Evening star., 1938-11-27
Fifty Years Ago
In the Stur

Ao 11iQuIy piOCceocO ~ ScdlS dSO
into charges of incompetence against
Engineer Commissioner
Lydecker, the public waited
cAo"'ne anxiously for news of the
tunnel findings of the Board Of
Civil Engineers employed by the joint
congressional committee to examine the
new water supply tunnel, on which work
had been suspended. The Star of No.
vember %, 1885, prints the following ac-
count of the effort of one of its reporters
to obtain information:
Work on the construction of the aque-
duct has been suspended since the 9Th
inst, but what on its face looks like work
of destruction is proceeding very actively
six days a week The brick arch has
been pierced in so many places that a
full view of it would suggest the top of a
gigantic pepper box. A number of these
orifices were made by 1t. Townsend in
the course of his investigation, but these
are few when compared with the number
of those that have made their appearance
since the Board Of Civil Engineers en-
ployed by the joint congressional COM
mittee commenced their examination of
the brick tube. Above ground the experts
are mute as clans, and no amount of
ingenious inquiry will exact from any of
them such information as would be of
interest to the public. In the depths Of
the tunnel, however, they converse with
freedom and comparative safety. They
are alone with their work. The waterless
public knows nothing of their proceed
ings, and it waits with ill-concealed i'm
patience for some sign. A Star reporter
who thought there was news in the tun-
mel succeeded in effecting an entrance
thereto and from afar of watched the
maneuvers of the investigators.
ITO locate the hollow spaces above the
arch is the first work, and that Is being
done by an expert who rendered similar
services in the New York aqueduct tun-
mel, which was constructed in manner
startlingly similar to its fellow in this
city. The instrument used by the
'sounder is long steel rod, rounded
and considerably enlarged on one end.
With the larger end the bricks are
thumped and the acute senses of feeling
and hearing settle the question Of solid
construction or otherwise at that point.
If everything is all right the 'sounder'
moves on or feet and taps again, and
so he continues. He does not have to
go very far, however, before he strikes
place where the packer thought he would
save the contractors little expense, and
when one OF these weak spots gives back
the telltale echo of the rods ringing
sound the 'sounder' marks the place and
proceeds with his tedious labors. 1t is
slow work. The entire tunnel has to be
tested by this one man, and his progress
is almost snaillike. He expects, however,
to get there ultimately. Had the sound
ing process not been adopted 1t would
have been necessary to thorough exam
ination that the arch be pierced at inter-
walls of feet from one end to the other.
So far the 'sounder' has done little but
mark weak places for the drillers, and all
these places will have to be opened up.
The drill and hammer men follow the
'sounder and they tear out the brick
work at the points indicated by him. Up
to the present time they have had no
lack of work.
Behind the drillers come the engineer
experts, three in number, and they ex-
anime with the closest kind Of scrutiny
the character of the work which has been
exposed. They refuse, absolutely, to give
any opinion as to the construction of the
tunnel except to members of the joint
congressional committee, and to one of
these they did say that the newspaper
reports on the condition of the tunnel
were really far below the mark, instead
of being, as was charged at the time,
gross exaggerations."