the nose close the mouth
and blow against the ears. This re
lieyes the pain and stops the sensation
I When the pressure is all on the worker
feels all right and experiences no dis
comfort. Then there is a sort of ex
hilaration. and a man does more work
in the lock than be could do outside
Tue DANGER lies in coming out of the
pressure into the open air 1t is ther
that man is apt to suffer from stag
nation of the blood and paralysis caus
ed by the change in the atmosphere
Besides this, a man may be attacked
in the head or stomach with severe
pains. Three out Of five cases where
the head and stomach are attacked re
suit fatally.
Another severe malady resulting
from the change is what is called The
bends" This is the air getting IL
between the flesh and the bone. 1t Il
extremely painful and so severe that 1
quart OF whisky administered in hal
an hour would not intoXicate the pa
tent The staEuation and paralysis
are the worst dangers ana do the worl
quickly. Many men have been keelet
oven by these causes. and not Il few
die Old timers at the business some
times get caught. The remedy 70
this paralysis Is a quick return to III,
air lock