Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1913-02-21
CANAL HERCULES.
One Man to Control Mechanism
of Giant Panama Locks.
ELABORATE SWITCH SYSTEM.
Remarkable Electric Device Shows Ex-
actly the Condition of the Works at
All Times, Duplicating the Operation
In Miniature,

All Times, Duplicating the Operation
In Miniature.
Aided by electric devices, one man in
Il tower will control the locks Of the
Panama canal. The Philadelphia Led.
ger tells the story as follows:
This man will be stationed in IL tow
er on the highest lock in each flight
there will be three steps in the Gatun
To- Ks. two in the Mirahores and one
in the Pedro Miguel-and will raise and
lower the ships that pass through
Whhe he is on duty. He will drop
mammoth fender chains, some of which
will be fully half a mile distant;
swing twin gates. each leaf of which
weighs 600 tons; open and shut valves
many feet underground and release
or check Il torrent of water in con-
duits that are large enough for
freight locomotive TO pass through.
Needless to say, in order to do stu
pendous things the pygmy will call for
help from that giant handmaiden of
his-electricity. The man in the OPP
Grating tower will simply throw Il
switch, and electricity will start the
motor, perhaps couple Of thousand
feet distant, that drops Il fender chain,
swings Il gate or opens valve.
This man in the tower will have
many switches before him, but there
will be no danger Of confusion no
danger of mistake This latter is re-
moved tom tie field OF the possible by
a mechanical interlocking of the in-
diyidIai switches controlling the va
rious motors. In passing IL vessel
through one Of the series of locks there
is an established order of switch move
ments, and it is only possible for the
man in the tower to operate the switch
eS in correct sequence.
Should he. for instance. attempt to
open a conduit valve and let the water
into Il lock before the lower gates Of
that lock were closed he could push,
pull and twist until the switch snap
ped off in his hand but the conduit
valve would remain closed.
Let the switch he thrown that oper-
ateS the lowe" gatt S--if that were the
proper sequence in that particular in
stance--theu he could open his con-
duit valves.
And now as to the means that have
been adopted to avoid confusion on
the part of the man in the tower who
is confronted by multitude OF
switches.
Although his switches are interl0ck-
ing and only can be operated in proper
sequence, yet it is necessary for the
towerman to have directly under his
eye all the locks in his series, so that
he can know on the instant the exact
position of gates, fender chains, height
of water, etc.
Let us take as an example the man
who will be stationed in the operating
tower at Gatun locks.
He will have under his control three
steps of duplicate locks, SO that Il YES
sci may be passing down one flight of
steps while another is coming up the
other fight. AS his tower is situated
on the topmost lock, the farther gates
of the lowest pair of locks are half
mile distant.
Handicapped by these distances, it
would be impossible for him to judge,
even approximately, the position of
gates. height of water, etc.
To get over this difficulty switch
board has been designed the like Of
which has never before been seen on
land or sea.
The board itself-if one in this in
stance NAV cling to old phrases and
call it Il "board"--is an exact copy in
miniature Of the series of locks that
is to be controlled from it. The one
to be placed at the Gatun locks Will
be between sixty and seventy feet In
length The Miraflores locks having
two flights, the switchboard will be
shorter and that at the one flight, Pc
dro Miguel, shorter still
In these switchbOards the walls OF
the locks will be represented by black
hard wood and the water by blue Yer
mont marble. The height of the water
in each of the big locks outside will be
shown by indicators on the sides of the
miniature locks of the switchboard.
There will also be tiny lock gates,
fender chains, conduit valves, etc.
When pair of the big gates are swung
open for vessel to pass the little
gates on the switchboard will swing
with them When one of the mammoth
fender chains is dropped its little coun-
terpart in the operating tower will drop
with it.
In short, this new kind of switch
board will visualize for the man in the
tower the exact conditions prevailing
at the instant in the big stretch or
locks outside.
n,,n,ae Mo Sne ndthrift