THE CHANNEL TUNNEL.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume II, Issue 136, 3 August 1881, Page 4

THE CHANNEL TUNNEL.

The preliminary operations in connection with the boring of the proposed Channel have (says a home paper) been attended with the most gratifying results. No serious impediment has as yet presented itself, and although that part of the work ■which is likely to be fraught with the greatest amount of risk and difficulty has yet to be encountered, there appears to be no reason why the fondest hopes of the speculators, despite predictions to the contrary, may not even now be realised, and the travelling portion of the public reap the benefit of a scheme which to say the least of it, will remove the unpleasant sensations and the inconvenience which are so often experienced in a passage across "the silvery streak." The boring advances at the rate of about 25ft per day of ten hours, and has already been carried to a distance of above 300 yards. The idea is to continue until a depth of some 200 ft below the bed of the channel is reached. It is then confidently hoped by geologists that the character of the geological formations will admit of the engineering operations being advanced in a direct line of level, so as to allow of a corresponding rise on the other side of the channel. The operations are carried on under the direction of Colonel Beaumont, the chalk being cut with a disc furnished with cutters, which is worked by one of that gentleman's compressed air engines. The disc makes two revolutions per minute, slicing off the chalk to the thickness of a quarter of an inch at each revolution. There is no change in the soil, which is still grey chalk, and there is a remarkable freedom from the percolation of water.