The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1935-07-27
The Human Side of the News
BY EdWin C.. Hill

means constitutes the only dan
ger faced momentarily by the
sandhogs, and they are not a
select insurance risk.
FREAK ACCIDENTS
Down under the river they
are equilibrating forces equiva-
lent to the impact of a 14-inch
shell-holding these explosive
forces in leash, if they are lucky,
and if not, getting blown into
the hospital or the obituary
columns.
Freakish accidents happen.
On December "a, of last year,
a concrete lock in a caisson in
the Midtown Tunnel came loose,
and the outside air pressure
hurled a load of liquid concrete
through the air chamber as if
it were shot from a Big Bertha.
It caught Edwin McGarrey, in
flicting injuries as it flattened
him against the wall.
On November q. 1905, Rich
ard Creedan was working
ahead of the shield in the
Joralemon Street section of the
East River subway. Some dis
tortion of the terrific under.
river air pressure caused an eX-
ploSion. He was blown out of
the lock, up through the bed
Of the river, 20 feet into the
air, landed in the water fully
conscious and kept himself
afloat until he was rescued.
He was soon back on the
job again and worked many
years as a sandhog. In a SIM
liar accident Marshall Mabey
was hurled up through the
East River from the Montague
Street tube on February 10,
1916. He survived, but two
others caught in the same blast
were killed.
There have been other in
stances of men being shot
through the river. but these
are the only two in which de-
tails are. available. On the
whole, the circus stunt of shoot
ing a man across the arena is
pretty tame compared to some
of these sandhog adventures.
The shield system of tunnel
digging, in which a metal cap,
like the cap on the end of a
telescope, is showed ahead in
the mud and rock, was invented
by Marc Isambord, a French
man, and first used in digging
a tunnel under the Thames,
in 1918.
The shield and the COM
pressed-air system were first
used in America in 1879, in
the first unsuccessful efforts to
dig the Christopher Street tun.
mel of the Hudson and Man
haitian Railroad.
PREYs ON FAT
A whole gang of workmen
was killed and it was not until
the turn of the century that
we learned to gouge our way
under rivers with reasonable
degree of safety for workers.
The Holland tube was the first
big tunnel in the building OF
which there were no deaths
from the bends.
Under the high air preSSures
Of the locks, the body is apt to
become saturated with free
nitrogen. It is a bubble Of nitro
gen in a joint which causes the
agony of the bends, or one in
the cerebral bloodstream which
causes paralysis or death. Fat
men are apt to soak up more
free nitrogen than lean ones.
Hence, and this perhaps has
much to do with the lowered
mentality score, only lean men,
physically fit, with young arter-
les capable of flushing out alien
gases from the blood, may ma
circulate as Sandhogs. Rigid
physical examination governs
their employment.
When the orators are spouting
like whales and plug hats are
glistening in the sunshine with
the ceremonies opening the tun-
mel, save kindly thought for
the rootin'-tootin' sandhog, pos
sibly already at work in some
other deep caisson with no in
terest in any accolade for the
builders. He's saved his skin
and perhaps saved a little
money, and maybe he's found q
"better ole"
Copyright. 1895, by King Features
Syndicate, Inc.)