The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1913-11-24

until the slide comes to rest or until
the angle Of repose for the p%articu-
lar material in motion is reached
said Colonel Goethals.
Last year It was predlcted by geel-
o:ists that the slides had been con
uuered and that little more activity
could be expected because all the
loose surface soil and stone had al
most slid off, exposing great ridges
of solid basalt rock which would act
as barriers to further earth move
ments. Yet, when all was most prom
ising and the canal excavation. had
gotten within 60 feet OF bottom of
the cut on the east side, the rocks
broke under the tremendous pressure
and 1000, 900 cubic yards of mate
rial slid into and closed up the cut
Since then, the canal workers have
been digging away that material and
though there have been several slides,
steady progress was made for not
only did giant dredges work on the
face of the slides but powerful n.y.
draulic monitors, such as were extern
sively used In hydraulic mining oil
the Pacific Coast, were brought into
play to wash away the treacherous
hills from the rear, carrying the ma
tcrial into unused valleys distant
from the canal.
Great Problem Involved.
A great engineering problem was
involved In the solution OF the ques-
ton Of continuing the excavation OF
the canal by steam shovels or by hy-
draulic dredges and Colonel Goethals
for the first time makes an official
statement of the reasons which i'm
PEELED him to choose the wet meth
cd.
. In brief these were based on the
apprehension that Gamboa dixie would
not be strong or high enough to keep
the water out Of the cut as the Gatun
Lake rose in the wet season. Also,
steam shovel operations would be re-
tarded by the seasonal rains which
would not affect the operation of the
! dredges and finally the measure was
| one Of economy. 1t would have been
possible with the shovels, to have re-
moved all Of the slides by January l
1914, next except the Cucaracha slidt
which could not have been entirely
carried off before April, 1914.
The financial operations of the
canal are told in big figures: me
discussing officer has paid out $780,
524,705 on pay rolls alone. Con
gress SO far has appropriated sS4S,
sos, 223 for canal construction, o
which $1O,676,95O went for fortifi
cations.
In greatdetail Colonel Goetlal
tells the stSry of the engineers wori
during the last year and with par
tieular : satisfaction 1t Is reported
that the. mechanism of the vast lock
and dams was tested with perfec
success. The gates at Gatun wer
swung in one minute and fifty-on
seconds for each leaf. The heav'
iron chains which r depended upol
to prevent an unruly vessel rrol
crashing itnot he locks we're raise
and lowered in ample time to nee
any emergency, and demonstrate
their ability to check or stop any YES
sci unless Of very great size and mo-
ing,at excessive speed. The locomo
tiyes which will tow the ship
through the locks were tried out an
proved their ability to easily handl
the largest Of vessels and the electri
installation which will involve til
use Of a current Of $4,000 volts pres
sure was completely successful.
Altogether the technical section
Of the repoF! seem,t0 demonstrate tA 2