TUNNELLING THE FALLS OF NIAGARA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 9564, 21 October 1892, Page 4

TUNNELLING THE FALLS OF NIAGARA.

For nearly two years a small army of men have been delving away day and night down in the bowels of the earth, blasting away great masses of rock with dynamite, then loosening them up with picks and loading the materials in cars, to be carried away to the surface. On October 4-, 1890, the great Niagara Falls tunnel was begun, and 071 October 4-, 1892 (says " Invention "), this army will have forced a passageway 6000 ft in length through solid rock which for age 3 has held back the torrents of the Niagara river. This will leave only 1000 ft to be blasted to complete the work as originally intended. The contractors have made much greater progress than they anticipated, and will, if nothing unforeseen occurs, fiuish their work long before the allotted time. There are 1300 men on the pay-roll, and an actual working force of 800 men, divided into two shifts, are working, one by day and the other by night, so that the work never stops except for meal hours. Ten hours off and 10 hours on is the daily routine for each man. It makes no difference to him whether he works at night or v in the daytime, for way down in the earth's bosom where he toils the darkness is not disturbed by a single ray of sunlight. Little wires threading the path of the grest holes gives out here and'there dim sparks of electric light which twinkle like stars in the gloom. On an average 14001b of dynamite are used every 24- hours, or a car load every 16 days. Enough dynamite to blow New York to kingdom come, if carelessly, exploded on Broadway, is touched off down in the tunnel every week. This deadly explosive is received at the work in a frozen state, and stored in a big magazine. From this receptacle it is taken to the thawhouse as needed. The thaw-house is a building separate from ail others. Eight feet away from it is a fireproof stove-house, and heat is generated in the thaw-house by means of hot water. The vast amount of work that remains to be done is a light task compared with what has already been accomplished. The great water race in which the huge turbine wheels will turn will be an elongated excavation accommodating four wheels in a row. The wheel pit will be about 170 ft deep from the surface of the ground to the point of discharge from the wheels. The actual water head will be about 140 ft. The canal which is to admit the water from the river to the wheel pits is more than 100 ft wide, and will have a water depth of 12ft. This channel is fully half excavated, and the massive walls which will compose its sides and contain the gates for the control of the water supply are progressing with all possible speed. The undertaking of the Tunnel Power Company has stimulated the Niagara Fails Hydraulic Canal Company, and their old raceway is being dredged to carry a depth of 12ft of water about 50ft wide. The wheels wili be placed on the company's property on the river vbank, not far from the mouth of the new tunnel. There is little room for factories there, but a huge battery of dynamos will be arranged for the conversion of the enormous power into electric force. In this manner, it is claimed, it is possible to develop nearly as much power as the tunnel enterprise now promises.