Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1920-01-01
TRAVEL THROUGH THE EARTH
Engineers Call Halt in Mans
Desire to BurrOw Underground
Can Build the Tunnels hut Cannot
Guarantee That They VIII lie Safe
for Automobile Use because
of Carbon MOnOxide GRs
(BY frederic ]. Haskin)

moved.
| Perhaps you did not realize that under
ground travel has a great future. AS a
matter of fact, travel through the earth
is second in Importance only to travel
through the air. as a future means of
, speeding UP transportation.
We have long had tunnels through hills
and under rivers. and these tunnels have
gradually become longer and longer with
the development of engineering At
present tunnels are projected which
would have been considered impossible
not many years ago The States of New
York and New Jersey are getting ready
70 connect themselves by tunnel eight
thousand feet long under the Hudson
river. Pittsburgh has made all plans for
| boring a hole nearly six thousand feet
long through one of the mountains which
I make travel laborous in that city. MANY
similar projects exist in this country and
Europe. In Chicago they are planning
to have tunnels under some Of the busi.>
est streets. so that the heavier traffic
VIII travel underground while the light
| hehfcles have the surface The growth
of motor-truck traffic will almost GER
tainly make such two-story streets
necessity in all large cities. In word,
! the tendency IL for traffic to burrow I'M
foreground as well as to fly in the air
But now all these projects whereby
man proposes to rival the mole as well
as the bird have been held up. The en-
gineers. after little figuring. have
reached the realization that. while they
can build tunnels over a mile in length,
they cannot guarantee that modern traf-
fic can use them with safety. If long
string of automobiles enters one of these
| IDdorprorp1 pha IL T., bI,
whether the drivers OF them will live
to the other end Of the hole.
For internal combustion engines gener-
ate carbon monoxide, and carbon monox-
Idle Is deadly poison. A good many men
have been killed by this gas as re-
suit of crawling under their machines
when the engines were running. The gas
at first intoxicates, somewhat as alco-
! hol does. and then kills. 1t is generated
by steam engines, and is the (gas or at
least the principal of gas) which occa-
sionally overcomes passengers when
trains are stalled in tunrels. The
, Pennsylvania railroad, because of this
gas, now uses electrical engines in going
through the tunnel just outside of Balt-
more. which is an especially long, and
badly ventilated one.
Now if this gas can kill man in a
garage Will machine, Wndt VIII IL
do when several thousand machines are
crowded into a long underground cham
Der? 1t is estimated with regard to the
proposed new Hudson river tunnel that
over two thousand machines may pass
through it within an hour. No one can
say positively whether the drivers Of
these machines would survive or not.
For no one knows how much carbon
monoXide a machine generates; the
amount varies according to load. speed,
carburetor adjustment, and many other
factors And nobody knows how much
carbon monoxide human being can
stand without becoming drunk or dying.
Until these things are found out by
scientific test. the progress Of under
ground travel is checked.
| The various engineers concerned with
the building of these tunnels have APP
pealed to the Bureau of Mines for help;
the bureau is asking Congress for
hundred thousand dollars with which to
carry on tests; and meantime it is ar
ranging with Yale University to begin
the tests at once in a gas chamber which
the university will erect and the bureau
will rent
| The Bureau of Mines Is the one agency
in the country qualified to make these
tests because it has devoted much at
tention to the questions of poison gases
in mines. 1t also did n large part of the
work in connection with the use Of and
defense against poison gases during the
war. One of its chemists. A. C. Field
ner, had charge Of gas mask investiga-
tons during the war and is the man
chiefly responsible for the development
of an efficient gas mask. This man will
have charge for the bureau of the ex-
periments with regard to tunnel gases.
The bureau lacks a chamber in which
to make the tests, and q physiological to
study the effects of the gases on the
human system. Both Of these things
will be furnished by Yale University.
DR.. Yandell Henderson. a noted physioio-
gist, will try to solve the problem OF how
much carbon monoxide a human being
can stand.
| The procedure as outlined Is very sim
pie. The gas chamber is to be thirty feet
square and about twelve feet high and
will be air tight when closed. Cars of
all sorts will be driven into this chamber
and run under all sorts of conditions,
and tests will then be made to determine
to what extent the air has been polluted
! by carbon monoXide and by other poison
Gus gases.
Students will then be called upon as
volunteers to enter the poison gas cham-
Der in order to determine the effects of
the various mixtures of air and poison
gas on the human system. 1t may &C.
cur to you that there will probably be no
rush of volunteers for this duty. The
suspicion may arise that the experiments
, will come to an end for lack of human
material. But the experimenters seem
to have no doubts on this point. or
course. they will very carefully safe
guard the students from serious injury.
And II does seem to have been proved
that volunteers for experiments, even
when quite dangerous, can always be
found
a graduates, there will also he experiments
, with horses. and especially with wind
: broken horses. DR.. Henderson, says that
the so-called wind-horse usually suffers
= from heart disease and is apt to die OF
heart failure. Such a horse would be
: especially liable TO be overcome by car
bon monoxde when the scientists have
monoXide in the air can safely be
breathed by an elderly and wind-broken
horse, they can recommend that mix
ture as safe for anyone.
The engineers who have charge OF the
: ventilation Of the tunnels can compute
: with eXactitude how much air VIII tlow
: through them. The experiments VIII IN
u may safely be mixed with that air, and
Al