BRIDGE-BUILDING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 224, 21 September 1934, Page 5

BRIDGE-BUILDING.

DEEP DIVER'S PART.

ENORMOUS WATER PRESSURE. SAFETY IN "IRON DOCTOR." (From Our Own Correspondent.) SAN FRANCISCO, August 29. One of the most picturesque characters connected with the building of the great San Francisco Bay bridge has been Mr. William S. Reed, deep-sea diver and inspector of submarine construction for the bridge. His duties were principally to ensure a clean, solid bearing at the bottom of the bay for

the caissons so that concrete pouring might obtain a clean scaling with Mother Earth for the bridge piers. He worked under a pressure of 200 pounds to the square inch, carrying with him 185 to 200 pounds of diving gear. While in the "Iron Doctor" —the compressing chamber —Reed had to adapt himself slowly to decreasing pressure as he approached the surface. "While I am in the 'Iron Doctor'," he said, "I usually sleep, but can read or listen to the radio while I am getting back to normal from the undersea pressure. There is a telephone also, and I can talk freely to the outside world when I desire. Usually I take a cup of broth and go to sleep while in the compression chamber." Reed said when at the bridge foundations he was in a vise of water that was squeezing with 10,992 pounds to every square foot on his body from all sides, the sensation resembling forcing his body into his helmet! He had several narrow escapes from the "bends."